Tractates on the Books of Holy Scripture (Tractatus Origenis) 17.1–18.3

"In those days the hand of the Lord came upon me. And he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a plain, and it was full of human bones. And he led me around them, and there were very many on the face of the plain, very dry. And he said to me: 'Son of man, will these bones live?' And I said: 'Lord, you know these things.' And he said to me: 'Prophesy over the bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord,'" and so on. This reading is simple, most holy brothers; it was not written by way of allegory but set down as an example for believers. Promising the hope of resurrection in the same body in which we die, it gives all Christians great confidence in eternal life. And though the catholic faith remains whole and secure in this hope of resurrection by heavenly mysteries and divine reasons, since it is fortified by the authority of many heavenly Scriptures, yet because the falsehood of heretics, which arose from the weakness of mortal senses at the devil's inspiration, often creeps in, I have proposed, God willing, to treat this hope briefly, to show that the resurrection of the flesh will truly come and to expose the cunning arguments of heretics. Many have arisen who outwardly are thought to be sheep but inwardly are, as the Savior said, ravenous wolves, who, like the serpent with Eve, wound and seduce the simple in conversations, taking the simplicity of the heavenly words by the sense of their own will and not according to the plain meaning of the truth itself, denying, as I said, the resurrection of the flesh. Though a full discussion is needed against them, we, aiming at brevity, will take care to answer in very few words, so as to offer a right hand to those who believe well and to show the way of salvation without ill will to those who err. For this reading, which has now been read and which plainly shows the resurrection of the flesh, they interpret otherwise, saying that those bones scattered on the plain were a figure of the sons of Israel, who were scattered by captivity on the plain of this world. And as those bones, they say, came together and were given bodies, so they too were to be gathered from captivity into Jerusalem and into their own kingdom, from which they had been shut out, and to return to their former state. Indeed they say that this resurrection of the house of Israel already happened then, when they were restored from captivity in Babylon to Judea after seventy years. But far be this from the catholic faith, since it is certain that a true resurrection of the flesh is to be believed according to the testimony of the heavenly Scriptures. Let us see now, then, with regard to those who bring in the question of flesh and blood on apostolic authority, whether the apostle absolutely disowns and excludes that same flesh and blood from the kingdom of God when he says, "Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God," or whether under the word "flesh" he marks and brands the vices of the flesh. See, the same apostle says: "We shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed," and "Who will transform the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of glory." When will this body of our lowliness be conformed to the glory of God, if not in the resurrection of the saints, as the apostle John says: "Blessed," he says, "and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power"? And again the blessed apostle repeats, saying: "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy,

pleasing to God." How living, if they are to perish? How holy, if they are to be profaned? How pleasing, if they are to be condemned? Hence in this place too the one same Spirit of God, who spoke through the apostle, here also through the prophet then showed the resurrection of the flesh, saying: "Thus says the Lord: I will open your tombs and bring them out of your tombs into the land of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your tombs and bring my people out of the tombs, and I will put my spirit in you and you will live, and I will place them on the land. And you will know that I the Lord have spoken and will do it, says the Lord." This too is what the blessed apostle Paul preaches with all the strength of faith, saying: "What does it profit me," he says, "that I fought with beasts at Ephesus, if the dead do not rise?" And to the Corinthians, having arranged all church discipline, he closes their faith, according to the gospel rule, with the commendation of the Lord's death and resurrection, so as to draw from it the norm of our hope too, saying: "But if it is preached that Christ rose from the dead, how do some among you say that there will be no resurrection of the dead? If there is none," he says, "neither has Christ risen; our preaching is empty, your faith too is empty, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we testified that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise. And if Christ has not risen, your faith is vain and you are still in your sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. But now," he says, "Christ has risen, the firstfruits of those who sleep." And to the Thessalonians, written as if with a ray of the sun, what these light-shunners do not willingly accept shines out: "May the God of peace himself," he says, "sanctify you wholly." And as though it were not enough to have said "wholly," he goes on to the whole substance of man: "that your spirit," he says, "and soul and body may be kept whole without blame for the day of the Lord." He distinguished them by name, that is, spirit, soul, and flesh, to prove that the whole man is destined for salvation. "But for the day," he says, "of the Lord may it be kept," that is, for the coming of our Savior, who is the key of the resurrection of the dead. Let them learn, then, the apostle's meaning, if they do not understand in what sense he said, "Flesh and blood will not see the kingdom of God": for he who directed our hope too toward resurrection on the example of the Lord's resurrection could not with another weapon disown the same hope of resurrection, since every example is set from likeness, not from difference. For if you hear that Christ suffered, that he was buried according to the Scriptures, you must believe that he was raised in no other way than in the flesh: for the very thing that fell into death, that lay in burial, that is, the flesh of man which the Word of God had taken up, itself rose again in Christ.

