Chapter VII.—The Resurrection-Body Different from the Present.

Nay, suppose we were to grant that the nourishment coming from these things (let it be so called, as more accordant with the common way of speaking), although against nature, is yet separated and changed into some one of the moist or dry, or warm or cold, matters which the body contains, our opponents would gain nothing by the concession: for the bodies that rise again are reconstituted from the parts which properly belong to them, whereas no one of the things mentioned is such a part, nor has it the form or place of a part; nay, it does not remain always with the parts of the body which are nourished, or rise again with the parts that rise, since no longer does blood, or phlegm, or bile, or breath, contribute anything to the life. Neither, again, will the bodies nourished then require the things they once required, seeing that, along with the want and corruption of the bodies nourished, the need also of those things by which they were nourished is taken away. To this must be added, that if we were to suppose the change arising from such nourishment to reach as far as flesh, in that case too there would be no necessity that the flesh recently changed by food of that kind, if it became united to the body of some other man, should again as a part contribute to the formation of that body, since neither the flesh which takes it up always retains what it takes, nor does the flesh so incorporated abide and remain with that to which it was added, but is subject to a great variety of changes,—at one time being dispersed by toil or care, at another time being wasted by grief or trouble or disease, and by the distempers arising from being heated or chilled, the humours which are changed with the flesh and fat not receiving the nourishment so as to remain what they are. But while such are the changes to which the flesh is subject, we should find that flesh, nourished by food unsuited to it, suffers them in a much greater degree; now swelling out and growing fat by what it has received, and then again rejecting it in some way or other, and decreasing in bulk, from one or more of the causes already mentioned; and that that alone remains in the parts which is adapted to bind together, or cover, or warm the flesh that has been chosen by nature, and adheres to those parts by which it sustains the life which is according to nature, and fulfils the labours of that life. So that whether the investigation in which we have just been engaged be fairly judged of, or the objections urged against our position be conceded, in neither case can it be shown that what is said by our opponents is true, nor can the bodies of men ever combine with those of the same nature, whether at any time, through ignorance and being cheated of their perception by some one else, men have partaken of such a body, or of their own accord, impelled by want or madness, they have defiled themselves with the body of one of like form; for we are very well aware that some brutes have human forms, or have a nature compounded of men and brutes, such as the more daring of the poets are accustomed to represent.

