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The Analogy of the Seed and the Body
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Of seeds: But if it dies, it bears much fruit. It is evident that the living one dies; and you once refrained from eating the things that have life-giving power. And the apostle Paul says: That which you sow is not made alive unless it dies (1 Cor 15:36 ); and that which you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be born, but a naked grain if it should be wheat or something of the rest; but God gives to it a body, as He willed (1 Cor 15:37-38 ). It has been demonstrated also concerning the seeds, how it dies and is made alive, and that God gives to it a body, as He willed.
You have in the Old Testament that God sincerely accepted sacrifices from the righteous, and that all the saints ate meat and the rest of the creatures with thanksgiving; you were persuaded through the holy gospels that [The text is damaged here.].
Greek σπερμάτων· Ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ, καρπὸν πολὺν φέρει. ∆ῆλον ὅτι ὁ ζῶν ἀποθνῄσκει· σὺ δὲ ἅπαξ παρεφυλάξω ἐσθίειν τὰ κεκτημένα τὴν ζωτικὴν δύναμιν. Καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολος Παῦλος· Σὺ ὃ σπείρεις, οὐ ζωοποιεῖται, ἐὰν μὴ ἀποθάνῃ· καὶ ὃ σπείρεις, οὐ τὸ σῶμα τὸ γενησόμενον σπείρεις, ἀλλὰ γυμνὸν κόκκον εἰ τύχοι σίτου ἤ τινος τῶν λοιπῶν· ὁ δὲ θεὸς δίδωσιν αὐτῷ σῶμα, καθὼς ἠθέλησεν. Ἀποδέδεικται καὶ περὶ τῶν σπερμάτων, πῶς ἀποθνῄσκει καὶ ζωοποιεῖται καὶ ὅτι ὁ θεὸς δίδωσιν αὐτῷ σῶμα, καθὼς ἠθέλησεν. Ἔχεις ἐν τῇ παλαιᾷ διαθήκῃ ὅτι ὁ θεὸς γνησίως θυσίας παρὰ τῶν δικαίων προσεδέξατο καὶ ὅτι οἱ ἅγιοι πάντες μετὰ εὐχαριστίας ἤσθιον κρέα καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ κτίσματα· ἐπείσθης διὰ τῶν ἁγίων εὐαγγελίων ὅτι ...........
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About this text A fierce defense of Christian truth against deceptive heresies and their harmful influence on believers.
This treatise is attributed to Amphilochius of Iconium (c. 340–c. 395), a bishop in central Asia Minor and a first cousin of Gregory of Nazianzus. The work survives in a single damaged thirteenth-century manuscript, and its beginning and end are missing, so the original title and author are not certain. Gerhard Ficker argued for Amphilochius as the author in 1906, and Cornelius Datema published an updated Greek edition under the title Contra Haereticos in 1978. The treatise was written in the second half of the 370s.
The work is directed against the beliefs and practices of the Encratites and Apotactites of rural Lycaonia, groups that rejected marriage, meat, wine, and material possessions as incompatible with Christian holiness. Amphilochius argues that their strict separation from ordinary life is a deception and an apostasy from the faith of the church. He addresses the heretic directly, arguing against the rejection of the mysteries and against the idea that created things are evil.
The argument moves through biblical examples, including Abraham's hospitality, the eating of meat by holy people, the abundance of fishes at the Lord's command, and the physical reality of Christ's body after the resurrection. The author uses the analogy of a seed dying and rising to explain the resurrection of the body, and he appeals to Old Testament sacrifices and holy meals to show that material things are not evil in themselves. Because the manuscript is damaged, some passages have been restored by editors, and a reader should expect occasional gaps or conjectural readings.
We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.
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