medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Atonement (4)
Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330 - c. 395 AD) in his ‘Oratio Catechetica’
xxi-xxvi, presents the Incarnation in terms of a baited hook. I do not
have his book to hand, but his argument was reproduced by Rufinus of
Aquileia, c. 400 AD, in his ‘Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed’:
"The purpse of the Incarnation ... was that the divine virtue of the
Son of God might be as it were a hook hidden beneath the form of human
flesh ... to lure on the prince of this age to a contest; that the Son
might offer him his flesh as a bait and that then the divinity which
lay beneath might catch him and hold him fast with its hook ... Then,
as a fish when it seizes a baited hook not only fails to drag off the
bait but is itself dragged out of the water as food for others; so he
that had the power of death seized the body of Jesus in death, unaware
of the hook of divinity concealed therein. Having swallowed it, he was
caught straightway; the bars of hell were burst, and he was, as it
were, drawn up from the pit, to become food for others ..."
The idea of the Atonement as a Ransom was repudiated in no uncertain
terms by Gregory Nazianzen (Orationes, xlv.22) who said: "Was it paid
to the evil one? Monstrous thought! The devil receives a ransom not
only from God but of God .. To the Father? But we were not in bondage
to him ... And could the Father delight in the death of his Son?"
But despite Gregory’s objections the idea became popular, being
expounded in various forms by Hilary of Poitiers (315-367); Augustine
of Hippo (354-430), who uses the simile of the mousetrap; Pope Leo I
(d. 461), Pope Gregory I (540-604) and by the western Fathers
generally. We find it vividly expressed in the hymns of Venantius
Fortunatus (c. 530 - c. 610), notably in the "Pange, lingua" still used
at the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday:
Hoc opus nostrae salutis ordo depoposcerat,
multiformis perditoris arte ut artem falleret
et medelam ferret indeo, hostis unde laeserat.
In J.M. Neale’s well-known translation:
Thus the scheme of our salvation was of old in order laid
That the manifold deceiver’s art by ar might be outweighed,
And the lure the foe put forward into means of healing made.
Again in the "Vexilla Regis" Fortunatus writes:
Beata cuius bracchiis
pretium pependit saeculi,
statera facta est corporis
praedam tulitque tartari.
In Neale’s translation:
On whose dear arms, so widely flung,
The weight of this world’s ransom hung:
The price of humankind to pay,
And spoil the spoiler of his prey.
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