Whether in Christ's Death There Was a Severance Between His Godhead
and His Soul?
Objection 1: It would seem that there was a severance in death
between Christ's Godhead and His soul, because our Lord said (John
10:18): "No man taketh away My soul from Me: but I lay it down of
Myself, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
up again." But it does not appear that the body can set the soul
aside, by separating the soul from itself, because the soul is not
subject to the power of the body, but rather conversely: and so it
appears that it belongs to Christ, as the Word of God, to lay down
His soul: but this is to separate it from Himself. Consequently, by
death His soul was severed from the Godhead.
Obj. 2: Further, Athanasius [*Vigilius Tapsensis, De Trin. vi;
Bardenhewer assigns it to St. Athanasius: 45, iii. The full title is
De Trinitate et Spiritu Sancto] says that he "is accursed who does
not confess that the entire man, whom the Son of God took to Himself,
after being assumed once more or delivered by Him, rose again from
the dead on the third day." But the entire man could not be assumed
again, unless the entire man was at one time separated from the Word
of God: and the entire man is made of soul and body. Therefore there
was a separation made at one time of the Godhead from both the body
and the soul.
Obj. 3: Further, the Son of God is truly styled a man because of the
union with the entire man. If then, when the union of the soul with
the body was dissolved by death, the Word of God continued united
with the soul, it would follow that the Son of God could be truly
called a soul. But this is false, because since the soul is the form
of the body, it would result in the Word of God being the form of the
body; which is impossible. Therefore, in death the soul of Christ was
separated from the Word of God.
Obj. 4: Further, the separated soul and body are not one hypostasis,
but two. Therefore, if the Word of God remained united with Christ's
soul and body, then, when they were severed by Christ's death, it
seems to follow that the Word of God was two hypostases during such
time as Christ was dead; which cannot be admitted. Therefore after
Christ's death His soul did not continue to be united with the Word.
_On the contrary,_ Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii): "Although
Christ died as man, and His holy soul was separated from His spotless
body, nevertheless His Godhead remained unseparated from both--from
the soul, I mean, and from the body."
_I answer that,_ The soul is united with the Word of God more
immediately and more primarily than the body is, because it is
through the soul that the body is united with the Word of God, as
stated above (Q. 6, A. 1). Since, then, the Word of God was not
separated from the body at Christ's death, much less was He separated
from the soul. Accordingly, since what regards the body severed from
the soul is affirmed of the Son of God--namely, that "it was
buried"--so is it said of Him in the Creed that "He descended into
hell," because His soul when separated from the body did go down into
hell.
Reply Obj. 1: Augustine (Tract. xlvii in Joan.), in commenting on the
text of John, asks, since Christ is Word and soul and body, "whether
He putteth down His soul, for that He is the Word? Or, for that He is
a soul?" Or, again, "for that He is flesh?" And he says that, "should
we say that the Word of God laid down His soul" . . . it would follow
that "there was a time when that soul was severed from the
Word"--which is untrue. "For death severed the body and soul . . .
but that the soul was severed from the Word I do not affirm . . . But
should we say that the soul laid itself down," it follows "that it is
severed from itself: which is most absurd." It remains, therefore,
that "the flesh itself layeth down its soul and taketh it again, not
by its own power, but by the power of the Word dwelling in the
flesh": because, as stated above (A. 2), the Godhead of the Word was
not severed from the flesh in death.
Reply Obj. 2: In those words Athanasius never meant to say that the
whole man was reassumed--that is, as to all his parts--as if the Word
of God had laid aside the parts of human nature by His death; but
that the totality of the assumed nature was restored once more in the
resurrection by the resumed union of soul and body.
Reply Obj. 2: Through being united to human nature, the Word of God
is not on that account called human nature: but He is called a
man--that is, one having human nature. Now the soul and the body are
essential parts of human nature. Hence it does not follow that the
Word is a soul or a body through being united with both, but that He
is one possessing a soul or a body.
Reply Obj. 4: As Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii): "In Christ's
death the soul was separated from the flesh: not one hypostasis
divided into two: because both soul and body in the same respect had
their existence from the beginning in the hypostasis of the Word; and
in death, though severed from one another, each one continued to have
the one same hypostasis of the Word. Wherefore the one hypostasis of
the Word was the hypostasis of the Word, of the soul, and of the
body. For neither soul nor body ever had an hypostasis of its own,
besides the hypostasis of the Word: for there was always one
hypostasis of the Word, and never two."
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