Since, then, it has been proved concerning the resurrection of the flesh, it remains for us to consider on what terms the apostle disinherited the flesh from the kingdom of God, saying, "Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God." Who does not know, sweetest brothers, that the blessed apostle himself made mention of two men? "The first man," he says, "from the earth, earthly; the second man from heaven, heavenly." So if Christ, the Son of God, though from heaven and heavenly, can nevertheless be called man only because he too put on flesh and soul, being made, that is, the second Adam, and so from the fellowship of flesh and soul drew also the sharing of the name, so as to be called man. "But as is the heavenly," he says, "so too are the heavenly ones." You will ask: such in substance, or in discipline? If Christ put on a human body in substance, the earthly and the heavenly will in no way be separated in substance, because in the bodies in which they were earthly, while they still lived according to the vices of the flesh, in the same bodies, having received spiritual grace, they are called heavenly men for their holiness and righteousness, because they have been found worthy of the heavenly Spirit. And so you can distinguish nothing between the earthly and the heavenly except the observance of discipline alone, by which the apostle declared the heavenly man not from the substance of the body but from the future glory: "For one is the glory of the heavenly, another that of the earthly." It is true, because the closeness to God of the saints is one thing, the conduct of sinners another. Hence it must be plain to you that this distinction between the earthly and the heavenly man arose not from the substance of the flesh but from the difference of dignity. Indeed, "as we have borne," he says, "the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of the heavenly." How have we borne the image of the earthly, if not through fellowship in transgression, through partnership in death, through exile from paradise? "But so," he says, "let us bear the image of the heavenly," that is, set in the same body. But how do we bear the heavenly image, if not according to the features of Christ, in all holiness, righteousness, and truth? So in the very flesh in which we have borne the image of the earthly through fellowship in sin and death, in the same let us bear in turn the image of the heavenly through good conduct, walking according to Christ in faith, holiness, and truth. It must now be proved to all that not the flesh itself but the works of the flesh are to be condemned, as the same apostle says: "The works of the flesh are plain, which are fornications, adulteries, drunkenness, avarice, luxury, the service of idols, and the like, for those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God." See, the apostle himself shows in what way he disinherited flesh and blood from the kingdom of God, when he spelled out the works of the flesh that are condemned. Clearly, if the apostle had never put the substance for the works, he would rightly be thought to have spoken of the flesh. But since he denied that those set in the flesh are in the flesh, because, having received faith, they had cast off the works of the flesh, and called those flesh and blood who because of fleshly vices had not deserved to receive the Spirit of God, we certainly ought not to overturn his manner of speech, so that, when he condemns works in the name of substance, you think the very substance of the flesh is to be condemned for its works. Indeed he says: "Those who are in the flesh," he says, "cannot please God. But you," he says, "are not in the flesh, since the Spirit of God is in you." Yet he was writing this to people set in the flesh, and he himself, still set in the body, was reciting this letter and already pleased God. For he had already been caught up to the third heaven and led into paradise and had seen the secrets of the supercelestial mysteries, and had heard unspeakable words which, as he said, it is not lawful for a man to speak. Since, then, set in the flesh, he was found worthy to hear and see these things, what thoughtlessness and madness it is, with eyes shut, as they say, to exclude