Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 13–30

Nor let us omit this, which is not without bearing on the answer to this question: that the substance of God, which is wholly incorporeal, cannot be put into bodies or be received by them directly, unless there is some intermediate spiritual substance which can be capable of the divine Spirit. For example, as if we say: light can indeed illuminate all the members of the body, yet it can be received by none of them except by the eye alone; for the eye alone is capable of light. So the Son of God is born of the Virgin, not joined directly to the flesh alone, but begotten with a soul as intermediary between flesh and God. The soul, then, being the intermediary, and receiving the Word of God in the secret citadel of the rational spirit, God was born of the Virgin without any of the injury you suspect. And so nothing is to be thought shameful there, where the sanctification of the Spirit was present, and the soul, which was capable of God, also became a partaker of the flesh. Think nothing impossible there, where the power of the Most High was present. Think nothing of human weakness, where the fullness of the Godhead was present.

"Crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried; he descended to hell." The apostle Paul teaches that the eyes of our heart must be enlightened to understand what is the height, the breadth, and the depth. The height, then, and the breadth and the depth are a description of the cross: the part of it fixed in the earth he called the depth; the height, that part which, stretched up above the earth, rises on high; and the breadth, that part which, spread out, extends to the right and left hand. Since, then, there are so many kinds of death by which men usually depart from this life, why does the Apostle want us, with enlightened heart, to know the reason why the form of the cross was chosen above all of them for the Saviour's death? It must be known that this cross was a triumph. For it is a notable trophy, and a triumph is the token of an enemy conquered. Since, then, Christ at his coming, as the Apostle says, subjected three kingdoms alike to himself (for this is what he indicates where he says, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth"), and was conquering all these by his death, a death fitting to the mystery was sought, so that, raised up in the air and subduing the powers of the air, he might give the victory over these higher and heavenly things; while the holy prophet says that he holds his hands spread out all the day to the people on earth, to call the unbelievers to witness and to invite the believers; and with the part that is sunk beneath the earth he might subject to himself the kingdoms of hell.

For (to touch briefly on some more hidden matters too) when God made the world from the beginning, he set over it and appointed certain powers of the heavenly virtues, by which the race of mortals should be governed and directed. Moses indicates that this was done in the song of Deuteronomy, where he says: "When the Most High divided the nations, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God." But some of these, like him who is called the prince of the world, did not exercise the power given them by God according to the laws by which they had received it; and they taught the human race not to obey the divine commands but to follow their own transgressions. And hence bonds of sins were written against us, for, as the prophet says, "By our sins we have been sold." For each one receives the price of his soul when he has satisfied his desire. By this bond, then, each one was held by those wicked rulers; Christ at his coming took it away and stripped them of this power. Paul indicates this under a great mystery when he says of him: "Blotting out the bond that was against us, and nailing it to his cross, he led away principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself." Those rulers, then, whom God had set over the human race, having turned to the defiance of tyranny, set about attacking the men entrusted to them and overcoming them in the battles of sin; as the prophet Ezekiel indicates in mystic words when he says: "On that day angels will go forth in haste to destroy Ethiopia, and there will be confusion among them in the day of Egypt, for behold, it comes." Christ, then, is said to have triumphed, having stripped them of their omnipotence, and to have given to men the power taken from them; as he himself says to his disciples in the Gospel: "Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy." So the cross of Christ subjected those who had abused the power they had received to those who were once their subjects. But us, that is, the human race, it teaches first of all to resist sin even to death, and willingly to undergo death for godliness. Then it sets before us on this same cross an example of obedience, as it laid on those who were once our rulers the penalties of defiance. Hear, then, how the Apostle wishes to teach us obedience by the cross of Christ: "Have this mind in you," he says, "which was in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he became obedient to death, even the death of the cross." Since, then, he is a great teacher who has both done and taught, he taught that obedience, which the godly must keep even at the cost of death, is to be kept by dying first himself for it.

