The Iron Swam: Eliseus' Axe-Head and the Wood of the Cross
Old Testament: 4 Kings 6:5-7
And it happened, as one was felling some timber, that the head of the axe fell into the water: and he cried out, and said: Alas, alas, alas, my lord, for this same was borrowed. And the man of God said: Where did it fall? and he shewed him the place. Then he cut off a piece of wood, and cast it in thither: and the iron swam. And he said: Take it up. And he put out his hand and took it.
Old Testament, also: Genesis 3:6
And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat.
New Testament: 1 Peter 2:24; Romans 6:4
Who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree: that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed. ... For we are buried together with him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.
The connection
The sons of the prophets went down to the Jordan to cut timber for a new house. As one of them was felling a tree, the iron head flew off the handle and sank, and he cried out, "Alas, alas, alas, my lord, for this same was borrowed" (4 Kings 6:5). Eliseus asked where it fell, cut a piece of wood, and threw it in, "and the iron swam" (6:6). Iron sinks and wood floats; here the wood went down to where the iron lay, and the iron rose to meet it. The Fathers saw in it the whole history of man. Mankind was lost through a tree, when the woman "took of the fruit thereof, and did eat" (Genesis 3:6), and it is found again through a tree, for Christ "bore our sins in his body upon the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). St Irenaeus says that by this action "the prophet pointed out that the sure word of God, which we had negligently lost by means of a tree, and were not in the way of finding again, we should receive anew by the dispensation of a tree". Tertullian says the same, adding the water: the world sunk in error "is freed in baptism by the 'wood' of Christ, that is, of His passion; in order that what had formerly perished through the 'tree' in Adam, should be restored through the 'tree' in Christ". St Augustine reads the river as the tomb: "when His body was laid in the tomb, like the wood on the water, His spirit returned, like the iron to the handle, and He rose." The same Jordan where the iron rose is where Naaman was washed one chapter earlier, and where Christ Himself was baptised. St Paul puts the two together: "we are buried together with him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead... so we also may walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).
Moral sense
The man cried out because the axe was not his: "this same was borrowed." Everything we lose by sin was lent to us by God, and we cannot raise it ourselves, any more than iron can float. What we can do is what he did: cry out to the man of God and show him the place where it fell. That is the shape of a good confession. Then the wood is cast in, the Cross reaches down to the very place of the loss, and what sank rises. But the iron does not leap back onto the handle. "Take it up," said Eliseus, "and he put out his hand and took it" (4 Kings 6:7). Grace raises what we lost, and we must still reach out and take it.
Anagogical sense
St Irenaeus saw the end of the story in it as well: "This was a sign that souls should be borne aloft through the instrumentality of wood, upon which He suffered who can lead those souls aloft that follow His ascension." What fell into the river rises to the surface by the wood, and the souls that cling to the Cross will be drawn up after the One who rose and ascended. An old commentary in the Catena puts the whole road in one sentence: mankind, "which by the forbidden tree, fell down to hell, but by the wood of the cross of Christ, and by the baptism of water, swims to paradise."
The Fathers
St Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.17.4: "By this action the prophet pointed out that the sure word of God, which we had negligently lost by means of a tree, and were not in the way of finding again, we should receive anew by the dispensation of a tree, [viz., the cross of Christ]." St Augustine, Reply to Faustus XII.35: "when His body was laid in the tomb, like the wood on the water, His spirit returned, like the iron to the handle, and He rose." Aphrahat, Demonstrations, Of Persecution: "Elisha made the iron to swim and the wood to sink; and Jesus raised up that which was sunk in us, and sank that which was light."
Warrant
Patristic. St Irenaeus (Against Heresies V.17.4, and again in a fragment) reads the floating iron as the word of God lost by a tree and recovered by the tree of the Cross. Tertullian (An Answer to the Jews), St Augustine (Reply to Faustus XII.35), Aphrahat (Demonstrations, Of Persecution) and a passage in the Catena on Mark 15 credited to St Jerome but not his, so given here unnamed, all read it the same way. The New Testament does not name the figure. Irenaeus himself ties it to John the Baptist's "the axe is laid to the root of the trees" (Matthew 3:10), so the site's entry on that verse is related. Checked in the Greek: the Septuagint of 4 Kings 6:6 has xylon for the piece of wood, the word 1 Peter 2:24 uses for the Cross (epi to xylon). The word is common, so it supports the Fathers' reading rather than carrying it. Augustine's sentence on this passage opens with a clause about the unbelieving Jews, which is left out here (CCC 597). The lead was found in research Dunk asked for to fill the gaps in the site's chronology in the books of Kings; the reading itself is the Fathers'.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1094.
The verses
4 Kings 6:5 · 4 Kings 6:6 · 4 Kings 6:7 · Genesis 3:6 · 1 Peter 2:24 · Romans 6:4
