Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 20.--What the Same Apostle Taught in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians Regarding the Resurrection of the Dead.

But the apostle has said nothing here regarding the resurrection of the dead; but in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians he says, "We would not have you to be ignorant brethren, concerning them which are asleep," ¹ etc. These words of the apostle most distinctly proclaim the future resurrection of the dead, when the Lord Christ shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

But it is commonly asked whether those whom our Lord shall find alive upon earth, personated in this passage by the apostle and those who were alive with him, shall never die at all, or shall pass with incomprehensible swiftness through death to immortality in the very moment during which they shall be caught up along with those who rise again to meet the Lord in the air? For we cannot say that it is impossible that they should both die and revive again while they are carried aloft through the air. For the words, "And so shall we ever be with the Lord," are not to be understood as if he meant that we shall always remain in the air with the Lord; for He Himself shall not remain there, but shall only pass through it as He comes. For we shall go to meet Him as He comes, not where He remains; but "so shall we be with the Lord," that is, we shall be with Him possessed of immortal bodies wherever we shall be with Him. We seem compelled to take the words in this sense, and to suppose that those whom the Lord shall find alive upon earth shall in that brief space both suffer death and receive immortality: for this same apostle says, "In Christ shall all be made alive;" ² while, speaking of the same resurrection of the body, he elsewhere says, "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die." ³ How, then, shall those whom Christ shall find alive upon earth be made alive to immortality in Him if they die not, since on this very account it is said, "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die?" Or if we cannot properly speak of human bodies as sown, unless in so far as by dying they do in some sort return to the earth, as also the sentence pronounced by God against the sinning father of the human race runs, "Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return," ⁴ we must acknowledge that those whom Christ at His coming shall find still in the body are not included in these words of the apostle nor in those of Genesis; for, being caught up into the clouds, they are certainly not sown, neither going nor returning to the earth, whether they experience no death at all or die for a moment in the air.

But, on the other hand, there meets us the saying of the same apostle when he was speaking to the Corinthians about the resurrection of the body, "We shall all rise," or, as other mss. read, "We shall all sleep." ⁵ Since, then, there can be no resurrection unless death has preceded, and since we can in this passage understand by sleep nothing else than death, how shall all either sleep or rise again if so many persons whom Christ shall find in the body shall neither sleep nor rise again? If, then, we believe that the saints who shall be found alive at Christ's coming, and shall be caught up to meet Him, shall in that same ascent pass from mortal to immortal bodies, we shall find no difficulty in the words of the apostle, either when he says, "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die," or when he says, "We shall all rise," or "all sleep," for not even the saints shall be quickened to immortality unless they first die, however briefly; and consequently they shall not be exempt from resurrection which is preceded by sleep, however brief. And why should it seem to us incredible that that multitude of bodies should be, as it were, sown in the air, and should in the air forthwith revive immortal and incorruptible, when we believe, on the testimony of the same apostle, that the resurrection shall take place in the twinkling of an eye, and that the dust of bodies long dead shall return with incomprehensible facility and swiftness to those members that are now to live endlessly? Neither do we suppose that in the case of these saints the sentence, "Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return," is null, though their bodies do not, on dying, fall to earth, but both die and rise again at once while caught up into the air. For "Thou shalt return to earth" means, Thou shalt at death return to that which thou wert before life began. Thou shalt, when examinate, be that which thou wert before thou wast animate. For it was into a face of earth that God breathed the breath of life when man was made a living soul; as if it were said, Thou art earth with a soul, which thou wast not; thou shalt be earth without a soul, as thou wast. And this is what all bodies of the dead are before they rot; and what the bodies of those saints shall be if they die, no matter where they die, as soon as they shall give up that life which they are immediately to receive back again. In this way, then, they return or go to earth, inasmuch as from being living men they shall be earth, as that which becomes cinder is said to go to cinder; that which decays, to go to decay; and so of six hundred other things. But the manner in which this shall take place we can now only feebly conjecture, and shall understand it only when it comes to pass. For that there shall be a bodily resurrection of the dead when Christ comes to judge quick and dead, we must believe if we would be Christians. But if we are unable perfectly to comprehend the manner in which it shall take place, our faith is not on this account vain. Now, however, we ought, as we formerly promised, to show, as far as seems necessary, what the ancient prophetic books predicted concerning this final judgment of God; and I fancy no great time need be spent in discussing and explaining these predictions, if the reader has been careful to avail himself of the help we have already furnished.

Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XX: Quid idem apostolus in prima ad eosdem epistula de resurrectione docuerit mortuorum.

