There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
καὶ σώματα ἐπουράνια, καὶ σώματα ἐπίγεια· ἀλλ᾿ ἑτέρα μὲν ἡ τῶν ἐπουρανίων δόξα, ἑτέρα δὲ ἡ τῶν ἐπιγείων.
И҆ тѣлеса̀ небє́снаѧ, и҆ тѣлеса̀ земна̑ѧ: но и҆́на ᲂу҆́бѡ небє́снымъ сла́ва, и҆ и҆́на земны̑мъ:
If any man does not believe that common flesh can be changed into a nature of this sort, he is to be convinced toward faith by gradual steps. If you ask them whether earth can be changed into water, that will not seem to him incredible because there is no great distance between these two elements. Again if you ask whether water can be changed into air, he will agree that that is not absurd because these two elements are close neighbors.
On Faith and the Creed 10.24Porphyry says: "You praise the body to me without good reasons. No matter what kind of body it is, you must escape from it if you wish to be happy." Philosophers say this, but they are wrong. They are raving.… I read your books where you say that the world is animated, that the heavens, the earth, the seas, all the huge bodies which exist, all the immense elements of all times, this whole universal body which consists of all these elements—all this, you say, is a vast living thing and has its own soul. But you claim that it does not have the senses of the body because outside of it there is nothing which can be perceived. Nevertheless you say it has intelligence, and that it leads to God, and that the soul of the world is called Jupiter.… You claim that the same world is eternal, that it will always exist, that it will not have an end. If then the world is eternal and remains without any end, if this world is a living thing and if its soul is always held in the world, then as a matter of fact, must we then flee every kind of body?
EASTER SERMON 241.7"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another."
"There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory."
And what means he by these expressions? Wherefore from the resurrection of the body did he throw himself into the discourse of the stars and the sun? He did not throw himself out, neither did he break off from his purpose; far from it: but he still keeps to it. For whereas he had established the doctrine concerning the resurrection, he intimates in what follows that great will be then the difference of glory, though there be but one resurrection. And for the present he divides the whole into two: into "bodies celestial," and "bodies terrestrial." For that the bodies are raised again, he signified by the corn: but that they are not all in the same glory, he signifies by this. For as the disbelief of the resurrection makes men supine, so again it makes them indolent to think that all are vouchsafed the same reward. Wherefore he corrects both. And the one in the preceding verses he had completed; but this he begins now. And having made two ranks, of the righteous and of sinners, these same two he subdivides again into many parts, signifying that neither righteous nor sinners shall obtain the same; neither righteous men, all of them, alike with other righteous, nor sinners with other sinners.
Now he makes, you see, first, one separation between righteous and sinners, where he says, "bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial:" by the "terrestrial" intimating the latter, and by the "celestial," the former. Then farther he introduces a difference of sinners from sinners, saying, "All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of fishes, another of birds, and another of beasts." And yet all are bodies; but some are in more, and some in lesser vileness. And that in their manner of living too, and in their very constitution.
And having said this, he ascends again to the heaven, saying, "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon." For as in the earthly bodies there is a difference, so also in the heavenly; and that difference no ordinary one, but reaching even to the uttermost: there being not only a difference between sun and moon, and stars, but also between stars and stars. For what though they be all in the heaven? yet some have a larger, others a less share of glory. What do we learn from hence? That although they be all in God's kingdom, all shall not enjoy the same reward; and though all sinners be in hell, all shall not endure the same punishment.
Homily on 1 Corinthians 41Even among earthly bodies there are no small differences. Take the human race, for example. Some are Greeks and some are barbarians, and among the barbarians, some are wilder than others. Some have higher laws. Some lower ones, and some follow savage customs which are not laws at all.
ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.9.3If God could make the sun, moon and stars, what problem will he have in making new bodies for us?
COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 15In like manner, those also who after Him are heavenly, are understood to have this celestial quality predicated of them not from their present nature, but from their future glory; because in a preceding sentence, which originated this distinction respecting difference of dignity, there was shown to be "one glory in celestial bodies, and another in terrestrial ones," -"one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for even one star differeth from another star in glory, " although not in substance.
On the Resurrection of the FleshHere, as I said above, he points out the distinction between the righteous and the sinners: he calls the first heavenly bodies, and the sinners earthly ones, and says that the glory of the righteous is one thing, and that of the sinners another—no longer glory (for this should not be implied), but life.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians977. – For the same reason he introduces the diversity of heavenly and earthly bodies, when he says: There are celestial bodies, as the sun and moon and so on, and there are terrestrial bodies, as fire, water and so on. But the glory, i.e., the beauty and splendor, of celestial bodies is one and that of the terrestrial bodies is another: "The glory of the stars is the beauty of heaven" (Sir. 44:9). Again, by celestial bodies can be understood contemplatives: "Our commonwealth is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20); by the terrestrial the actives, who are occupied with earthly things. Hence it is said to Martha: "You are concerned about many things" (Lk. 10:41).
Commentary on 1 CorinthiansThere is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
ἄλλη δόξα ἡλίου, καὶ ἄλλη δόξα σελήνης, καὶ ἄλλη δόξα ἀστέρων· ἀστὴρ γὰρ ἀστέρος διαφέρει ἐν δόξῃ.
и҆́на сла́ва со́лнцꙋ, и҆ и҆́на сла́ва лꙋнѣ̀, и҆ и҆́на сла́ва ѕвѣзда́мъ: ѕвѣзда́ бо ѿ ѕвѣзды̀ ра́знствꙋетъ во сла́вѣ.
In the body the eyes are held in high esteem. But they would be less esteemed if they were all alone or if there were no other members of seemingly less worth. In the heavens the sun outshines the moon but does not scorn it, and "star differs from star in glory" but is never measuring itself through pride.
THE EXCELLENCE OF WIDOWHOOD 6.8It is in this way that men enter into contemplation, nor can anyone in the world attain the visions of the Apocalypse unless he understands such things as these. Since, then, according to the Apostle, "there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another of the stars," we, lifted up through faith, are being transformed from glory to glory, and this, with faces unveiled, so that in a sense we are made to become similar to the twelve stars and to the twelve pearls. There are twelve thoughts we have received through faith: these are the notions that God is the First, that He is triune, that He is the Exemplar of things, the Creator of the world, the One who gave form to the soul, and the Giver of life; that God united to the flesh was crucified, that He is the Remedy of the minds, the Retribution of crimes and the eternal Reward.
Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 10Conformably, therefore, there are various abodes, according to the worth of those who have believed. To the point Solomon says, "For there shall be given to him the choice grace of faith, and a more pleasant lot in the temple of the Lord." For the comparative shows that there are lower parts in the temple of God, which is the whole Church. And the superlative remains to be conceived, where the Lord is. These chosen abodes, which are three, are indicated by the numbers in the Gospel-the thirty, the sixty, the hundred.
The Stromata Book 6Who can allow that the perfect concord subsisting among the celestial bodies derives its harmony from instruments destitute both of concord and harmony? Or, again, if there is but one and the same substance in all things, and if there is the same incorruptible nature in all—the only elements of difference being, as they aver, size and figure—how comes it that there are some bodies divine and perfect, and eternal, as they would phrase it, or lasting, as some one may prefer to express it; and among these some that are visible and others that are invisible—the visible including such as sun, and moon, and stars, and earth, and water; and the invisible including gods, and demons, and spirits? ... But who, then, is the sagacious discriminator, that brings certain atoms into collocation, and separates others; and marshals some in such wise as to form the sun, and others in such a way as to originate the moon, and adapts all in natural fitness, and in accordance with the proper constitution of each star? For surely neither would those solar atoms, with their peculiar size and kind, and with their special mode of collocation, ever have reduced themselves so as to effect the production of a moon; nor, on the other hand, would the conjunctions of these lunar atoms ever have developed into a sun. And as certainly neither would Arcturus, resplendent as he is, ever boast his having the atoms possessed by Lucifer, nor would the Pleiades glory in being constituted of those of Orion. For well has Paul expressed the distinction when he says: "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory."