But perhaps someone is alarmed at this kind of teaching, that we now treat of the death of him whom a little before we called everlasting with God the Father and begotten of his substance, and whom we taught to be one with God the Father in kingdom, majesty, and eternity. But do not be alarmed, faithful hearer: a little later you will see him whom you hear to be dead immortal again. For death is undertaken by him in order to despoil death. For the mystery of the taking of flesh which we set out above has this purpose: that the divine power of the Son of God, like a hook covered with the appearance of human flesh, and, as the apostle Paul said earlier, "found in fashion as a man", might lure the prince of the world into the contest; so that, as he offered him his flesh as bait, the Godhead within might hold him caught on the hook, through the shedding of the spotless blood. For he alone who knows no stain of sin has blotted out the sins of all: at least of those who had marked the doorposts of their faith with his blood. As, then, if a fish seizes a hook covered with bait, it not only does not remove the bait from the hook but is itself drawn out of the deep to become food for others; so he who had the power of death seized indeed the body of Jesus in death, not perceiving the hook of the Godhead enclosed in it; but when he had swallowed it, he was at once caught himself, and, the bars of hell being broken, he is drawn up as from the deep to become food for others. The prophet Ezekiel had long ago signified under this same figure that this would happen, saying: "And I will draw you out with my hook and stretch you out upon the earth; the plains will be filled with you, and I will set over you all the birds of heaven, and I will fill all the beasts of the earth with you." And the prophet David too says: "You broke the heads of the great dragon; you gave him as food to the peoples of Ethiopia." And Job likewise bears witness to the same mystery; for he says, in the person of the Lord speaking to him: "Will you draw out the dragon with a hook, and put a halter round his nose?"

Christ, then, does not suffer in the flesh with any loss or injury to the Godhead; but, so that he might work salvation through the weakness of the flesh, the divine nature went down into death through the flesh, not to be held by death under the law of mortals, but, being about to rise again by his own power, to open the gates of death. As if a king should go to a prison and, having gone in, open the doors, undo the chains, break the fetters, bars, and bolts, and lead out the prisoners to release, and restore to light and life those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. The king is said, then, to have been in the prison, yet not in the condition in which the others were who were held in the prison: they were there to pay penalties, he to release them from penalties.

Those who handed down the Creed very carefully marked also the time when these things were done, "under Pontius Pilate", lest the tradition of the events should waver in any part as vague and uncertain. It should be known, however, that "he descended to hell" is not added in the Creed of the Roman church, nor is this clause found in the churches of the East; yet the force of the word seems to be the same as in his being said to have been buried. But since you have a love and zeal for the divine Scriptures, you will no doubt tell me that these things ought rather to be proved by clearer testimonies of divine Scripture; for the greater the things that are to be believed, the more they need suitable and unquestionable witnesses. That proposition is indeed true and consistent. But speaking to those who know the law, we leave aside the forest of testimonies for the sake of brevity. Yet let us bring forward a few out of many, if this too is asked, knowing that for the studious a very broad sea of testimonies lies open in the riches of the Scriptures.

First of all, then, it must be known that the meaning of the cross is not one and the same for all, but it means one thing to the Gentiles, another to the Jews, another to believers; as the Apostle says: "But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." And in the same place: "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God." The Jews, to whom it had been handed down from the law that Christ would remain for ever, were offended at his cross, because they would not accept his resurrection. To the Gentiles it seemed foolishness that God had undergone death, because they did not know the mystery of the flesh he had taken. But the faithful, who had accepted that he was born and suffered in the flesh and rose from the dead, rightly believed it to be the power of God, which had conquered death. First, then, hear how this very thing, that the Jews, to whom the prophets had foretold these things, would not believe, but those who had never heard them from the prophets would, is marked in prophetic speech through Isaiah: "Those to whom it was not announced about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand." And that, since those who had meditated on the law of God from childhood to old age did not believe, the whole mystery would be transferred to the Gentiles, the same Isaiah foretells thus: "And the Lord God of hosts will make for all the nations on this mountain: they will drink joy, they will drink wine, they will be anointed with ointment on this mountain. Hand all these things over to the nations. For this is the counsel of the Almighty over all the nations." But perhaps those who boast of their knowledge of the law will say to us: you blaspheme, who say that the Lord was subject to the corruption of death and the suffering of the cross. Read, then, what you have written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, where he says: "The breath of our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in our corruptions, of whom we said: under his shadow we shall live among the nations." You hear how the prophet says that Christ the Lord was taken and handed over to corruption for us, that is, for our sins; under whose shadow, since that people of the Jews remained unbelieving, he says that the Gentile people is placed, because we live not in Israel but among the nations.