Sed hic apostolus tacuit de resurrectione mortuorum; ad eosdem autem scribens in epistula prima: nolumus, inquit, ignorare uos, fratres, de dormientibus, ut non contristemini, sicut et ceteri, qui spem non habent. nam si credimus, quod Iesus mortuus est et resurrexit, ita et deus eos, qui dormierunt per Iesum, adducet cum illo. hoc enim uobis dicimus in uerbo domini, quia nos uiuentes, qui reliqui sumus in aduentum domini, non praeueniemus eos, qui ante dormierunt; quoniam ipse dominus in iussu et in uoce archangeli et in turba dei descendet de caelo, et mortui in Christo resurgent primo; deinde nos uiuentes, qui reliqui sumus, simul cum illis rapiemur in nubibus in obuiam Christi in aera, et ita semper cum domino erimus. haec uerba apostolica resurrectionem mortuorum futuram, quando ueniet Christus, utique ad uiuos et mortuos iudicandos, praeclarissime ostendunt. sed quaeri solet, utrum illi, quos hic uiuentes inuenturus est Christus, quorum personam in se atque illos, qui tunc secum uiuebant, transfigurabat apostolus, numquam omnino morituri sint, an ipso temporis puncto, quo cum resurgentibus rapientur in nubibus in obuiam Christo in aera, ad inmortalitatem per mortem mira celeritate transibunt. neque enim dicendum est fieri non posse, ut, dum per aera in sublime portantur, in illo spatio et moriantur et reuiuescant. quod enim ait: et ita semper cum domino erimus, non sic accipiendum est, tamquam in aere nos dixerit semper cum domino esse mansuros; quia nec ipse utique ibi manebit, quia ueniens transiturus est; uenienti quippe ibitur obuiam, non manenti; sed ita cum domino erimus, id est, sic erimus habentes corpora sempiterna, ubicumque cum illo fuerimus. ad hunc autem sensum, quo existimemus etiam illos, quos hic uiuos inuenturus est dominus, in ipso paruo spatio et passuros mortem et accepturos inmortalitatem, ipse apostolus nos uidetur urgere, ubi dicit: in Christo omnes uiuificabuntur; cum alio loco de ipsa loquens resurrectione corporum dicat: tu quod seminas, non uiuificatur, nisi moriatur. quomodo igitur, quos uiuentes hic Christus inueniet, per inmortalitatem in illo uiuificabuntur, etsi non moriantur, cum uideamus propter hoc esse dictum: tu quod seminas, non uiuificatur, nisi moriatur? aut si recte non dicimus seminari nisi ea corpora hominum, quae moriendo quoquo modo reuertuntur in terram - sicut sese habet etiam illa in transgressorem patrem generis humani diuinitus prolata sententia: terra es, et in terram ibis - , fatendum est istos, quos nondum de corporibus egressos cum ueniet Christus inueniet, et istis uerbis apostoli et illis de genesi non teneri; quoniam sursum in nubibus rapti non utique seminantur, quia nec eunt in terram nec redeunt, siue nullam prorsus experiantur mortem siue paululum in aere moriantur. sed aliud rursus occurrit, quod idem dixit apostolus, cum de resurrectione corporum ad Corinthios loqueretur: omnes resurgemus, uel sicut alii codices habent: omnes dormiemus. cum ergo nec resurrectio fieri, nisi mors praecesserit, possit, nec dormitionem possimus illo loco intellegere nisi mortem, quomodo omnes uel dormient uel resurgent, si tam multi, quos in corpore inuenturus est Christus, nec dormient nec resurgent? si ergo sanctos, qui reperientur Christo uenienti uiuentes eique in obuiam rapientur, crediderimus in eodem raptu de mortalibus corporibus exituros et ad eadem mox inmortalia redituros, nullas in uerbis apostoli patiemur angustias, siue ubi dicit: tu quod seminas, non uiuificatur, nisi moriatur, siue ubi dicit: omnes resurgemus aut: omnes dormiemus, quia nec illi per inmortalitatem uiuificabuntur, nisi, quamlibet paululum, tamen ante moriantur, ac per hoc et a resurrectione non erunt alieni, quam dormitione praecedunt, quamuis breuissima, non tamen nulla. cur autem nobis incredibile uideatur illam multitudinem corporum in aere quodammodo seminari atque ibi protinus inmortaliter atque incorruptibiliter reuiuescere, cum credamus, quod idem ipse apostolus apertissime dicit, in ictu oculi futuram resurrectionem et in membra sine fine uictura tanta felicitate tamque inaestimabili uelocitate rediturum antiquissimorum cadauerum puluerem? nec ab illa sententia, qua homini dictum est: terra es et in terram ibis, futuros illos sanctos arbitremur inmunes, si eorum morientium in terram non recident corpora, sed, sicut in ipso raptu morientur, ita et resurgent, dum ferentur in aera. in terram quippe ibis est in hoc ibis amissa uita, quod eras antequam sumeres uitam; id est, hoc eris exanimatus, quod eras antequam esses animatus - terrae quippe insufflauit deus in faciem flatum uitae, cum factus est homo in animam uiuam - , tamquam diceretur: terra es animata, quod non eras; terra eris exanimis, sicut eras; quod sunt et antequam putrescant omnia corpora mortuorum; quod erunt et illa, si morientur, ubicumque moriantur, cum uita carebunt, quam continuo receptura sunt. sic ergo ibunt in terram, quia ex uiuis hominibus terra erunt, quemadmodum it in cinerem, quod fit cinis; it in uetustatem, quod fit uetus; it in testam, quod ex luto fit testa; et alia sescenta sic loquimur. quomodo autem sit futurum, quod nunc pro nostrae ratiunculae uiribus utcumque conicimus, tunc erit potius, ut nosse possimus. resurrectionem quippe mortuorum futuram et in carne, quando Christus uenturus est uiuos iudicaturus et mortuos, oportet, si Christiani esse uolumus, ut credamus; sed non ideo de hac re inanis est fides nostra, si, quemadmodum futura sit, perfecte conprehendere non ualemus. uerum iam, sicut supra promisimus, de hoc iudicio dei nouissimo etiam prophetici ueteres libri quid praenuntiauerint, quantum satis esse uidebitur, debemus ostendere; quae, sicut arbitror, non tanta mora necesse erit tractari et exponi, si istis, quae praemisimus, lector curauerit adiuuari.