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The City of God

Chapter 14.--Whether Infants Shall Rise in that Body Which They Would Have Had Had They Grown Up.

What, then, are we to say of infants, if not that they will not rise in that diminutive body in which they died, but shall receive by the marvellous and rapid operation of God that body which time by a slower process would have given them? For in the Lord's words, where He says, "Not a hair of your head shall perish," ¹ it is asserted that nothing which was possessed shall be wanting; but it is not said that nothing which was not possessed shall be given. To the dead infant there was wanting the perfect stature of its body; for even the perfect infant lacks the perfection of bodily size, being capable of further growth. This perfect stature is, in a sense, so possessed by all that they are conceived and born with it,--that is, they have it potentially, though not yet in actual bulk; just as all the members of the body are potentially in the seed, though, even after the child is born, some of them, the teeth for example, may be wanting. In this seminal principle of every substance, there seems to be, as it were, the beginning of everything which does not yet exist, or rather does not appear, but which in process of time will come into being, or rather into sight. In this, therefore, the child who is to be tall or short is already tall or short. And in the resurrection of the body, we need, for the same reason, fear no bodily loss; for though all should be of equal size, and reach gigantic proportions, lest the men who were largest here should lose anything of their bulk and it should perish, in contradiction to the words of Christ, who said that not a hair of their head should perish, yet why should there lack the means by which that wonderful Worker should make such additions, seeing that He is the Creator, who Himself created all things out of nothing?

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XIV: An infantes in ea sint resurrecturi habitudine corporis, quam habituri erant aetatis accessu.

Quid ergo de infantibus dicturi sumus, nisi quia non in ea resurrecturi sunt corporis exiguitate, qua mortui, sed quod eis tardius accessurum erat tempore, hoc sunt illo dei opere miro atque celerrimo praecepturi? in sententia quippe domini, ubi ait: capillus capitis uestri non peribit, dictum est non defuturum esse quod fuit, non autem negatum est adfuturum esse quod defuit. defuit autem infanti mortuo perfecta quantitas sui corporis; perfecto quippe infanti deest utique perfectio magnitudinis corporalis, quae cum accesserit, iam statura longior esse non possit. hunc perfectionis modum sic habent omnes, ut cum illo concipiantur atque nascantur; sed habent in ratione, non mole; sicut ipsa membra omnia iam sunt latenter in semine, cum etiam natis nonnulla adhuc desint, sicut dentes ac si quid eiusmodi. in qua ratione uniuscuiusque materiae indita corporali iam quodammodo, ut ita dicam, liciatum uidetur esse, quod nondum est, immo quod latet, sed accessu temporis erit uel potius apparebit. in hac ergo infans iam breuis aut longus est, qui breuis longusue futurus est. secundum hanc rationem profecto in resurrectione corporis detrimenta corporis non timemus, quia etsi aequalitas futura esset omnium, ita ut omnes usque ad giganteas magnitudines peruenirent, ne illi, qui maximi fuerunt, minus haberent aliquid in statura, quod eis contra sententiam Christi periret, qui dixit nec capillum capitis esse periturum, creatori utique, qui creauit cuncta de nihilo, quomodo deesse posset unde adderet quod addendum esse mirus artifex nosset?