Expositio super symbolum Apostolorum
Alan of Lille (1120–1202)
A commentary on the Apostles' Creed by Alan.
Prologus I: Incipit Alanus super symbolum Apostolorum.
Caput I: Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, creatorem celi et terre.
Caput II: Et in Ihesum Christum, Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum.
Caput III: Qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine.
Caput IV: Passus sub Pontio Pylato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus.
Caput V: Descendit ad inferna, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis.
Caput VI: Ascendit ad celos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis.
Caput VII: Inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos.
Caput VIII: Credo in Spiritum Sanctum.
Caput IX: Sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem.
Caput X: Remissionem peccatorum.
Caput XI: Carnis resurrectionem.
The resurrection of the flesh.
We are also bound to believe this, that we will rise again in our own flesh. This is said against the Sadducees, who said that the soul ends with the body. Hence Job says, "Whom I myself shall see," etc.1 It is to be believed that a person will rise again in that same flesh which he had in his life, whether unto punishment or unto glory, yet only in that flesh which belongs to the truth of human nature. By "the truth of human nature" we mean that true nature which Adam had before he sinned, which was transmitted by way of seed into others, namely his descendants. Not that everything in the body belongs to the truth of human nature; rather, the remainder is so mixed with the true nature that it is not possible to distinguish between the true part and that other part.
Hence too, after sin, a certain blemish, through the kindling of concupiscence, was mixed into the truth of human nature, which was transmitted, together with the truth of human nature itself, into his descendants. Man, then, will rise again with the truth of human nature. But if this is so, it seems that Adam alone will rise entire, because something of the truth of his nature was transmitted into his descendants.
That, then, will rise again in Adam which is not in his descendants, and so Adam alone will rise entirely whole, the others only in part. By the same reasoning Eve will rise again with the whole truth of human nature that is required for the condition of the first human being. But in truth, because human nature can subsist fully without that which was transmitted into his descendants, and without the rib, Adam will be able to rise fully and perfectly without these things.
That, then, which is in the hair and in the other members that belongs to the truth of human nature will rise again; but what belongs to mere growth will not. And this is what is said in the Nicene Creed, "I await the resurrection of the dead." This article was composed by Jude Thaddeus.