Containing Various Sections of the WorksThe diversity of corporeal natures demonstrates that each one of them is not what it is because of what it could always have had all by itself. Rather it is what it is because of what it has received from the plan and working of the one omnipotent, unchangeable and all-wise Creator. If any corporeal creature whatsoever were of one and the same nature as the holy Trinity, which is the one God, it would not exist in any place locally, nor would it ever undergo change because of passage of time, nor would it move from one place to another, nor would it be circumscribed by the fact of its mass.
TO PETER ON THE FAITH 26-27The defect, therefore, of that passion which has regard to ignorance, will either attach alike to their whole Pleroma, since [all its members] are of the same substance; and the Propator will share in this defect of ignorance-that is, will be ignorant of Himself; or, on the other hand, all those lights which are within the Pleroma will alike remain for ever impassible. Whence, then, comes the passion of the youngest Aeon, if the light of the Father is that from which all other lights have been formed, and which is by nature impassible? And how can one Aeon be spoken of as either younger or older among themselves, since there is but one light in the entire Pleroma? And if any one calls them stars, they will all nevertheless appear to participate in the same nature. For if "one star differs from another star in glory," but not in qualities, nor substance, nor in the fact of being passible or impassible; so all these, since they are alike derived from the light of the Father, must either be naturally impossible and immutable, or they must all, in common with the light of the Father, be passible, and are capable of the varying phases of corruption.
Against Heresies Book IIThe members of the one church are different. Just as the sun has its own brilliance, and the moon also tempers the darkness of the night. And the five other stars called the wandering stars traverse the sky, differing both in their courses and in their brilliance. There are other countless stars that we see shining in the firmament. The brilliance of each of these is different, and yet each and every star is perfect, according to its own standard, to the degree that, in comparison with a greater star, it lacks perfection.… So the eye cannot say to the hand: "I do not need your help."
Against the Pelagians 1.16Let no one suppose that all the remaining company of those who have believed are condemned, thinking that we who are virgins alone shall be led on to attain the promises, not understanding that there shall be tribes and families and orders, according to the analogy of the faith of each. And this Paul, too, sets forth, saying,
Methodius Discourse VII. ProcillaTherefore "one star differeth from another star in glory." If, again, Christ in His advent from heaven "shall change the body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body," it follows that this body of ours shall rise again, which is now in a state of humiliation in its sufferings and according to the law of mortality drops into the ground.
Against Marcion Book V"For one star differeth from another star in glory: so there are bodies terrestrial as well as celestial" (Jews, that is, as well as Christians). Now, if this language is not to be construed figuratively, it was absurd enough for him to make a contrast between the flesh of mules and kites, as well as the heavenly bodies and human bodies; for they admit of no comparison as to their condition, nor in respect of their attainment of a resurrection.
On the Resurrection of the FleshWell now, if He had put forth faith to suffer martyrdoms not for the contest's sake, but for its own benefit, ought it not to have had some store of hope, for the increase of which it might restrain desire of its own, and check its wish in order that it might strive to mount up, seeing they also who discharge earthly functions are eager for promotion? Or how will there be many mansions in our Father's house, if not to accord with a diversity of deserts? How will one star also differ from another star in glory, unless in virtue of disparity in their rays? But further, if, on that account, some increase of brightness also was appropriate to loftiness of faith, that gain ought to have been of some such sort as would cost great effort, poignant suffering, torture, death.
ScorpiaceAs a little before he spoke of the difference in the bodies of sinners, beginning with men and then mentioning birds, cattle, and fish, because sinners too, having been men at first, afterwards fell to the likeness of brute beasts (Ps. 49:20), so now he shows the differences among the righteous. All, he says, are in glory, but one light belongs to the sun, another to the moon, and to whatever body it may be; for stars also differ from stars "in glory," that is, in light; for the glory of stars consists in light. Some have understood by heavenly bodies the angels, but I think this is incorrect. And from the fact that he brought up the sun, moon, and stars, it is clear that the discourse is about them.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians978. – For the same purpose he further introduces the diverse qualities of celestial bodies, when he says, there is one glory of the sun and another of the moon. Similarly, there is a difference among the stars, for star differs from star in glory. Furthermore, by the sun can be understood Christ: "But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise" (Mal. 4:2); by the moon, the Blessed Virgin: "Fair as the moon" (S. of S. 6:10); by the stars mutually situated, the other saints: "The stars from their courses" (Jdg. 5:20).
Commentary on 1 CorinthiansSo also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
οὕτω καὶ ἡ ἀνάστασις τῶν νεκρῶν. σπείρεται ἐν φθορᾷ, ἐγείρεται ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ·
Та́кожде и҆ воскрⷭ҇нїе ме́ртвыхъ: сѣ́етсѧ въ тлѣ́нїе, востае́тъ въ нетлѣ́нїи:
In due time I yielded to better and more enlightened minds, or rather, to truth itself, as I heard in the words of the apostle the groaning of the saints in their battle against carnal concupiscence. Although the saints are spiritually minded, they are still carnal in the corruptible body which remains a weight upon the soul. They will, however, be spiritual also in body when the body sown animal will rise spiritual. They are still prisoners under the wall of sin, in as much as they are subject to stimulation by desires to which they do not consent. Thus I came to understand this matter as did Hilary, Gregory, Ambrose, and other holy and renowned teachers of the church, who saw that the apostle, by his own words, fought strenuously the same battle against carnal concupiscences he did not wish to have yet in fact did have.
AGAINST JULIAN 70About the resurrection of the body. I agree with you that the old picture of the soul reassuming the corpse—perhaps blown to bits or long since usefully dissipated through nature—is absurd. Nor is it what St. Paul's words imply. And I admit that if you ask what I substitute for this, I have only speculations to offer.
The principle behind these speculations is this. We are not, in this doctrine, concerned with matter as such at all: with waves and atoms and all that. What the soul cries out for is the resurrection of the senses. Even in this life matter would be nothing to us if it were not the source of sensations.
Now we already have some feeble and intermittent power of raising dead sensations from their graves. I mean, of course, memory.
At present we tend to think of the soul as somehow "inside" the body. But the glorified body of the resurrection as I conceive it—the sensuous life raised from its death—will be inside the soul. As God is not in space but space is in God.
I have slipped in "glorified" almost unawares. But this glorification is not only promised, it is already foreshadowed. The dullest of us knows how memory can transfigure; how often some momentary glimpse of beauty in boyhood is
a whisper Which memory will warehouse as a shout.
Don't talk to me of the "illusions" of memory. Why should what we see at the moment be more "real" than what we see from ten years' distance? It is indeed an illusion to believe that the blue hills on the horizon would still look blue if you went to them. But the fact that they are blue five miles away, and the fact that they are green when you are on them, are equally good facts. Traherne's "orient and immortal wheat" or Wordsworth's landscape "apparelled in celestial light" may not have been so radiant in the past when it was present as in the remembered past. That is the beginning of the glorification. One day they will be more radiant still. Thus in the sense-bodies of the redeemed the whole New Earth will arise. The same yet not the same as this. It was sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.
I dare not omit, though it may be mocked and misunderstood, the extreme example. The strangest discovery of a widower's life is the possibility, sometimes, of recalling with detailed and uninhibited imagination, with tenderness and gratitude, a passage of carnal love, yet with no re-awakening of concupiscence. And when this occurs (it must not be sought) awe comes upon us. It is like seeing Nature itself rising from its grave. What was sown in momentariness is raised in still permanence. What was sown as a becoming rises as being. Sown in subjectivity, it rises in objectivity. The transitory secret of two is now a chord in the ultimate music.
"But this," you protest, "is no resurrection of the _body_. You have given the dead a sort of dream world and dream bodies. They are not real." Surely neither less nor more real than those you have always known: you know better than I that the "real world" of our present experience (coloured, resonant, soft or hard, cool or warm, all corseted by perspective) has no place in the world described by physics or even physiology. Matter enters our experience only by becoming sensation (when we perceive it) or conception (when we understand it). That is, by becoming soul. That element in the soul which it becomes will, in my view, be raised and glorified; the hills and valleys of Heaven will be to those you now experience not as a copy is to an original, nor as a substitute to the genuine article, but as the flower to the root, or the diamond to the coal. It will be eternally true that they originate with matter; let us therefore bless matter. But in entering our soul as alone it can enter—that is, by being perceived and known—matter has turned into soul (like the Undines who acquired a soul by marriage with a mortal).
Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, Letter 22Finally, I suggest that what has been said of Transposition throws a new light on the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. For in a sense Transposition can do anything. However great the difference between Spirit and Nature, between aesthetic joy and that flutter in the diaphragm, between reality and picture, yet the Transposition can be in its own way adequate. I said before that in your drawing you had only plain white paper for sun and cloud, snow, water, and human flesh. In one sense, how miserably inadequate! Yet in another, how perfect. If the shadows are properly done that patch of white paper will, in some curious way, be very like blazing sunshine: we shall almost feel cold while we look at the paper snow and almost warm our hands at the paper fire. May we not, by a reasonable analogy, suppose likewise that there is no experience of the spirit so transcendent and supernatural, no vision of Deity Himself so close and so far beyond all images and emotions, that to it also there cannot be an appropriate correspondence on the sensory level? Not by a new sense but by the incredible flooding of those very sensations we now have with a meaning, a transvaluation, of which we have here no faintest guess?
Weight of Glory, TranspositionThe mystical union on the one hand. The resurrection of the body, on the other. I can't reach the ghost of an image, a formula, or even a feeling, that combines them. But the reality, we are given to understand, does. Reality the iconoclast once more. Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will all be knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.
A Grief Observed, Chapter IVSo also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power, and so forth. Then again he says: But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Having here recourse to arguments from analogies in the natural world, he endeavours to convince of this those conversant with the wisdom of the world, and from the example about grain turns to the resurrection of the dead, saying: Just as corn is sown and is dissolved, so also the bodies of men, when planted as corpses in the earth, are dissolved; and just as the grain sprouts up with large increase, stability and beauty, so also the bodies of men are raised up with great honour and glory and power and beauty unspeakable, being discriminated by the omnipotent wisdom and ineffable might of God, who made and who renovates all things.
The Christian Topography, Book 7Just as the rational soul is not good or bad in itself but is capable of becoming either of these, so our body is neither perishable nor imperishable by nature but acquires these immanent, essential qualities in due course.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHIn the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in His side (now these are the tokens of that flesh which rose from the dead), so "shall He also," it is said, "raise us up by His own power." And again to the Romans he says, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." What, then, are mortal bodies? Can they be souls? Nay, for souls are incorporeal when put in comparison with mortal bodies; for God "breathed into the face of man the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Now the breath of life is an incorporeal thing. And certainly they cannot maintain that the very breath of life is mortal. Therefore David says, "My soul also shall live to Him," just as if its substance were immortal. Neither, on the other hand, can they say that the spirit is the mortal body. What therefore is there left to which we may apply the term "mortal body," unless it be the thing that was moulded, that is, the flesh, of which it is also said that God will vivify it? For this it is which dies and is decomposed, but not the soul or the spirit. For to die is to lose vital power, and to become henceforth breathless, inanimate, and devoid of motion, and to melt away into those [component parts] from which also it derived the commencement of [its] substance. But this event happens neither to the soul, for it is the breath of life; nor to the spirit, for the spirit is simple and not composite, so that it cannot be decomposed, and is itself the life of those who receive it. We must therefore conclude that it is in reference to the flesh that death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the soul's departure, becomes breathless and inanimate, and is decomposed gradually into the earth from which it was taken. This, then, is what is mortal. And it is this of which he also says, "He shall also quicken your mortal bodies." And therefore in reference to it he says, in the first [Epistle] to the Corinthians: "So also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption." For he declares, "That which thou sowest cannot be quickened, unless first it die."
But what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is sown in the earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in the earth, into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said, "It is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory." For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or, on the other hand, what is more glorious than the same when it arises and partakes of incorruption? "It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power:" in its own weakness certainly, because since it is earth it goes to earth; but [it is quickened] by the power of God, who raises it from the dead. "It is sown an animal body, it rises a spiritual body." He has taught, beyond all doubt, that such language was not used by him, either with reference to the soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have become corpses. For these are animal bodies, that is, [bodies] which partake of life, which when they have lost, they succumb to death; then, rising through the Spirit's instrumentality, they become spiritual bodies, so that by the Spirit they possess a perpetual life.
Against Heresies Book V"So also is the resurrection of the dead."
"So," How? with considerable difference. Then leaving this doctrine as sufficiently proved, he again comes to the proof itself of the resurrection and the manner of it, saying,
"It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption." And observe his consideration. As in the case of seeds, he used the term proper to bodies, saying, "it is not quickened, except it die:" so in the case of bodies, the expression belonging to seeds, saying, "it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption." He said not, "is produced," that thou mightest not think it a work of the earth, but is "raised." And by sowing here, he means not our generation in the womb, but the burial in the earth of our dead bodies, their dissolution, their ashes. Wherefore having said, "it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption," he adds,
"It is sown in dishonor." For what is more unsightly than a corpse in dissolution? "It is raised in glory."
"It is sown in weakness." For before thirty days the whole is gone, and the flesh cannot keep itself together nor hold out for one day. "It is raised in power." For there shall nothing prevail against it for all the future.
Here is why he stood in need of those former analogies, lest many on hearing of these things, that they are "raised in incorruption and glory and power," might suppose that there is no difference among those who rise again. For all indeed rise again, both in power and in incorruption; and in this glory of their incorruption yet are not all in the same state of honor and safety.
Homily on 1 Corinthians 41But the corruptible and mortal putting on in corruption and immortality, what else is this, but that which is sown in corruption rising in in corruption?
Indeed, since he proposes as his examples "wheat grain, or some other grain, to which God giveth a body, such as it hath pleased Him; " since also he says, that "to every seed is its own body; " that, consequently, "there is one kind of flesh of men, whilst there is another of beasts, and (another) of birds; that there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial; and that there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars" -does he not therefore intimate that there is to be a resurrection of the flesh or body, which he illustrates by fleshly and corporeal samples? Does he not also guarantee that the resurrection shall be accomplished by that God from whom proceed all the (creatures which have served him for) examples? "So also," says he, "is the resurrection of the dead." How? Just as the grain, which is sown a body, springs up a body.
Against Marcion Book VThis sowing of the body he called the dissolving thereof in the ground, "because it is sown in corruption," (but "is raised) to honour and power." Now, just as in the case of the grain, so here: to Him will belong the work in the revival of the body, who ordered the process in the dissolution thereof.
Against Marcion Book VElse let them show that the soul was sown after death; in a word, that it underwent death,-that is, was demolished, dismembered, dissolved in the ground, nothing of which was ever decreed against it by God: let them display to our view its corruptibility and dishonour (as well as) its weakness, that it may also accrue to it to rise again in incorruption, and in glory, and in power. Now in the ease of Lazarus, (which we may take as) the palmary instance of a resurrection, the flesh lay prostrate in weakness, the flesh was almost putrid in the dishonour of its decay, the flesh stank in corruption, and yet it was as flesh that Lazarus rose again-with his soul, no doubt.
On the Resurrection of the FleshHow so? With much distinction, as is evident also from the examples cited above.
Above, when speaking of seeds, he used words proper to bodies, as when, for example, he said: "it is not quickened, except it die" (1 Cor. 15:36). Now, when speaking of bodies, he uses words proper to seeds. For he says: "it is sown in corruption." By sowing he now means not our conception in the womb, but the burial of dead bodies in the earth, as if saying: the dead body is buried in the earth "in corruption," that is, in order to decay. He also well said "is raised" (ἐγείρεται), and not "springs up," lest you consider this the work of the earth.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians979. – Then when he says, So it is with the resurrection of the dead, he adapts the above examples to the resurrection of the dead. It should not be supposed as to the literal explanation that the Apostles is saying this to indicate a diversity of genus in those rising, just because he had stated, star differs from star. But this refers to all the preceding, that it might be shown from all the foregoing that just as in things are found diverse qualities in bodies, so there will be a quality of the rising diverse from the quality of the dying. Hence, he continues, a body is sown. Here the Apostle especially shows that the quality of a dying body is one thing and that of the rising body another.
