A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 16
16 Section 16 PL 21, 354
16. But perhaps some one is alarmed at hearing us discourse of the death of Him of Whom, a short while since, we said that He is everlasting with God the Father, and that He was begotten of the Father’s substance, and is one with God the Father, in dominion, majesty, and eternity. But be not alarmed, O faithful hearer. Presently thou wilt see Him of Whose death thou hearest once more immortal; for the death to which He submits is about to spoil death. For the object of that mystery of the Incarnation which we expounded just now was that the divine virtue of the Son of God, as though it were a hook concealed beneath the form and fashion of human flesh (He being, as the Apostle Paul says, “found in fashion as a man”), might lure on the Prince of this world to a conflict, to whom offering His flesh as a bait, His divinity underneath might catch him and hold him fast with its hook, through the shedding of His immaculate blood. For He alone Who knows no stain of sin hath destroyed the sins of all, of those, at least, who have marked the door-posts of their faith with His blood. As, therefore, if a fish seizes a baited hook, it not only does not take the bait off the hook, but is drawn out of the water to be itself food for others, so He Who had the power of death seized the body of Jesus in death, not being aware of the hook of Divinity inclosed within it, but having swallowed it he was caught forthwith, and the bars of hell being burst asunder, he was drawn forth as it were from the abyss to become food for others. Which result the Prophet Ezekiel long ago foretold under this same figure, saying, “I will draw thee out with My hook, and stretch thee out upon the earth: the plains shall be filled with thee, and I will set all the fowls of the air over thee, and I will satiate all the beasts of the earth with thee.” The Prophet David also says, “Thou hast broken the heads of the great dragon, Thou hast given him to be meat to the people of Ethiopia.” And Job in like manner witnesses of the same mystery, for he says in the person of the Lord speaking to him, “Wilt thou draw forth the dragon with a hook, and wilt thou put thy bit in his nostrils?”
Sed fortasse terretur [Al. terreatur] aliquis in hujuscemodi doctrina, quod quem paulo ante cum Deo Patre diximus sempiternum, ac de ejus substantia esse progenitum: quemque regno, majestate, aeternitate, unum cum Deo Patre esse docuimus: nunc de ejus morte tractamus [Al. tractemus]. Sed nolo terrearis, o fidelis auditor: paulo post istum, quem audis mortuum, rursum immortalem videbis. Mors enim ab eo mortem spoliatura suscipitur. Nam sacramentum illud susceptae carnis, quod supra exposuimus, hanc habet caussam, ut divina Filii Dei virtus velut hamus quidam, habitu humanae carnis obtectus, et sicut Apostolus Paulus ante dixit, habitu inventus ut homo , principem mundi invitare possit ad agonem: cui ipse carnem suam velut escam tradens, hamo eum divinitas intrinsecus teneret insertum ex profusione immaculati sanguinis. Solus enim, qui peccati maculam nescit, omnium peccata delevit: eorum dumtaxat, qui sanguine ejus postes fidei suae signassent. Sicut ergo hamum esca contectum si piscis rapiat, non modo escam ab hamo non removet, sed et ipse de profundo, esca aliis futurus, educitur: ita et is qui habebat mortis imperium, rapuit quidem in morte corpus Jesu, non sentiens in eo hamum divinitatis inclusum; sed ubi devoravit, haesit ipse continuo, et diruptis inferni claustris, velut de profundo extractus trahitur, ut esca caeteris fiat. Quod ita futurum sub hac eadem figura Ezechiel dudum propheta significaverat, dicens: Et extraham te in hamo meo, et extendam te super terram. Campi implebuntur de te, et constituam 80 super te omnes volucres coeli, et saturabo ex te omnes bestias terrae . Sed et propheta David dicit: Tu confregisti capita draconis magni, dedisti eum in escam populis Aethiopum . Et Job de eodem mysterio similiter protestatur: ait enim ex persona Domini loquentis ad se: Aut adduces draconem in hamo, et pones capistrum circa nares ejus .