28

A body is raised not such as that of the first-formed man was before the transgression, that is, material and sensible and changeable, in need of sensible food, but a body is raised that is wholly spiritual and unchangeable, such as that of our Lord and God was after the resurrection, that is, of the second Adam and our firstborn from the dead, differing greatly from that one, in the very same way also all creation will become by a divine nod not such as it was produced, both material and sensible, but will be transformed in the regeneration into an immaterial and spiritual dwelling place beyond all sensation. And besides, just as the divine Paul says that (69) "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" so also creation, set on fire by the divine fire, will be altered, so that the prophetic oracle might also be fulfilled which says thus: "But the righteous will inherit the earth", not a sensible one, by any means, for how could they, being spiritual? but one wholly spiritual and immaterial, so that those who have obtained bodiless bodies and have become beyond sensation while in sensation, and the circumscribed being uncircumscribed in the uncircumscribed, might have a habitation worthy of their own glory.

Therefore, understand now for me a spiritual world, existing beyond our sensation. Therefore, that which is beyond sensation and is spiritual is altogether incomprehensible to us and invisible; and that which is neither seen nor grasped at all, how could it be at all limited by us, or who in their right mind would say this? No one, by no means. Such, then, is our account concerning angels. For they too are somehow as if corporeal and circumscribed when compared with the immaterial and incorporeal nature of the divinity, as it is written: "heavenly bodies and earthly bodies," these being material, but those beyond us immaterial; and elsewhere: "He who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." Since, therefore, the heavenly minds are ministering spirits sent forth to serve, as it seems to the truth and to Paul the mystagogue of such things, whenever a divine angel is sent down from above by God to minister the divine command upon the earth, he leaves the heavenly choirs and admittedly comes to worldly things and to us. And if this seems so to the comprehension of the truth, he is shown in this to be circumscribed and limited; (70) for in relation to that divine and uncreated nature, which is entirely incorporeal and uncircumscribed, they are created and circumscribed, but in relation to our nature they are entirely incorporeal, incomprehensible, and invisible.

Such is also our account concerning the soul. For when compared to God, who is by nature incorporeal, and to the angels, it is somehow as if corporeal and circumscribed, but only to him who is able to bind it and has authority to cast it with the body into the hell of fire, but to mortal sense and sight it is entirely incorporeal and incomprehensible, being utterly unable to be circumscribed by sensible places or regions. And let no one hearing these things be astonished, considering how it is that the incorporeal angels enter and exit invisibly even when the doors are shut, and in the same way also how they take the souls of men, but let him hear the Lord saying: "In the resurrection," he says, "of the just, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God," and Paul, saying: "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body," and from that let him learn precisely that our bodies are going to become spiritual and, so to speak, like those of the angels, when they are raised from the dead. For if they are sown as natural bodies and are raised as spiritual ones, as the oracle says, and we are to be in the age to come as angels of God, just as the Lord has said, it is clear that we will be like them, if not in nature, then in worth. But I say they are corporeal in relation to God, but in relation to us, immaterial and invisible; but if this is so,

28

ἐγείρεται σῶμα οὐχ οἷον τό τοῦ πρωτοπλάστου πρό τῆς παραβάσεως ἦν, ὑλικόν δηλαδή καί αἰσθητόν καί τρεπτόν, δεόμενον τροφῆς αἰσθητῆς, ἀλλά ἐγείρεται σῶμα πνευματικόν ὅλον καί ἄτρεπτον, οἷον τό τοῦ ∆εσπότου ἡμῶν καί Θεοῦ μετά τήν ἀνάστασιν ἦν, τοῦ δευτέρου Ἀδάμ δηλονότι καί πρωτοτόκου ἡμῶν γενομένου ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, κατά πολύ διαφέρον ἐκείνου, τόν αὐτόν δή τρόπον καί ἡ κτίσις ἅπασα θείῳ γενήσεται νεύματι οὐχ οἵα παρήχθη, ὑλική τε καί αἰσθητή, ἀλλ᾿ εἰς ἄϋλον καί πνευματικόν ὑπέρ πᾶσαν αἴσθησιν ἐν τῇ παλιγγενεσίᾳ μεταποιηθήσεται οἰκηκήριον. Ἄλλως τε δέ καί καθώς ὁ θεῖος Παῦλός φησιν ὅτι (69) "πάντες μέν οὐ κοιμηθησόμεθα, πάντες δέ ἀλλαγησόμεθα ἐν ἀτόμῳ, ἐν ῥιπῇ ὀφθαλμοῦ" οὕτω καί ἡ κτίσις ὑπό τοῦ θείου φλεχθεῖσα πυρός ἀλλοιωθήσεται, ὡς ἄν καί τό προφητικόν πληρωθήσεται λόγιον τό οὕτω φάσκον· "∆ίκαιοι δέ κληρονομήσουσι γῆν", οὐκ αἰσθητήν πάντως, πῶς γάρ, οἱ πνευματικοί χρηματίζοντες; ἀλλά πνευματικήν πᾶσαν καί ἄϋλον, ἵνα οἱ ἀσώματα κεκτημένοι τά σώματα καί ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν ἐν αἰσθήσει γενόμενοι, καί ἀπερίγραπτοι ἐν ἀπεριγράπτοις ὄντες οἱ περιγραπτοί, ἄξιον ἔχωσι τῆς ἑαυτῶν δόξης κατοικητήριον.

