ＩＲＥＮＡＥＵＳ： ”Ｔｈｅ Ｉｎｓｔｒｕｍｅｎｔａｌｉｔｙ ｏｆ Ｗｏｏｄ”

And the man of God said, Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a tree, and cast it in there, and the iron floated.

2 Kings 6:6

Irenaeus on Seeing Christ in Elisha Recovering the Axe Head (2 Kgs 6:6)

There is a strange story in the Second Book of Kings, in which the members of the prophet Elisha’s community went down to the Jordan River to collect wood to build a new meeting place. While one of his student was chopping down a tree along the river, the iron axe head fell into the river. The student panicked because the axe was borrowed. Elisha asked the student where the head had fallen. The student pointed to the spot in the river, and Elisha chopped a stick from a tree and threw it in the area where the student had pointed. The iron floated, and the student collected it from the water.

What are we to make of this odd story?

I cannot say, but I can share the view of Irenaeus (ca. 130 – ca. 202 AD). The great second century bishop of Lyon commented:

This was a sign that souls should be borne aloft (ἀναγωγῆς ψυχῶν) through the instrumentality of wood, upon which He suffered who can lead those souls aloft that follow His ascension.

This event was also an indication of the fact, that when the holy soul of Christ descended [to Hades], many souls ascended and were seen in their bodies (Matt 27:52). For just as the wood, which is the lighter body, was submerged in the water; but the iron, the heavier one, floated: so, when the Word of God became one with flesh, by a physical and hypostatic union, the heavy and terrestrial [part], having been rendered immortal, was borne up into heaven, by the divine nature, after the resurrection.

Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus, XXVIII.