The seed and the body that is to be
He has mocked at some length the resurrection of the flesh, which is preached in the churches but understood more clearly by the wiser. There is no need to set out his words again, since they have already been quoted once. Come, then, let us set out and present a few things on this problem too, as far as we can, with an eye to those who will read this, as befits a defence addressed to one who is a stranger to the faith and written for the sake of those who are still infants, tossed by waves and carried about “by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, toward the scheming of error” (Ephesians 4:14).
Neither we nor the divine writings say that those who died long ago will live, “rising up from the earth” in the very same flesh, flesh that has received no change for the better; Celsus slanders us in saying so. For we hear many scriptures speaking of the resurrection in a way worthy of God, but for the present it is enough to quote Paul’s words from the First Letter to the Corinthians, where he says: “But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ Foolish one! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as he willed, and to each of the seeds its own body” (1 Corinthians 15:35–38).
See how in these words he says that it is “not the body that is to be” that is sown, but that from what is sown and cast bare upon the earth, as God gives “to each of the seeds its own body,” a kind of resurrection takes place, as a stalk rises from the seed cast down in plants such as mustard, or, in the case of a larger tree, from the stone of an olive or of some fruit tree.
Greek
Ἐπεὶ δ᾿ ἐπὶ πλέον κεκωμῴδηκε τὴν κεκηρυγμένην μὲν τῆς σαρκὸς ἀνάστασιν ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν συνετωτέρων τρανότερον νενοημένην. καὶ οὐ χρὴ αὖθις ἐκτίθεσθαι τὴν λέξιν αὐτοῦ ἅπαξ προειρημένην· φέρε καὶ περὶ τοῦ προβλήματος τούτου. ὡς ἐν τῇ πρὸς ἀλλότριον τῆς πίστεως ἀπολογίᾳ γραφομένῃ διὰ τοὺς ἔτι νηπίους καὶ κλυδωνιζομένους καὶ περιφερομένους „παντὶ ἀνέμῳ διδασκαλίας ἐν τῇ κυβείᾳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, (ἐν πανουργίᾳ) πρὸς τὴν μεθοδίαν τῆς πλάνης.“ ὀλίγα ἐστοχασμένως τῶν ἐντευξομένων κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν ἐκθώμεθα καὶ παραστήσωμεν. οὔτε μὲν οὖν ἡμεῖς οὔτε τὰ θεῖα γράμματα αὐταῖς φησι σαρξὶ, μηδεμίαν μεταβολὴν ἀνειληφυίαις τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον, ζήσεσθαι τοὺς πάλαι ἀποθανόντας, ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἀναδύντας· ὁ δὲ Κέλσος ἡμᾶς συκοφαντεῖ ταῦτα λέγων. ἀκούομεν γὰρ καὶ πολλῶν γραφῶν περὶ ἀναστάσεως ἀξίως θεοῦ λεγουσῶν, ἀρκεῖ δ᾿ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος τὴν Παύλου παραθέσθαι ἀπὸ τῆς πρὸς Κορινθίους προτέρας λέξιν, φάσκοντος· „ἀλλ᾿ ἐρεῖ τις· πῶς ἐγείρονται οἱ νεκροί; ποίῳ δὲ σώματι ἔρχονται; ἄφρον. σὺ ὃ σπείρεις οὐ ζωοποιεῖται, ἐὰν μὴ ἀποθάνῃ· καὶ ὃ σπερίρεις, οὐ τὸ σῶμα τὸ γενησόμενον σπείρεις ἀλλὰ γυμνὸν κόκκον, εἰ τύχοι, σίτου ἤ τινος τῶν λοιπῶν· ὁ δὲ θεὸς δίδωσιν αὐτῷ σῶμα, καθὼς ἠθέλησε, καὶ ἑκάστῳ τῶν σπερμάτων ἴδιον σῶμα.“ ὅρα γὰρ τίνα τρόπον ἐν τούτοις „οὐ τὸ γενησόμενον σῶμά“ φησι σπείρεσθαι, ἀλλ᾿ ἀπὸ τοῦ σπειρομένου καὶ γυμνοῦ βαλλομένου ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν λέγει διδόντος τοῦ θεοῦ „ἑκάστῳ τῶν σπερμάτων ἴδιον σῶμα“ οἱονεὶ ἀνάστασιν γίνεσθαι, ἀπὸ τοῦ καταβεβλημένου σπέρματος ἐγειρομένου στάχυος ἐν τοῖς τοιοῖσδε, οἱονεὶ ἐν νάπυϊ ἢ ἐπὶ μείζονος δένδρου ἐν ἐλαίας πυρῆνι ἤ τινι τῶν ἀκροδρύων.