980. – And he is dealing here with the glorified rising body, whose distinctive qualities are called the marks of the glorified body. These marks are four which the Apostle touches on here. First, he touches on the mark of incapacity of suffering, when he says: what is sown is perishable. And all the sowing can be taken for the first origin of the body, inasmuch as it is generated from seed. Yet it is more fitting according to the mind of the Apostle that sowing be referred to death and burial to correspond to what was said above (v. 36): "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies." Death, however, is called both a dissolution and a sowing, not that in a dead body or in the dust dissolved from it there is some power for rising, as there is an active power in seed for generation; but because from God such an ordination was directed that from it a human body be formed again. Thus, therefore, the human body, when it is sown, i.e., when it dies, is in corruption, i.e., according to its own properties it is subjected to corruption, as it says in Romans (8:10): "Your bodies are dead because of sin." What is raised is imperishable. Here he says imperishable not only to exclude separation of the soul and the body, because even the bodies of the damned will have this imperishability, but to exclude both death or any harmful suffering either from within or from without. And in regard to this is the imperishability of the glorified understood: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more" (Rev. 7:16).
Commentary on 1 CorinthiansIt is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
σπείρεται ἐν ἀτιμίᾳ, ἐγείρεται ἐν δόξῃ· σπείρεται ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ, ἐγείρεται ἐν δυνάμει·
сѣ́етсѧ не въ че́сть, востае́тъ въ сла́вѣ: сѣ́етсѧ въ не́мощи, востае́тъ въ си́лѣ:
The body is sown in dishonor because it is placed in a coffin where it rots and is eaten by worms. But when it rises again, it will do so in glory, and all trace of this dishonor will vanish.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESWe will still be bodies, so vivified by the spirit, however, as to retain the substance of the flesh without suffering the accidents of sluggishness and mortality.
City of God 13.22When the body formed by the copulation of male and female is sown, dishonor and weakness will be in it because it is the body of a perishing soul and shares its characteristics. But when it rises again by the power of God, it appears as a spiritual body, having imperishability, power and honor.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHBut what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is sown in the earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in the earth, into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said, "It is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory." For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or, on the other hand, what is more glorious than the same when it arises and partakes of incorruption? "It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power:" in its own weakness certainly, because since it is earth it goes to earth; but [it is quickened] by the power of God, who raises it from the dead. "It is sown an animal body, it rises a spiritual body." He has taught, beyond all doubt, that such language was not used by him, either with reference to the soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have become corpses. For these are animal bodies, that is, [bodies] which partake of life, which when they have lost, they succumb to death; then, rising through the Spirit's instrumentality, they become spiritual bodies, so that by the Spirit they possess a perpetual life.
Against Heresies Book V"It is sown in dishonor." For what is more unsightly than a corpse in dissolution? "It is raised in glory."
"It is sown in weakness." For before thirty days the whole is gone, and the flesh cannot keep itself together nor hold out for one day. "It is raised in power." For there shall nothing prevail against it for all the future.
Here is why he stood in need of those former analogies, lest many on hearing of these things, that they are "raised in incorruption and glory and power," might suppose that there is no difference among those who rise again. For all indeed rise again, both in power and in incorruption; and in this glory of their incorruption yet are not all in the same state of honor and safety.
Homily on 1 Corinthians 41For what is more abased than a dead body? But it shall rise "in glory" of incorruption, though not all shall receive one and the same portion.
For not even five days will pass before the flesh cannot withstand corruption; but it will be raised "in power" of incorruption, no longer subject to any corruption, although for sinners incorruption will serve as a greater punishment.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians981. – Secondly, he touches on the mark of clarity, when he says: It is sown in dishonor, i.e., the body, which before death was subject to many deformities and miseries: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble" (Job 14:1). But it is raised in glory, which signifies clarity, as Augustine says (On John). For the bodies of the saints will be clear and shining: "The righteous will shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt. 14:43).
982. – Thirdly, he touches on the mark of agility, when he says, It is sown in weakness, i.e. the animal body, which before death is weak and slow and not easily moved by the soul: "A perishable body weighs down the soul" (Wis. 9:15). It is raised in strength, namely, because it will come to pass that from such strength it can be moved by the soul and in no case will it show difficulty being moved, which pertains to the mark of agility. For there will be as much facility as felicity, as Augustine says. Hence it says in Wisdom (3:7): "The just will shine forth and will run like sparks through the stubble"; and in Isaiah (40:31): "They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
Commentary on 1 CorinthiansIt is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
σπείρεται σῶμα ψυχικόν, ἐγείρεται σῶμα πνευματικόν. ἔστι σῶμα ψυχικόν, καὶ ἔστι σῶμα πνευματικόν.
сѣ́етсѧ тѣ́ло дꙋше́вное, востае́тъ тѣ́ло дꙋхо́вное. Є҆́сть тѣ́ло дꙋше́вное, и҆ є҆́сть тѣ́ло дꙋхо́вное.
You are sown as are all other things. Why, then, do you wonder whether you will rise again like the rest? You believe the seed because you see it. You do not believe the rising again because you do not see it. "Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed." Yet, before the proper season arrives, not even the seed is believed. For not every season is suitable for seeds to grow. Wheat is sown at one time and comes up at another time. At one time the vine is grafted. At another shoots begin to grow, foliage becomes luxuriant, and grapes take form. At one time, the olive tree is planted. At another, as though heavy with child and burdened with a progeny of berries, it is bent low in the abundance of its own fruit. But before the proper time arrives for each, production is restricted. Neither the tree nor the plant has the time of bearing within its own power.
On the Death of Satyrus 2.60As the Spirit, when it serves the flesh, is not improperly said to be carnal, so the flesh, when it serves the spirit, will rightly be called spiritual—not because changed into spirit, as some suppose who misinterpret the text, "What is sown a natural body rises a spiritual body," but because it will be so subject to the spirit that, with a marvelous pliancy of perfect obedience, it will accept the infallible law of its indissoluble immortality, putting aside every feeling of fatigue, every shadow of suffering, every sign of slowing down. This "spiritual body" will not only be better than any body on earth in perfect health but will surpass even that of Adam or Eve before their sin.
City of God 13.20The consubstantial reward consists in the glory of the body, which is called the second stole: which being resumed, the blessed soul tends more perfectly toward the highest heaven. And this stole consists in a fourfold dowry of the body, namely in the dowry of clarity, subtlety, agility, and impassibility: which will be in greater or lesser degree, according to the lesser or greater charity previously possessed.
Since the spirit is glorified by the vision of eternal light, there must result in its body the greatest clarity of light. Because indeed by the love of that supreme Spirit it is made supremely spiritual, it must have in the body a corresponding subtlety and spirituality. Because by the possession of eternity it is made altogether impassible, there must be in its body complete impassibility both within and without. Because indeed from all these things the spirit is most ready to tend toward God, in the glorified body there must be found supreme agility. Since therefore through these four properties the body is made conformed to the spirit and also subject to it, hence it is that in these four it is said to be especially endowed, by reason of which it has the aptitude to follow the spirit and to be placed in the celestial region, which is the region of the Blessed. For in these properties it is made like to the celestial bodies, and thus the fourfold dowry of bodies renders the body both perfect in itself and conformed to the celestial habitation and to the blessed Spirit, through whom from the supreme head, God, even unto the hem of the garment, namely the body, the fullness of sweetness and the inebriation of beatitude overflows and, insofar as is possible, is derived.
Breviloquium, Part 7How is it possible, therefore, that that seed should be after images of the angels, seeing it has obtained a form after the likeness of men? Why, again, since it was of a spiritual nature, had it any need of descending into flesh? For what is carnal stands in need of that which is spiritual, if indeed it is to be saved, that in it it may be sanctified and cleared from all impurity, and that what is mortal may be swallowed up by immortality; but that which is spiritual has no need whatever of those things which are here below. For it is not we who benefit it, but it that improves us.
Against Heresies Book IIBut what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is sown in the earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in the earth, into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said, "It is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory." For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or, on the other hand, what is more glorious than the same when it arises and partakes of incorruption? "It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power:" in its own weakness certainly, because since it is earth it goes to earth; but [it is quickened] by the power of God, who raises it from the dead. "It is sown an animal body, it rises a spiritual body." He has taught, beyond all doubt, that such language was not used by him, either with reference to the soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have become corpses. For these are animal bodies, that is, [bodies] which partake of life, which when they have lost, they succumb to death; then, rising through the Spirit's instrumentality, they become spiritual bodies, so that by the Spirit they possess a perpetual life.