flesh and blood from God's kingdom so abruptly, without distinction! For this is why the Son of God put on human flesh, and suffered and rose in that same flesh, to show in his own body the form of our resurrection. Hence he is consequently called mediator of God and men, who keeps the deposit of the flesh in himself and lives in heaven. He also holds the general pledge of our substance, so that, as flesh and blood already possess the kingdom of God in Christ, so we too, rising from the dead, may obtain the kingdom of God in the same flesh through Christ. Moreover, God fashioned the flesh of man with his sacred hands as his own work and animated it with his breath to the likeness of his own life, and set it over the habitation, the fruit, the dominion of all his work. He also clothed it with his sacraments and disciplines and granted it eternity in the resurrection. Indeed, the flesh is washed that the soul may be cleansed; the flesh is anointed that the soul may be consecrated; the flesh is signed that the soul may be saved; the flesh is overshadowed by the laying on of hands that it may be enlightened by the Holy Spirit; the flesh eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ that the soul may be fattened from God. Hence things that are joined in work cannot be separated in reward. Or do you think that God destined to eternal destruction the work of his hands, the care of his skill, the sheath of his breath, the model of his building, the heir of his holiness, the priest of his religion, the soldier of his covenant, the sister of his Christ, the bride of his Spirit, that is, the flesh? Far from it. But if they do not believe the prophet preaching the resurrection of the flesh, let them at least believe the Lord himself, who ordered Lazarus, as an example of our resurrection, released from the stench of four days' death, to live and be given back to his own. And at the passion, when the tombs were opened, the bodies of the saints rose, as it is written in this place too: "Thus says the Lord: I will open your tombs and bring you out of your tombs, and you will know that I am the Lord." And what wonder if the Lord raises the dead, he who formed man himself from the mud of the earth when he did not exist? For it is easier to re-form what has been than to make what was not. See, moreover, for our comfort all nature rehearses the future resurrection. The sun sinks into its setting and is born again, the stars glide away to return, flowers die and revive. So too will the bodies of the dead be in the tomb. As trees in winter hide their green and show dryness, so all things are preserved by the same one, so that all may be re-formed from destruction.

Much more, then, man too, among the rest, who was made lord of all things that die, so that he may also be lord of those that rise again. For this reason the Son of God put on the substance of man, which he raised from the dead. There is no doubt about the resurrection, even of those who, because of the consciousness of their deserts, would rather be nothing after death than rise to punishment. For just as there is no end of glory for the blessed, so there is no end of evils for the wretched, as the Lord says through Isaiah: "All who have transgressed against me, their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh." The Lord too in the Gospel: "Go," he says, "into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." This fire would not be called eternal if it ever had an end. This eternal fire, then, both burns and restores the limbs, consumes and nourishes them. It has, moreover, an example in the Jebusite mountain of the Hivites and in lands everywhere burning: they blaze and are not consumed, they burn and do not turn to ash. So that penal fire of Gehenna does not arise from the losses of those who burn but is fed by the unending rending of the body. Therefore, sweetest brothers, since it is well established concerning the resurrection of the flesh, and punishment is laid up for the faithless and the hope of the heavenly kingdom promised to the faithful, it remains that we strive by persisting in good deeds, remaining in all holiness, faith, and righteousness, so that we may rise not to punishment but to glory, brothers.

