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 natu