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Athenagoras, On the Resurrection of the Dead
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Chapter I.—Defence of the Truth Should Precede Discussions Regarding It.
Chapter II.—A Resurrection is Not Impossible.
Chapter III.—He Who Could Create, Can Also Raise Up the Dead.
Chapter IV.—Objection from the Fact that Some Human Bodies Have Become Part of Others.
Chapter V.—Reference to the Processes of Digestion and Nutrition.
Chapter VI.—Everything that is Useless or Hurtful is Rejected.
Chapter VII.—The Resurrection-Body Different from the Present.
Chapter VIII.—Human Flesh Not the Proper or Natural Food of Men.
Chapter IX.—Absurdity of Arguing from Man’s Impotency.
Chapter X.—It Cannot Be Shown that God Does Not Will a Resurrection.
Chapter XII.—Argument for the Resurrection From the Purpose Contemplated in Man’s Creation.
Chapter XIII.—Continuation of the Argument.
Chapter XIV.—The Resurrection Does Not Rest Solely on the Fact of a Future Judgment.
Chapter XV.—Argument for the Resurrection from the Nature of Man.
Chapter XVI—Analogy of Death and Sleep, and Consequent Argument for the Resurrection.
Chapter XVII.—The Series of Changes We Can Now Trace in Man Renders a Resurrection Probable.
Chapter XIX.—Man Would Be More Unfavourably Situated Than the Beasts If There Were No Resurrection.
Chapter XXI.—Continuation of the Argument.
Chapter XXII.—Continuation of the Argument.
Chapter XXIII.—Continuation of the Argument.
Chapter XXIV.—Argument for the Resurrection from the Chief End of Man.
For either death is the entire extinction of life, the soul being dissolved and corrupted along with the body, or the soul remains by itself, incapable of dissolution, of dispersion, of corruption, whilst the body is corrupted and dissolved, retaining no longer any remembrance of past actions, nor sense of what it experienced in connection with the soul. If the life of men is to be utterly extinguished, it is manifest there will be no care for men who are not living, no judgment respecting those who have lived in virtue or in vice; but there will rush in again upon us whatever belongs to a lawless life, and the swarm of absurdities which follow from it, and that which is the summit of this lawlessness—atheism. But if the body were to be corrupted, and each of the dissolved particles to pass to its kindred element, yet the soul to remain by itself as immortal, neither on this supposition would any judgment on the soul take place, since there would be an absence of equity: for it is unlawful to suspect that any judgment can proceed out of God and from God which is wanting in equity. Yet equity is wanting to the judgment, if the being is not preserved in existence who practiced righteousness or lawlessness: for that which practiced each of the things in life on which the judgment is passed was man, not soul by itself. To sum up all in a word, this view will in no case consist with equity.
Ἤτοι γὰρ παντελής ἐστι σβέσις τῆς ζωῆς ὁ θάνατος συνδιαλυομένης τῷ σώματι τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ συνδιαφθειρομένης, ἢ μένει μὲν ἡ ψυχὴ καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἄλυτος ἀσκέδαστος ἀδιάφθορος, φθείρεται δὲ καὶ διαλύεται τὸ σῶμα, οὐδεμίαν ἔτι σῷζον οὔτε μνήμην τῶν εἰργασμένων οὔτ' αἴσθησιν τῶν ἐπ' αὐτῇ παθημάτων. σβεννυμένης μὲν γὰρ παντελῶς τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ζωῆς, οὐδεμία φανήσεται τῶν ἀνθρώπων οὐ ζώντων φροντίς, οὐ τῶν κατ' ἀρετὴν ἢ κακίαν βεβιωκότων [ἡ] κρίσις, ἐπεισκυκληθήσεται δὲ πάλιν τὰ τῆς ἀνόμου ζωῆς καὶ τῶν ταύτῃ συνεπομένων ἀτόπων τὸ σμῆνος τό τε τῆς ἀνομίας ταύτης κεφάλαιον, ἀθεότης. εἰ δὲ φθείροιτο μὲν τὸ σῶμα καὶ χωροίη πρὸς τὸ συγγενὲς τῶν λελυμένων ἕκαστον, μένοι δὲ ἡ ψυχὴ καθ' ἑαυτὴν ὡς ἄφθαρτος, οὐδ' οὕτως ἕξει χώραν ἡ κατ' αὐτῆς κρίσις, μὴ προσούσης δικαιοσύνης· ἐπεὶ μηδὲ θεμιτὸν ὑπολαμβάνειν ἐκ θεοῦ καὶ παρὰ θεοῦ γίνεσθαί τινα κρίσιν, ᾗ μὴ πρόσεστι τὸ δίκαιον. οὐ πρόσεστι δὲ τῇ κρίσει τὸ δίκαιον μὴ σῳζομένου τοῦ διαπραξαμένου τὴν δικαιοσύνην ἢ τὴν ἀνομίαν· ὁ γὰρ διαπραξάμενος ἕκαστον τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον ἐφ' οἷς ἡ κρίσις, ἄνθρωπος ἦν, οὐ ψυχὴ καθ' ἑαυτήν. τὸ δὲ σύμπαν εἰπεῖν, ὁ λόγος οὗτος ἐπ' οὐδενὸς φυλάξει τὸ δίκαιον.