If it does not seem laborious, let us show as briefly as we can how each of the things related in the Gospels was foretold in the prophets, so that those who are receiving the first elements of the faith may have these testimonies written in their hearts, and no hostile doubt may ever steal upon them about the things they believe. We are taught by the Gospel that Judas, one of Christ's friends and table companions, betrayed him. Hear how this is foretold in the Psalms: "He who ate my bread," it says, "has lifted up his heel against me." And elsewhere: "My friends," it says, "and my neighbours drew near and stood against me." And again: "His words are softer than oil, yet they are darts." Do you want to hear how they were soft? "Judas came," it says, "to Jesus and said to him: Hail, Rabbi, and kissed him." So by the soft flattery of a kiss he drove in the accursed dart of betrayal. Hence the Lord said to him: "Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" You hear that he was valued at thirty pieces of silver by the greed of the betrayer. Hear the prophetic voice about this too: "And I said to them: If it is good in your sight, give me my wage, or refuse." And after this: "I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them into the house of the Lord, into the furnace." Is not this what is written in the Gospels, that Judas, moved by remorse, brought back the money, threw it down in the temple, and went away? And he rightly called it his wage, in the tone of one reckoning up and reproaching. For he had done so many good works among them: he had given light to the blind, feet to the lame, walking to the paralysed, and life even to the dead. For all these good things, then, they pay him back his wage with death, valued at thirty pieces of silver. It is related likewise in the Gospels that he was bound. The prophetic word foretold this through Isaiah, saying: "Woe to their souls, who have devised a most evil plan against themselves, saying: Let us bind the righteous one, for he is useless to us."

But someone will say: Are these things to be understood of the Lord? Could the Lord be seized by men and dragged to judgment? On this too the same prophet will convince you. For he says in these words: "The Lord himself will come into judgment with the elders and princes of the people." The Lord, then, is judged according to the prophet's testimony; and not only judged, but also beaten with scourges, struck in the face with palms, spat upon, and he bears every reproach of indignity for us. And since these things were to astonish everyone when they were preached by the apostles, the prophet therefore cries out in their person too and says: "Lord, who has believed our report?" For it is incredible that God, the Son of God, should be said and preached to have suffered these things; and so they are foretold by the prophets, so that no doubt might arise in those who were to believe. Christ the Lord himself, then, says in his own person: "I gave my back to the scourges and my cheeks to the palms, and I did not turn my face from the shame of spitting." It is written also among his other sufferings that they bound him and led him to Pilate. The prophet marked this beforehand too, where he says: "And binding him, they brought him as a gift to King Jarim." Unless someone objects and says: but Pilate was not a king. Hear, then, what the Gospel relates next: "Pilate," it says, "hearing that he was from Galilee, sent him to Herod, who was then king in Israel." And he rightly adds the name Jarim, which means "of the forest". For Herod was not of the house of Israel, nor of that Israelite vine which the Lord had brought out of Egypt and planted on a fruitful hill; but he was "of the forest", that is, of the forest of foreigners; and so he is rightly called "of the forest", since he had by no means sprung from the branches of the Israelite vine. And what the prophet says, "a gift", he fitted aptly. For then Herod and Pilate (as the Gospel testifies) were brought back from enmity to concord, and they sent Jesus bound to each other as a gift of their reconciliation. What does it matter, so long as Jesus, as Saviour, reconciles those at variance, restores peace, and even gives back concord? Hence it is also written of this in Job: "The Lord reconciles the hearts of the princes of the earth."

It is related likewise that when Pilate wished to release him, all the people shouted, "Crucify him, crucify him." The prophet Jeremiah foretells this too, saying in the person of the Lord himself: "My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest; it has raised its voice against me; therefore I have hated it." And therefore, he says, "I have forsaken my house." And again elsewhere he says: "Against whom have you opened your mouth, and against whom have you let loose your tongues?" When he was being judged, it is written that he was silent. Many Scriptures bear witness to this. In the Psalms it is said: "I became like a man who does not hear, and has no rebukes in his mouth." And again: "But I, like a deaf man, did not hear, and like a mute, not opening his mouth." And again another prophet says: "Like a lamb before its shearer, so he did not open his mouth; in his humiliation his judgment was taken away." It is written that a crown of thorns was put on him. Hear of this in the Song of Songs the voice of God the Father, marvelling at the wickedness of Jerusalem in the injury to his Son: "Go out and see, daughters of Jerusalem, the crown with which his mother crowned him." And another prophet speaks thus of the thorns: "And I waited for it to make grapes, but it made thorns; and not righteousness, but a cry." But so that you may know the secrets of the mystery: it was fitting that he who came to take away the sins of the world should also purge the curses of the earth, which, when the first-formed man sinned, had received the sentence of the transgression, the Lord saying: "Cursed is the ground in your works; it will bring forth thorns and thistles for you." For this reason, then, Jesus is crowned with thorns, so that that first sentence of condemnation might be undone. He is led to the cross, and the life of the whole world hangs on the wood. Do you want this too confirmed by prophetic testimonies? Hear Jeremiah saying of it: "Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us crush him from the land of the living." And again Moses, weeping over them, says: "And your life will be hanging before your eyes, and you will fear day and night, and will not believe in your life." But we must hurry on; for already we are exceeding the measure of brevity we proposed and stretching a shortened word into a long dissertation. Yet we will add a few things, so as not to seem to have passed over altogether what we began.