Τοιγαροῦν καί νόει μοι ἄρτι κόσμον πνευματικόν καί ὑπέρ τήν ἡμῶν αἴσθησιν πέλοντα. Τό οὖν ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν ὄν καί πνευματικόν χρηματίσαν ἄληπτόν ἐστι πάντως τό καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς καί ἀόρατον· τό δέ μήτε ὁρώμενον, μήτε ὅλως κρατούμενον, πῶς κἄν ὅλως ἔσται περιοριστόν παρ᾿ ἡμῖν, ἤ τίς εὖ φρονῶν τοῦτο εἴποιεν; Οὐδείς οὐδαμῶς. Τοιοῦτος τοίνυν ἐστίν ἡμῖν καί ὁ περί τῶν ἀγγέλων λόγος. Καί γάρ καί αὐτοί οἱονεί σωματοί πώς εἰσι καί περιγραπτοί τῇ ἀΰλῳ καί ἀσωμάτῳ φύσει συγκρινόμενοι τῆς θεότητος, καθώς γέγραπται· "σώματα ἐπουράνια καί σώματα ἐπίγεια", ὑλικά μέν ταῦτα, ἄϋλα δέ τά ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς· καί ἀλλαχοῦ· "Ὁ ποιῶν τούς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ πνεύματα καί τούς λειτουργούς αὐτοῦ πυρός φλόγα". Ἐπεί οὖν λειτουργικά εἰσι πνεύματα καί οἱ νόες οἱ ἐπουράνιοι εἰς διακονίαν ἀποστελλόμενα, ὡς δοκεῖ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ καί Παύλῳ τῷ μυσταγωγῷ τῶν τοιούτων, ὅτε πάντως ἄγγελος θεῖος ἄνωθεν καταπεμφθῇ ἐκ Θεοῦ τῷ θείῳ λειτουργήσων προστάγματι ἐπί τῆς γῆς, τάς μέν οὐρανίους χοροστασίας καταλιμπάνει, πρός δέ τά ἐγκόσμια καί ἡμᾶς ὁμολογουμένως γίνεται. Εἰ δέ τοῦτο οὕτως δοκεῖ τῇ καταλήψει τῆς ἀληθείας, περιγραπτός ἐν τούτῳ ὤν δείκνυται καί περιοριστός· (70) πρός γάρ ἐκείνην τήν θείαν καί ἄκτιστον φύσιν, τήν ἀσώματον πάντῃ καί ἀπερίγραπτον, κτιστοί καί περιγραπτοί πέλουσι, πρός δέ τήν ἡμετέραν καί πάντῃ ἀσώματοι, ἄληπτοι καί ἀόρατοι.

Τοιοῦτος καί ὁ περί ψυχῆς ἡμῖν λόγος. Θεῷ γάρ τῷ φύσει ἀσωμάτῳ καί ἀγγέλοις συγκρινομένη, σωματή πως οἱονεί ἐστι καί περιγραπτή, ἀλλά μόνῳ τῷ δεσμεῖν δυναμένῳ ταύτην καί ἐξουσίαν ἔχοντι σύν τῷ σώματι εἰς γέενναν ἐμβαλεῖν πυρός, αἰσθήσει δέ καί ὄψει βροτείᾳ πάντῃ ἀσώματός τε καί ἀκατάληπτος, μή δυναμένη περιγραφῆναι τόποις ἤ χωρίοις αἰσθητοῖς τό καθόλου. Καί θαυμάσῃ μηδείς ταῦτα ἀκούων, ἐννοούμενος ὅπως καί τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων ἀοράτως εἰσέρχεσθαι καί ἐξέρχεσθαι γίνεται τούς ἀσωμάτους ἀγγέλους, τῷ αὐτῷ δέ τρόπῳ καί τάς ψυχάς λαμβάνειν αὐτούς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλ᾿ ἀκουέτω τοῦ Κυρίου λέγοντος· "Ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει, φησί, τῶν δικαίων, οὔτε γαμοῦσιν, οὔτε ἐκγαμίζονται, ἀλλ᾿ εἰσίν ὡς ἄγγελοι Θεοῦ", καί Παύλου· "Σπείρεται" λέγοντος "σῶμα ψυχικόν, ἐγείρεται σῶμα πνευματικόν", κἀκεῖθεν ἀκριβῶς μανθανέτω, ὅτι τά σώματα ἡμῶν πνευματικά καί οἷον εἰπεῖν τῶν ἀγγέλων παρόμοια μέλλουσι γενέσθαι, ἀνισταμένων ἀπό νεκρῶν. Εἰ γάρ ψυχικά σπείρονται καί πνευματικά ταῦτα ἐγείρονται, ὡς τό λόγιον, καί εἶναι ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τῷ μέλλοντι ὀφείλομεν ὡς Θεοῦ ἄγγελοι, καθά καί ὁ Κύριος εἴρηκε, δηλονότι ὅμοιοι αὐτοῖς, εἰ καί μή τῇ φύσει, ἀλλά τῇ ἀξίᾳ ἐσόμεθα. Σωματούς δέ αὐτούς ὡς πρός Θεόν φημι, ὡς δέ πρός ἡμᾶς ἀΰλους καί ἀοράτους· εἰ δέ τοῦτο,