Against Heresies Book V"It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."
What sayest thou? Is not "this" body spiritual? It is indeed spiritual, but that will be much more so. For now oftentimes both the abundant grace of the Holy Ghost flies away on men's committing great sins; and again, the Spirit continuing present, the life of the flesh depends on the soul: and the result in such a case is a void, without the Spirit. But in that day not so: rather he abides continually in the flesh of the righteous, and the victory shall be His, the natural soul also being present.
For either it was some such thing which he intimated by saying, "a spiritual body," or that it shall be lighter and more subtle and such as even to be wafted upon air; or rather he meant both these. And if thou disbelieve the doctrine, behold the heavenly bodies which are so glorious and (for this time) so durable, and abide in undecaying tranquillity; and believe thou from hence, that God can also make these corruptible bodies incorruptible and much more excellent than those which are visible.
Homily on 1 Corinthians 41The seed does not germinate unless it is dissolved in the earth, rarefied and made for us, so that it is mixed with the moisture nearby and dust changes into root and sprout, and it does not stop there but changes into a stalk with sections in between which are surrounded by chains, as it were, so as to be able to hold the grain in an upright position.… Thus the apostle says that the mystery of the resurrection is presignified before us in the miracles performed in the seeds. The divine power in its surpassing excellence not only gives back to see but adds many great and more wonderful features with which nature is magnificently adorned.
[THE TEACHING OF MACRINA] ON THE SOUL AND THE RESURRECTIONChrist had a spiritual body, because he had received the full presence of the Holy Spirit when the dove rested on him. So the Lord had the power of the Paraclete in his humanity in a way distinguishable from his divinity, since he was himself the Spirit.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHIn regard to our bodily nature we must understand that there is not one body which we now use in lowliness and corruption and weakness and a different one which we are to use hereafter in incorruption and power and glory. Rather this same body, having cast off the weaknesses of its present existence, will be transformed into a thing of glory and made spiritual, with the result that what was a vessel of dishonor shall itself be purified and become a vessel of honor and a habitation of blessedness.
ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.6The quality of a spiritual body is something such as will make a fitting habitation not only for all saints and perfected souls but also for that "whole creation" which is to be "delivered from the bondage of corruption."
ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.4It is from the natural body that the power and grace of the resurrection calls forth the spiritual body, when it changes it from dishonor to glory.
ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.10.1For a severe judgment will those teachers receive "who teach, but do not," [Matthew 23:3] and those who take upon them the name of Christ falsely, and say: We teach the truth, and yet go wandering about idly, and exalt themselves, and make their boast in the mind of the flesh. [Colossians 2:18] These, moreover, are like "the blind man who leads the blind man, and they both fall into the ditch." [Matthew 15:14] And they will receive judgment, because in their talkativeness and their frivolous teaching they teach natural wisdom and the "frivolous error of the plausible words of the wisdom of men," "according to the will of the prince of the dominion of the air, and of the spirit which works in those men who will not obey, according to the training of this world, and not according to the doctrine of Christ."
Two Epistles on VirginityGod is a Spirit, not pervading matter, but the Maker of material spirits, and of the forms that are in matter; He is invisible, impalpable, being Himself the Father of both sensible and invisible things. Him we know from His creation, and apprehend His invisible power by His works. I refuse to adore that workmanship which He has made for our sakes. The sun and moon were made for us: how, then, can I adore my own servants? How can I speak of stocks and stones as gods? For the Spirit that pervades matter is inferior to the more divine spirit; and this, even when assimilated to the soul, is not to be honoured equally with the perfect God.
Address of Tatian to the Greeks, Chapter IVIf, however, you remove the body from the resurrection which you submitted to the dissolution, what becomes of the diversity in the issue? Likewise, "although it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Now, although the natural principle of life and the spirit have each a body proper to itself, so that the "natural body" may fairly be taken to signify the soul, and "the spiritual body" the spirit, yet that is no reason for supposing the apostle to say that the soul is to become spirit in the resurrection, but that the body (which, as being born along with the soul, and as retaining its life by means of the soul, admits of being called animal (or natural ) will became spiritual, since it rises through the Spirit to an eternal life.
Against Marcion Book VAnd thus, too, the same flesh must be understood in a preceding passage: "That which is sown is the natural body, and that which rises again is the spiritual body; because that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural: since the first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit." It is all about man, and all about the flesh because about man.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh"Soulish" body is that which is governed by the powers of the soul and in which the soul has dominion and sovereignty; while "spiritual" is that which has the abundant activity of the Holy Spirit and is governed by Him in all things. For although even now the Spirit acts in us, it is not in the same way and not always; for from those who sin, He departs. Although even now the Spirit is present, the soul governs the body; but then the Spirit will continuously abide in the bodies of the righteous. Or: he simply calls "spiritual" the incorruptible body, as being most refined and light, able to be carried even through the air, only not aerial and ethereal, that is, not of the substance of air and ether, as Origen says. But if you do not believe in incorruption, then look at the heavenly bodies, which to this day do not grow old and do not weaken. He who made them such will also make our corruptible body incorruptible.
That which we now have in the present life is a natural body. That which we shall have in the future age is essentially the same—spiritual, that is, incorruptible.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians983. – Fourthly, he touches on the mark of subtility, when he says, It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. In virtue of this mark some desire that it belongs to a glorified body to be able to exist in the same place with a body not glorified. This can indeed be sustained, if it belonged to a body in the present state that it could be in the same place at the same time with another body in virtue of something which could be removed from the body. But now, if it is examined closely, it will be seen that according to this nothing else belongs to the body, except inasmuch as it has bodily dimensions. Hence, we see that bodies, no matter how subtle, do not allow other bodies to be with them, as is evident in air and fire; and furthermore, if there were separated bodies absolutely without matter, as some supposed, they could not exist with natural bodies at the same time in the same place, as the Philosopher says. Therefore, as long as dimensions remain in a body, it is against its nature to be with another body in the same place. Hence, if this happens sometimes, it will be from a miracle. For this reason Gregory and Augustine ascribe to a miracle Christ's entering the room of the disciples, while the door was closed. For no limited power can perform a miracle, because this belongs to God alone. It follows, then, that to be in the same place at the same time with another body cannot be due to a quality of a glorified body. However, it must not be denied that a glorified body can be with another body at the same time in the same place, because the body of Christ after the resurrection entered where the disciples were, while the door was shut, to whom we hope our bodies will be conformed in the resurrection. But just as the body of Christ had this not from a property of his body, but in virtue of the divinity united, so the body of whatever one of the saints has this, not as given, but in virtue of the divinity existing in it. In this manner the body of Peter had the power that the sick be healed by his shadow, not through any property of his own.
984. – Therefore it must be said that what the Apostle touches on here pertains to the mark of subtility, when he says, It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. Some have interpreted this badly and said that in the resurrection the body is changed into a spirit and will be similar to air or the wind, which is called a spirit. This is particularly excluded by what was said to the apostles: "Handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Lk. 24:39). Hence, also, the Apostle does not say that a spirit will rise, but a spiritual body. Therefore, in the resurrection it will be spiritual, not a spirit, just as now it is animal, not soul.
985. – To understand the difference between these it should be noted that what is called the soul and what is called the spirit is one and the same in us; but it is called soul, inasmuch as it perfects the body, but spirit in virtue of the mind according to which we are like spiritual substances: "Be renewed in the spirit of your minds" (Eph. 4:23).
986. – One should also consider that there is a threefold difference in the powers of the soul. For some powers are such that their activities are directed to the good of the body, i.e., the generative, nutritive and augmentative; some there are that use bodily organs, as the power of the sensitive part, but their activity is not directly ordained to the body, but rather to the perfection of the soul. But there are some powers which neither use bodily organs nor are directly ordained to the good of the body, but more to the good of the soul, as those which pertain to the intellective part. Therefore, the first powers pertain to the soul inasmuch as it animates the body; the second pertain especially to the soul inasmuch as it is a spirit; but the third are midway between them. Yet because a judgment about a power should be taken more from its object and end than from the instrument, then the second powers are closer to the third than to the first.
