Publications of the Thomas Institute te Utrecht New Series, Volume IX Mark-Robin Hoogland cp Editorial Board GOD, PASSION AND POWER Prof. dr. K.-W. Merks (Tilburg Faculty of Theology) Prof. dr. H.W.M. Rikhof (Catholic Theological University, Utrecht) Dr. H.J.M. Schoot(Catholic Theological University, Utrecht) Prof. dr. R.A. te Velde (Tilburg Faculty of Theology) THOMAS AQUINAS ON CHRIST CRUCIFIED Managing Editor AND .THE ALMIGHTINESS OF GOD Dr. H.J.M. Schoot (Thomas Instituut; Utrecht) Previously published in this Series: Vol. I Henk J.M. Schoot, Christ the 'Name' of God: Thomas Aquinas on Naming Christ, 1993 Vol. II Jan G.J. van den Eijnden ofm, Poverty on the Way to God: Thomas Aquinas on Evangelical Poverty, 1994 Vol. III Henk J.M. Schoot (ed.), Tibi soli peccavi: Thomas Aquin as on Guilt and Forgiveness, 1996 Vol. IV Harm J.M.J. Goris, Free Creatures of an Eternal God: Thomas Aquinas on God's Infallible Foreknowledge and Irresistible Will, 1996 Vol. V Carlo J.W. Leget, Living with God: Thomas Aquinas on the Relation between life on Earth and 'Life' after Death, 1997 Vol. VI Wilhelmus G.B.M. Valkenberg, Words of the Living God: Place and Function of Holy Scripture in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas, 2000 Vol. VII Paul van Geest, Harm Goris, Carlo Leget (eds.), Aquinas as Authority: A Collection of Studies Presented at the Second COnference of the Thomas Instituut te Utrecht, December 14 -16, 2000,2002 Vol. VIII Eric Luijten, Sacramental Forgiveness as a gift of God: Thomas Aquinas on the Sacrament of Penance, 2003 PEETERS Vol. X (to be published soon) Stefan Grad!, Deus beatitudo LEUVEN hominis: Evangelische Anniiherung an die Gliickslehre des 2003 Thomas von Aquin, 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Xill CHAPTER 1 THE PASSIO OF CHRIST 1 1.1 Who Caused Christ to Die? 3 TO MY BELOVED 1.l.1 Christ and His Pursuers 4 1.l.2 Christ and God 10 A friend is a friend at alltimes (Pr 17,17) In Respect of Christ, the Son 10 In Respect of God, the Father 14 My God, My God, Why Have You Abandoned Me?! 20 1.2 Liberating Passion 28 1.2.1 Necessity 29 1.2.2 Was no Other Way Possible? 36 1.2.3 "Most Becoming" 41 1.3 Vere passus 47 1.3.1 All passiones? 50 1.3.2 No Greater Pain Can Someone Have ... 54 1.3.3 With Heart and Soul 61 1.4 Christ: the Suffering God? 71 CHAPTER 2 THE PASSIO OF GOD 81 2.1 The Love of God 82 2.1.1 God Is ... 82 2.l.2 God Is Love (1 In 4,16) 90 2.1.3 The Holy Spirit Is Love 103 2.2 Not a Passionate God? 108 2.2.1 Passio as Being Acted upon 108 2.2.2 Passio: Corporeality and Imperfection 113 2.2.3 Christ: Passible and Therefore Imperfect? 122 INTRODUCTION How can grown-up people still. believe? How are contemporary Christians living in this post-modem time, the time after Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Vietnam, Rwanda and New York September II"', able to connect their experiences of suffering and death in this world and in their personal lives with their faith in God, whom we profess to be the Almighty? The questions concerning suffering in people's lives, and this in respect to God, especially His involvement in it, did not just rise in Western Christianity during the last century or so. The struggle with faith in God (or the gods) in view of the reality of suffering and death, especially when it strikes a just or innocent person, is found in all religions at all times. However, because of the use of methods and weapons of mass destruction, because of the economical, ecological and medical problems that still outrun ingenious technological developments and because of the increased knowledge through the modem means of communication of misery close by and far away, this question has become pressing. For a growing group of (Western) Christians it becomes more and more difflCult to live in a relation of faith to God and to experience this relation as a source of living hope and life-giving love. Faith may become disconnected from every day life, and thus lose its meaning. "Almighty" as a name of God is part of this crisis of faith, it seems. The question "If God is good and almighty, why is there so much suffering in our world", since Leibniz' the theodicy question, has changed from a starting point of an inquiry of one's faith into a reason to turn one's back on God and so to let go of one's faith. At the same time "almighty" is the only property of God mentioned in the Creed. For this reason it has an extra emphasis. All the greater is the contrast with the experience of many, that God is powerless in this world full of evil. Others refrain from speaking of God's almightiness and use a term like "vulnerable power" instead.' Yet I G.W.F. von Leibniz, Essais de Theodicee sur La Bonte de Dieu, la Liberte de ['Homme et l'Origine du Mal (1710). The word theodicy. from Greek, means "justificat ion of God". 