The Literal Meaning of Genesis
was released from his chains by an angel and went forth walking in the body and confronting bodily forms, yet thinking all the while that he was beholding a vision. For on the dish there were only spiritual forms resembling corporeal forms, whereas the actual sight of a man freed from his chains was made in a miraculous way to seem like a spiritual image. Now the soul was in error in these two cases only in so far as it took one thing for another.
Hence, once the soul has left the body, the objects acting upon it (for good or ill) may be like the corporeal and not real corporeal objects, since the soul appears to itself in the likeness of its own body. Yet these objects do exist, and the joy and vexation produced by a spiritual substance are real. For even in sleep there is a vast difference between being in joyful and in sad circumstances in our dreams. Hence some people have grieved on waking from dreams in which they had had their heart's desire; and on other occasions, awaking from dreams in which they had been shaken with terrors and tormented with suffering, they have feared the return of sleep and the recurrence of the same afflictions. And surely we cannot doubt that the afflictions of hell are more vivid and so felt more keenly; for even those who have been carried out of the senses of the body have said afterwards that they have been through a more vivid experience than that of a dream, though of course it was less vivid than it would have been had they died. Hell, then, indeed exists, but I am of the opinion that its nature is spiritual rather than corporeal.'®8
CHAPTER 33
Hell and the bosom of Abraham.
62. No hearing should be given to the advocates of the theory that hell is found in this life and not after death.'©? Let them devise their interpretations of the poets' fictions. We must not depart from the authority of Sacred Scripture; on this alone our faith in this matter rests. We may, however, be able to show,that the wise men among the pagans had no doubt at all about the BOOK TWELVE 225 reality of the lower world, where the souls of the dead are received after this life.!7° But why the lower world is said to be under the earth,!7! if it is not a corporeal place, or why it is called the lower world, if it is not under the earth—these are questions that are discussed, and not without reason.
But the soul is incorporeal; and this I proclaim confidently, not as my opniion but as certain knowledge. However, anyone who says that it is impossible for the soul to have a likeness of the body or of any members of the body ought also to deny that the soul in sleep sees itself walking or sitting or being borne away and returned, now this way, now that, on foot or through the air. None of this happens without some likeness of the body. Hence, if the soul in the lower world bears this likeness, which is not corporeal, but similar to a body, it seems also that it is in a place not corporeal but like the corporeal, whether at rest or in torment.
63. | admit, however, that I have not yet found the term "lower world" [or "hell"'] applied to the place where the souls of the just are at rest.!7? Moreover, it is believed, and not without reason, that the soul of Christ went to that very region where sinners are tormented in order to release from their suffering those who He decreed should be released according to the inscrutable ways of His justice. For I do not see how else we can interpret the text, God raised Him up from the dead, having loosed the pangs of hell because it was not possible that He should be held fast by them,'7> unless we understand that He loosed the pangs of certain souls in hell in virtue of that power by which He is Lord. For to Him every knee does bend of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth,'7* and because of His power He could not have been held in bonds by the pangs that He loosed.
Abraham and the poor man in his bosom, that is to say, in his peaceful retreat, were not in the midst of pain. Between their restful abode and the infernal torments we read that a great gulf was fixed, but they are not said to be in hell. For Christ said, It came to pass that the poor man died and was borne away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; but the rich man also died and was burted.
And, being in bell, in the midst of torments ... and so forth.'?> Accordingly we see that hell is mentioned not in reference to the