When I had finished, the Teacher thus replied, You have attacked the doctrines connected with the Resurrection with some spirit, in the way of rhetoric as it is called; you have coursed round and round the truth with plausibly subversive arguments; so much so, that those who have not very carefully considered this mysterious truth might possibly be affected in their view of it by the likelihood of those arguments, and might think that the difficulty started against what has been advanced was not altogether beside the point. But, she proceeded, the truth does not lie in these arguments, even though we may find it impossible to give a rhetorical answer to them, couched in equally strong language. The true explanation of all these questions is still stored up in the hidden treasure-rooms of Wisdom, and will not come to the light until that moment when we shall be taught the mystery of the Resurrection by the reality of it; and then there will be no more need of phrases to explain the things which we now hope for. Just as many questions might be started for debate amongst people sitting up at night as to the kind of thing that sunshine is, and then the simple appearing of it in all its beauty would render any verbal description superfluous, so every calculation that tries to arrive conjecturally at the future state will be reduced to nothingness by the object of our hopes, when it comes upon us. But since it is our duty not to leave the arguments brought against us in any way unexamined, we will expound the truth as to these points as follows. First let us get a clear notion as to the scope of this doctrine; in other words, what is the end that Holy Scripture has in view in promulgating it and creating the belief in it. Well, to sketch the outline of so vast a truth and to embrace it in a definition, we will say that the Resurrection is “the reconstitution of our nature in its original form173    The actual language of this definition is Platonic (cf. Sympos. p. 193 D), but it is Gregory’s constant formula for the Christian Resurrection; see De Hom. Opif. c. 17; In Ecclesiast. I. p. 385 A; Funeral Oration for Pulcheria, III. p. 523 C; Orat. de Mortuis, III. p. 632 C; De Virginitate, c. xii. p. 358..” But in that form of life, of which God Himself was the Creator, it is reasonable to believe that there was neither age nor infancy nor any of the sufferings arising from our present various infirmities, nor any kind of bodily affliction whatever. It is reasonable, I say, to believe that God was the Creator of none of these things, but that man was a thing divine before his humanity got within reach of the assault of evil; that then, however, with the inroad of evil, all these afflictions also broke in upon him. Accordingly a life that is free from evil is under no necessity whatever of being passed amidst the things that result from evil. It follows that when a man travels through ice he must get his body chilled; or when he walks in a very hot sun that he must get his skin darkened; but if he has kept clear of the one or the other, he escapes these results entirely, both the darkening and the chilling; no one, in fact, when a particular cause was removed, would be justified in looking for the effect of that particular cause. Just so our nature, becoming passional, had to encounter all the necessary results of a life of passion: but when it shall have started back to that state of passionless blessedness, it will no longer encounter the inevitable results of evil tendencies. Seeing, then, that all the infusions of the life of the brute into our nature were not in us before our humanity descended through the touch of evil into passions, most certainly, when we abandon those passions, we shall abandon all their visible results. No one, therefore, will be justified in seeking in that other life for the consequences in us of any passion. Just as if a man, who, clad in a ragged tunic, has divested himself of the garb, feels no more its disgrace upon him, so we too, when we have cast off that dead unsightly tunic made from the skins of brutes and put upon us (for I take the “coats of skins” to mean that conformation belonging to a brute nature with which we were clothed when we became familiar with passionate indulgence), shall, along with the casting off of that tunic, fling from us all the belongings that were round us of that skin of a brute; and such accretions are sexual intercourse, conception, parturition, impurities, suckling, feeding, evacuation, gradual growth to full size, prime of life, old age, disease, and death. If that skin is no longer round us, how can its resulting consequences be left behind within us? It is folly, then, when we are to expect a different state of things in the life to come, to object to the doctrine of the Resurrection on the ground of something that has nothing to do with it. I mean, what has thinness or corpulence, a state of consumption or of plethora, or any other condition supervening in a nature that is ever in a flux, to do with the other life, stranger as it is to any fleeting and transitory passing such as that? One thing, and one thing only, is required for the operation of the Resurrection; viz. that a man should have lived, by being born; or, to use rather the Gospel words, that “a man should be born174    ἐγεννηθη. S. John xvi. 21 into the world”; the length or briefness of the life, the manner, this or that, of the death, is an irrelevant subject of inquiry in connection with that operation. Whatever instance we take, howsoever we suppose this to have been, it is all the same; from these differences in life there arises no difficulty, any more than any facility, with regard to the Resurrection. He who has once begun to live must necessarily go on having once lived175    τὸν γὰρ τοῦ ζῆν ἀρξάμενον, ζῆσαι χρὴ πάντως. The present infinitive here expresses only a new state of existence, the aorist a continued act. The aorist may have this force, if (as a whole) it is viewed as a single event in past time. Cf. Appian. Bell. Civ. ii. 91, ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα., after his intervening dissolution in death has been repaired in the Resurrection.

As to the how and the when of his dissolution, what do they matter to the Resurrection? Consideration of such points belongs to another line of inquiry altogether. For instance, a man may have lived in bodily comfort, or in affliction, virtuously or viciously, renowned or disgraced; he may have passed his days miserably, or happily. These and such-like results must be obtained from the length of his life and the manner of his living; and to be able to pass a judgment on the things done in his life, it will be necessary for the judge to scrutinize his indulgences, as the case may be, or his losses, or his disease, or his old age, or his prime, or his youth, or his wealth, or his poverty: how well or ill a man, placed in either of these, concluded his destined career; whether he was the recipient of many blessings, or of many ills in a length of life; or tasted neither of them at all, but ceased to live before his mental powers were formed. But whenever the time come that God shall have brought our nature back to the primal state of man, it will be useless to talk of such things then, and to imagine that objections based upon such things can prove God’s power to be impeded in arriving at His end. His end is one, and one only; it is this: when the complete whole of our race shall have been perfected from the first man to the last,—some having at once in this life been cleansed from evil, others having afterwards in the necessary periods been healed by the Fire, others having in their life here been unconscious equally of good and of evil,—to offer to every one of us participation in the blessings which are in Him, which, the Scripture tells us, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,” nor thought ever reached. But this is nothing else, as I at least understand it, but to be in God Himself; for the Good which is above hearing and eye and heart must be that Good which transcends the universe. But the difference between the virtuous and the vicious life led at the present time176    Reading with Krabinger, ἐν τῷ νῦν καιρῷ instead of ἐν τῷ μετὰ ταῦτα, which cannot possibly refer to what immediately precedes, i.e. the union with God, by means of the Resurrection. If μετὰ ταῦτα is retained, it must = μετὰ τοῦτον τὸν βίον. Gregory here implies that the Resurrection is not a single contemporaneous act, but differs in time, as individuals differ; carrying out the Scriptural distinction of a first and second Resurrection. will be illustrated in this way; viz. in the quicker or more tardy participation of each in that promised blessedness. According to the amount of the ingrained wickedness of each will be computed the duration of his cure. This cure consists in the cleansing of his soul, and that cannot be achieved without an excruciating