15. О том, что Владыка воскресил восприятое Им на Себя естество

The fact that He resurrected the nature He had assumed upon Himself, as He Himself testifies by showing the hands and feet of the Apostles, is also testified by the fingers of Thomas, touching the ulcers. And this, at the command of the Lord, was done by the other Apostles, for the Lord said to them: “Handle and see: for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see Me has” (Luke 24:39). The divine Apostle John also calls out at the beginning of the epistle: “we saw and touched our hands” (1 John 1:1). And the great Peter, speaking to the Jews and then mentioning the prophecy of David, which he spoke about the Master's Resurrection, said the following: “Men and brethren, it is worthy to speak with boldness to you about the patriarch David, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is in us even to this day. The prophet is holy and knowledgeable, as God swears to him by an oath from the fruit of his loins according to the flesh to raise up Christ and seat Him on his throne, foreseeing the verb about the resurrection of Christ, as if His soul would not remain in hell, nor His flesh in the form of corruption” (Acts 2:29-31). Therefore, two witnesses together, both the Apostle and the Prophet, one foretelling, and the other interpreting the prophecy after its fulfillment, teach us that the resurrection is not attributed to the Divinity, but to the body and soul (and to which resurrection is attributed, suffering, of course, also belonged), not because the soul died with the body (and human souls are immortal), but because, after separation from the soul, the body accepted its end. The Divinity was inseparable from humanity both on the Cross and in the tomb, but, being immortal and immutable, it did not suffer either death or suffering. For if the soul, due to its innate immortality, had no part in the death of the body, then is it possible for an indescribable nature to be nailed to a tree or consigned to a tomb? Making this clear, the four Evangelists mention Joseph of Arimathea and say that he came to Pilate, asked for the body of Jesus, and when Pilate gave it, he took the body from the Cross, wrapped it in a shroud and delivered the body to the tomb, and they repeatedly used this word: “body,” blocking the shameless lips of those who blaspheme with these clear and obvious testimonies. You might be interested in: