Chapter VI.—Christians’ Belief in the Resurrection.

And on this account we believe that there will be a resurrection of bodies after the consummation of all things; not, as the Stoics affirm, according to the return of certain cycles, the same things being produced and destroyed for no useful purpose, but a resurrection once for all,17    [Comp. cap. xvii., infra, note 5, p. 72. ἐν ἡμέρα συντελείας.] when our periods of existence are completed, and in consequence solely of the constitution of things under which men alone live, for the purpose of passing judgment upon them. Nor is sentence upon us passed by Minos or Rhadamanthus, before whose decease not a single soul, according to the mythic tales, was judged; but the Creator, God Himself, becomes the arbiter. And, although you regard us as mere triflers and babblers, it troubles us not, since we have faith in this doctrine. For just as, not existing before I was born, I knew not who I was, and only existed in the potentiality (ὐπόστασις) of fleshly matter, but being born, after a former state of nothingness, I have obtained through my birth a certainty of my existence; in the same way, having been born, and through death existing no longer, and seen no longer, I shall exist again, just as before I was not, but was afterwards born. Even though fire destroy all traces of my flesh, the world receives the vaporized matter;18    [A supposed discovery of modern science. See Religion and Chemistry, by Professor Cook of Harvard, pp. 79, 101. Revised Edition, Scribners, 1880.] and though dispersed through rivers and seas, or torn in pieces by wild beasts, I am laid up in the storehouses of a wealthy Lord. And, although the poor and the godless know not what is stored up, yet God the Sovereign, when He pleases, will restore the substance that is visible to Him alone to its pristine condition.

6.1 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, _ἅ_π_α_ξ δὲ _τ_ῶ_ν καθ' ἡμᾶς _α_ἰ_ώ_ν_ω_ν πεπερασμένων καὶ εἰς τὸ παντελὲς διὰ μόνων τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὴν σύστασιν ἔσεσθαι χάριν κρίσεως. δικάζουσι δὲ ἡμῖν οὐ Μίνως οὐδὲ Ῥαδάμανθυς, ὧν πρὸ τῆς τελευτῆς οὐδεμία τῶν ψυχῶν, ὡς μυθολογοῦσιν, ἐκρίνετο, δοκιμαστὴς δὲ αὐτὸς ὁ ποιητὴς θεὸς γίνεται. κἂν γὰρ πάνυ φληνάφους τε καὶ _σ_π_ε_ρ_μ_ο_λ_ό_γ_ο_υ_ς ἡμᾶς νομίσητε, μέλον οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν, ἐπεὶ τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ πεπιστεύκαμεν. ὥσπερ γὰρ οὐκ ὢν πρὶν ἢ 6.2 γενέσθαι τίς ἤμην οὐκ ἐγίνωσκον, μόνον δὲ ἐν ὑποστάσει τῆς σαρκικῆς ὕλης ὑπῆρχον, γεγονὼς δὲ ὁ μὴ πάλαι διὰ τῆς γενέσεως τὸ εἶναι πεπίστευκα· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ὁ γενόμενος καὶ διὰ θανάτου μηκέτ' ὢν αὖθίς τε μηκέθ' ὁρώμενος ἔσομαι πάλιν ὥσπερ μὴ πάλαι γεγονὼς εἶτα γεννηθείς. κἂν πῦρ ἐξαφανίσῃ μου τὸ σαρκίον, ἐξατμισθεῖσαν τὴν ὕλην ὁ κόσμος κεχώρηκε· κἂν ἐν ποταμοῖς κἂν ἐν θαλάσσαις ἐκδαπανηθῶ κἂν ὑπὸ θηρίων διασπασθῶ, ταμείοις ἐναπόκειμαι πλουσίου δεσπότου. καὶ ὁ μὲν πτωχὸς καὶ ἄθεος οὐκ οἶδεν τὰ ἀποκείμενα, θεὸς δὲ ὁ βασιλεύων, ὅτε βούλεται, τὴν ὁρατὴν αὐτῷ μόνον ὑπόστασιν ἀποκαταστήσει πρὸς τὸ ἀρχαῖον.