2 This is the translation of the Dutch term "weerloze ovemiacht", in: Schillebeeckx (1987), 381. A more literal translation would be "defenceless supremacy". This - rather confusing - term was introduced by Berkhof (19731, 1985s), later on taken over by Wiersinga (1975), and Schillebeeckx (I.e.). XIV INFRODUcrlON INFRODUcrlON XV because God's almightiness is an essential part of the Christian faith, the swamps of Western Central Italy. These swamps, called the someone who calls himlherself Christian, canoot simply deny that God is Maremmas, were in those days constantly war-stricken and farnine- and almighty. Still, in the light of the experiences of suffering mentioned, one malaria-infested. Civil and religious authorities had left these people to has to ask what "almighty" means as a name of God ljides quaerens their devices. St. Paul of the Cross saw the name of Jesus written on the intellectum). foreheads of these poor people (Processi I, 572). Inspired by the living memory of Christ's Passion he decided to answer God's call by living, in Another name of God is love, as we read in Scripture (I In 4,8, a religious community, close to them and wOrking for and with them. 16). It is a name that may be more appealing; "love" is associated with Passionists want to live in the spirit of their founder. In order to warmth and closeness, whereas "almighty" may rather be regarded as a do so, Passionists take a fourth vow, in addition to poverty, chastity and cool and distant term. Still, ignoring the name almighty and speaking of obedience, called the Memoria Passionis. This so called "special vow" God as love instead does not dissolve the question of the relation between implies "recalling to mind the Passion of our Lord and to promote its God and suffering. For if He is love and loves us, why then all our memory by word and deed. Characteristic for Passionist spirituality is "4 suffering? This question becomes even more pressing in respect of the the connection between the sufferings of people today and the sufferings sufferings of Christ, who is called the beloved Son, by God Himself (Mt of Christ and the love, wisdom and power of Gnd, that He reveals to us 3,17 par., 17,5 par.), and who was without sin (2 Co 5,21, Heb 7,26, I in the Passion of Jesus Christ.' Living my life as a Passionist I grew in P 2,22, I In 3,5). sensitivity of this connection. For me it is not far-fetched to approach this crisis of our faith But would it not be obvious for any Christian theologian or from the angle of the Passion of Christ. For after living for four years in philosopher of religion to consider the relation between God, whom we a Passionist community, I entered the Congregation of the Passion in profess as almighty, and human suffering from a christological per 1991 and took vows in 1992. In the course of time I made the spirituality spective? After all, the sufferings of Christ take up a major part of the of this religious congregation my own and it became the centre, the point gospel narratives' and in Scripture they are explicitly connected with our of orientation of my life. The living memory of the Passion of Christ sufferings, redemption and rising from the dead' as well as with God's forms the very heart of this spirituality. role in it (see chapter 1 of this study). The more remarkable is it that in The Congregation of the Passion (abbreviated as C.P.) is a many Christian theodicies and considerations of the almightiness of God religious order in the Roman Catholic Church, founded by St. Paul of the Cross (Ovada 1694 - Rome 1775) in 1721, the members of which are called Passionists. The purpose of this Congregation was and is to strive for a Christian form of living together and to proclaim the Word of the Cross in words and in deeds of charity.' St. Paul of the Cross was deeply moved by the sufferings of the poor living, or rather barely surviving, in 4 Constitutions (1984), 0.96. 