987. – Likewise one should consider that since every single thing is for the sake of its own activity, the body is perfected to this by the soul, just as it is the subject of the activities of the soul. Now, however, in this state our body is the subject of activities which belong to the soul, as far as it is the soul, according as it is generated and generates, is nourished, grows and decreases. However, as to the spiritual activities of the soul, the body, although subject in another way, nevertheless causes much impediment, because "for a perishable body weighs down the soul," as it says in Wisdom (9:5, Vulgate). But in the resurrected state the animal (physical) activities by the body will cease, because there will be no generation, or growth or nourishment, but the body without any impediment and weariness will unceasingly serve the soul in its spiritual activities, as it says in Psalm 84 (4): "Blessed are those who dwell in your house, Lord." Therefore, just as our body is now animal (physical), then it will be truly spiritual.
988. – Some however will attribute the cause of these properties to a star, which they say is from the nature of the five essences, and comes in the composition of the human body. Because this is frivolous and incredible, we say, following Augustine, that they will proceed as a consequence of the virtue of the glorified soul. For Augustine says in his Letter to Dioscorus (Ep. 118.3): "God made the soul with such a natural power, that its fullest blessedness, which at the end of time is promised to the saints, overflows even into lower nature, which is the body, not the blessedness which is proper to the one enjoying it, but the fullness of health, that is, the strength of incorruption." We see, however, that four things come forth from the soul to the body, and to the degree it is perfected, so the soul will have been more virtuous. First indeed it gives existence; therefore, when it will come to its highest perfection, it will cause [the body] to be spiritual. Secondly, it conserves it from corruption; therefore we see men who are so much stronger by nature, suffer less from heat and from cold. Therefore, when the soul will become most perfect, it will conserve the body wholly impassible. Thirdly, it gives beauty and clarity. For to weakness and death on account of the debilitation of the working of the soul in the body, they become opaque [discolorati], and when it comes to its highest perfection, it will make the body clear and shining. Fourthly, it gives movement, and according to its degree of facility, so the capacity of the soul will have been stronger than the body. And therefore, when it will come to its highest perfection, it will give mobility to the body.
989. – Here the Apostle shows by reason the difference of the quality of the dead body to the body of the resurrection, indicated by the examples above. Regarding this he does two things. First, he presents what he intends to prove; secondly, he proves what he presented (v. 44b).
990. – Therefore he says first: I say that what is sown animal (physical) rises spiritual, and I show that this is true, namely, that something is a spiritual body, because if it is an animal (physical) body, it is also spiritual. And the Apostle does not intend to argue from this to the proposition, but he accepts this, intending to prove just what he says, If there is a physical body: "Look upon all the works of the Most High; they likewise are in pairs, one the opposite of the other" (Sir. 33:15).
Commentary on 1 CorinthiansAnd so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
οὕτω καὶ γέγραπται· ἐγένετο ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος Ἀδὰμ εἰς ψυχὴν ζῶσαν· ὁ ἔσχατος Ἀδὰμ εἰς πνεῦμα ζωοποιοῦν·
Та́кѡ и҆ пи́сано є҆́сть: бы́сть пе́рвый человѣ́къ а҆да́мъ въ дꙋ́шꙋ жи́вꙋ, послѣ́днїй а҆да́мъ въ дх҃ъ животворѧ́щь.
The first man, Adam, was made into a living soul … but of all the animals it was said: "Let the earth bring forth the living creatures." We understand, then, that the natural body is said to be like the other animals because of the dissolution and corruption of death. It is daily renewed by food, and when the bond of life is broken it is dissolved. But the spiritual body which is now with the Spirit is immortal.
LETTER 205, TO CONSENTIUSFor there had been a necessity that, in the first place, a human being should be fashioned, and that what was fashioned should receive the soul; afterwards that it should thus receive the communion of the Spirit. Wherefore also "the first Adam was made" by the Lord "a living soul, the second Adam a quickening spirit." As, then, he who was made a living soul forfeited life when he turned aside to what was evil, so, on the other hand, the same individual, when he reverts to what is good, and receives the quickening Spirit, shall find life.
Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 5"So also it is written, the first man Adam became a living soul: the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit."
And yet the one indeed is written, but the other not written. How then said He, "it is written?" He modified the expression according to the issue of events: as he is wont continually to do: and indeed as it is the way of every prophet. For so Jerusalem, the prophet said, should be "called a city of righteousness;" yet it was not so called. What then? Did the prophet speak false? By no means. For he is speaking of the issue of events. And that Christ too should be called Immanuel; yet was he not so called. But the facts utter this voice; so also here, "the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit."
And these things he said that thou mayest learn that the signs and pledges both of the present life and of that which is to come have already come upon us; to wit, of the present life, Adam, and of the life to come, Christ. For since he sets down the better things as matters of hope, he signifies that their beginning hath already come to pass, and their root and their fountain been brought to light. But if the root and the fountain be evident to all, there is no need to doubt of the fruits. Wherefore he saith, "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." And elsewhere too, He "shall quicken your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you." It is the Spirit's work then to quicken.
Further, lest any should say, "why are the worse things the elder? and why hath the one sort, to wit, the natural, come to pass not merely as far as the first-fruits, but altogether; the other as far as the first-fruits only?"-he signifies that the principles also of each were so ordered.
Homily on 1 Corinthians 41For to this effect he just before remarked of Christ Himself: "The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." Our heretic, however, in the excess of his folly, being unwilling that the statement should remain in this shape, altered "last Adam" into "last Lord; " because he feared, of course, that if he allowed the Lord to be the last (or second) Adam, we should contend that Christ, being the second Adam, must needs belong to that God who owned also the first Adam.
Against Marcion Book VThat, however, which we have reserved for a concluding argument, will now stand as a plea for all, and for the apostle himself, who in very deed would have to be charged with extreme indiscretion, if he had so abruptly, as some will have it, and as they say, blindfold, and so indiscriminately, and so unconditionally, excluded from the kingdom of God, and indeed from the court of heaven itself, all flesh and blood whatsoever; since Jesus is still sitting there at the right hand of the Father, man, yet God-the last Adam, yet the primary Word-flesh and blood, yet purer than ours-who "shall descend in like manner as He ascended into heaven" the same both in substance and form, as the angels affirmed, so as even to be recognised by those who pierced Him.
On the Resurrection of the FleshAnd therefore he confirms the passage afresh, by putting on it the impress (of his own inspired authority), saying, "For so it is written; " that you may not suppose that the "being sown" means anything else than "thou shalt return to the ground, out of which thou wast taken; "nor that the phrase "for so it is written" refers to any other thing that the flesh.
On the Resurrection of the FleshNow the apostle, by severally adducing this order in Adam and in Christ, fairly distinguishes between the two states, in the very essentials of their difference. And when he calls Christ "the last Adam," you may from this circumstance discover how strenuously he labours to establish throughout his teaching the resurrection of the flesh, not of the soul.
On the Resurrection of the FleshThe first is precisely written (Gen. 2:7), while the second is not written; but since it occurred by the connection of events, he says that it is written. Similarly, the prophet (Zech. 8:3) said of Jerusalem that it would be called a city of truth; but it was not literally so called. The Gospel called the Lord Emmanuel (Matt. 1:23); yet He was not so called, but His deeds give Him such a name. So then, the first Adam was a natural man, that is, he had a body governed by natural powers of the soul; but the last Adam, the Lord, is "a life-giving spirit." He did not say "living in the Spirit," but expressed something greater: "life-giving." For the Lord had the Holy Spirit essentially co-present with Him; by Him He gave life to His own flesh; and by Him He also granted incorruption to us. Thus, in the first Adam we received the pledge of the present corruptible life, and in Christ — of the life to come.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians991. – Thus it is written. Here he proves the proposition. His demonstration is as follows: there are two principles of human generation; one according to natural life, namely Adam; the other according to the life of grace, namely Christ. But animality is distributed in all men by the first principle, namely, Adam. Therefore, it is certain that to a much greater extent, by means of the second principle, that is to say, Christ, spiritual life is distributed in all men. The reason for this, first, he proves, the first difference of the principles; secondly the middle term, namely, the determination of likeness from both of the principles (v. 48). In regard to the first, he does three things. First, he shows the difference of the principles; secondly, the mutual order of the principles (v. 46); thirdly, he assigns the order of reason (v. 47).
992. – Therefore he lays down first the condition of the first principle according to natural life, drawing on the authority of Gen. 2:7. Hence he says, thus it is written: the first Adam was made by God a living being, namely, an animal life which the soul is able to give, when, namely, "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gen. 2:7). For the human form and soul is also called spirit. For insofar as he is concerned with the care of the body, namely, with animating, nourishing and generating, thus it is called "soul." However, insofar as he is concerned with knowledge, namely, with understanding, willing and the like, thus it is called "spirit." Therefore when he says, the first Adam became a living being, the Apostle has in mind here with the life by which the soul is devoted concerning the body, not the Holy Spirit, as some imagine, by reason of what was cited above: "And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," saying that this is the Holy Spirit. Secondly, he lays down the condition of the second principle, saying, the last true Adam, i.e., Christ. And he is called the last because Adam introduced one state, namely of guilt; Christ [the state] of true glory and life. Hence, since after that state no other one followed in that life, therefore he is called the last: "We desired him, despised and last of men" (Is. 53:2-3, Vulgate); "I am the First and the Last" (Rev. 1:17); and elsewhere: "I am the Alpha and the Omega" (Rev. 21:6). But he says, Adam, because from the nature of Adam he was made a living spirit.
993. – And from this, with the conditions of the principles perceived, the difference between them is evident, because the first man was made 'animal', the last man 'spiritual'. The former was made a living animal only, the latter truly a living and life-giving spirit. The reason for this is because, just as Adam obtained the perfection of his being through the soul, so too Christ obtained the perfection of his being, as far as he was man, through the Holy Spirit. And therefore, since the soul could not give life to the body except properly, so Adam was made 'animal', not life-giving, but just living. But Christ was made a living and life-giving spirit, and so Christ had life-giving power: "From his fulness" (Jn. 1:16): "I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn. 10:10); and in the Creed: "And in the life-giving Holy Spirit."
Commentary on 1 CorinthiansAnd thus in the sixth Psalm for the eighth day, David asks the Lord that He would not rebuke him in His anger, nor judge him in His fury; for this is indeed the eighth day of that future judgment, which will pass beyond the order of the sevenfold arrangement. Jesus also, the son of Nave, the successor of Moses, himSelf broke the Sabbath-day; for on the Sabbath-day he commanded the children of Israel to go round the walls of the city of Jericho with trumpets, and declare war against the aliens. Matthias also, prince of Judah, broke the Sabbath; for he slew the prefect of Antiochus the king of Syria on the Sabbath, and subdued the foreigners by pursuing them. And in Matthew we read, that it is written Isaiah also and the rest of his colleagues broke the Sabbath -that that true and just Sabbath should be observed in the seventh millenary of years. Wherefore to those seven days the Lord attributed to each a thousand years; for thus went the warning: "In Thine eyes, O Lord, a thousand years are as one day." Therefore in the eyes of the Lord each thousand of years is ordained, for I find that the Lord's eyes are seven. Wherefore, as I have narrated, that true Sabbath will be in the seventh millenary of years, when Christ with His elect shall reign. Moreover, the seven heavens agree with those days; for thus we are warned: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the powers of them by the spirit of His mouth." There are seven spirits. Their names are the spirits which abode on the Christ of God, as was intimated in Isaiah the prophet: "And there rests upon Him the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of wisdom and of piety, and the spirit of God's fear hath filled Him." Therefore the highest heaven is the heaven of wisdom; the second, of understanding; the third, of counsel; the fourth, of might; the fifth, of knowledge; the sixth, of piety; the seventh, of God's fear. From this, therefore, the thunders bellow, the lightnings are kindled, the fires are heaped together; fiery darts appear, stars gleam, the anxiety caused by the dreadful comet is aroused. Sometimes it happens that the sun and moon approach one another, and cause those more than frightful appearances, radiating with light in the field of their aspect. But the author of the whole creation is Jesus. His name is the Word; for thus His Father says: "My heart hath emitted a good word." John the evangelist thus says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made that was made." Therefore, first, was made the creation; secondly, man, the lord of the human race, as says the apostle. Therefore this Word, when it made light, is called Wisdom; when it made the sky, Understanding; when it made land and sea, Counsel; when it made sun and moon and other bright things, Power; when it calls forth land and sea, Knowledge; when it formed man, Piety; when it blesses and sanctifies man, it has the name of God's fear.
Victorinus On the Creation of the World
All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
οὐ πᾶσα σὰρξ ἡ αὐτὴ σάρξ, ἀλλὰ ἄλλη μὲν ἀνθρώπων, ἄλλη δὲ σὰρξ κτηνῶν, ἄλλη δὲ ἰχθύων, ἄλλη δὲ πετεινῶν.
[Заⷱ҇ 162] Не всѧ́ка пло́ть та́же пло́ть: но и҆́на ᲂу҆́бѡ пло́ть человѣ́кѡмъ, и҆́на же пло́ть скотѡ́мъ, и҆́на же ры́бамъ, и҆́на же пти́цамъ.
The second class of miracles, on this view, foretell what God has not yet done, but will do, universally. He raised one man (the man who was Himself) from the dead because He will one day raise all men from the dead. Perhaps not only men, for there are hints in the New Testament that all creation will eventually be rescued from decay, restored to shape and subserve the splendour of re-made humanity. The Transfiguration and the walking on the water are glimpses of the beauty and the effortless power over all matter which will belong to men when they are really waked by God. Now resurrection certainly involves "reversal" of natural process in the sense that it involves a series of changes moving in the opposite direction to those we see. At death, matter which has been organic, falls back gradually into the inorganic, to be finally scattered and used perhaps in other organisms. Resurrection would be the reverse process. It would not of course mean the restoration to each personality of those very atoms, numerically the same, which had made its first or "natural" body. There would not be enough to go round, for one thing; and for another, the unity of the body even in this life was consistent with a slow but perplexed change of its actual ingredients. But it certainly does mean matter of some kind rushing towards organism as now we see it rushing away. It means, in fact, playing backwards a film we have already seen played forwards. In that sense it is a reversal of Nature. But, of course, it is a further question whether reversal in this sense is necessarily contradiction. Do we know that the film cannot be played backwards?
Well, in one sense, it is precisely the teaching of modern physics that the film never works backwards. For modern physics, as you have heard before, the universe is "running down." Disorganization and chance is continually increasing. There will come a time, not infinitely remote, when it will be wholly run down or wholly disorganized, and science knows of no possible return from that state. There must have been a time, not infinitely remote, in the past when it was wound up, though science knows of no winding-up process. The point is that for our ancestors the universe was a picture: for modern physics it is a story. If the universe is a picture these things either appear in that picture or not; and if they don't, since it is an infinite picture, one may suspect that they are contrary to the nature of things. But a story is a different matter; specially if it is an incomplete story. And the story told by modern physics might be told briefly in the words "Humpty Dumpty was falling." That is, it proclaims itself an incomplete story. There must have been a time before he fell, when he was sitting on the wall; there must be a time after he had reached the ground. It is quite true that science knows of no horses and men who can put him together again once he has reached the ground and broken. But then she also knows of no means by which he could originally have been put on the wall. You wouldn't expect her to. All science rests on observation: all our observations are taken during Humpty Dumpty's fall, because we were born after he lost his seat on the wall and shall be extinct long before he reaches the ground. But to assume from observations taken while the clock is running down that the unimaginable winding-up which must have preceded this process cannot occur when the process is over is the merest dogmatism. From the very nature of the case the laws of degradation and disorganization which we find in matter at present, cannot be the ultimate and eternal nature of things. If they were, there would have been nothing to degrade and disorganize. Humpty Dumpty can't fall off a wall that never existed.
Miracles, from God in the DockThat no one should be made sad by death; since in living is labour and peril, in dying peace and the certainty of resurrection. In Genesis: "Then said the Lord to Adam, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of that tree of which alone I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed shall be the ground in all thy works; in sadness and groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns and thistles shall it cast forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field in the sweat of thy brow. Thou shall eat thy bread until thou return unto the earth from which also thou wast taken; because earth thou art, and to earth thou shall go." Also in the same place: "And Enoch pleased God, and was not found afterwards: because God translated him." And in Isaiah: "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as the flower of grass. The grass withered, and the flower hath fallen away; but the word of the Lord abideth for ever." In Ezekiel: "They say, Our bones are become dry, our hope hath perished: we have expired. Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I open your monuments, and I will bring you forth from your monuments, and I will bring you into the land of Israel; and I will put my Spirit upon you, and ye shall live; and I will place you into your land: and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and will do it, saith the Lord." Also in the Wisdom of Solomon: "He was taken away, lest wickedness should change his understanding; for his soul was pleasing to God." Also in the eighty-third Psalm: "How beloved are thy dwellings, Thou Lord of hosts? My soul desires and hastes to the courts of God." And in the Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians: "But we would not that you should be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who sleep, that ye sorrow not as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also them which have fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Also in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it have first died." And again: "Star differeth from star in glory: so also the resurrection. The body is sown in corruption, it rises without corruption; it is sown in ignominy, it rises again in glory; it is sown in weakness, it rises again in power; it is sown an animal body, it rises again a spiritual body." And again: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word that is written, Death is absorbed Into striving. Where, O death, is thy sting? Where, O death, is thy striving? " Also in the Gospel according to John: "Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given me be with me where I shall be, and may see my glory which Thou hast given me before the foundation of the world." Also according to Luke: "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Lord, according to the word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Also according to John: "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I."
Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the JewsLet the Sophists explain this if they can! All the philosophers of this world are unwilling to submit their minds to the law of God in order to believe in him. Instead they confound one another with diverse and mutually contradictory theories, none of which can be proved. God, on the other hand, does not argue. Instead, he demonstrates his power by raising Christ from the dead.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLESWhatever bodily or seminal causes may play a part in reproduction, by the intermingling of the two sexes, or in animals, or even by the influence of angels, and whatever longings or emotions of the mother may affect the features or the hue while the fetus is soft and pliable, nevertheless every nature as such, however affected by circumstances, is created wholly by the supreme God. It is the hidden and penetrating power of God's irresistible presence that gives being to every creature that can be said to be, whatever its genus and species may be. For without his creative act, a nature would not only not be in this or that genus. It simply could not have being at all.
City of God 12.26However, he is not content with this, but seeks another difference greater and more manifest. For that thou mayest not, when hearing, as I said, that all rise again, suppose that all enjoy the same reward; he laid before even in the preceding verses the seeds of this thought, saying, "But each in his own order." But he brings it out here also more clearly, saying,
"All flesh is not the same flesh." For why speak I, saith he, in respect of seeds? In respect of bodies let us agitate this point, concerning which we are discoursing now. Wherefore also he addeth, and saith,
"But there is one flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of birds, and another of fishes."
"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another."
"There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory."
And what means he by these expressions? Wherefore from the resurrection of the body did he throw himself into the discourse of the stars and the sun? He did not throw himself out, neither did he break off from his purpose; far from it: but he still keeps to it. For whereas he had established the doctrine concerning the resurrection, he intimates in what follows that great will be then the difference of glory, though there be but one resurrection. And for the present he divides the whole into two: into "bodies celestial," and "bodies terrestrial." For as the disbelief of the resurrection makes men supine, so again it makes them indolent to think that all are vouchsafed the same reward. Wherefore he corrects both. And the one in the preceeding verses he had completed; but this he begins now. And having made two ranks, of the righteous and of sinners, these same two he subdivides again into many parts, signifying that neither righteous nor sinners shall obtain the same; neither righteous men, all of them, alike with other righteous, nor sinners with other sinners.
Now he makes, you see, first, one separation between righteous and sinners, where he says, "bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial:" by the "terrestrial" intimating the latter, and by the "celestial," the former. Then farther he introduces a difference of sinners from sinners, saying, "All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of fishes, another of birds, and another of beasts." And yet all are bodies; but some are in more, and some in lesser vileness. And that in their manner of living too, and in their very constitution.
And having said this, he ascends again to the heaven, saying, "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon." For as in the earthly bodies there is a difference, so also in the heavenly; and that difference no ordinary one, but reaching even to the uttermost: there being not only a difference between sun and moon, and stars, but also between stars and stars. For what though they be all in the heaven? yet some have a larger, others a less share of glory. What do we learn from hence? That although they be all in God's kingdom, all shall not enjoy the same reward; and though all sinners be in hell, all shall not endure the same punishment.
Homily on 1 Corinthians 41Indeed, since he proposes as his examples "wheat grain, or some other grain, to which God giveth a body, such as it hath pleased Him; " since also he says, that "to every seed is its own body; " that, consequently, "there is one kind of flesh of men, whilst there is another of beasts, and (another) of birds; that there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial; and that there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars" -does he not therefore intimate that there is to be a resurrection of the flesh or body, which he illustrates by fleshly and corporeal samples? Does he not also guarantee that the resurrection shall be accomplished by that God from whom proceed all the (creatures which have served him for) examples? "So also," says he, "is the resurrection of the dead.
Against Marcion Book VWith this view he adds, in a figurative sense, certain examples of animals and heavenly bodies: "There is one flesh of man" (that is, servants of God, but really human), "another flesh of beasts" (that is, the heathen, of whom the prophet actually says, "Man is like the senseless cattle" ), "another flesh of birds" (that is, the martyrs which essay to mount up to heaven), "another of fishes" (that is, those whom the water of baptism has submerged). In like manner does he take examples from the heavenly bodies: "There is one glory of the sun" (that is, of Christ), "and another glory of the moon" (that is, of the Church), "and another glory of the stars" (in other words, of the seed of Abraham).
On the Resurrection of the FleshIn the resurrection a better body is constructed, one which is no longer flesh and blood as such but which is an immortal and indestructible living being.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCHLest you, having heard about wheat, should think that just as all its ears grow alike, so too in the resurrection all will be alike, he wishes to show that there will be a difference among the risen (which he also hinted at before with the words: "each in his own order"), and he says that not all flesh is the same flesh, that is, not all will rise in one and the same dignity, but there will be a difference: first, between the righteous and sinners, as heavenly bodies differ from earthly ones; then there will be a great difference of degrees among the righteous themselves, as he will say below, and among the sinners themselves. For, he says, just as there is a difference between the flesh of men and the flesh of cattle and the rest of the animals, so too there will be a difference in the punishments of sinners. Therefore, everything that has been said was said about the difference among sinners. For about the righteous he speaks below, when he enumerates the heavenly bodies.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians975. – Here the Apostle presents an example of the diverse qualities of a rising body in diverse species. First, by comparing heavenly to earthly bodies; secondly, earthly to heavenly (v. 40b); thirdly, celestial bodies to each other (v. 41).
976. – Because someone could say: how is it possible that the dead re-assume their body and flesh, if they are not to have possession of the same bodily qualities? Therefore, to exclude this he introduces diverse qualities of body and flesh, so that it will be clear that it is not fitting, if the quality will not be the same, that the same body be re-assumed or the same flesh. He says, therefore: Not all flesh is the same flesh according to form, but there is one kind for men, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. Similarly there is one for the dying and another for the rising. But just as the example given above about the seed and the sprout failed, inasmuch in planting seed and in sprouting there is not the same thing numerically nor the same quality, so these examples fall short, because in these examples there is neither the same species nor the same qualities. But the flesh of a rising man is the same specifically as the dying fish, but it will be different in its qualities. "For it will be of the same nature but of another glory," as Gregory says of the body of Christ. If anyone should wish to refer what has been said to a different state of those who rise, it could be said that by men are understood good men living according to reason, as Ezekiel (34:31) says: "And you are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God." By animals are understood the lustful, as it says in 2 Peter (2:12): "But these like irrational animals... will be destroyed." By birds, the proud; by fish, the greedy, as it says in Psalm 8 (v. 8): "The birds of the air and the fish of the sea."
Commentary on 1 Corinthians