CHRISTIAN EXEGESES ON EZEKIEL’S PORTA CLAUSA BEFORE THE COUNCILS OF EPHESUS, CONSTANTINOPLE, AND CHALCEDON

This article aims to highlight the exegetical comments that the Greek-Eastern and Latin Fathers proposed with a Christological and Mariological purpose on Ezekiel’s porta clausa before or during the Councils of Ephesus (431), Constantinople (448) and Chalcedon (451). Although at first sight it would seem that such exegeses were a consequence of these Councils. It is clear that many of them are documented earlier, and others occurred more or less by the time in which these Councils took place. All the Greek-Eastern and Latin Fathers agree in interpreting this oriental closed door of the temple in Mariological and Christological terms, in the sense that it is a simultaneous and complementary symbol of the both the virginal divine maternity of Mary and her perpetual virginity, as well as the conception and birth of God the Son made man. As such interpretations are previous or, in the best case, contemporary to the three mentioned Councils, they can not be considered as their consequences, but rather as some antecedents that could have served the Church in those Councils to refute the heresies of Nestorius and Eutychius.