A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 30
30 Section 30 PL 21, 365
30. It is said then in the Psalms, “I laid me down and slept, and rose up again, because the Lord sustained me.” Again, in another place, “Because of the wretchedness of the needy and the groaning of the poor, now will I arise, saith the Lord.” And elsewhere, as we have said above, “O Lord, thou hast brought my soul out of hell; Thou hast saved me from them that go down into the pit.” And in another place, “Because Thou hast turned and quickened me, and brought me out of the deep of the earth again.” In the 87th Psalm He is most evidently spoken of: “He became as a man without help, free among the dead.” It is not said “a man,” but “as a man.” For in that He descended into hell, He was “as a man:” but He was “free among the dead,” because He could not be detained by death. And therefore in the one nature the power of human weakness, in the other the power of divine majesty is exhibited. The Prophet Hosea also speaks most manifestly of the third day in this wise, “After two days He will heal us; but on the third day we shall rise and shall live in His presence.” This he says in the person of those who, rising with Him on the third day, are recalled from death to life. And they are the same persons who say, “On the third day we shall rise again, and shall live in His presence.” But Isaiah says plainly, “Who brought forth from the earth the great Shepherd of the sheep.” Then, that the women were to see His resurrection, while the Scribes and Pharisees and the people disbelieved, this also Isaiah foretold in these words, “Ye women, who come from beholding, come: for it is a people that hath no understanding.” But as to the women who are related to have gone to the sepulchre after the resurrection, and to have sought Him without finding, as Mary Magdalene, who is related to have come to the sepulchre before it was light, and not finding Him, to have said, weeping, to the angels who were there, “They have taken away the Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him”—even this is foretold in the Canticles: “On my bed I sought Him Whom my soul loveth; I sought Him in the night, and found Him not.” Of those also who found Him, and held Him by the feet, it is foretold, in the same book, “I will hold Him Whom my soul loveth, and will not let Him go.” Take these passages, a few of many; for being intent on brevity we cannot heap together more.
Dicit ergo statim in Psalmis: Ego dormivi, et soporatus sum, et exsurrexi, quoniam Dominus suscepit me . Item in alio: Propter miseriam inopum et gemitum pauperum nunc exsurgam, dicit Dominus . Et alibi, sicut jam superius diximus: Domine, eduxisti de inferno animam meam, salvasti me a descendentibus in lacum . Et in alio loco: Quoniam conversus vivificasti me, et de abysso terrae iterum reduxisti me . Evidentissime in octogesimo septimo Psalmo de eo dicitur: Et factus est sicut homo sine adjutorio inter mortuos liber. Non dixit homo, sed sicut homo. Sicut homo enim erat, qui [Al. add. etiam] descenderat in infernum: sed inter 92 mortuos liber erat, quia a morte teneri non poterat. Et ideo in [Al. una] uno natura humanae fragilitatis, in alio divinae majestatis potestas ostenditur. Osee autem propheta etiam de tertia die manifestissime pronunciat hoc modo. Sanabit, inquit, nos post biduum: in die autem tertia resurgemus, et vivemus in conspectu ejus . Haec autem ex persona eorum dicit, qui cum ipso die tertia resurgentes, de morte revocantur ad vitam. Et ipsi sunt, qui dicunt: Die tertia resurgemus, et vivemus in conspectu ejus . Esaias vero aperte dicit: Qui eduxit de terra pastorem magnum ovium . Sed quod et mulieres visurae essent resurrectionem ejus, Scribis et Pharisaeis et populo non credente [Al. credentibus], etiam hoc praedixit Esaias his verbis: Mulieres, quae venitis a spectaculo, venite: non enim est populus habens intellectum . Sed etiam [Al. et] de illis mulieribus, quae post resurrectionem perrexisse ad sepulcrum dicuntur, et quaesisse eum, et non invenisse, sicut de Maria Magdalene, quae refertur venisse ad monumentum ante lucem, et non invento eo, flens dixisse ad angelos qui aderant: Quia tulerunt Dominum, et nescio ubi posuerunt eum : etiam de hoc ita praedicitur in Canticis Canticorum: In cubili meo quaesivi, quem dilexit anima mea: in noctibus quaesivi eum, et non inveni . De illis quoque, [Al. quae] qui invenerunt eum, et tenuerunt pedes ejus, praedicitur in Canticis Canticorum: Tenebo eum, et non dimittam eum, quem dilexit [Al. dilexerit] anima mea (Ibidem). Haec interim pauca de multis: brevitati enim studentes, plura coacervare non possumus. 93