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On the Resurrection of the Flesh

Chapter XXVI.--Even the Metaphorical Descriptions of This Subject in the Scriptures Point to the Bodily Resurrection, the Only Sense Which Secures Their Consistency and Dignity.

To a preceding objection, that the Scriptures are allegorical, I have still one answer to make--that it is open to us also to defend the bodily character of the resurrection by means of the language of the prophets, which is equally figurative. For consider that primeval sentence which God spake when He called man earth; saying, "Earth thou art, and to earth shalt thou return." ¹ In respect, of course, to his fleshly substance, which had been taken out of the ground, and which was the first to receive the name of man, as we have already shown, ² does not this passage give one instruction to interpret in relation to the flesh also whatever of wrath or of grace God has determined for the earth, because, strictly speaking, the earth is not exposed to His judgment, since it has never done any good or evil? "Cursed," no doubt, it was, for it drank the blood of man; ³ but even this was as a figure of homicidal flesh. For if the earth has to suffer either joy or injury, it is simply on man's account, that he may suffer the joy or the sorrow through the events which happen to his dwelling-place, whereby he will rather have to pay the penalty which, simply on his account, even the earth must suffer. When, therefore, God even threatens the earth, I would prefer saying that He threatens the flesh: so likewise, when He makes a promise to the earth, I would rather understand Him as promising the flesh; as in that passage of David: "The Lord is King, let the earth be glad," ⁴ --meaning the flesh of the saints, to which appertains the enjoyment of the kingdom of God. Then he afterwards says: "The earth saw and trembled; the mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord,"--meaning, no doubt the flesh of the wicked; and (in a similar sense) it is written: "For they shall look on Him whom they pierced." ⁵ If indeed it will be thought that both these passages were pronounced simply of the element earth, how can it be consistent that it should shake and melt at the presence of the Lord, at whose royal dignity it before exulted? So again in Isaiah, "Ye shall eat the good of the land," ⁶ the expression means the blessings which await the flesh when in the kingdom of God it shall be renewed, and made like the angels, and waiting to obtain the things "which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man." ⁷ Otherwise, how vain that God should invite men to obedience by the fruits of the field and the elements of this life, when He dispenses these to even irreligious men and blasphemers; on a general condition once for all made to man, "sending rain on the good and on the evil, and making His sun to shine on the just and on the unjust!" ⁸ Happy, no doubt, is faith, if it is to obtain gifts which the enemies of God and Christ not only use, but even abuse, "worshipping the creature itself in opposition to the Creator!" ⁹ You will reckon, (I suppose) onions and truffles among earth's bounties, since the Lord declares that "man shall not live on bread alone!" ¹⁰ In this way the Jews lose heavenly blessings, by confining their hopes to earthly ones, being ignorant of the promise of heavenly bread, and of the oil of God's unction, and the wine of the Spirit, and of that water of life which has its vigour from the vine of Christ. On exactly the same principle, they consider the special soil of Judaea to be that very holy land, which ought rather to be interpreted of the Lord's flesh, which, in all those who put on Christ, is thenceforward the holy land; holy indeed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, truly flowing with milk and honey by the sweetness of His assurance, truly Judaean by reason of the friendship of God. For "he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he who is one inwardly." ¹¹ In the same way it is that both God's temple and Jerusalem (must be understood) when it is said by Isaiah: "Awake, awake, O Jerusalem! put on the strength of thine arm; awake, as in thine earliest time," ¹² that is to say, in that innocence which preceded the fall into sin. For how can words of this kind of exhortation and invitation be suitable for that Jerusalem which killed the prophets, and stoned those that were sent to them, and at last crucified its very Lord? Neither indeed is salvation promised to any one land at all, which must needs pass away with the fashion of the whole world. Even if anybody should venture strongly to contend that paradise is the holy land, which it may be possible to designate as the land of our first parents Adam and Eve, it will even then follow that the restoration of paradise will seem to be promised to the flesh, whose lot it was to inhabit and keep it, in order that man may be recalled thereto just such as he was driven from it.

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De resurrectione carnis

XXVI.

[1] Unum adhuc respondebo ad propositionem priorem allegoricarum scripturarum, licere et nobis corporalem resurrectionem de patrocinio figurati proinde eloquii prophetici vindicare. [2] Ecce enim divina in primordio sententia terram hominem pronuntiando ----Terra es et in terram ibis, secundum substantiam scilicet carnis quae de terra erat sumpta et quae prior homo fuerat appellata, sicut ostendimus----dat mihi disciplinam in carnem quoque interpretandi si quid irae vel gratiae in terram deus statuit, quia nec proprie terra iudicio eius obnoxia est, quae nihil boni seu mali admisit, maledicta quidem quod hauserit sanguinem, sed et hoc ipsum in figuram carnis homicidae. [3] Nam et si iuvari seu laedi habet terra, id quoque propter hominem, uti ille iuvetur sive laedatur per consistorii sui exitus, quo magis ipse pensabit quae propter illum etiam terra patietur. [4] Itaque et cum comminatur terrae deus carni potius comminari eum dicam, et cum quid terrae pollicetur carni potius polliceri eum intellegam, ut apud David, Dominus regnavit, exultabit terra----id est caro sanctorum, ad quam pertinet regni divini fructus----: [5] dehinc subiungit, Vidit et concussa est terra, montes velut cera liquefacti sunt a facie domini----caro scilicet profanorum----: Et videbunt enim eum qui confixerunt. [6] Atque adeo, si simpliciter de terrae elemento utrumque existimabitur pronuntiatum, quomodo congruet et concuti et liquefieri eam a facie domini, quo supra regnante exultavit? [7] Sic et apud Esaiam, Bona terrae edetis, bona carnis intellegentur, quae illam manent in regno dei reformatam et angelificatam et consecuturam quae nec oculus vidit nec auris audivit nec in cor hominis ascenderunt. [8] Alioquin satis vanum ut ad obsequium deus fructibus agri et cibariis vitae huius invitet, quae etiam inreligiosis et blasphemis semel homini addicta conditione communicat, pluens super bonos et malos et solem suum emittens super iustos et iniustos. [9] Felix nimirum fides, si ea consecutura est quibus hostes dei et Christi non modo utuntur verum etiam abutuntur, ipsam conditionem colentes adversus conditorem. Bulbos et tubera in terrae bonis deputabis, domino pronuntiante ne in pane quidem victurum hominem? [10] Sic Iudaei terrena solummodo sperando caelestia amittunt, ignorantes et panem de caelesti repromissum et oleum divinae unctionis et aquam spiritus et vinum animae vigorantis ex vite Christo: [11] sicut et ipsam terram sanctam Iudaicum proprie solum reputant, carnem potius domini interpretandam quae exinde et in omnibus Christum indutis sancta sit terra, vere sancta per incolatum spiritus sancti, vere lac et mel manans per suavitatem spei ipsius, vere Iudaea per dei familiaritatem: Non enim qui in manifesto Iudaeus, sed qui in occulto: [12] ut et templum dei eadem sit, et Hierusalem, audiens ab Esaia, Exsurge, exsurge, Hierusalem, indue fortitudinem brachii tui, exsurge sicut in primordio diei, scilicet in illa integritate qua fuerat ante delictum transgressionis. [13] Qui enim in eam Hierusalem voces eiusmodi competent exhortationis et advocationis, quae occidit prophetas et lapidavit missos ad se et ipsum postremo dominum suum confecit? Sed nec ulli omnino terrae salus repromittitur, quam oportet cum totius mundi habitu praeterire. [14] Etiam si quis audebit terram sanctam paradisum potius argumentari, quam et patrum dici capiat, Adae scilicet et Evae, proinde et in paradisum restitutio carni videbitur repromissa, quae eum incolare et custodire sortita est, ut talis illuc homo revocetur qualis inde depulsus est.