And St. Theodotus of Ancyra in a prayer read at the Council of Ephesus:
"O earth unsown, that put forth the fruit of salvation. O Virgin, who surpassed even the Paradise of pleasure itself. For it indeed produced the growth of vegetation from the plants that sprang up from virginal earth; but this Virgin is that better earth which brought not forth trees bearing apples, but the Rod of Jesse, bringing to men the fruits of salvation ... of this Virgin the Creator Himself was the Offspring . . . more glorious than Paradise was the Virgin." (Orat, in Nativ. Domini, I.)
The Thirsty Ground of which we read in Isaiah : " He shall grow up as a tender plant before Him, and as a root out of thirsty ground." (Isa. liii. 2.) On these words St. Ephrem comments :
"He poured forth dew upon Mary, the thirsty earth." (Comment, in Loc. (Lamy, vol. ii., p. 145), and Hymn II., De Epiphania (Id.).)
