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fest that they suffer these things having no occasion whatever for unbelief from the facts nor finding any reasonable cause to state for which they disbelieve or are at a loss. Let us consider it thus. All unbelief which does not arise in some people readily and according to some uncritical opinion but with some strong cause and certainty concerning the truth, then preserves its probable reason, when the very thing which they disbelieve seems to be unbelievable. For to disbelieve things that are not unbelievable is the work of men who do not use sound judgment concerning the truth. Therefore, those who disbelieve or are perplexed about the resurrection ought not to express their opinion on this matter uncritically according to what seems right to them and pleasing to the licentious, but either to connect the origin of humankind to no cause (which indeed is very easily refuted), or, attributing the cause of existing things to God, to look to the hypothesis of this doctrine and through this to show that the resurrection has no credibility from any quarter. And they will do this, if they are able to show either that it is impossible for God or that He is unwilling to unite again and bring together the deadened or even completely dissolved bodies for the constitution of the same human beings. But if they are not able to do this, let them cease from this godless unbelief and from blaspheming what is not lawful; for that they speak the truth in saying neither that it is impossible nor that it is unwilling, will become clear from what will be said. The impossible for someone is known in truth as such either from not knowing what is to be, or from not having sufficient power to do well what is known. For he who is ignorant of something that ought to happen would be able neither to attempt nor to do at all what he is ignorant of; and he who knows well what is to be done and from where it might come and how, but has either no power at all to do what is known or not sufficient power, would not undertake it in the first place, if he were prudent and were to consider his own power, but if he undertook it unthinkingly he would not accomplish what he had decided. But it is not possible for God to be ignorant of the nature of the bodies that will be raised, both as a whole and in part, nor indeed where each of the dissolved parts goes and which part of the element has received what was dissolved and went to what is kindred, even if among men what is again suitably united to the whole seems to be utterly indistinguishable. For to whom, before the proper constitution of each, was not unknown either the nature of the elements to be, from which are the bodies of men, or the parts of these, from which He was about to take what He resolved upon for the constitution of the human body, it is very clear that even after the whole has been dissolved it will not be unknown where each of the things He has taken for the completion of each one has gone. For as much as according to what now prevails among us