It is written that Jesus, when struck in the side, poured out water and blood together. This is a mystery. For he himself had said that rivers of living water would flow from his belly. But he brought forth blood as well, which the Jews asked to come upon themselves and upon their children. He brought forth water, then, to wash believers; he brought forth blood also, to condemn unbelievers. It can also be understood, however, as having figured the twofold grace of baptism: one which is given through the baptism of water, the other which is sought through martyrdom by the shedding of blood; for both are called baptism. And if you ask further why he is said to have brought forth water and blood not from another member but from the side, it seems to me that by the rib in the side the woman is indicated. Since, then, the fountain of sin and death came from the first woman, who was the rib of the first Adam, the fountain of redemption and life is brought forth from the rib of the second Adam.

It is written that at his passion there was darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth. Take the testimony of the prophet on this too, who says: "The sun will go down for you at noon." And again the prophet Zechariah: "On that day," he says, "there will be no light; there will be cold and frost on one day, and that day is known to the Lord; neither day nor night; and at evening there will be light." What could be said more plainly by the prophet, so that these things seem not so much foretold as future but told as past? He foretold both cold and frost; for that is why Peter was warming himself at the fire, because it was cold; and he was suffering cold not only of the season but also of faith. He adds also: "And that day is known to the Lord, and neither day nor night." What is "neither day nor night"? Did he not speak plainly of the darkness inserted into the day and the light called back again? It was not day, for it did not begin at sunrise. Nor was it a whole night, for it did not, the course of the day being finished, either receive its due space from the beginning or bring it to its appointed end; but the light, driven away by the crime of the wicked, is restored at evening. For after the ninth hour the darkness was driven off and the sun given back to the world. And again another prophet gives testimony of this very thing: "And the light will be darkened upon the earth in the day."

The preaching of the Gospel teaches that the soldiers too divided Jesus' garments among themselves and cast lots for his tunic. This too the Holy Spirit took care to declare beforehand by the voices of the prophets, when David says: "They divided my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing." Nor were the prophets silent even about that garment which the soldiers are said to have put on him in mockery, that is, the scarlet robe. Hear what Isaiah says: "Who is this who comes from Edom, the redness of his garments from Bozrah? Why are your garments red, and your clothing as if trodden in the winepress?" To which he himself answers: "I have trodden the winepress alone, daughter of Zion." He alone it is who did no sin and took away the sins of the world. For if death could enter through one man, how much more could life be restored through one man who was also God?

It is related too that he was given vinegar to drink, or wine mixed with myrrh, which is more bitter than gall. Hear what the prophet foretold of this: "And they gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Answering to which, Moses was already saying then of that people: "Their vine is from the vineyards of Sodom, and their branch from Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, and their cluster is bitterness to them." And again, reproaching them, he says: "Foolish and unwise people, is this how you repay the Lord?" And the same things are foretold in the Song of Songs too, where even the garden in which he was crucified is indicated. It says: "I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride, and I have gathered my myrrh", where he plainly declared the wine mixed with myrrh which he was given to drink.

And after this it is written that he gave up his spirit. This too had been foretold through the prophet, who says in the person of the Son to the Father: "Into your hands I commit my spirit." He is said to have been buried, and a great stone placed before the door of the tomb. Hear what the prophetic word foretold of this too through Jeremiah: "They put my life to death in the pit," he says, "and they set a stone upon me." These very clear signs of his burial were marked out by prophetic voices. But take others too: "The righteous one," it says, "has been taken away from the presence of iniquity, and his place is in peace." And elsewhere: "And I will give the wicked for his burial." And another likewise: "He lay down and slept like a lion, and like a lion's whelp; who will rouse him?"

And that he descended into hell is also clearly declared in the Psalms, where it says: "And you have brought me down into the dust of death." And again: "What profit is there in my blood, while I go down into corruption?" And again: "I went down into the mire of the deep, and there is no foothold." And John too says: "Are you the one who is to come (into hell, no doubt), or do we look for another?" Hence Peter too says that "Christ, put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit which dwells in him, went down to preach to the spirits who were shut up in prison, who were unbelieving in the days of Noah"; in which it is also declared what work he did in hell. And the Lord himself says through the prophet, as of the future: "For you will not leave my soul in hell, nor let your holy one see corruption." And again prophetically he shows it nonetheless fulfilled, when he says: "Lord, you have brought my soul out of hell; you have saved me from those who go down into the pit." After this follows:

"On the third day he rose again from the dead." The glory of the resurrection in Christ made glorious everything that before seemed weak and frail. If a little earlier it did not seem possible to you that the immortal had come as far as death, see now that he who is said to have risen again, having conquered death, cannot be mortal. But understand in this the goodness of the Creator, that he came down following you as far as you had been thrown down by sinning. And do not accuse God, the Creator of all, of incapacity, as if you thought that his work could have been shut up by a fall into a place where he, about to work salvation, could not reach. 'Below' and 'above' belong to us, who, shut in by the fixed bounds of the body, are confined within the limits of a region. But to God, who is everywhere and nowhere absent, what is below or what is above? Yet in his assumption of a body these things too are reckoned. The flesh which had been laid in the tomb is raised, so that what was said through the prophet might be fulfilled: "For you will not let your holy one see corruption." He returned, then, from the dead as victor, dragging with him the spoils of hell. For he led out those who were held by death, as he himself had foretold, where he said: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself." The Gospel bears witness to this when it says: "The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose and appeared to many, and entered the holy city"; that city, no doubt, of which the Apostle says: "But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all." As he says again to the Hebrews: "For it was fitting that he, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, who had brought many sons to glory, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering." So the human flesh, made perfect by sufferings, which had fallen into death through the fall of the first-formed man, restored by the power of the resurrection, he set in the highest places, sitting at God's right hand; as the Apostle says: "Who raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places." For he was the potter who, as the prophet Jeremiah teaches, took up again in his hands the vessel that had fallen from his hand and been broken, and remade it as it pleased him. And it pleased him so, that the body which he had taken mortal and corruptible, raised from the rock of the tomb and made immortal and incorruptible, he should set no longer on earth but in heaven and at the Father's right hand. The Scriptures of the Old Testament are full of these mysteries. No prophet, no lawgiver or psalmist has been silent about this; almost every sacred page speaks of these things. So it seems superfluous for us to linger in gathering testimonies. Yet we will set down a very few, sending those who wish to drink more abundantly to the very springs of the divine books.

It says, then, at once in the Psalms: "I lay down and slept, and I rose up, for the Lord sustained me." Again in another: "Because of the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor, now I will arise, says the Lord." And elsewhere, as we have said above: "Lord, you have brought my soul out of hell; you have saved me from those who go down into the pit." And in another place: "For you turned and gave me life, and brought me up again from the abyss of the earth." Most plainly is it said of him in the eighty-seventh Psalm: "And he became like a man without help, free among the dead." He did not say "a man" but "like a man"; for he was like a man who had gone down into hell, but he was free among the dead because he could not be held by death. And so in the one the nature of human frailty is shown, in the other the power of divine majesty. The prophet Hosea, too, declares most plainly even the third day, in this way: "He will heal us after two days; on the third day we shall rise again and live in his sight." He says this in the person of those who, rising with him on the third day, are called back from death to life; and they are the ones who say: "On the third day we shall rise again and live in his sight." And Isaiah says plainly: "Who brought up from the earth the great shepherd of the sheep." And that women would see his resurrection, while the scribes and Pharisees and the people did not believe, Isaiah foretold in these words too: "Women, who come from the sight, come; for it is not a people that has understanding." And also of those women who are said to have gone to the tomb after the resurrection, sought him and did not find him, as of Mary Magdalene, who is related to have come to the tomb before dawn and, not finding him, to have said weeping to the angels who were there, "They have taken away the Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him": this too is foretold thus in the Song of Songs: "On my bed I sought him whom my soul loved; in the nights I sought him, and did not find him." And of those who found him and held his feet it is foretold in the Song of Songs: "I will hold him, and I will not let him go, him whom my soul loved." These few out of many, meanwhile; for, aiming at brevity, we cannot heap up more.