condition, as has been expounded in our previous discussion. But any one would more fully comprehend the futility and irrelevancy of all these objections by trying to fathom the depths of our Apostle’s wisdom. When explaining this mystery to the Corinthians, who, perhaps, themselves were bringing forward the same objections to it as its impugners to-day bring forward to overthrow our faith, he proceeds on his own authority to chide the audacity of their ignorance, and speaks thus: “Thou wilt say, then, to me, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die; And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some other grain; But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him.” In that passage, as it seems to me, he gags the mouths of men who display their ignorance of the fitting proportions in Nature, and who measure the Divine power by their own strength, and think that only so much is possible to God as the human understanding can take in, but that what is beyond it surpasses also the Divine ability. For the man who had asked the Apostle, “how are the dead raised up?” evidently implies that it is impossible when once the body’s atoms have been scattered that they should again come in concourse together; and this being impossible, and no other possible form of body, besides that arising from such a concourse, being left, he, after the fashion of clever controversialists, concludes the truth of what he wants to prove, by a species of syllogism, thus: If a body is a concourse of atoms, and a second assemblage of these is impossible, what sort of body will those get who rise again? This conclusion, involved seemingly in this artful contrivance of premisses, the Apostle calls “folly,” as coming from men who failed to perceive in other parts of the creation the masterliness of the Divine power. For, omitting the sublimer miracles of God’s hand, by which it would have been easy to place his hearer in a dilemma (for instance he might have asked “how or whence comes a heavenly body, that of the sun for example, or that of the moon, or that which is seen in the constellations; whence the firmament, the air, water, the earth?”), he, on the contrary, convicts the objectors of inconsiderateness by means of objects which grow alongside of us and are very familiar to all. “Does not even husbandry teach thee,” he asks, “that the man who in calculating the transcendent powers of the Deity limits them by his own is a fool?” Whence do seeds get the bodies that spring up from them? What precedes this springing up? Is it not a death that precedes177    Dr. H. Schmidt has an admirable note here, pointing out the great and important difference between S. Paul’s use of this analogy of the grain of wheat, and that of our Saviour in S. John xii. 23, whence S. Paul took it. In the words, “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (A.V.), the fact and the similitude exactly correspond. To the corn with its life-engendering shoot, answers the man with his vivifying soul. The shoot, when the necessary conditions are fulfilled, breaks through the corn, and mounts up into an ear, exquisitely developed: so the soul, when the due time is come, bursts from the body into a nobler form. Again, through the death of the integument a number of new corns are produced: so through the death of the body that encases a perfect soul (i.e. that of Jesus), an abundance of blessings is produced for mankind. Everything here exactly corresponds; the principle of life, on the one hand in the corn, on the other hand in the human body, breaks, by dying, into a more beautiful existence. But this comparison in S. Paul becomes a similitude rather than an analogy. With him the lifeless body is set over against the life-containing corn; he does not compare the lifeless body with the lifeless corn: because out of the latter no stalk and ear would ever grow. The comparison, therefore, is not exact: it is not pretended that the rising to life of the dead human body is not a process transcendently above the natural process of the rising of the ear of wheat. But the similitude serves to illustrate the form and the quality of the risen body, which has been in question since v. 35 (1 Cor. xv.), “with what body do they come?” and the salient point is that the risen body will be as little like the buried body, as the ear of wheat is like its corn. The possibility of the Resurrection has been already proved by S. Paul in this chapter by Christ’s own Resurrection, which he states from the very commencement as a fact: it is not proved by this similitude.? At least, if the dissolution of a compacted whole is a death; for indeed it cannot be supposed that the seed would spring up into a shoot unless it had been dissolved in the soil, and so become spongy and porous to such an extent as to mingle its own qualities with the adjacent moisture of the soil, and thus become transformed into a root and shoot; not stopping even there, but changing again into the stalk with its intervening knee-joints that gird it up like so many clasps, to enable it to carry with figure erect the ear with its load of corn. Where, then, were all these things belonging to the grain before its dissolution in the soil? And yet this result sprang from that grain; if that grain had not existed first, the ear would not have arisen. Just, then, as the “body” of the ear comes to light out of the seed, God’s artistic touch of power producing it all out of that single thing, and just as it is neither entirely the same thing as that seed nor something altogether different, so (she insisted) by these miracles performed on seeds you may now interpret the mystery of the Resurrection. The Divine power, in the superabundance of Omnipotence, does not only restore you that body once dissolved, but makes great and splendid additions to it, whereby the human being is furnished in a manner still more magnificent.

“It is sown,” he says, “in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” The grain of wheat, after its dissolution in the soil, leaves behind the slightness of its bulk and the peculiar quality of its shape, and yet it has not left and lost itself, but, still self-centred, grows into the ear, though in many points it has made an advance upon itself, viz. in size, in splendour, in complexity, in form. In the same fashion the human being deposits in death all those peculiar surroundings which it has acquired from passionate propensities; dishonour, I mean, and corruption and weakness and characteristics of age; and yet the human being does not lose itself. It changes into an ear of corn as it were; into incorruption, that is, and glory and honour and power and absolute perfection; into a condition in which its life is no longer carried on in the ways peculiar to mere nature, but has passed into a spiritual and passionless existence. For it is the peculiarity of the natural body to be always moving on a stream, to be always altering from its state for the moment and changing into something else; but none of these processes, which we observe not in man only but also in plants and brutes will be found remaining in the life that shall be then. Further, it seems to me that the words of the Apostle in every respect harmonize with our own conception of what the Resurrection is. They indicate the very same thing that we have embodied in our own definition of it, wherein we said that the Resurrection is no other thing than “the re-constitution of our nature in its original form.” For, whereas we learn from Scripture in the account of the first Creation178    The Resurrection being the second. The ἐπειδὴ here does not give the reason for what precedes: that is given in the words, φησὶ δὴ τοῦτο ὁ ἀπόστολος, to which the leading γὰρ therefore belongs: the colon should be replaced (after ἀνέδραμεν) by a comma., that first the earth brought forth “the green herb” (as the narrative says), and that then from this plant seed was yielded, from which, when it was shed on the ground, the same form of the original plant again sprang up, the Apostle, it is to be observed, declares that this very same thing happens in the Resurrection also; and so we learn from him the fact, not only179    Reading οὐ μόνον δὲ τοῦτο, κ.τ.