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τατον ὅτι ταῦτα πάσχουσιν οὐδ' ἡντιναοῦν ἔχοντες ἐκ τῶν πραγμά- των ἀπιστίας ἀφορμὴν οὐδ' αἰτίαν εὑρίσκοντες εἰπεῖν εὔλογον, δι' ἣν ἀπιστοῦσιν ἢ διαποροῦσιν. Σκοπῶμεν δὲ οὑτωσί. πᾶσα ἀπιστία μὴ προχείρως καὶ κατά τινα δόξαν ἄκριτον ἐγγινομένη τισὶν ἀλλὰ μετά τινος αἰτίας ἰσχυρᾶς καὶ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀσφαλείας τότε τὸν εἰκότα σῴζει λόγον, ὅταν αὐτὸ τὸ πρᾶγμα περὶ οὗ ἀπιστοῦσιν ἄπιστον εἶναι δοκῇ· τὸ γάρ τοι τοῖς οὐκ οὖσιν ἀπίστοις ἀπιστεῖν ἀνθρώπων ἔργον οὐχ ὑγιαι- νούσῃ κρίσει περὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν χρωμένων. οὐκοῦν χρὴ καὶ τοὺς περὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἀπιστοῦντας ἢ διαποροῦντας μὴ πρὸς τὸ δοκοῦν αὑτοῖς ἀκρίτως καὶ τὸ τοῖς ἀκολάστοις κεχαρισμένον τὴν περὶ ταύτης ἐκφέρειν γνώμην, ἀλλ' ἢ μηδεμιᾶς αἰτίας ἐξάπτειν τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένεσιν (ὃ δὴ καὶ λίαν ἐστὶν εὐεξέλεγκτον) ἢ τῷ θεῷ τὴν τῶν ὄντων ἀνατιθέντας αἰτίαν εἰς τὴν τοῦδε τοῦ δόγματος ἀποβλέπειν ὑπόθεσιν καὶ διὰ ταύτης δεικνύναι τὴν ἀνάστασιν οὐδαμόθεν ἔχουσαν τὸ πιστόν. τοῦτο δὲ ποιήσουσιν, ἐὰν δεῖξαι δυνηθῶσιν ἢ ἀδύνατον ὂν τῷ θεῷ ἢ ἀβούλητον τὰ νεκρωθέντα τῶν σωμάτων ἢ καὶ πάντῃ διαλυθέντα πάλιν ἑνῶσαι καὶ συναγαγεῖν πρὸς τὴν τῶν αὐτῶν ἀνθρώπων σύστασιν. ἐὰν δὲ τοῦτο μὴ δύνωνται, παυσάσθωσαν τῆς ἀθέου ταύτης ἀπιστίας καὶ τοῦ βλασφημεῖν ἃ μὴ θέμις· ὅτι γὰρ οὔτε τὸ ἀδύνατον λέγοντες ἀληθεύουσιν οὔτε τὸ ἀβούλητον, ἐκ τῶν ·ηθησομένων γενήσεται φανερόν. Τὸ ἀδύνατόν τινι γινώσκεται κατ' ἀλήθειαν τοιοῦτον ἢ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ γινώσκειν τὸ γενησόμενον ἢ ἐκ τοῦ δύναμιν ἀρκοῦσαν μὴ ἔχειν πρὸς τὸ ποιῆσαι καλῶς τὸ ἐγνωσμένον. ὅ τε γὰρ ἀγνοῶν τι τῶν γενέσθαι δεόντων οὐκ ἂν οὔτ' ἐγχειρῆσαι οὔτε ποιῆσαι δυνηθείη τὸ παράπαν ὅπερ ἀγνοεῖ, ὅ τε γινώσκων καλῶς τὸ ποιηθησόμενον καὶ πόθεν γένοιτ' ἂν καὶ πῶς, δύναμιν δὲ ἢ μηδ' ὅλως ἔχων πρὸς τὸ ποιῆσαι τὸ γινωσκόμενον ἢ μὴ ἀρκοῦσαν ἔχων, οὐκ ἂν ἐγχειρήσειεν τὴν ἀρχήν, εἰ σωφρονοῖ καὶ τὴν ἰδίαν ἐπισκέψαιτο δύναμιν, ἐγχειρή- σας δὲ ἀπερισκέπτως οὐκ ἂν ἐπιτελέσειεν τὸ δόξαν. ἀλλ' οὔτε ἀγνοεῖν τὸν θεὸν δυνατὸν τῶν ἀναστησομένων σωμάτων τὴν φύσιν κατά τε μέρος ὅλον καὶ μόριον οὔτε μὴν ὅποι χωρεῖ τῶν λυομένων ἕκαστον καὶ ποῖον τοῦ στοιχείου μέρος δέδεκται τὸ λυθὲν καὶ χωρῆσαν πρὸς τὸ συγγενές, κἂν πάνυ παρ' ἀνθρώποις ἀδιάκριτον εἶναι δοκῇ τὸ τῷ παντὶ πάλιν προσφυῶς ἡνωμένον. ᾧ γὰρ οὐκ ἠγνόητο πρὸ τῆς οἰκείας ἑκάστου συστάσεως οὔτε τῶν γενησομένων στοιχείων ἡ φύσις, ἐξ ὧν τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων σώματα, οὔτε τὰ μέρη τούτων, ἐξ ὧν ἔμελλεν λήψεσθαι τὸ δόξαν πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρωπείου σώματος σύστασιν, εὔδηλον ὡς οὐδὲ μετὰ τὸ διαλυθῆναι τὸ πᾶν ἀγνοηθήσεται ποῦ κεχώρηκεν ἕκαστον ὧν εἴληφεν πρὸς τὴν ἑκάστου συμπλήρωσιν. ὅσον μὲν γὰρ κατὰ τὴν νῦν κρατοῦσαν παρ' ἡμῖν