Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I:
IRENÆUS: XXVIII.

XXVIII.

“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.” 4843 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 p. 573 the fact, that when the holy soul of Christ descended [to Hades], many souls ascended and were seen in their bodies. 4844 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.

Footnotes

2 Kings vi. 6. Comp. book v. chap. xvii. 4.

Matt. xxvii. 52.