λ. The δὲ is not found in two Codd. that our humanity will be then changed into something nobler, but also that what we have therein to expect is nothing else than that which was at the beginning. In the beginning, we see, it was not an ear rising from a grain, but a grain coming from an ear, and, after that, the ear grows round the grain: and so the order indicated in this similitude180    i.e.of grain, adopted by the Apostle. clearly shows that all that blessed state, which arises for us by means of the Resurrection is only a return to our pristine state of grace. We too, in fact, were once in a fashion a full ear181    στάχυς here might be the nom. plur. Any way it is a “nominativus pendens.”; but the burning heat of sin withered us up, and then on our dissolution by death the earth received us: but in the spring of the Resurrection she will reproduce this naked grain182    This “naked grain” is suggested by the words of S. Paul, not so much 1 Cor. xv. 37, as 2 Cor. v. 4: “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon.” Tertullian’s words (de resurr. carnis c. 52) deserve to be quoted, “Seritur granum sine folliculi veste, sine fundamento spicæ, sine munimento aristæ, sine superbiâ culmi. Exsurgit copiâ feneratum, compagine ædificatum, ordine structum, cultu munitum, et usquequaque vestitum.” In allusion to this passage (2 Cor. v. 4), Origen says, “Our theory of the Resurrection teaches that the relations of a seed attach to that which the Scriptures call the ‘tabernacle of the soul,’ in which the righteous ‘do groan being burdened,’ not wishing to put it off, but ‘to be clothed upon’ (with something else). We do not, as Celsus thinks, mean by the resurrection anything like the transmigration of souls. The soul, in its essence unbodied and invisible, when it comes into material space, requires a body fitted to the conditions of that particular space: which body it wears, having either put off a former body, or else having put it on over its former body…For instance, when it comes to the actual birth into this world it lays aside the environment (χωρίον) which was needed as long as it is in the womb of her that is with child: and it clothes itself with that which is necessary for one destined to pass through life. Then there is a ‘tabernacle,’ and ‘an earthly house,’ as well: and the Scriptures tell us that this ‘earthly house’ of the tabernacle is to be dissolved, but that the tabernacle itself is to surround itself with another house not made with hands. The men of God declare that the corruptible must put on incorruption (which is a different thing from the incorruptible), and the mortal must put on immortality (which is different from the immortal: just as the relative quality of wisdom is different from that which is absolutely wise). Observe, then, where this system leads us. It says that the souls put on incorruption and immortality like garments which keep their wearer from corruption, and their inmate (τὸν περικείμενον αὐτὰ) from death” (c. Cels. vii. 32). We see at once this is another explanation of the Resurrection, by the σπερματικὸς λόγος of the soul, and not Gregory’s; with him the soul recollects its scattered atoms, and he thus saves the true scriptural view. of our body in the form of an ear, tall, well-proportioned, and erect, reaching to the heights of heaven, and, for blade and beard, resplendent in incorruption, and with all the other godlike marks. For “this corruptible must put on incorruption”; and this incorruption and glory and honour and power are those distinct and acknowledged marks of Deity which once belonged to him who was created in God’s image, and which we hope for hereafter. The first man Adam, that is, was the first ear; but with the arrival of evil human nature was diminished into a mere multitude183    This connection of “evil” and “multitude” is essentially Platonic. Cf. also Plotinus, vi. 6. 1: “Multitude, then, is a revolt from unity, and infinity a more complete revolt by being infinite multitude: and so infinity is bad, and we are bad, when we are a multitude” (cf. “Legion” in the parable).; and, as happens to the grain184    as happens to the grain, i.e. to become bare, as compared with the beautiful envelopments of the entire ear. on the ear, each individual man was denuded of the beauty of that primal ear, and mouldered in the soil: but in the Resurrection we are born again in our original splendour; only instead of that single primitive ear we become the countless myriads of ears in the cornfields. The virtuous life as contrasted with that of vice is distinguished thus: those who while living have by virtuous conduct exercised husbandry on themselves are at once revealed in all the qualities of a perfect ear, while those whose bare grain (that is the forces of their natural soul) has become through evil habits degenerate, as it were, and hardened by the weather (as the so-called “hornstruck” seeds185    “hornstruck” seeds, i.e. those which have been struck by, or have struck, the horns of the oxen, in the process of sowing: according to the rustic superstition, which Gregory Nazianz. in some very excellent hexameters alludes to (Opp. t. II. pp. 66–163): “There is,” he says, “a dry unsoakable seed, which never sinks into the ground, or fattens with the rain; it is harder than horn; its horn has struck the horn of the ox, what time the ploughman’s hand is scattering the grain over his land.” Ruhnken (ad Timæum, p. 155) has collected the ancient authorities on this point. The word is used by Plato of a “hard,” “intractable” person. The “bare grain” of the wicked is here compared to these hard seeds, which even though they may sink into the earth and rise again, yet have a poor and stunted blade, which may never grow., according to the experts in such things, grow up), will, though they live again in the Resurrection, experience very great severity from their Judge, because they do not possess the strength to shoot up into the full proportions of an ear, and thereby become that which we were before our earthly fall186    Reading ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, instead of τὴν γῆν: for a fall “on to the earth,” instead of “on the earth,” agrees neither with what Gregory (speaking by Macrina) has urged against the heathen doctrine of Transmigration, nor with the words of Scripture which he follows. The “earthly fall” is compared with the heavenly rising: κατάπτωσις, in the sense of a “moral fall,” is used in 3 Maccab. ii. 14 (quoted by Schmidt).. The remedy offered by the Overseer of the produce is to collect together the tares and the thorns, which have grown up with the good seed, and into whose bastard life all the secret forces that once nourished its root have passed, so that it not only has had to remain without its nutriment, but has been choked and so rendered unproductive by this unnatural growth. When from the nutritive part within them everything that is the reverse or the counterfeit of it has been picked out, and has been committed to the fire that consumes everything unnatural, and so has disappeared, then in this class also their humanity will thrive and will ripen into fruit-bearing, owing to such husbandry, and some day after long courses of ages will get back again that universal form which God stamped upon us at the beginning. Blessed are they, indeed, in whom the full beauty of those ears shall be developed directly they are born in the Resurrection. Yet we say this without implying that any merely bodily distinctions will be manifest between those who have lived virtuously and those who have lived viciously in this life, as if we ought to think that one will be imperfect as regards his material frame, while another will win perfection as regards it. The prisoner and the free, here in this present world, are just alike as regards the constitutions of their two bodies; though as regards enjoyment and suffering the gulf is wide between them. In this way, I take it, should we reckon the difference between the good and the bad in that intervening time187    Between the Resurrection and the Αποκατάστασις. For the perfection of bodies that rise from that sowing of death is, as the Apostle tells us, to consist in incorruption and glory and honour and power; but any diminution in such excellences does not denote a corresponding bodily mutilation of him who has risen again, but a withdrawal and estrangement from each one of those things which are conceived of as belonging to the good. Seeing, then, that one or the other of these two diametrically opposed ideas, I mean good and evil, must any way attach to us, it is clear that to say a man is not included in the good is a necessary demonstration that he is included in the evil. But then, in connection with evil, we find no honour, no glory, no incorruption, no power; and so we are forced to dismiss all doubt that a man who has nothing to do with these last-mentioned things must be connected with their opposites, viz. with weakness, with dishonour, with corruption, with everything of that nature, such as we spoke of in the previous parts of the discussion, when we said how many were the passions, sprung from evil, which are so hard for the soul to get rid of, when they have infused themselves into the very substance of its entire nature and become one with it. When such, then, have been purged from it and utterly removed by the healing processes worked out by the Fire, then every one of the things which make up our conception of the good will come to take their place; incorruption, that is, and life, and honour, and grace, and glory, and everything else that we conjecture is to be seen in God, and in His Image, man as he was made.