"In those days, in the eighteenth year, King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue." Although the solemnity of the day and the present reading urge us, sweetest brothers, to preach on the good of martyrdom, yet since the very matter of which I must speak is so sublime and so magnificent that it cannot be worthily proclaimed and praised in human speech, I fear that poverty of speech may diminish the so illustrious titles of the most blessed martyrs by pursuing them with less than due praise. But what shall I do, dearest brothers, when on one side the honor of the day and the present reading compel me to preach, and on the other the loftiness holds back a mind confused with joy? So I am tossed on both waves of my heart: I do not say what I feel, and yet I cannot keep silent; I want to suppress my joy, but the more firmly it is held in, the more it breaks out; I venture to make it public, but I am hindered by the smallness of a thin and slender speech. Wretched me, who cannot unfold in words the splendor of so great a gift! Of the saints, certainly, I blush lest I speak falsely. And yet it is better to knock and seek than to grow numb in the languor of sloth, because, even if I cannot render due service, it is enough that I had the wish to serve. These three devout youths, then, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, because they shrank from worshiping the king's statue, are at once handed over to the fires. But they, fearing nothing from the fire, answered the king most steadfastly and faithfully: "But there is a God whom we serve, able to deliver us from the furnace of burning fire and to rescue us from your hands, O king. And if not, be it known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods and do not worship the golden image." O glorious faith and unconquered devotion, which, presuming entirely on the power of the Lord, promises itself victory either way: either because God was able to deliver them from the furnace of burning fire, or because, secure of future immortality, they counted the present life worthy of contempt! For though they would rather die than violate the sacred laws of religion, yet so that they might not seem to the king to have lied about the power of God, they were found worthy to be delivered from the middle of the blazing furnace. For they had said: "God is able to deliver us from the furnace of burning fire." Hence it came about that, though the flames flew with frequent roar and in surging whirls, yet the fire, with its pitch retreating, gave way from touching the innocent bodies. Indeed, refreshed by a breath of dew, their clothing remained unharmed in the middle of the furnace of burning fire: their tongues unfolded hymns, and as with one mouth they honored God with praises and song. For there is nothing, dearest brothers, that is denied to sincere faith, because God asks nothing else of us than faith. This he loves, this he seeks, to this he promises and grants all things: "Your faith," he says, "has saved you," and "Be faithful unto death," and "The righteous lives by faith," and "Whoever perseveres," he says, "will be saved." He withheld nothing from faith, then; nothing ... to be impossible for it. Indeed, "To him who conquers," he says, "I will give of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God." So too he promises that he will give that manna to those who conquer; now he binds and places the crown of eternal life on the head, now he holds out a white stone to the right hand that receives it, now he hands over the morning star blazing with the brilliance of its rays, now he grants the power to sit on his throne in the court of his honor, now he makes them receive the iron rod, unconquered, of power, now he promises that he will be their companion at the feast of joy and delight: to define it briefly, "what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, God has prepared for those who love him," urging us by these promises that faith should not only begin but persevere. For faith is not great when it begins, but it is glorious if it never ceases. And so these three youths,

devout, broke all the threats and terrors of the cruelest tyrant by the unconquered strength of their souls, because they remained faithful in the Lord. But I confess I wonder how Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan and a barbarian, could recognize the Son of God in the furnace of fire, the fourth among the three youths. For he says: "Did we not throw three men into the furnace of burning fire? See," he says, "I see a fourth, like the Son of God." He had not known him before nor ever heard of him; but that ancient enemy, the deserting angel, who had entered into Nebuchadnezzar to compel him, in the mystery of Antichrist, to make a golden image and destroy righteous men by fire, himself, conquered by divine power, said through Nebuchadnezzar that this was the Son of God. He knew that he had come for the salvation of the three youths, as he himself had known him then, either while he was an angel or when, already a transgressor, he received the sentence from him in paradise. Hence Christian wisdom should observe how much faith can do, which was able to change the nature of flame into the coolness of dew. Nor should it be passed over in silence why King Nebuchadnezzar ordered this statue to be worshiped. What gain, what dignity or glory was he going to obtain if men had worshiped this statue? If, beyond the power of his kingdom, he was still greedy for some greater glory, he would rather have ordered himself to be worshiped than that image, which had no sight, no hearing, no motion of its own, no sense. But this image properly outlined the figure of Antichrist: so it was completed not so much by the will of King Nebuchadnezzar as by the command of the devil, who reigned in him. Nebuchadnezzar did not know what he was doing. It was golden, then, because that Antichrist will be the most powerful king of this world: for, having conquered the ten Roman kings who will be in that time, who were revealed to Daniel in the ten horns, he alone will hold monarchy over the whole world. That its height was sixty cubits and its breadth six indicated the mystery of the name of Antichrist himself. For so blessed John says in the Apocalypse: "The number of the man," he says, "and of the beast contains, by its several Greek letters, six hundred sixty-six. Let him who has understanding understand." For by this number his number and the whole mystery of his iniquity is carried out, and when he comes he will be recognized by it. This number of the name of Antichrist was matched by the measure of that statue, which was made sixty cubits in height and six in breadth. But where are the six hundred that ... the reckoning of the number? Nebuchadnezzar [was] a part ..., [Antichrist] the fullness, and so he made a part of the number in his statue. But the fullness of all iniquity Antichrist himself will fill up when he comes. And so its height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. Indeed that accursed one too, when he comes, will likewise make a golden statue, as the scripture of the Apocalypse testifies, which will bear not some part but the whole fullness of his number. The world, then, in which good and bad meanwhile dwell, was made in six days and blessed on the seventh. So too during six days of the Lord, that is, six thousand years, the work of the world, as I said above, goes on, and on the seventh day of the Lord there will be the kingdom of the saints. Seven times seven make forty-nine: when they are completed, the furnace of Gehenna is opened and the second death is revealed, so that then a sevenfold brightness, like a breath of dew, may be granted to the righteous, but a sevenfold punishment, according to the seven heads of the dragon, and, as the scripture of the Apocalypse relates, the fire of Gehenna may be inflicted on sinners.

But it is enough now, sweetest brothers, to have recalled a few things out of many, so that you may know in what mystery of iniquity the devil made that statue through Nebuchadnezzar, which the three devout youths refused to worship, lest in this statue they should seem to worship Antichrist, whose image it was. If, then, they, for whom Christ had not yet suffered, endured so much for God and for the sacred laws, how much more ought we, for whom the Son of God deigned to be born according to the flesh and to suffer, who freed us from the dead at the price of his blood and made us debtors of his immense benefits, to bear every kind of punishment for the name of Christ with a calm mind, because he who has once been set free in Christ does not endure tyrannical slavery. For Christian freedom does not know how to fear anything. For this we were reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, for this we obtained pardon for our old crimes, for this we testified before many witnesses that we believe, to this, as soldiers of Christ, we swore the words of the sacraments, for this we enlisted for our contest. Therefore we have received the pay of salvation and obtained from Christ the bounty of his gifts. Moreover we are seen to be covered with the shield of faith and clothed with the breastplate of righteousness, so that on this battlefield we may follow our captain without fear. From these things the facts themselves plainly teach: on this battlefield we must not turn our backs or step back, nor lay down our arms or throw away our weapons, nor seek the enemies' camp; but rather we must die for God, for the sacred laws. For a new kind of thing has been discovered through Christ: to perish so as not to be lost, to die so as to live, as the Lord himself says: "Whoever saves his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my name's sake will find it for eternal life." And hence it is that all tortures are easily overcome when the glory of those very tortures is set before the eyes; nor is what tears considered, when a great reward is given for the punishment. Small things, then, as you see, must be exchanged for great, slight things for immense, dying things for lasting. Let us leave this world, so that this world may become the more ours; let us give up a brief life, so that while we die we may restore in ourselves the eternal one, as the Lord says: "Do not fear those who kill your body but cannot kill your soul." For by falling we rise, being extinguished we live, being driven from the earth we take possession of heaven, and we who stood under sentence pronounce sentence. And so we ask and entreat your holiness, O blessed martyrs, that you deign to be mindful of us, so that we too, who believe with equal faith in Christ the Son of God, may deserve to obtain and possess with you the same glory from the triumph of passion in martyrdom.