5 Constitutions (1984), lll1.3-6. The term superpotens is used for God by Thomas, citing PseudoMDionysius in 6 From the very beginning of the gospels we find allusions to Christ's Passion, death CDN c.S 1.3. but not as an alternative for the name omnipotens, but rather as a synonym and resurrection. In Ac 2,22-40, 3,11-26 we even read that it forms the centre of the of it. proclamation of the gospel. In the letters of Paul and in the letters to all Christians it is referred to constantly. 3 Constitutions of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, Rome 1984, 0.1, ef. Rule of the Discalced Clerics of the Most Holy Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus , E.g. Lk 1,68, 24,19-27, Rm 3,24f, 5,6-11, Ga 3,13f, 24f, Ep 1,7, Ph 3,1Of, Heb Christ, Rome 1775, Chapter 1. 2,10, 1 P 1,18, 1 In 4,10, 19, Rv 5,9. XVI INTRODUcrION INTRODUcrION XVII Christ's Passion is discussed only briefly, on the side or as an appendix', Aquinas. Characteristic for this research is the attention to Thomas' or even not at all. 9 profound theocentric orientation and his special attention to the language we use when we speak of God and the things connected with Him_ This study aims to be a contribution to an answer to the crisis in Thomas' texts are approached using what Pesch calls the "method our faith as it is described above. For this some distance is taken from the of a double estrangement". The first estrangement takes place when we 10 present crisis as such, in order to inquire into the deeper theological begin to read his texts with our questions in mind, which are not the same rootS. It is in view of this that in this study we are not merely interested as Thomas'. Therefore also his answers may not quite fit. The second in what "God is almighty" means as such, but primarily in how His arises by reason of the often different context in which a subject is almightiness shows (or does not show) in the Passion of Christ. The main considered, and Thomas' different associations and interests. We follow question of this study, therefore, concerns a nexus mysteriorum: How in this method in order to gain a better insight into what Thomas is saying the Christian faith are the mystery of the Passion of Christ and the and what it may mean to us. Therefore, contemporary theologians and mystery of the almightiness of God interrelated? pholosophers of religion, reacting to Thomas, are also put upon the scene. In order to find an answer to this question the theological writings In earlier studies published by the Thomas Instituut it came to the of Thomas Aquinas (1224/5 - 1274) are studied, especially his Summa fore that Thomas was foremost a negative theologian, who also employs a Theologiae (1266-1273), his latest, and although unfinished, most com negative christology, II as well as a Scriptural theologian.12 In this study prehensive and systematic work, which he wrote as magister in Sacra I will build on these two hypotheses. They will be tested in the inquiry Pagina. Other works are used because they contain additional information into this theme and evaluated in the general conclusion. The word theo needed for this study (for instance in chapter 2 on God's love), to show a logian implies that Thomas poses a believer'S questions regarding the development (for instance in chapter 1, on the place of satisfaction) or a content of the faith of the Church. His questions concern the mysteries of change (for instance in chapter 3, Thomas' use of Lk 1,37) in Thomas' faith rather than (purely) philosophical problems. The word Scriptural thoughts or an example or explanation by which the text in the Summa implies that Scripture functions in this proces as a guiding principle. The Theologiae is understood better. word negative does not imply that we cannot say anything positive about One of the inducements to the choice of this great Doctor of the God. It rather refers to God's self-revelation in Scripture as a hidden God Church is that this study has taken place and was written at the Catholic (cf. Is 45,15), whom we can never have, possess or fathom fully and Theological University at Utrecht (KTU) in the context of the Thomas adequately. Since God reveals Himself as a mystery, we cannot speak of Instituu!. After ten years this originally KTU institute was established as Him as if He were a problem (to be) solved. Negative theology is an inter-university institute, on the 7ili March 2000. It functions as a employed to express this. We will see whether Thomas in discussing the centre for academic research into the life and the works of Thomas Passion of Christ follows the same line in his christology. At the end of this study we will answer two more questions. One 8 Recent exemples: Richardson, Bowden (1991), 414 Qast sentence), Van den Brink (1993) (only in the last subparagraph of the book (267-275) he recognizes that (268) "'Christian theodicy carmat in the end do without an appeal to God's working in Christ to iO Pesch (1988), 40: Methode einer doppelten Entfremdung. overcome evil" (italics added, MR), Schwartz (1995), 79-81 (he mentions Christ's sufferings, but they play no distinct role in his argument), Schoberth (1997), 66f. 11 Henk Schoot, Christ the 'Name' oj God, -Thomas Aquinas on Nam~g Christ, Leuven, Utrecht 1993 9 Recent exemples: Van Driel (1988), Van dec Yen (1990), chapter 5, Anunicht-Quinn (1992), Bonk (1996), Stackhouse jf. (1998), Lacroix (1998), Swinburne (1998), Kress 12 Pim Vaikenberg, Words of the Living God. ~Place and Function of Scripture in the (1999), Simonis (1999). Theology of Thomas Aquinas, Leuven, Utrecht 2000 ! XVIII INTRODUcrION INTRODUcrION XIX is about a further characterisation of Thomas' theology. Jiingel" holds and 2 come together with the ones of chapter 3. In the final paragraph of that Christian theology fundamentally is a theology of the Crucified One. the third chapter the word almightiness itself is SUbject to examination: its He responds to Thomas' theology as one of the classical theologies which place and how it functions in the Christian tradition (Scripture and he does not recognize as such.14 Can we, after examining how, in negative theology; analogous language). In chapter 4 we consider the al Thomas' theology, the connection is explained between the Passion of mightiness of Christ and the negative use of language in Thomas' christo Christ and God's almightiness, characterize Thomas' theology as a theo logy. logia crucis in which God is thought of in the light of the Crucified, or does his theology rather emerge as a kind of speculative theology whereby Finally, in this study the Latin words potentia and potestas are a clear link to the Crucufied is absent in the theologia?15 translated as "might", whereas the word virtus is translated as "power". The second extra question that we want to answer at the end of To us they may be synonyms and speaking of God Thomas sometimes this study comes from Christian art (and from the discussion on whether uses these words as equivalents, but in paragraph 4.1 it is elucidated that God suffers or is able to suffer). In depictions of the mercy seat, in which there is a difference. So for the sake of clarity this translation is employed the Father upholds the cross on which the Son is crucified, we see the consistently. As a consequence of this choice omnipotens and omni Father suffer; He is saddened. This image was never condemned; it is potentia are translated as "almighty" and the more unusual "almighti fully part of the Christian tradition. But what does this mean? How would ness". Translations of Thomas' texts are by the author. The English Thomas, answer our question whether we can say in faith, and if so, what translation of the Summa Theologiae in the Blackfriars edition was it means, that God suffered, when Christ suffered? consulted. The quotes from Scripture are taken from the New Jerusalem Bible, unless indicated otherwise. In order to answer the main question of the book, four steps are taken in this study. First we review how Thomas speaks of the passio (the Haastrecht, 17th December 2002 suffering) of Christ and whether and, if so, how he connects this with the almightiness of God. In chapter 2 the way Thomas speaks of the passio of God is expounded. Here we look at the use of metaphors in divinis. The third chapter, on the almightiness of God in Thomas' theology, contains the central part of this study. In the third paragraph lines in chapters I 13 Eberhard Hingel, Gott als Geheimnis der Welt, -Zur BegrUndung der Theologie des Gekreuzigten im Streit zwischen Theismus und Atheismus, Tiibingen 1977, 15 (English translation: 13), 14 Iiingel, o.c., 50f (40): "Dec Tad Jesu hatte fur den Gottesbegriff seiber in dec Regel uberhaupt keine Bedeutung. Nicht nur in dec metaphysischen. sondern auch in der christlichen Uberlieferung wurde dec Begriff des g6ttlichen Seins so sehr vom Gedanken dec AbsoIutheit beherrscht, daB die christologische Identitiit Gottes mit dem gekreuzigten Jesus zu denken am besten Fall Zll einem das Denken seIber sprengenden Paradox fiihren' konnte. Cf. esp. 6f, 139-141, 193f, 334, 347,362, 378f (7, 106f, 145f, 245, 254f, 266. 