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On the Resurrection of the Flesh

Chapter XXVIII.--Prophetic Things and Actions, as Well as Words, Attest This Great Doctrine.

But we know that prophecy expressed itself by things no less than by words. By words, and also by deeds, is the resurrection foretold. When Moses puts his hand into his bosom, and then draws it out again dead, and again puts his hand into his bosom, and plucks it out living, ¹ does not this apply as a presage to all mankind?--inasmuch as those three signs ² denoted the threefold power of God: when it shall, first, in the appointed order, subdue to man the old serpent, the devil, ³ however formidable; then, secondly, draw forth the flesh from the bosom of death; ⁴ and then, at last, shall pursue all blood (shed) in judgment. ⁵ On this subject we read in the writings of the same prophet, (how that) God says: "For your blood of your lives will I require of all wild beasts; and I will require it of the hand of man, and of his brother's hand." ⁶ Now nothing is required except that which is demanded back again, and nothing is thus demanded except that which is to be given up; and that will of course be given up, which shall be demanded and required on the ground of vengeance. But indeed there cannot possibly be punishment of that which never had any existence. Existence, however, it will have, when it is restored in order to be punished. To the flesh, therefore, applies everything which is declared respecting the blood, for without the flesh there cannot be blood. The flesh will be raised up in order that the blood may be punished. There are, again, some statements (of Scripture) so plainly made as to be free from all obscurity of allegory, and yet they strongly require ⁷ their very simplicity to be interpreted. There is, for instance, that passage in Isaiah: "I will kill, and I will make alive." ⁸ Certainly His making alive is to take place after He has killed. As, therefore, it is by death that He kills, it is by the resurrection that He will make alive. Now it is the flesh which is killed by death; the flesh, therefore, will be revived by the resurrection. Surely if killing means taking away life from the flesh, and its opposite, reviving, amounts to restoring life to the flesh, it must needs be that the flesh rise again, to which the life, which has been taken away by killing, has to be restored by vivification.

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De resurrectione carnis

XXVIII.

[1] Scimus autem sicut et vocibus ita et rebus prophetatum: tam dictis quam et factis praedicatur resurrectio. Cum Moyses manum in sinum condit et emortuam profert, et rursus insinuat et vividam explicat, nonne hoc de toto homine portendit? [2] Siquidem trina virtus dei per illa trina signa denotabatur cum suo ordine, primo diabolum serpentem quanquam formidabilem subactura homini, dehinc carnem de sinu mortis retractura, atque ita omnem sanguinem exsecutura iudicio. [3] De quo apud eundem propheten, Quoniam et vestrum, inquit deus, sanguinem exquiram de omnibus bestiis, et de mahu hominis et de manu fratris exquiram eum. [4] Porro nihil exquiritur nisi quod reposcitur, nihil reposcitur nisi quod et reddetur, et utique reddetur quod ultionis nomine reposcetur et exquiretur. Neque enim vindicari poterit quod omnino non fuerit: erit autem dum restituitur, uti vindicetur. In carnem itaque dirigitur quicquid in sanguinem praedicatur, sine qua non erit sanguis. Caro suscitabitur, ut sanguis vindicetur. [5] Sunt et quaedam ita pronuntiata ut allegoriae quidem nubilo careant, nihilominus tamen ipsius simplicitatis suae sitiant interpretationem, quale est apud Esaiam, Ego occidam et vivificabo. Certe postea quam occiderit vivificabit: ergo per mortem occidens per resurrectionem vivificabit. [6] Caro est autem quae occiditur per mortem: caro itaque et vivificabitur per resurrectionem. [7] Certe si occidere carni animam eripere est, vivificare, contrarium eius, carni animam referre est, caro resurgat necesse est, cui anima per occisionem erepta referenda est per vivificationem.