Then said the Lord unto me, this gate shall be shut,.... In time to come, as Jarchi interprets it, in the latter day; it was shut, and it should continue to be shut:it shall not be opened; any more; though it has been, yet hereafter no more:and no man shall enter in by it, into the house of the Lord,because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it; the same with the glory of the God of Israel, Eze 43:2:therefore it shall be shut; no one being to enter after him.
Various are the sentiments of expositors concerning this gate. Some of the ancients have interpreted it of the Virgin Mary, by whom Christ came into this world in human nature, being born of her, a virgin, who had never known man, and as is thought never did after the birth of Christ; nor were any afterwards born of her; no man might come into the world by her, by that self-same way the incarnate God did, and for that reason.
This sense is approved of, not only by Papists, but by many Protestant writers.