On the Resurrection (fragments)

Contents

1. 1The word of truth needs no proof beyond itself, since truth is God; the author takes up arms for the weak against those who deny the resurrection of the flesh.
2. 2The objections: the flesh cannot rise, its rising would be of no use, it would rise with its defects, and Christ himself appeared only in spirit.
3. 3If the members of the body rise, their functions need not be active: some are barren or virgins even now, and Christ was born of a virgin and foretold that marriage ceases in the age to come.
4. 4The flesh will not rise maimed: Christ healed the blind and lame on earth, and will much more make the body whole in the resurrection.
5. 5Against those who say the resurrection is impossible: even the pagans think their gods can do all things; believers have proof in the making of the first man and in human generation, and will argue also from worldly reasons.
6. 6By the principles of Plato, the Stoics and Epicurus alike, nothing perishes into nothing, so God can remake the body from its indestructible elements.
7. 7Against those who despise the flesh: man formed in God's image was fleshly, so the flesh is precious to God; it does not sin alone, and Christ came to call sinners.
8. 8God would not neglect his precious work: he has called the whole man, soul and body, to resurrection; to save the soul alone, a part of himself, would be no act of goodness.
9. 9Christ healed and raised the flesh, rose in the flesh in which he suffered, ate before his disciples and ascended in the flesh: the resurrection of the flesh is the power of God.
10. 10The resurrection is of the flesh that fell; the soul's immortality alone was Plato's teaching, while Christ brought a new hope, and the flesh he disciplines is kept for salvation.