Ὅλως δὲ κἂν συγχωρήσῃ τις τὴν ἐκ τούτων εἰσιοῦσαν τροφὴν (προσειρήσθω δὲ τοῦτο συνηθέστερον), καίπερ οὖσαν παρὰ φύσιν, διακρίνεσθαι καὶ μεταβάλλειν εἰς ἕν τι τῶν ὑγραινόντων ἢ ξηραινόντων ἢ θερμαινόντων ἢ ψυχόντων, οὐδ' οὕτως ἐκ τῶν συγχωρηθέντων αὐτοῖς γενήσεταί τι προὔργου, τῶν μὲν ἀνισταμένων σωμάτων ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων μερῶν πάλιν συνισταμένων, οὐδενὸς δὲ τῶν εἰρημένων μέρους ὄντος οὐδὲ τὴν ὡς μέρους ἐπέχοντος σχέσιν ἢ τάξιν, οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ παραμένοντος πάντοτε τοῖς τρεφομένοις τοῦ σώματος μέρεσιν ἢ συνανισταμένου τοῖς ἀνισταμένοις, οὐδὲν συντελοῦντος ἔτι πρὸς τὸ ζῆν οὐχ αἵματος οὐ φλέγματος οὐ χολῆς οὐ πνεύματος. οὐδὲ γὰρ ὧν ἐδεήθη ποτὲ τὰ τρεφόμενα σώματα, δεηθήσεται καὶ τότε, συνανῃρημένης τῇ τῶν τρεφομένων ἐνδείᾳ καὶ φθορᾷ τῆς ἐξ ὧν ἐτρέφετο χρείας. ἔπειτ' εἰ καὶ μέχρι σαρκὸς φθάνειν τὴν ἐκ τῆς τοιαύτης τροφῆς μεταβολὴν ὑποθοῖτό τις, οὐδ' οὕτως ἀνάγκη τις ἔσται τὴν νεωστὶ μεταβληθεῖσαν ἐκ τῆς τοιᾶσδε τροφῆς σάρκα προσπελάσασαν ἑτέρου τινὸς ἀνθρώπου σώματι πάλιν ὡς μέρος εἰς τὴν ἐκείνου τελεῖν συμπλήρωσιν, τῷ μήτε αὐτὴν τὴν προσλαμβάνουσαν σάρκα πάντοτε φυλάττειν ἣν προσείληφεν, μήτε τὴν ἑνωθεῖσαν ταύτην μόνιμον εἶναι καὶ παραμένειν ᾗ προσετέθη, πολλὴν δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ θάτερα δέχεσθαι μεταβολὴν, ποτὲ μὲν πόνοις ἢ φροντίσιν διαφορουμένην, ἄλλοτε δὲ λύπαις ἢ καμάτοις ἢ νόσοις συντηκομένην, καὶ ταῖς ἐξ ἐγκαύσεως ἢ περιψύξεως ἐπιγινομέναις δυσκρασίαις, μὴ συμμεταβαλλομένων σαρκὶ καὶ πιμελῇ τῶν [δημῶν] ἐν τῷ μένειν ἅπερ ἐστὶ τὴν τροφὴν δεχομένων. τοιούτων δὲ γενομένων ἐπὶ τῆς σαρκὸς παθημάτων, πολύ γ' ἔτι μᾶλλον εὕροι τις ἂν ταῦτα πάσχουσαν τὴν ἐξ ἀνοικείων τρεφομένην σάρκα, νῦν μὲν εἰς ὄγκον προϊοῦσαν καὶ πιαινομένην ἐξ ὧν προσείληφεν, εἶτα πάλιν ἀποπτύουσαν ὃν ἂν τύχῃ τρόπον καὶ μειουμένην ἢ μιᾷ τινι τῶν ἔμπροσθεν ·ηθεισῶν ἢ πλείοσιν· μόνην δὲ παραμένειν τοῖς μέρεσιν ἃ συνδεῖν ἢ στέγειν ἢ θάλπειν πέφυκεν, τὴν ὑπὸ τῆς φύσεως ἐξειλεγμένην καὶ τούτοις προσπεφυκυῖαν οἷς τὴν κατὰ φύσιν συνεξέπλησεν ζωὴν καὶ τοὺς ἐν τῇ ζωῇ πόνους. ἀλλ' (οὔτε γὰρ καθ' ὃ δεῖ κρινομένων τῶν ἔναγχος ἐξητασμένων οὔτε κατὰ συγχώρησιν παραδεχθέντων τῶν ἐπ' ἐκείνοις γεγυμνασμένων ἀληθὲς δεικνύναι δυνατὸν τὸ πρὸς αὐτῶν λεγόμενον) οὐκ ἂν συγκραθείη ποτὲ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων σώματα τοῖς τῆς αὐτῆς οὖσι φύσεως, κἂν ὑπ' ἀγνοίας ποτὲ κλαπῶσι τὴν αἴσθησιν δι' ἑτέρου τινὸς μετασχόντες τοιούτου σώματος, κἂν αὐτόθεν ὑπ' ἐνδείας ἢ μανίας ὁμοειδοῦς τινος μιανθῶσιν σώματι· εἴ γε μὴ λελήθασιν ἡμᾶς ἀνθρωποειδεῖς τινες ὄντες θῆρες ἢ μικτὴν ἔχοντες φύσιν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων καὶ θηρίων, οἵους πλάττειν εἰώθασιν οἱ τολμηρότεροι τῶν ποιητῶν.