277f). 1~ Theologia is the theology of what is in God, as distinct from the oikonomia, which concerns God's acting in the history of salvation. CHAPTER 1 THE PASSIO OF CHRIST If God is almighty, why then the passio of Christ? Was God unable or unwilling to avoid it? What good did it do? If the passio were for any purpose, could God then not have achieved this aim in any other, better way? What kind of a God is that, that He allows or even wills the torment and the injury and the disgraceful death of not just someone, but of His only Son, Jesus Christ? The passio of Christ raises questions about God. In the same way the event of Christ's passio and death on a cross raises questions about Christ Himself and His passio, as happened amongst His disillusioned first disciples, for instance the two leaving Jerusalem for Emmaus (Lk 24,14, 19-22): how and why could this have taken place? And who actually was this Jesus of Nazareth? It is the crucified and resurrected Jesus Himself, joining them in disguise, who reveals to them that He is the Christ and that His sufferings were neces sary in order to enter into His glory (Lk 24,26). Unfortunately the gospel does not record Christ's own explanation, except that He used Scripture to demonstrate the reason: the fulfillment of the Scriptures (Lk 24,44 cf. 1 Co 15,3f etc.). Yet this reason alone may not provide a satisfying answer for us to the initial question. As I said in the introduction to this study, Thomas' thoughts con cerning the second part of the initial question, the passio Christi, will be examined first. In order to gain a clear understanding of the structure and the content of Thomas' theology concerning the passio of Christ, one could follow the order of Thomas' inquiry of the quaestiones "De pas sione" (46 to 49) in the Tertia Pars of the Summa The%giae. The structure as described by Thomas in the introduction to quaestio 46, is indeed very clear: the first quaestio is about Christ's passio itself; the second on the efficient cause of His passio; the last two quaestiones on the fruits of His passio (with respect to the role of Christ in bringing them about, in quaestio 48, and with regard to the ones benefitting from it, namely we and Christ Himself, in quaestio 49). But since in this study Thomas' texts are being read in view of the question about the relation between the passio of Christ and the al mightiness of God, it is more obvious to begin with the discussion of the texts on how God, "the Almighty", Christ and others involved in this event, are related to Christ's passio and death (1.1). Therefore the first 2 THE PASSIO OF CHRIST CHAPTER ONE 3 step of this inquiry consists of the analysis of the first three articuli of this question touches upon the very foundations of our faith. In the final quaestio 47, also in order to draw up an inventory of the issues at stake. paragraph of this chapter this 12'" articulus will be extensively discussed. Instead of starting off by discussing the relation between God and Christ as efficient causes of Christ's passio, I will begin by discussing the relation between Christ and His pursuers, for three reasons. Firstly, this order of inquiry takes the historical fact that Christ was crucified serious 1.1 Who Caused Christ to Die? Iy. Secondly, it is more logical if one takes Scripture as the basis and the starting-point for theological reflection, for in the Passion narratives In the gospels we read that after Christ had celebrated the "God" is not directly mentioned as an agent, whereas Christ and His Passover with His disciples, during which Judas, one of the Twelve, had pursuers are. Thirdly, and I believe that this reason includes the first two, left the group, He went with them to Gethsemane, on the Mount of it is Thomas' own order. This approach will take us to the very heart of Olives. According to the Synoptics He prayed that God's will would be the matter and will lay open where Thomas' attention is focused as well done. While He was there with them, Judas came, accompanied by a as what some of His presuppositions and choices are. At the same time large number of armed men, sent with Judas by the chief priests, the the outcome will raise quite a few questions, our questions which will be scribes and the elders, in order to arrest Him. After Judas had betrayed the guideline, when the order of the articuli of quaestio 46 is pursued in Him with a kiss, He was apprehended. The other disciples fled. Christ the following paragraphs.' Although the structure of Thomas' quaestio was led away . After a process before the Sanhedrin, that very same night, "on the passio itself' may evoke in uS a sense of surprise or even He was sentenced to death. For that they took Him to the Roman estrangement, reading this quaestio in Thomas' order is preferable, since governor Pontius Pilate. After an interrogation he handed Christ over to by doing so Thomas' intentions, the line of his exposition and its be crucified. Christ was stricken and ridiculed by the Roman soldiers and coherence. at times not so easily recognized or understood, may become thereupon burdened with the cross-bar. As they arrived at the mountain clearer. Hence in paragraph 1.2 the purpose and the suitability of Christ's Golgotha, outside Jerusalem, they crucified Him and two others with passio will be discussed, as Thomas considers it in articuli I to 4. Only Him. And after a loud cry He died.' then - to us it may seem more logical to take this issue as a point of On the basis of this information it seems to be clear that Christ departure - Thomas considers the res of the passio: what Christ suffered and died by the agency of particular Jews and Romans. Apart underwent and in what way, articuli 5 to 8, in paragraph I. 3. The next from these two groups of people Thomas also distinguishes the roles of three articuli, 9 to 11, are quite unexpected: on whether Christ suffered Christ Himself and of God in the event of the passio of Christ,' leading and was crucified at the right time, in the right place and with the right to His death on the cross; Thomas highlights that Christ was not only the people. However, on further consideration these questions are not that object, but takes an active part in this event, and that similarly God was strange; after the internal aspects of Christ's passio Thomas reflects upon actively involved in it. Thomas takes one step at the time. First he the external aspects. Since the content of these articuli is either beyond the scope of this study or closely connected with questions in 1.2, it will only be discussed very briefly, in subparagraph 1.2.3. Quaestio 46 'Mt 26,20-27,50, Mk 14,17-15,37, Lk 22,14-23,46, ln 13,2-19,30. culminates in the, for this study crucial question "whether the passio of 3 In CIC c.2 1.2 (on 1 Co 2,8) Thomas mentions the role of the demons, which is Christ must be attributed to His divinity". Crucial, since the answer to persuading Judas: Sed etiam daemones operati sun! in mortem Christi, persuadendo, secundum mud loan. XiI!: "Cum diabolus lam misisset in cor, ut eum traderet, etc." (In 13,2). They knew. Thomas continues, that He was the Christ, which is evident in Mk , This method is used by Corbin (1980) and Pesch (1988). Pesch (1988), 40, speaks of 1,24 and Lk 4,34 and in Mt 8,29 and Lk 4,41, although they did not fully grasp the the "Methode eiDer doppelten Entfremdung", the method of a double estrangement: We mystery of Christ's divinity; Augustinus dicit [in IX De civ. Del1 quod innotuit read Thomas' works with our questions in mind and Thomas considers issues often in a daemonibus, non per id quod est vita aetema, sed per quaedam temporalia sua virtute different way, in a different context and with different associations than ours. effecta. 