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the order of things and the judgment of others, it is a greater thing to foreknow things that have not happened; but as regards the worthiness of God and His wisdom, both are according to nature, and it is just as easy for the one who foreknows things that have not happened to also know things that have been dissolved. And indeed, their very creation shows that His power is sufficient for the resurrection of the bodies. For if at the first creation He made the bodies of men and their first principles from what did not exist, He will also raise them with equal ease when they have been dissolved in whatever way; for this too is equally possible for Him. And there is no harm to the argument, even if some should suppose the first principles to be from matter, or the bodies of men from the elements as primary, or from seeds. For the power that is able to give form to the formless substance they posit, and to adorn the shapeless and unadorned with many and various forms, and to gather the parts of the elements into one, and to divide the seed, though one and simple, into many parts, and to articulate the unarticulated, and to give life to the non-living, is the same power that can also unite what has been dissolved, raise what lies fallen, make the dead live again, and change the corruptible into incorruption. And it would be of the same power and wisdom also to separate from thence, and to unite again to its own proper parts and particles, that which has been broken up <into> multitudes of all kinds of animals, such as are accustomed to prey upon such bodies and to take their fill from them, even if it should pass from them into one animal, or into many, or from thence into others, or even, being dissolved along with those animals themselves, it should be carried back to the first principles according to the natural dissolution into them; which is the very thing that seems to have most troubled some, even of those admired for wisdom, since they considered—I know not how—the difficulties raised by the many to be powerful. But these men say that many bodies of those who die wretchedly in shipwrecks or in rivers become food for fish, and that many bodies of those who die in wars, or from some other more violent cause and circumstance of events, being deprived of burial, are set forth as prey for the animals that happen upon them. So then, when bodies are consumed in this way, and the parts and particles that compose them are broken up into a great multitude of animals and, through their food, are united to the bodies of the animals that are fed, in the first place, they say the separation of these parts is impossible, and in addition to this, the second point is more difficult. For when those animals that have fed on the bodies of men, as many as are suitable for human food, pass through the stomach and are united to the bodies of those who have partaken of them, there is every necessity that the parts of the men, whichever have become food for the animals that partook of them, to

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τῶν πραγμάτων τάξιν καὶ τὴν ἐφ' ἑτέρων κρίσιν, μεῖζον τὸ τὰ μὴ γενόμενα προγινώσκειν· ὅσον δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἀξίαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν τούτου σοφίαν, ἀμφότερα κατὰ φύσιν καὶ ·ᾴδιον ἐπ' ἴσης τῷ τὰ μὴ γενόμενα προγινώσκειν τὸ καὶ διαλυθέντα γινώσκειν. Καὶ μὴν καὶ τὴν δύναμιν ὡς ἔστιν ἀρκοῦσα πρὸς τὴν τῶν σωμάτων ἀνάστασιν, δείκνυσιν ἡ τούτων αὐτῶν γένεσις. εἰ γὰρ μὴ ὄντα κατὰ τὴν πρώτην σύστασιν ἐποίησεν τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων σώματα καὶ τὰς τούτων ἀρχάς, καὶ διαλυθέντα καθ' ὃν ἂν τύχῃ τρόπον, ἀναστήσει μετὰ τῆς ἴσης εὐμαρείας· ἐπ' ἴσης γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ τοῦτο δυνατόν. καὶ τῷ λόγῳ βλάβος οὐδὲν, κἂν ἐξ ὕλης ὑπο- θῶνταί τινες τὰς πρώτας ἀρχάς, κἂν ἐκ τῶν στοιχείων ὡς πρώτων τὰ σώματα τῶν ἀνθρώπων, κἂν ἐκ σπερμάτων. ἧς γάρ ἐστι δυνά- μεως καὶ τὴν παρ' αὐτοῖς νενομισμένην ἄμορφον οὐσίαν μορφῶσαι καὶ τὴν ἀνείδεον καὶ ἀδιακόσμητον πολλοῖς καὶ διαφόροις εἴδεσιν κοσμῆσαι καὶ τὰ μέρη τῶν στοιχείων εἰς ἓν συναγαγεῖν καὶ τὸ σπέρμα ἓν ὂν καὶ ἁπλοῦν εἰς πολλὰ διελεῖν καὶ τὸ ἀδιάρθρωτον διαρθρῶσαι καὶ τῷ μὴ ζῶντι δοῦναι ζωήν, τῆς αὐτῆς ἐστιν καὶ τὸ διαλελυμένον ἑνῶσαι καὶ τὸ κείμενον ἀναστῆσαι καὶ τὸ τεθνηκὸς ζῳοποιῆσαι πάλιν καὶ τὸ φθαρτὸν μεταβαλεῖν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν. τοῦ αὐτοῦ δ' ἂν εἴη καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς δυνάμεως καὶ σοφίας καὶ τὸ διατεθρυμμένον <εἰς> πλήθη ζῴων παντοδαπῶν ὁπόσα τοῖς τοιούτοις σώμασιν ἐπιτρέχειν εἴωθεν καὶ τὸν ἐκ τούτων ἀγείρειν κόρον, διακρῖναι μὲν ἐκεῖθεν, ἑνῶσαι δὲ πάλιν τοῖς οἰκείοις μέρεσι καὶ μορίοις, κἂν εἰς ἓν ἐξ ἐκείνων χωρήσῃ ζῷον, κἂν εἰς πολλά, κἂν ἐντεῦθεν εἰς ἕτερα, κἂν αὐτοῖς ἐκείνοις συνδιαλυθὲν ἐπὶ τὰς πρώτας ἀρχὰς ἐνεχθῇ κατὰ τὴν φυσικὴν εἰς ταύτας ἀνάλυσιν· ὃ δὴ καὶ μάλιστα ταράττειν ἔδοξέν τινας καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ θαυμαζομένων, ἰσχυρὰς οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως ἡγησαμένων τὰς παρὰ τῶν πολλῶν φερομένας διαπορήσεις. Oὗτοι δέ γέ φασιν πολλὰ μὲν σώματα τῶν ἐν ναυαγίοις ἢ ποταμοῖς δυσθανάτων ἰχθύσιν γενέσθαι τροφήν, πολλὰ δὲ τῶν ἐν πολέμοις θνῃσκόντων ἢ κατ' ἄλλην τινὰ τραχυτέραν αἰτίαν καὶ πραγμάτων περίστασιν ταφῆς ἀμοιρούντων τοῖς προστυγχάνουσιν ζῴοις προκεῖσθαι βοράν. τῶν οὖν οὕτως ἀναλισκομένων σωμάτων καὶ τῶν ταῦτα συμπληρούντων μερῶν καὶ μορίων εἰς πολὺ πλῆθος ζῴων διαθρυπτομένων καὶ διὰ τῆς τροφῆς τοῖς τῶν τρεφομένων σώμασιν ἑνουμένων, πρῶτον μὲν τὴν διάκρισιν τούτων φασὶν ἀδύνατον, πρὸς δὲ ταύτῃ τὸ δεύτερον ἀπορώτερον. τῶν γὰρ τὰ σώματα τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐκβοσκηθέντων ζῴων, ὁπόσα πρὸς τροφὴν ἀνθρώποις ἐπιτήδεια, διὰ τῆς τούτων γαστρὸς ἰόντων καὶ τοῖς τῶν μετειληφότων σώμασιν ἑνουμένων, ἀνάγκην εἶναι πᾶσαν τὰ μέρη τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὁπόσα τροφὴ γέγονεν τοῖς μετειληφόσι ζῴοις, πρὸς