The Last Things
At the end the dead will rise in their own bodies, not as souls alone.
Each row is one claim. Each name is a writer, placed at the date of the passage. Select a name to read what they said.
9 of the 9 writers here teach: “This flesh / body rises.” They answer a rival view: “Only the soul is recompensed; the flesh does not rise.”
teaches it partly rejects it later writer, summary only
This flesh / body rises9 teach
Only the soul is recompensed; the flesh does not rise3 reject
The risen body is the same identity that died2 teach
For I know and believe that he was in the flesh even after the resurrection. And when he came to those around Peter, he said to them: "Take hold of me, touch me and see that I am not a bodiless demon." And immediately they touched him and believed, being joined to his flesh and his spirit.
Ἐγὼ γὰρ καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἐν σαρκὶ αὐτὸν οἶδα καὶ πιστεύω ὄντα.
Yet you refuse to believe in the resurrection simply because you have not yet seen a dead person rise. But just as you would not have believed at the start that such bodies could arise from a mere drop, even though you now watch it happen every day, so you should reason that it is not impossible for human bodies, once…
Καὶ κατανοοῦντι, τί ἀπιστότερον ἂν μᾶλλον δόξαι, ἢ εἰ ἐν σώματι μὴ ὑπήρχομεν καί τις ἔλεγεν, ἐκ μικρᾶς τινος ῥανίδος τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρωπείου σπέρματος δυνατὸν ὀστέα τε καὶ νεῦρα καὶ σάρκας εἰκονοποιηθέντα, οἷα ὁρῶμεν, γενέσθαι;
Because of this, we believe that bodies will be raised after the completion of all things, but not in the way the Stoics teach. They claim that the same things come into being and pass away in endless cycles, serving no useful purpose.
Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ σωμάτων ἀνάστασιν ἔσεσθαι πεπιστεύκαμεν μετὰ τὴν τῶν ὅλων συντέλειαν, οὐχ ὡς οἱ Στωϊκοὶ δογματίζουσι κατά τινας κύκλων περιόδους, γινομένων ἀεὶ καὶ ἀπογινομένων τῶν αὐτῶν οὐκ ἐπί τι χρήσιμον, ἅπαξ δέ, τῶν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς αἰώνων πεπερασμένων, καὶ εἰς τὸ παντελὲς διὰ…
If each of the points under examination has been demonstrated through what is first by nature and what follows from these, then it is quite clear that the resurrection of dissolved bodies is a work that is possible, willed, and worthy of the one who created them.
Εἰ δὲ διὰ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν πρώτων καὶ τῶν τούτοις ἑπομένων δέδεικται τῶν ἐξητασμένων ἕκαστον, εὔδηλον ὅτι καὶ δυνατὸν καὶ βουλητὸν καὶ ἄξιον τοῦ δημιουργήσαντος ἔργον ἡ τῶν διαλυθέντων σωμάτων ἀνάστασις· διὰ γὰρ τούτων ἐδείχθη ψεῦδος τὸ τούτοις ἀντικείμενον καὶ τὸ τῶν ἀπιστούντων…
And indeed the most unreasonable thing of all is this: they bring the laws decreed for human beings, yet they turn the penalty for things done lawfully or unlawfully upon souls alone.
Καὶ μὴν κἀκεῖνο πάντων παραλογώτατον, τὸ τοὺς μὲν θεσπισθέντας νόμους ἐπ᾿ ἀνθρώπους φέρειν, τῶν δὲ νομίμως ἢ παρανόμως πεπραγμένων τὴν δίκην ἐπὶ μόνας τρέπειν τὰς ψυχάς.
Since this follows by necessity, there must certainly be a resurrection of bodies that have died or been entirely dissolved, and the same human beings must be composed again.
Οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ μακαριότης ψυχῆς κεχωρισμένης σώματος· οὐδὲ γὰρ τὴν θατέρου τούτων ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκεν ἄνθρωπος ἐσκοποῦμεν ζωὴν ἢ τέλος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ συνεστῶτος ἐξ ἀμφοῖν· τοιοῦτος γὰρ πᾶς ὁ τόνδε τὸν βίον λαχὼν ἄνθρωπος, καὶ δεῖ τῆς τούτου ζωῆς εἶναί τι τέλος οἰκεῖον.
Who, having believed in a resurrection of bodies, would provide a grave for himself? It is inconsistent to be persuaded that our bodies will rise and yet treat them as if they will not—eating them, thinking the earth will return its own dead, which someone buried for himself, without demanding them back.
Τίς ἂν οὖν ἀνάστασιν πεπιστευκὼς ἐπὶ σώμασιν ἀναστησομένοις ἑαυτὸν παράσχοι τάφον; Οὐ γὰρ τῶν αὐτῶν καὶ ἀναστήσεσθαι ἡμῶν πεπεῖσθαι τὰ σώματα καὶ ἐσθίειν αὐτὰ ὡς οὐκ ἀναστησόμενα, καὶ ἀποδώσειν μὲν νομίζειν τὴν γῆν τοὺς ἰδίους νεκρούς, οὓς δέ τις αὐτὸς ἐγκατέθαψεν αὐτῷ μήτε…
Since they reject the entire resurrection and, as far as it lies in their power, remove it from the midst, what wonder is it that they do not know the order of the resurrection nor understand it?
Certain opinions, taken over from heretical teaching, betray ignorance of God's dispositions and of the mystery of the resurrection of the just and the kingdom -- a kingdom that is the very beginning of incorruptibility, through which those who are counted worthy gradually become accustomed to receiving God.
God himself fashions us in his own forming, and what follows is fitted to his child; for through the hands of the Father — that is, through the Son and the Spirit — a human being is made according to the likeness of God, yet not as a mere part of a human being.
But you also deny that the dead are raised. You demand, "Show me even one person who has been raised from the dead, so that I may see and believe." First, what is so great about believing only after you have witnessed an event?
Ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἀρνεῖσθαί σε νεκροὺς ἐγείρεσθαι· φῂς γὰρ Δεῖξόν μοι κἄν ἕνα ἐγερθέντα ἐκ νεκρῶν, ἵνα ἰδὼν πιστεύσω· πρῶτον μὲν τί μέγα, εἰ θεασάμενος τὸ γεγονὸς πιστεύσῃς; Εἶτα πιστεύεις μὲν Ἡρακλέα καύσαντα ἑαυτὸν ξῆν καὶ Ἀσκληπιὸν κεραυνωθέντα ἐγηγέρθαι.
As for the burning of the world, to refuse to believe that fire falls either unforeseen or with difficulty is a common error. Who among the wise doubts, who does not know, that everything which has arisen passes away, and everything which has been made is destroyed?
People who try to unsettle the faith of the resurrection — which those Sadducean relatives left undisturbed without controversy — so that they may deny that this hope also applies to the flesh, rightly tear Christ's flesh apart with questions, as if it were either nonexistent or somehow other than human;
The confidence of Christians rests on the resurrection of the dead; we are believers in that, and this truth compels us to believe. God reveals the truth, but the crowd ridicules it, thinking nothing survives death—and yet they pay their respects to the dead, and at great expense, following their customs and timing…
Christ came to uncover everything hidden from the beginning, to direct doubts, to complete what was foretold, and to embody what was preached; above all, to prove the resurrection of the dead not only through himself but in himself. Now we face new Sadducees, partisans of that same opinion.
The flesh will rise again—all of it, the very same flesh, and whole. It is on deposit with God, wherever that may be, held by the most faithful mediator of God and humanity, Jesus Christ, who will restore God to humanity and humanity to God, spirit to flesh and flesh to spirit.
But that these subjects may be arrived at in proper order, it seems to me that we ought first to consider the nature of the resurrection, that we may know what that (body) is which shall come either to punishment, or to rest, or to happiness;