4 THE PASSIO OF CHRIST CHAPTER ONE 5 considers the human relations: what was the role of Christ and what was the bodies of many holy people rose from the dead), and a cry the role of His pursuers (quaestio 47 articulus I)? Next Thomas reflects proclaiming to all the world (the veil of the Sanctuary was torn) the death upon the relation between Christ and God, with regard to respectively the of the Son of God', to a cry of utter despair, in the line of Ps 22,2.7 role of Christ and the role of God (aniculi 2 and 3, in 1.1.2). Note that Thomas is more interested in the christological meaning of the text and Thomas speaks of the death of Christ as a part, namely the completion, of therefore he cites Augustine's interpretation in De Trinitate of Christ's His passio. loud voice': people crucified died slowly, while their natural powers declined. The strength of Christ's voice then seems to indicate that Christ was, just before He died, not weakened like other people crucified who 1.1.1 Christ and His Pursuers were eventually overcome by death, but that He laid down His life, by Himself. As was said already, from Holy Scripture it seems to be clear that The reader of Thomas' work is assumed to know that Christ died Christ suffered and died by means of the hand of others than Himself. of His own free will.' Thomas refers to the content of these passages Thomas points this out by quoting Lk 18,33 in the sed contra of quaestio where he formulates the third argument, that someone who dies by being 47 aniculus 1: "And when they have scourged Him, they will put Him to killed by someone else, dies by force (per violentiam) and therefore not of death," implying that this third prophecy of the Passion was fulfilled. It is one's own free will. So that, since Christ died of His own free will, he the most obvious conclusion drawn from the gospel stories. But this cannot also have died by force; these two ways of dying seem to be seems to be contradictory, Thomas says in the obiectiones, to what we incompatible. The argumentation is brought to a head by Thomas by read in other places in Scripture, that Christ was killed by Himself quoting Augustine's words from the same chapter of De Trinitate, saying (occisus a seipso). This is a theological question concerning the deep that "the spirit of Christ did not leave the flesh unwillingly, but because structure of Christ's death. Thomas mentions three passages. First In He willed it, when He willed it and in the way He willed it." 10,18, where Christ says that no one takes His soul (anima) away, but We might feel more comfortable with the emphasis on Christ that He will lay it down Himself. This verse refers to In 19,30, where it having been killed by others than by Himself; in the Passion narratives we says that Christ gave (up) (tradidit) His Spirit/spirit, actively that is; it read that He died after His pursuers had crucified Him. Besides, would does not say that His Spirit/spirit escaped from Him, as something thaI He otherwise not be a suicide? - a suspicion already found in In 8,22 happened to Him, passively.' Thomas explicates in obiectio 1 that taking (Jesus' audience thought Jesus alluded to killing Himself when He said someone's soul away is the definition of killing someone; "the soul is the "Where I am going, you cannot come. "). But at the same time, although cause and the principle of a living body."' the second argument is less strong since it may admit of more The second passage brought forward by Thomas is about the way interpretations, we cannot ignore In 10,18 - which already caused a Christ died. In Mt 27,50 we read that Christ died crying out in a loud division among Christ's audience (In 10,19-21) - and what Scripture and voice (magna voce). This loud voice is interpreted by contemporary exegetes in divergent ways, varying from a cry of victory, in the light of Mt 27,5lf (the earth quaked, the rocks were split, the tombs opened and 6 E.g. Senior, 14lf resp. GniIlca. 476. 7 E.g. Brown, 1078 and Nielsen, 167. 4 The same applies to Mt 27,50, where it says that Christ sent (emisit) the Spirit/spirit. 'IV De Trin. c.13. ML 42,899 5 ST Ia q.18 a.3 ag.2: [A]nima est viventis corporis causa et principium, cf. Aristotle in II De anima c.4 n.3. And therefore in bodies death, ST Iallae q.72 a.5eQ: est per <} As it is expressed in In 4,34 and Mt 26,39, 42 and 44. In his commentary on Mt remotionem principii vItae. Hence, ST rna q.50 a.2 ag.3: [C]01pUS [Christl1 morl non 26,42 in REM c.26 n.5 Thomas refers to Ps 40,9 (Vulg-Ps 39,9); not to be confused with potera! nisi anima separata. 10nah's desire, in Jon 4,3; a different motive (see below).