19. О Воскресении

Thus, by performing the sacrament of baptism, we accept the hope of resurrection, and we await the resurrection of bodies. This is what the name itself allows us to see. For resurrection (άνάστασις) is restoration to a previous state; the body decays, collapses and turns into dust. It is said: “his spirit will depart and return to his land” (Ps. 145:4); and again: “take away their spirit, and they will disappear and return to their dust” (Ps. 103:29). And the Creator himself spoke to Adam: “As you are earth, you will return to earth” (Gen. 3:19). Therefore, the restoration of the body to its former composition is rightly called resurrection, because the immortal soul is not resurrected at this time, but returns to the body. And Marcion, Cerdon, Manes and everyone who did not allow the resurrection of the body completely denied a future life as something impossible. They thought that God could not create without a ready-made substance; and it was considered even less possible for Him to restore again to its original form [that] which had once been destroyed, turned to fine dust and was lost over time. However, they also say that God, taking one block from the earth, created man. It was necessary to understand that just as then God conveniently turned this block of all sorts into a body, made from it many and various parts of the body, so it is not difficult for God to prepare the essence of the body from these small remains. For even now we see, in the image of ancient creation, this happening in the mother’s womb, where from the small substance of the seed come bones, membranes, nerves, beating and blood-bearing veins, skin, fat, flesh and everything else that the body consists of; because nature follows God’s statute and, like a certain sculptor, creates an animated image; the smallness of the substance, the cramped space, the surrounding darkness do not hinder this creation. Therefore, it is extreme foolishness to not believe what is visible, especially when God promises. Christ himself said that “those in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they will come out, having done good to the resurrection of life, and having done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29). But no one sane will say that souls live in coffins; on the contrary, bodies lie in them. And admonishing the Sadducees, who did not accept the doctrine of the resurrection, the Lord said the following: “About the resurrection of the dead, have you not spoken to you of what God said: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And he added: “There is no God, the God of the dead, but the God of the living” (Matthew 22:31–32). And he said to Martha: “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). She, taught this by the Old Testament Scripture, answered: “I know that my brother will rise again at the resurrection on the last day” (John 11:24). Then, continuing his speech, the Lord said: “I am the resurrection and the life: believe in Me, even if you die, you will live” (John 11:25). Therefore, just as then, having said: “Your brother will arise,” he resurrected not only Lazarus’s soul, but returned the soul, and resurrected the stinking and decaying body, so, having promised a general resurrection, he will return the disintegrated bodies, and again brought into their composition, to souls, making them free from death and corruption. And the divine Apostle clearly teaches this: “It is fitting for this corruptible to put on incorruptibility” (1 Cor. 15:53) and again: “The life of death will be consumed” (2 Cor. 5:4); and also: “it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown not in honor, it is raised in glory: it is sown in a natural body, it is raised in a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:42-44); and again: “the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible” (1 Cor. 15:52). The Apostle also presented the objection of unbelievers: “But someone says: How will the dead rise? In what body will they come?” (1 Cor. 15:35) And first of all he called them crazy, because they see the image of the resurrection in seeds and are not thereby led to the conclusion about the resurrection of bodies. For he said: “You are foolish, even though you are sown, you will not live unless you die: and you are sown, not the body of the future sesh, but a naked grain, if it happens, of wheat or something else from the rest” (1 Cor. 15: 36-37). Look, he says, at what happens every day: furrows are no different from coffins, because seeds are buried in them, like in coffins; but the Creator of all things, sending down rain, arranges that they produce roots, leaves, stems, awns, ears, and when the landowners do nothing more, as soon as they bury the seeds, the determination of the Creator of everything does the rest. For the divine Apostle also said this: “God gives him the body he desires” (1 Cor. 15:38). And so that no one would think that another body was being created, the Apostle, of necessity, added: “and to each seed his own body.” And writing to the Philippians, he cries out: “For since our life is in heaven, we also wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humility, so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:20-21). Transfiguration was not called a change into another form, but a transformation from corruption to incorruption. And comforting the Thessalonians, who were extremely sorrowful for the dead, he proposed to them the teaching of the resurrection. For he says: “I do not want you, brothers, not to know about the dead, so that you do not grieve, like others who do not have hope. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so God will bring those who died in Jesus with Him” (1 Thessalonians 4:13–14). And so that no one would think that he was saying this from himself in his own words, he added: “For we speak this to you by the word of the Lord, because we who are living and remain at the coming of the Lord are not imams before those who die” (1 Thessalonians 4:15). You can find thousands of other testimonies about this that clearly preach the resurrection. And to the Jerusalemites, accused of breaking the law, the Apostle cries out: “I accept judgment today regarding the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 24:21). And what am I saying about the Apostles, who received from the Lord the clearest teaching about the resurrection? And the godly Prophets lived in the same hope. For we hear how the divine David speaks to God: “take away their spirit, and they will disappear, and return to their dust: when they follow your Spirit, they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth” (Ps. 103:29-30). We hear the godly Isaiah calling out: “the dead will rise again and those in their graves will rise” (Is. 26:19); and the blessed Ezekiel said that he saw the very image of the resurrection. For, having before his eyes a multitude of bones, he received orders to order them to produce flesh, sinews and skins. “And it came to pass,” he says, “that at times I prophesied, and behold, I was a coward, and I copulated bones, bone to bone, each to its composition: and I saw, and behold, they had veins, and the flesh was stretched, and it climbed on them, and the skin was stretched out for them on top” (Ezek. 37: 7-8). Then he tells how, having received the command, spirits gathered from everywhere. and how, by connecting them with the bones, the image of the future resurrection was outlined. If even before the coming of the Savior the Prophets predicted this, then what punishment is fair to suffer for those who, after the Resurrection of the Savior, after the apostolic sermon, do not believe the teaching of the resurrection? You might be interested in: