Whether the Son of God Ought to Have Assumed a True Body?
Objection 1: It would seem that the Son of God did not assume a true
body. For it is written (Phil. 2:7), that He was "made in the
likeness of men." But what is something in truth is not said to be in
the likeness thereof. Therefore the Son of God did not assume a true
body.
Obj. 2: Further, the assumption of a body in no way diminishes the
dignity of the Godhead; for Pope Leo says (Serm. de Nativ.) that "the
glorification did not absorb the lesser nature, nor did the
assumption lessen the higher." But it pertains to the dignity of God
to be altogether separated from bodies. Therefore it seems that by
the assumption God was not united to a body.
Obj. 3: Further, signs ought to correspond to the realities. But the
apparitions of the Old Testament which were signs of the
manifestation of Christ were not in a real body, but by visions in
the imagination, as is plain from Isa. 60:1: "I saw the Lord
sitting," etc. Hence it would seem that the apparition of the Son of
God in the world was not in a real body, but only in imagination.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Qq. lxxxiii, qu. 13): "If the body
of Christ was a phantom, Christ deceived us, and if He deceived us,
He is not the Truth. But Christ is the Truth. Therefore His body was
not a phantom." Hence it is plain that He assumed a true body.
_I answer that,_ As is said (De Eccles. Dogm. ii). The Son of God was
not born in appearance only, as if He had an imaginary body; but His
body was real. The proof of this is threefold. First, from the
essence of human nature to which it pertains to have a true body.
Therefore granted, as already proved (Q. 4, A. 1), that it was
fitting for the Son of God to assume human nature, He must
consequently have assumed a real body. The second reason is taken
from what was done in the mystery of the Incarnation. For if His body
was not real but imaginary, He neither underwent a real death, nor of
those things which the Evangelists recount of Him, did He do any in
very truth, but only in appearance; and hence it would also follow
that the real salvation of man has not taken place; since the effect
must be proportionate to the cause. The third reason is taken from
the dignity of the Person assuming, Whom it did not become to have
anything fictitious in His work, since He is the Truth. Hence our
Lord Himself deigned to refute this error (Luke 24:37, 39), when the
disciples, "troubled and frighted, supposed that they saw a spirit,"
and not a true body; wherefore He offered Himself to their touch,
saying: "Handle, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as
you see Me to have."
Reply Obj. 1: This likeness indicates the truth of the human nature
in Christ--just as all that truly exist in human nature are said to
be like in species--and not a mere imaginary likeness. In proof of
this the Apostle subjoins (Phil. 2:8) that He became "obedient unto
death, even to the death of the cross"; which would have been
impossible, had it been only an imaginary likeness.
Reply Obj. 2: By assuming a true body the dignity of the Son of God
is nowise lessened. Hence Augustine [*Fulgentius] says (De Fide ad
Petrum ii): "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, that
He might become a servant; yet did He not lose the fulness of the
form of God." For the Son of God assumed a true body, not so as to
become the form of a body, which is repugnant to the Divine
simplicity and purity--for this would be to assume a body to the
unity of the nature, which is impossible, as is plain from what has
been stated above (Q. 2, A. 1): but, the natures remaining distinct,
He assumed a body to the unity of Person.
Reply Obj. 3: The figure ought to correspond to the reality as
regards the likeness and not as regards the truth of the thing. For
if they were alike in all points, it would no longer be a likeness
but the reality itself, as Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 26).
Hence it was more fitting that the apparitions of the old Testament
should be in appearance only, being figures; and that the apparition
of the Son of God in the world should be in a real body, being the
thing prefigured by these figures. Hence the Apostle says (Col.
2:17): "Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is
Christ's."
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