Almost all of this rich tradition of commentary sees the incarnation as an irreducible mystery. Ordinary words fail to capture such mystery, especially the supercharged entrance of God himself into the world that he made, not as an imperial magnificence beyond imagining but as a helpless peasant child. The paradox has proven dizzying for the most intelligent and probative of exegetes. The library of commentary on this event is massive and ripples down the centuries like a gathering stream; here only
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