Μ. Ἐμοῦ δὲ ταῦτα διεξελθόντος, Οὐκ ἀγεννῶς, φησὶν ἡ διδάσκαλος, κατὰ τὴν λεγομένην ῥητορικὴν τῶν τῆς ἀναστάσεως δογμάτων κατεπεχείρησας, πιθανῶς τοῖς ἀνασκευαστικοῖς τῶν λόγων ἐν κύκλῳ περιδραμὼν τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ὥστε τοὺς μὴ λίαν ἐπεσκεμμένους τὸ τῆς ἀληθείας μυστήριον παθεῖν ἄν πως τὸ κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς πρὸς τὸν λόγον, καὶ οἰηθῆναι μὴ ἔξω τοῦ δέοντος ἐπῆχθαι τοῖς εἰρημένοις τὴν ἐπαπόρησιν. Ἔχει δὲ οὐχ οὕτω, φησὶν, ἡ ἀλήθεια, κἂν ἀδυνάτως ἔχωμεν ἐκ τῶν ὁμοίων ἀντιρητορεύειν τῷ λόγῳ, ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν ἀληθὴς περὶ τούτων λόγος ἐν τοῖς ἀποκρύφοις σοφίας θησαυροῖς τεταμίευται, τότε εἰς τὸ ἐμφανὲς ἥξων, ὅταν ἔργῳ τὸ τῆς ἀναστάσεως διδαχθῶμεν μυστήριον, ὅτε οὐκέτι δεήσει ῥημάτων ἡμῖν πρὸς τὴν ἐλπιζομένων φανέρωσιν. Ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἐν νυκτὶ πολλῶν κινουμένων τοῖς διαγρυπνοῦσι λόγοις περὶ τῆς τοῦ ἡλίου λαμπηδόνος, οἵα ἐστὶν, ἀργὴν ποιεῖ τὴν τοῦ λόγου ὑπογραφὴν προφανεῖσα μόνον τῆς ἀκτῖνος ἡ χάρις, οὕτω πάντα λογισμὸν στοχαστικῶς τῆς μελλούσης καταστάσεως ἐφαπτόμενον, ἀντ' οὐδενὸς ὑποδείκνυσιν, ὅτε γένηται ἡμῖν ἐν τῇ πείρᾳ τὸ προσδοκώμενον. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ χρὴ μὴ παντάπασιν ἀνεξετάστους ἐαθῆναι τὰς ἀντυπενεχθείσας ἡμῖν ἐνστάσεις, οὑτωσὶ τὸν περὶ τούτων λόγον διαληψόμεθα. Νοῆσαι χρὴ πρῶτον τίς ὁ σκοπὸς τοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν δόγματος, καὶ ὅτου χάριν καὶ εἴρηται τοῦτο παρὰ τῆς ἁγίας φωνῆς καὶ πεπίστευται. Οὐκοῦν, ὡς ἄν τις ὅρῳ τινὶ τὸ τοιοῦτον περιλαβὼν ὑπογράψειεν, οὕτως ἐροῦμεν: ὅτι ἀνάστασίς ἐστιν ἡ εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν ἀποκατάστασις. Ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ ζωῇ, ἧς αὐτὸς γέγονε δημιουργὸς ὁ Θεὸς, οὔτε γῆρας ἦν, ὡς εἰκὸς, οὔτε νηπιότης, οὔτε κατὰ τὰς πολυτρόπους ἀῤῥωστίας πάθη, οὔτε ἄλλο τῆς σωματικῆς ταλαιπωρίας οὐδὲν (οὔτε γὰρ εἰκὸς ἦν τὰ τοιαῦτα δημιουργεῖν τὸν Θεὸν), ἀλλὰ θεῖόν τι χρῆμα ἦν ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις πρὶν ἐν ὁρμῇ γίνεσθαι τοῦ κακοῦ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. Ταῦτα δὲ πάντα τῇ εἰσόδῳ τῆς κακίας ἡμῖν συνεισέβαλεν. Οὐκοῦν οὐδεμίαν ἀνάγκην ἕξει ὁ ἄνευ κακίας βίος ἐν τοῖς διὰ ταῦτα συμβεβηκόσιν εἶναι.
Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐπακολουθεῖ τῷ διὰ κρυμῶν ὁδοιποροῦντι τὸ ψύχεσθαι τὸ σῶμα, ἢ τῷ διὰ θερμῶν ἀκτίνων πορευομένῳ τὸ μελαίνεσθαι τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν εἰ δὲ ἐκτὸς ἑκατέρου γένοιτο τούτων συναπαλλαγήσεται πάντως καὶ τοῦ μελασμοῦ καὶ τῆς ψύξεως, καὶ οὐκ ἄν τις εὐλόγως ἐπιζητοίη τὸ ἔκ τινος αἰτίας συμβαῖνον, τῆς αἰτίας οὐκ οὔσης: οὕτως ἡ φύσις ἡμῶν ἐμπαθὴς γενομένη, τοῖς ἀναγκαίως ἐπακολουθοῦσι τῇ παθητικῇ ζωῇ συνηνέχθη. Πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἀπαθῆ μακαριότητα πάλιν ἀναδραμοῦσα, οὐκέτι τοῖς ἐπακολουθοῦσι τῆς κακίας συνενεχθήσεται. Ἐπεὶ οὖν ὅσα ἐκ τῆς ἀλόγου ζωῆς τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ κατεμίχθη φύσει, οὐ πρότερον ἦν ἐν ἡμῖν πρὶν εἰς πάθος διὰ κακίας πεσεῖν τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, ἀναγκαίως καταλιπόντες τὸ πάθος, καὶ πάντα ὅσα μετ' αὐτοῦ καθορᾶται συγκαταλείψομεν. Ὥστε οὐκ ἄν τις εὐλόγως ἐν τῷ βίῳ ἐκείνῳ τὰ ἐκ τοῦ πάθους ἡμῖν συμβεβηκότα ζητήσειεν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ εἴ τις ῥωγαλέον περὶ αὐτὸν ἔχων χιτῶνα, γυμνωθείη τοῦ περιβλήματος, οὐκέτι ἂν τὴν τοῦ ἀποῤῥιφέντος ἀσχημοσύνην ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ βλέποι, οὕτω καὶ ἡμῶν ἀποδυσαμένων τὸν νεκρὸν ἐκεῖνον καὶ εἰδεχθῆ χιτῶνα, τὸν ἐκ τῶν ἀλόγων δερμάτων ἡμῖν ἐπιβληθέντα (δέρμα δὲ ἀκούων τὸ σχῆμα τῆς ἀλόγου φύσεως νοεῖν μοι δοκῶ, ᾧ πρὸς τὸ πάθος οἰκειωθέντες περιεβλήθημεν), πάντα ὅσα τοῦ ἀλόγου δέρματος περὶ ἡμᾶς ἦν ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει τοῦ χιτῶνος συναποβαλλόμεθα. Ἔστι δὲ ἃ προσέλαβεν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀλόγου δέρματος, ἡ μίξις, ἡ σύλληψις, ὁ τόκος, ὁ ῥύπος, ἡ θηλὴ, ἡ τροφὴ, ἡ ἐκποίησις, ἡ κατ' ὀλίγον ἐπὶ τὸ τέλειον αὔξησις, ἡ ἀκμὴ, τὸ γῆρας, ἡ νόσος, ὁ θάνατος. Εἰ οὖν ἐκεῖνο περὶ ἡμᾶς οὐκ ἔσται, πῶς ἡμῖν τὰ ἐξ ἐκείνου ὑπολειφθήσεται; Ὥστε μάταιον ἄλλης τινὸς καταστάσεως κατὰ τὴν μέλλουσαν ζωὴν ἐλπιζομένης, διὰ τῶν μηδὲν αὐτῇ κοινωνούντων ἐνίστασθαι πρὸς τὸ δόγμα τῆς ἀναστάσεως.
Τί γὰρ κοινὸν ἔχει ἡ ῥικνότης καὶ πολυσαρκία καὶ τηκεδὼν, καὶ πληθώρα, καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο τῇ ῥευστῇ φύσει τῶν σωμάτων ἐπισυμβαίνει πρὸς τὴν ζωὴν ἐκείνην, ἣ τῆς ῥοώδους τε καὶ παροδικῆς τοῦ βίου διαγωγῆς ἠλλοτρίωται; Ἓν ζητεῖ μόνον ὁ τῆς ἀναστάσεως λόγος, τὸ φυῆναι διὰ γενέσεως ἄνθρωπον: μᾶλλον δὲ, καὶ καθώς φησι τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον, εἰ ἐγενήθη ἄνθρωπος εἰς τὸν κόσμον, τὸ δὲ μακρόβιον ἢ ὠκύμορον, ἢ τὸν τοῦ θανάτου τρόπον τοιῶσδε ἢ ἑτέρως συμβεβηκέναι, μάταιον τῷ τῆς ἀναστάσεως λόγῳ συνεξετάζειν. Ὅπως γὰρ ἂν τοῦτο δῶμεν καθ' ὑπόθεσιν ἔχειν, ἐν τῷ ὁμοίῳ πάντως ἐστὶν, οὔτε δυσκολίας, οὔτε ῥᾳστώνης ἐκ τῆς τοιαύτης διαφορᾶς περὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν οὔσης. Τὸν γὰρ τοῦ ζῇν ἀρξάμενον, ζῆσαι χρὴ πάντως, τῆς ἐν τῷ μέσῳ διὰ τοῦ θανάτου συμβάσης αὐτῷ διαλύσεως ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει διορθωθείσης. Τὸ δὲ πῶς ἢ πότε ἡ διάλυσις γίνεται, τί τοῦτο πρὸς τὴν ἀνάστασιν; Πρὸς ἕτερον γὰρ σκοπὸν βλέπει ἡ περὶ τούτου σκέψις, οἷον καθ' ἡδονήν τις ἐβίω, ἢ ἀνιώμενος, κατ' ἀρετὴν ἢ κακίαν, ἐπαινετὸς ἢ ὑπαίτιος, ἐλεεινῶς ἢ μακαρίως παρῆλθε τὸν χρόνον. Ταῦτα γὰρ πάντα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐκ τοῦ μέτρου τῆς ζωῆς καὶ ἐκ τοῦ εἴδους κατὰ τὸν βίον εὑρίσκεται, καὶ οὕτω πρὸς τὴν κρίσιν τῶν βεβιωμένων, ἀναγκαῖον ἂν εἴη τῷ κριτῇ πάθος καὶ λώβην, καὶ νόσον, καὶ γῆρας, καὶ ἀκμὴν, καὶ νεότητα, καὶ πλοῦτον, καὶ πενίαν διερευνᾶσθαι: ὅπως τις δι' ἑκάστου τούτων γενόμενος, ἢ εὖ ἢ κακῶς τὸν συγκληρωθέντα βίον παρέδραμε, καὶ ἢ πολλῶν ἐγένετο δεκτικὸς ἀγαθῶν, ἢ κακῶν, ἐν μακρῷ τῷ χρόνῳ, ἢ οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν ὅλως ἑκατέρου τούτων ἐφήψατο, ἐν ἀτελεῖ τῇ διανοίᾳ τοῦ ζῇν παυσάμενος; Ὅταν δὲ πρὸς τὴν πρώτην τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευὴν δι' ἀναστάσεως ὁ Θεὸς ἐπανάγῃ τὴν φύσιν, ἀργὸν ἂν εἴη τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγειν, καὶ τὸ διὰ τῶν τοιούτων ἐνστάσεων οἴεσθαι τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ δύναμιν πρὸς τὸν σκοπὸν ἐμποδίζεσθαι.
Σκοπὸς δὲ αὐτῷ εἷς, τὸ τελειωθέντος ἢ διὰ τῶν καθ' ἕκαστον ἀνθρώπων, παντὸς τοῦ τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν πληρώματος, τῶν μὲν εὐθὺς ἤδη κατὰ τὸν βίον τοῦτον ἀπὸ κακίας κεκαθαρμένων, τῶν δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα διὰ τοῦ πυρὸς τοῖς καθήκουσι χρόνοις ἰατρευθέντων, τῶν δὲ ἐπίσης καὶ τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ τοῦ κακοῦ τὴν πεῖραν παρὰ τὸν τῇδε βίον ἀγνοησάντων, πᾶσι προθεῖναι τὴν μετουσίαν τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ καλῶν, ἅπερ φησὶν ἡ Γραφὴ, μήτε ὀφθαλμὸν ἰδεῖν, μήτε ἀκοὴν δέξασθαι, μήτε λογισμοῖς ἐφικτὸν γενέσθαι. Τοῦτο δὲ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶ, κατά γε τὸν ἐμὸν λόγον, ἢ τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ γενέσθαι: τὸ γὰρ ἀγαθὸν τὸ ὑπὲρ ἀκοὴν καὶ ὀφθαλμὸν καὶ καρδίαν, αὐτὸ ἂν εἴη τὸ τοῦ παντὸς ὑπερκείμενον. Ἡ δὲ τοῦ κατ' ἀρετὴν ἢ κακίαν βίου διαφορὰ ἐν τῷ μετὰ ταῦτα κατὰ τοῦτο δειχθήσεται μάλιστα, ἐν τῷ θᾶττον ἢ σχολαιότερον μετασχεῖν τῆς ἐλπιζομένης μακαριότητος. Τῷ γὰρ μέτρῳ τῆς ἐγγενομένης ἑκάστῳ κακίας ἀναλογήσεται πάντως καὶ ἡ τῆς ἰατρείας παράτασις. Ἰατρεία δὲ ἂν εἴη ψυχῆς τὸ τῆς κακίας καθάρσιον: τοῦτο δὲ ἄνευ ἀλγεινῆς διαθέσεως κατορθωθῆναι οὐχ οἷόν τε, καθὼς ἐν τοῖς προλαβοῦσιν ἐξήτασται. Μᾶλλον δὲ ἄν τις ἐπιγνοίη τῶν ἐνστάσεων τὸ περιττὸν καὶ ἀνοίκειον, εἰς τὸ βάθος τῆς ἀποστολικῆς διακύψας σοφίας. Τοῖς γὰρ Κορινθίοις τὸ περὶ τούτων σαφηνίζων μυστήριον, τάχα ταῦτα προτεινόντων αὐτῷ κἀκείνων, ἃ παρὰ τῶν νῦν κατεπιχειρούντων τοῦ δόγματος ἐπὶ ἀνατροπῇ τῶν πεπιστευμένων προφέρεται, τῷ ἰδίῳ ἀξιώματι τὸ τῆς ἀμαθίας αὐτῶν ἐπικόπτων θράσος, οὑτωσὶ λέγει. «Ἐρεῖς οὖν μοι: Πῶς ἐγείρονται οἱ νεκροί; Ποίῳ δὲ σώματι ἔρχονται; Ἄφρων,» φησὶ, «σὺ ὃ σπείρεις οὐ ζωοποιεῖται ἐὰν μὴ ἀποθάνῃ, καὶ ὃ σπείρεις, οὐ τὸ σῶμα τὸ γενησόμενον σπείρεις, ἀλλὰ γυμνὸν κόκκον, εἰ τύχοι σίτου, ἢ ἄλλου τινὸς τῶν σπερμάτων: ὁ δὲ Θεὸς δίδωσιν αὐτῷ σῶμα καθὼς ἠθέλησεν.» Ἐνταῦθα γὰρ ἐπιστομίζειν μοι δοκεῖ τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας τὰ οἰκεῖα μέτρα τῆς φύσεως, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἰσχὺν τὴν θείαν ἀντεξετάζοντας δύναμιν, καὶ οἰομένους τοσοῦτον εἶναι τῷ Θεῷ δυνατὸν, ὅσον χωρεῖ καὶ ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη κατάληψις: τὸ δὲ ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς ὂν, καὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ παριέναι τὴν δύναμιν. Ὁ γὰρ ἐρωτήσας τὸν Ἀπόστολον τὸ πῶς ἐγείρονται οἱ νεκροὶ, ὡς ἀμήχανον ὂν τὸ ἐσκεδασμένων τῶν τοῦ σώματος στοιχείων εἰς συνδρομὴν πάλιν ἐλθεῖν ἀποφαίνεται: καὶ ὡς τούτου μὴ δυναμένου, ἄλλου δὲ σώματος παρὰ τὴν συνδρομὴν τῶν στοιχείων οὐχ ὑπολειπομένου, τοῦτόν φησι κατὰ τοὺς δεινοὺς τῶν διαλεγομένων συμπεράνας διά τινος ἀκολουθίας ἅπερ ὑπέθετο: Εἰ σῶμά ἐστι συνδρομὴ στοιχείων, τούτων δὲ ἀμήχανος ἐκ δευτέρου ἡ σύνοδος, ποίῳ χρήσονται σώματι οἱ ἀνιστάμενοι; Τοῦτο τοίνυν τὸ δοκοῦν διά τινος τεχνικῆς σοφίας αὐτοῖς συμπεπλέχθαι, ἀφροσύνην ὠνόμασε, τῶν μὴ κατιδόντων ἐν τῇ λοιπῇ κτίσει τὸ ὑπερέχον τῆς θείας δυνάμεως. Καταλιπὼν γὰρ τὰ ὑψηλότερα τοῦ Θεοῦ θαύματα, δι' ὧν ἦν εἰς ἀπορίαν ἀγαγεῖν τὸν ἀκούοντα, οἷον, τί τὸ οὐράνιον σῶμα, καὶ πόθεν, τί δὲ τὸ ἡλιακὸν, ἢ τὸ σεληναῖον, ἢ τὸ ἐν τοῖς ἄστροις φαινόμενον, ὁ αἰθὴρ, ὁ ἀὴρ, τὸ ὕδωρ, ἡ γῆ; ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν συντρόφων ἡμῖν καὶ κοινοτέρων ἐλέγχει τῶν ἐνισταμένων τὸ ἀνεπίσκεπτον.
Οὐδὲ ἡ γεωργία σε διδάσκει, φησὶν, ὅτι μάταιός ἐστιν ὁ πρὸς τὸ ἑαυτοῦ μέτρον τῆς θείας δυνάμεως τὸ ὑπερέχον στοχαζόμενος; πόθεν τοῖς σπέρμασι τὰ περιφυόμενα σώματα; τί δὲ καθηγεῖται τῆς βλάστης αὐτῶν; οὐχὶ θάνατος, εἴπερ θάνατός ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ συνεστηκότος διάλυσις; Τὸ γὰρ σπέρμα μὴ ἀνέλθοι εἰς ἔκφυσιν μὴ διαλυθὲν ἐν τῇ βώλῳ, καὶ γενόμενον ἀραιὸν καὶ πολύπορον, ὥστε καταμιχθῆναι πρὸς τὴν παρακειμένην ἰκμάδα τῇ οἰκείᾳ ποιότητι, καὶ οὕτως εἰς ῥίζαν καὶ βλάστην μεταποιηθῆναι, καὶ μηδὲ ἐν τούτῳ μεῖναι, ἀλλὰ μεταβαλεῖν εἰς καλάμην, τοῖς διὰ μέσου γόνασιν, οἷόν τισι συνδέσμοις ὑπεζωσμένην, πρὸς τὸ δύνασθαι φέρειν ἐν ὀρθίῳ τῷ σχήματι τὸν στάχυν τῷ καρπῷ βαρυνόμενον. Ποῦ τοίνυν ταῦτα περὶ τὸν σῖτον ἦν πρὸ τῆς ἐν τῇ βώλῳ αὐτοῦ διαλύσεως; Ἀλλὰ μὴν ἐκεῖθεν τοῦτό ἐστιν. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἐκεῖνο πρότερον ἦν, οὐδ' ἂν ὁ στάχυς ἐγένετο. Ὥσπερ τοίνυν τὸ κατὰ τὸν στάχυν σῶμα ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος φαίνεται, τῆς θείας δυνάμεως ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐκείνου τοῦτο φιλοτεχνούσης, καὶ οὔτε δι' ὅλου ταὐτόν ἐστι τῷ σπέρματι, οὔτε παντάπασιν ἕτερον: οὕτω, φησὶ, καὶ τὸ μυστήριον τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἤδη σοι διὰ τῶν ἐν τοῖς σπέρμασι θαυματοποιουμένων προερμηνεύεται, ὡς τῆς θείας δυνάμεως ἐν τῷ περιόντι τῆς ἐξουσίας, οὐ μόνον ἐκεῖνο τὸ διαλυθέν σοι πάλιν ἀποδιδούσης, ἀλλὰ μεγάλα τε καὶ καλὰ προστιθείσης, δι' ὧν σοι πρὸς τὸ μεγαλοπρεπέστερον ἡ φύσις κατασκευάζεται. «Σπείρεται,» φησὶν, «ἐν φθορᾷ, ἐγείρεται ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ: σπείρεται ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ, ἐγείρεται ἐν δυνάμει: σπείρεται ἐν ἀτιμίᾳ, ἐγείρεται ἐν δόξῃ: σπείρεται σῶμα ψυχικὸν, ἐγείρεται σῶμα πνευματικόν.» Ὡς γὰρ καταλιπὼν μετὰ τὸ διαλυθῆναι ἐν τῇ βώλῳ σῖτος τὴν ἐν τῷ ποσῷ βραχύτητα, καὶ τὴν ἐν τῷ ποιῷ σχήματος αὐτοῦ ἰδιότητα, ἑαυτὸν οὐκ ἀφῆκεν, ἀλλ' ἐν αὐτῷ μένων στάχυς γίνεται, πάμπολλα διαφέρων αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ, μεγέθει, καὶ κάλλει, καὶ ποικιλίᾳ, καὶ σχήματι: κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις ἐναφεῖσα τῷ θανάτῳ πάντα τὰ περὶ αὐτὴν ἰδιώματα, ὅσα διὰ τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως ἐπεκτήσατο, τὴν ἀτιμίαν λέγω, τὴν φθορὰν, τὴν ἀσθένειαν, τὴν κατὰ τῆς ἡλικίας διαφορὰν, ἑαυτὴν οὐκ ἀφίησιν, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ εἰς στάχυν τινὰ πρὸς τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν μεθίσταται, καὶ τὴν δόξαν, καὶ τὴν τιμὴν, καὶ τὴν δύναμιν, καὶ τὴν ἐν παντὶ τελειότητα, καὶ τὸ μηκέτι τὴν ζωὴν αὐτῆς οἰκονομεῖσθαι τοῖς φυσικοῖς ἰδιώμασιν, ἀλλ' εἰς πνευματικήν τινα καὶ ἀπαθῆ μεταβῆναι κατάστασιν. Αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ ψυχικοῦ σώματος ἰδιότης, ἀεὶ διά τινος ῥοῆς καὶ κινήσεως ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν ᾧ ἐστιν ἀλλοιοῦσθαι, καὶ μεταβάλλειν εἰς ἕτερον. Ἃ γὰρ οὖν οὐκ ἐπ' ἀνθρώποις μόνον ὁρῶμεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν φυτοῖς καὶ ἐν βοσκήμασι, τούτων οὐδὲν ἐν τῷ τῷδε βίῳ ὑπολειφθήσεται.
Δοκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ διὰ πάντων συναγορεύειν ὁ ἀποστολικὸς λόγος τῇ καθ' ἡμᾶς ὑπολήψει τῆς ἀναστάσεως, καὶ τοῦτο δεικνύειν ὅπερ ὁ ἡμέτερος ὁρισμὸς περιέχει λέγων, Μηδὲν ἕτερον εἶναι ἀνάστασιν, ἢ τὴν εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν ἀποκατάστασιν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ κοσμογονίᾳ τοῦτο παρὰ τῆς Γραφῆς μεμαθήκαμεν, ὅτι πρῶτον ἐβλάστησεν ἡ γῆ βοτάνην χόρτου, καθὼς ὁ λόγος φησὶν, εἶτα ἐκ τῆς βλάστης σπέρμα ἐγένετο, οὗπερ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν καταῤῥυέντος, τὸ αὐτὸ πάλιν εἶδος τοῦ ἐξ ἀρχῆς φυέντος ἀνέδραμε: φησὶ δὲ τοῦτο ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως γίνεσθαι. Οὐ μόνον δὲ τοῦτο παρ' αὐτοῦ διδασκόμεθα, τὸ πρὸς τὸ μεγαλοπρεπέστατον μεθίστασθαι τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, ἀλλ' ὅτι τὸ ἐλπιζόμενον οὐδὲν ἕτερόν ἐστιν, ἢ ὅπερ ἐν πρώτοις ἦν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὸ κατ' ἀρχὰς οὐχ ὡς στάχυς ἀπὸ τοῦ σπέρματος, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖθεν τὸ σπέρμα: μετὰ ταῦτα δὲ οὗτος τῷ σπέρματι περιφύεται, ἡ τοῦ ὑποδείγματος ἀκολουθία σαφῶς ἐπιδείκνυσι, τὸ πᾶσαν τὴν διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἀναβλαστήσουσαν ἡμῖν μακαριότητα, πρὸς τὴν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐπανιέναι χάριν. Στάχυς γὰρ ὄντες καταρχὰς τρόπον τινὰ καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἐπειδὴ τῷ καύσωνι τῆς κακίας κατεξηράνθημεν, ὑπολαβοῦσα ἡμᾶς ἡ γῆ διὰ τοῦ θανάτου λυθέντας, πάλιν κατὰ τὸ ἔαρ τῆς ἀναστάσεως στάχυν ἀναδείξει τὸν γυμνὸν τοῦτον κόκκον τοῦ σώματος, εὐμεγέθη τε καὶ ἀμφιλαφῆ καὶ ὄρθιον, καὶ εἰς τὸ οὐράνιον ὕψος ἀνατεινόμενον, ἀντὶ καλάμης ἢ ἀνθέρικος τῇ ἀφθαρσίᾳ καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς τῶν θεοπρεπῶν γνωρισμάτων ὡραϊζόμενον. «Δεῖ γὰρ τὸ φθαρτὸν τοῦτο ἐνδύσασθαι ἀφθαρσίαν.» Ἡ δὲ ἀφθαρσία, καὶ ἡ δόξα, καὶ ἡ τιμὴ, καὶ ἡ δύναμις, ἴδια τῆς θείας φύσεως εἶναι ὁμολογεῖται, ἅπερ πρότερόν τε περὶ τὸν κατ' εἰκόνα γενόμενον ἦν, καὶ εἰσαῦθις ἐλπίζεται. Ὁ γὰρ πρῶτος στάχυς ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἦν Ἀδάμ. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τῇ τῆς κακίας εἰσόδῳ εἰς πλῆθος ἡ φύσις κατεμερίσθη, καθὼς γίνεται ὁ καρπὸς ἐν τῷ στάχυϊ: οὕτως οἱ καθ' ἕκαστον γυμνωθέντες τοῦ κατὰ τὸν στάχυν ἐκεῖνον εἴδους, καὶ τῇ γῇ καταμιχθέντες, πάλιν ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει κατὰ τὸ ἀρχέγονον κάλλος ἀναφυόμεθα, ἀντὶ ἑνὸς τοῦ πρώτου στάχυος ἀνάπειροι μυριάδες τῶν ληΐων γενόμενοι:
Ὁ δὲ κατ' ἀρετὴν βίος ἐν τούτῳ πρὸς τὴν κακίαν τὸ διάφορον ἔχει, ὅτι οἱ μὲν ἐνταῦθα παρὰ τὸν βίον δι' ἀρετῆς ἑαυτοὺς γεωργήσαντες, εὐθὺς ἐν τελείῳ τῷ στάχυϊ φαίνονται: οἷς δὲ διὰ κακίας ἐξίτηλός τε καὶ ἀνεμόφθορος ὁ κόκκος γέγονε παρὰ τὸν βίον τοῦτον ἡ ἐν τῷ ψυχικῷ σπέρματι δύναμις, καθάπερ τὰ λεγόμενα κεράσβολα οἱ τῶν τοιούτων ἐπιστήμονες λέγουσι γίνεσθαι: οὕτω καὶ οὗτοι, κἂν φύωσι διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως, πολλὴν ἀποτομίαν παρὰ τῷ κριτῇ ἕξουσιν, ἅτε δὴ οὐκ ἰσχύοντες ἀναδραμεῖν ἐπὶ τὸ εἶδος τοῦ στάχυος, καὶ γενέσθαι ἐκεῖνο ὅπερ ἦμεν πρὸ τῆς ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν καταπτώσεως. Ἡ δὲ θεραπεία τοῦ ἐπιστατοῦντος τῶν γεννημάτων, ἡ τῶν ζιζανίων τε καὶ τῶν ἀκανθῶν ἐστι συλλογὴ, τῶν συναναφυέντων τῷ σπέρματι, πάσης τῆς ὑποτρεφούσης τὴν ῥίζαν δυνάμεως πρὸς τὸν νόθον μεταῤῥυείσης, δι' ὧν ἄτροφόν τε καὶ ἀτελεσφόρητον τὸ γνήσιον ἔμεινε σπέρμα τῇ παρὰ φύσιν βλαστῇ συμπεπλεγμένον. Ἐπειδὰν οὖν πᾶν ὅσον νόθον τε καὶ ἀλλότριον ἐκτιλῇ τοῦ τροφίμου, καὶ εἰς ἀφανισμὸν ἔλθῃ, τοῦ πυρὸς τὸ παρὰ φύσιν ἐκδαπανήσαντος τῷ αἰωνίῳ πυρὶ παραδοθὲν, τότε καὶ τούτοις εὐτροφήσει ἡ φύσις, καὶ εἰς καρπὸν ἁδρυνθήσεται διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης ἐπιμελείας, μακραῖς ποτε περιόδοις τὸ κοινὸν εἶδος τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἡμῖν θεόθεν ἐπιβληθὲν ἀπολαβοῦσα. Μακάριοι δέ εἰσιν οἷς εὐθὺς τὸ τέλειον κάλλος τῶν ἀσταχύων συνανατελεῖ τοῖς φυομένοις διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως.
Ταῦτα δέ φαμεν οὐχ ὡς σωματικῆς τινος διαφορᾶς ἐν τοῖς κατ' ἀρετὴν ἢ κακίαν βεβιωκόσιν ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει φανησομένης, ὡς τὸν μὲν ἀτελῆ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα νομίζειν, τὸν δὲ τὸ τέλειον ἔχειν οἴεσθαι: ἀλλ' ὥσπερ παρὰ τὸν βίον ὁ δεσμώτης τε καὶ ἄνετος, ἔχουσι μὲν ἀμφότεροι παραπλησίως τῷ σώματι, πολλὴ δὲ μεταξὺ ἀμφοτέρων ἡ καθ' ἡδονήν τε καὶ λύπην διαφορά: οὕτως οἶμαι χρῆναι τῶν ἀγαθῶν τε καὶ κακῶν ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ ταῦτα χρόνῳ λογίζεσθαι τὸ διάφορον. Ἡ γὰρ τελείωσις τῶν ἐκ τῆς φθορᾶς ἀναφυομένων σωμάτων ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ τε καὶ δόξῃ, καὶ τιμῇ, καὶ δυνάμει παρὰ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου γενέσθαι λέγεται: ἡ δὲ τῶν τοιούτων ἐλάττωσις οὐ σωματικήν τινα τοῦ φυέντος διασημαίνει κολόβωσιν, ἀλλ' ἑκάστου τῶν κατὰ τὸ ἀγαθὸν νοουμένων στέρησίν τε καὶ ἀλλοτρίωσιν. Ἐπεὶ οὖν ἕν τι χρὴ πάντως περὶ ἡμᾶς εἶναι τῶν κατ' ἀντίθεσιν νοουμένων, ἢ ἀγαθὸν, ἢ κακὸν, δηλονότι τὸ ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ τινα λέγειν μὴ εἶναι, ἀπόδειξις γίνεται τοῦ ἐν τῷ κακῷ πάντως. Ἀλλὰ μὴν περὶ τὴν κακίαν, οὐ τιμὴ, οὐ δόξα, οὐκ ἀφθαρσία, οὐ δύναμις. Ἀνάγκη πᾶσα, περὶ ὃν μὴ ἦν ταῦτα, τὰ τούτοις ἐξ ἀντιθέτου νοούμενα παρεῖναι, μὴ ἀμφιβάλλειν, ἀσθένειαν, ἀτιμίαν, φθορὰν, καὶ ὅσα τοιούτου γένους ἐστὶν, ἃ ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν εἴρηται λόγοις, ὅσα δυσαπάλλακτα γίνεται τῇ ψυχῇ τὰ ἐκ κακίας πάθη, δι' ὅλης αὐτῆς ἀνακραθέντα καὶ συμφυέντα, καὶ ἓν πρὸς ἐκείνην γενόμενα. Τῶν τοιούτων οὖν ταῖς διὰ πυρὸς ἰατρείαις ἐκκαθαρθέντων τε καὶ ἀφανισθέντων, ἕκαστον τῶν πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον νοουμένων ἀντεπελεύσεται, ἡ ἀφθαρσία, ἡ ζωὴ, ἡ τιμὴ, ἡ χάρις, ἡ δόξα, ἡ δύναμις, καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο τοιοῦτον ἔν τε τῷ Θεῷ ἐπιθεωρεῖσθαι εἰκάζομεν, καὶ τῇ εἰκόνι αὐτοῦ, ἥ τίς ἐστιν ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις.