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For they fabricate that bodies are given to them afterwards for punishment, because 2.477 they had sinned before the body. And indeed, revilings also came upon them, likening the body to bonds and fetters, and saying other foolish things *. But now what has been said is entirely the opposite. For it is necessary for the soul to exist with a body before sin; since if the soul by itself were impervious to sin, it would not have sinned at all before the body. But if it did sin, it is no longer by itself impervious to sin, but rather is both vulnerable and susceptible. Therefore again, even if it does not receive this body, it will sin, just as it sinned before receiving it. Why then did it receive a body at all afterwards, after it had sinned? Or what need did it have of a body? If, then, it was to be tormented and to feel pain, how is it that it rather indulges and lives licentiously with the body? And how does it appear to have free will in this world? For it is up to us to believe and not to believe here, up to us to act rightly and to sin, up to us to do good and to do evil. But how can the judgment still be expected as something future, according to which God renders to each according to his works and practices, and not be considered as already present, if indeed for the soul to be born and to come into a body is already to be judged and to receive its recompense, and to die and be separated from the body is to be freed and to come to a place of rest, because, according to you, having sinned before the body, it is put into the body as for condemnation and punishment? And the argument has shown sufficiently and abundantly that it is inadmissible to consider the body a place of torture and fetters for the soul. 2.478 50. It would have been sufficient, then, having demonstrated from Scripture itself that the first-formed man consisted of soul and body even before the transgression, to end the discussion on these matters here. But I am now going through them summarily, * striving only to refute the starting-points of their arguments, so that I may not exceed the proper measure of the discourse. For it is now possible for you to see, O judges, that the phrase 'I was once alive apart from the law,' spoken in the Epistle to the Romans, cannot refer to the soul's existence before the body according to them, as the things that follow this indicate; even if this noble physician of sayings, by removing what follows, forced the Apostle's meaning to be remodeled to suit his opinion, having suffered something quite incurable and childish. For instead of keeping the members of bodies in their proper connections and joints, so that the entire shape of the body might be naturally complete, he has mutilated the sequence of Scripture by passing over it, just as a Scythian unsparingly cuts to pieces the limbs of some enemy for destruction. Well then; how, they will say, did the Apostle declare these things, if you have not shown them to be so? Because, I would say, by positing the commandment to be the law—for let it be granted first, according to your hypothesis, that he called the commandment 'law'. He did not on this account suppose that the first-formed had lived incorporeally before the commandment, but without sin. For short was the time from their creation until the commandment, in which they lived without sin, not outside the body, but with a body. At any rate, immediately after the commandment they were cast out, having dwelt a very short time in paradise. And if anyone, taking up the saying which states 'For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law' 'were at work in our 2.479 members,' thinks that he disparages the flesh and adduces and rejects whatever other such things have been said, such as 'that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit,' or 'For those who are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit the things of the spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the spirit is life and peace, because the mind of the flesh is hostility toward God; for to the law of God it does not

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τὰ γὰρ δὴ σώματα κατασκευάζουσιν αὐταῖς ὕστερον ἐπὶ τιμωρίᾳ δοθῆναι, διὰ τὸ 2.477 πρὸ σώματος αὐτὰς ἡμαρτηκέναι. καὶ δὴ καὶ λοιδορήσεις τε ἐπῆλθον αὐτοῖς, δεσμοῖς ἀπεικάζουσι καὶ πέδαις τὸ σῶμα, ἄλλα τε ἀνόητα εἰπεῖν *. νῦν δὲ ὅπερ εἴρηται, πᾶν τοὐναντίον ἔχει. χρὴ γὰρ πρὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπάρχειν μετὰ σώματος· ἐπεὶ εἰ ἄληπτος ἡ ψυχὴ καθ' ἑαυτὴν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, οὐκ ἂν ἥμαρτεν ὅλως πρὸ τοῦ σώματος. εἰ δὲ ἥμαρτεν, οὐκέτι ἄληπτος καθ' ἑαυτὴν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐάλωτος μᾶλλον καὶ εὔληπτος. διὸ καὶ πάλιν, κἂν μὴ λάβῃ τὸ σῶμα τοῦτο, ἁμαρτήσεται, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ λαβεῖν αὐτὸ ἥμαρτεν. διὰ τί δὲ ὅλως καὶ σῶμα ἐλάμβανεν ὕστερον μετὰ τὸ ἡμαρτηκέναι; ἢ τίς αὐτῇ χρεία σώματος ἦν; εἰ μὲν οὖν ἵνα βασανίζηται καὶ ἀλγῇ, πῶς μᾶλλον ἐντρυφᾷ καὶ ἀκολασταίνει μετὰ τοῦ σώματος; πῶς δὲ καὶ τὸ αὐτεξούσιον εἶναι ἐν τούτῳ φαίνεται ἔχειν τῷ κόσμῳ; ἐφ' ἡμῖν γὰρ τὸ πιστεῦσαι κεῖται καὶ τὸ μὴ πιστεῦσαι ἐνθάδε, ἐφ' ἡμῖν τὸ κατορθώσασθαι καὶ ἁμαρτῆσαι, ἐφ' ἡμῖν τὸ ἀγαθοποιῆσαι καὶ κακοποιῆσαι. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ κρίσις πῶς δὴ ἐπιφέρεσθαι ὡς μέλλουσα προσδοκᾶσθαι ἔτι δύναται, καθ' ἣν ὁ θεὸς ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα καὶ κατὰ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα ἀποδίδωσι, καὶ οὐχ ὡς ἤδη παροῦσα νομισθήσεται, εἴ γε τὸ γεννηθῆναι μὲν καὶ εἰς σῶμα ἐλθεῖν τὴν ψυχὴν κριθῆναι ἔστιν ἤδη καὶ ἀνταπολαβεῖν, τὸ δὲ ἀποθανεῖν καὶ χωρισθῆναι τοῦ σώματος ἐλευθερωθῆναί τε καὶ εἰς ἀνάψυξιν ἐλθεῖν, διὰ τὸ πρὸ σώματος αὐτὴν ἁμαρτήσασαν ὡς εἰς κατάκρισιν καὶ καταδίκην εἰς τὸ σῶμα ἐμβιβάζεσθαι καθ' ὑμᾶς; ἀπέδειξε δὲ διαρκῶς ἐκ περιουσίας ὁ λόγος ἀνένδεκτον εἶναι νομίζεσθαι τὸ σῶμα βασανιστήριον καὶ πέδας τῆς ψυχῆς. 2.478 50. Ἤρκει μὲν οὖν ἀπὸ τῆς γραφῆς αὐτῆς ἀποδείξαντα καὶ πρὸ τῆς παραβάσεως τὸν πρωτόπλαστον ἐκ ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος ὄντα καταπαύειν τὸν περὶ τούτων ἐνταῦθα λόγον. κἀγὼ δὲ νῦν ἐπὶ κεφαλαίων αὐτὰ διεξέρχομαι, * ὅσον τὰς ἀφορμὰς τῶν ἐπιχειρημάτων αὐτῶν εὐθῦναι διαμιλλώμενος, ἵνα μὴ τὴν συμμετρίαν ἐκβαίνω τῶν λόγων. πάρεστι γὰρ ἤδη σκοπεῖν ὑμᾶς, ὦ δικασταί, ὅτι τό «ἐγὼ δὲ ἔζων χωρὶς νόμου ποτέ» λεγόμενον ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ῥωμαίους, οὐ δύναται πίπτειν εἰς τὴν πρὸ σώματος κατ' αὐτοὺς διαγωγὴν τῆς ψυχῆς, καθάπερ τὰ ἐπιφερόμενα τούτοις μηνύει· κἂν ὁ γενναῖος οὗτος ἰατρὸς τῶν ῥητῶν τὰ ἑξῆς ὑφελόμενος πρὸς τὸ δοκοῦν αὐτῷ τὸν νοῦν ἐβιάσατο μεταπλάσαι τοῦ ἀποστόλου, ἀνίατόν τι παθὼν λίαν καὶ παιδικόν. ἀντὶ γὰρ τοῦ πρὸς τὰς οἰκείας συμφύσεις καὶ ἁρμογὰς τὰ μέλη τηρεῖν τῶν σωμάτων, ἵνα τὸ πᾶν ἄρτιον ᾖ κατὰ φύσιν σχῆμα τοῦ σώματος, ἠκρωτηρίασε παρελθὼν τὸν εἱρμὸν τῆς γραφῆς, καθάπερ Σκύθης ἐχθροῦ τινος ἀφειδῶς πρὸς ἀναίρεσιν κατατέμνων τὰ μέλη. εἶεν· πῶς οὖν ὁ ἀπόστολος, λέξουσι, ταῦτα ἀπεφήνατο, εἰ σὺ μὴ οὕτως αὐτὰ ἀπέδειξας ἔχειν; ὅτι νόμον, εἴποιμ' ἂν, θέμενος εἶναι τὴν ἐντολήν δεδόσθω γὰρ πρῶτον κατὰ τὴν ὑμετέραν ὑπόθεσιν τὴν ἐντολὴν αὐτὸν νόμον εἰρηκέναι. οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἀσωμάτως πρὸ τῆς ἐντολῆς τοὺς πρωτοπλάστους ὑπέθετο βεβιωκέναι, ἀλλὰ χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας. καὶ γὰρ ὀλίγος ὁ ἀπὸ τῆς κτίσεως αὐτῶν ἄχρι τῆς ἐντολῆς χρόνος, ἐν ᾧ διέζησαν χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας, οὐκ ἐκτὸς σώματος, ἀλλὰ μετὰ σώματος. εὐθέως γοῦν μετὰ τὴν ἐντολὴν ἐξεβλήθησαν βραχύτατον ἐννεάσαντες ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ χρόνον. ἐὰν δέ τις λαβόμενος τῆς ῥήσεως τῆς «ὅτε γὰρ ἦμεν ἐν σαρκί, τὰ παθήματα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τὰ διὰ τοῦ νόμου» λεγούσης «ἐνηργεῖτο ἐν τοῖς 2.479 μέλεσιν ἡμῶν», διαβάλλειν αὐτὸν τὴν σάρκα νομίζῃ καὶ παραιτεῖσθαι παραφέρῃ τε ὅσα τοιαῦτα ἄλλα εἴρηται, οἷον τό «ἵνα τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ νόμου πληρωθῇ ἐν ἡμῖν τοῖς μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα», ἢ τό «οἱ γὰρ κατὰ σάρκα ὄντες τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς φρονοῦσιν, οἱ δὲ κατὰ πνεῦμα τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος. τὸ γὰρ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς θάνατος, τὸ δὲ φρόνημα τοῦ πνεύματος ζωὴ καὶ εἰρήνη, διότι τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς ἔχθρα εἰς θεόν· τῷ γὰρ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐχ