Chapter XLII.—Death Changes, Without Destroying, Our Mortal Bodies.  Remains of the Giants.

It is the transformation these shall undergo which he explains to the Corinthians, when he writes: “We shall all indeed rise again (though we shall not all undergo the transformation) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump”—for none shall experience this change but those only who shall be found in the flesh. “And the dead,” he says, “shall be raised, and we shall be changed.” Now, after a careful consideration of this appointed order, you will be able to adjust what follows to the preceding sense. For when he adds, “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality,”274    1 Cor. xv. 51–53. this will assuredly be that house from heaven, with which we so earnestly desire to be clothed upon, whilst groaning in this our present body,—meaning, of course, over this flesh in which we shall be surprised at last; because he says that we are burdened whilst in this tabernacle, which we do not wish indeed to be stripped of, but rather to be in it clothed over, in such a way that mortality may be swallowed up of life, that is, by putting on over us whilst we are transformed that vestiture which is from heaven. For who is there that will not desire, while he is in the flesh, to put on immortality, and to continue his life by a happy escape from death, through the transformation which must be experienced instead of it, without encountering too that Hades which will exact the very last farthing?275    Comp. Matt. v. 26, and see Tertullian’s De Anima, xxxv. [and see cap. xliii., infra, p. 576.] Notwithstanding, he who has already traversed Hades is destined also to obtain the change after the resurrection. For from this circumstance it is that we definitively declare that the flesh will by all means rise again, and, from the change that is to come over it, will assume the condition of angels. Now, if it were merely in the case of those who shall be found in the flesh that the change must be undergone, in order that mortality may be swallowed up of life—in other words, that the flesh (be covered) with the heavenly and eternal raiment—it would either follow that those who shall be found in death would not obtain life, deprived as they would then be of the material and so to say the aliment of life, that is, the flesh; or else, these also must needs undergo the change, that in them too mortality may be swallowed up of life, since it is appointed that they too should obtain life. But, you say, in the case of the dead, mortality is already swallowed up of life. No, not in all cases, certainly. For how many will most probably be found of men who had just died—so recently put into their graves, that nothing in them would seem to be decayed? For you do not of course deem a thing to be decayed unless it be cut off, abolished, and withdrawn from our perception, as having in every possible way ceased to be apparent. There are the carcases of the giants of old time; it will be obvious enough that they are not absolutely decayed, for their bony frames are still extant. We have already spoken of this elsewhere.276    De Anim. c. li. For instance,277    Sed: for “scilicet.” even lately in this very city,278    Carthage. when they were sacrilegiously laying the foundations of the Odeum on a good many ancient graves, people were horror-stricken to discover, after some five hundred years, bones, which still retained their moisture, and hair which had not lost its perfume. It is certain not only that bones remain indurated, but also that teeth continue undecayed for ages—both of them the lasting germs of that body which is to sprout into life again in the resurrection. Lastly, even if everything that is mortal in all the dead shall then be found decayed—at any rate consumed by death, by time, and through age,—is there nothing which will be “swallowed up of life,”279    2 Cor. v. 4. [Against Marcion, p. 455, note 24.] nor by being covered over and arrayed in the vesture of immortality? Now, he who says that mortality is going to be swallowed up of life has already admitted that what is dead is not destroyed by those other before-mentioned devourers. And verily it will be extremely fit that all shall be consummated and brought about by the operations of God, and not by the laws of nature. Therefore, inasmuch as what is mortal has to be swallowed up of life, it must needs be brought out to view in order to be so swallowed up; (needful) also to be swallowed up, in order to undergo the ultimate transformation. If you were to say that a fire is to be lighted, you could not possibly allege that what is to kindle it is sometimes necessary and sometimes not. In like manner, when he inserts the words “If so be that being unclothed280    Exuti. He must have read ἐκδυσάμενοι , instead of the reading of nearly all the ms. authorities, ἐνδυσάμενοι. we be not found naked,”281    2 Cor. v. 3.—referring, of course, to those who shall not be found in the day of the Lord alive and in the flesh—he did not say that they whom he had just described as unclothed or stripped, were naked in any other sense than meaning that they should be understood to be reinvested with the very same substance they had been divested of. For although they shall be found naked when their flesh has been laid aside, or to some extent sundered or worn away (and this condition may well be called nakedness,) they shall afterwards recover it again, in order that, being reinvested with the flesh, they may be able also to have put over that the supervestment of immortality; for it will be impossible for the outside garment to fit except over one who is already dressed.

CAPUT XLII.

Horum demutationem ad Corinthios (I Cor. XV) reddit , dicens: Omnes quidem resurgemus, non autem omnes demutabimur, in atomo, in momentaneo motu oculi, in novissima tuba; sed illi scilicet soli, qui invenientur in carne. Et mortui, inquit, resurgent primi, et nos demutabimur. Hac ergo prius dispositione prospecta, reliqua revocabis ad superiorem sensum. Nam cum adjicit: Oportet enim corruptivum istud induere incorruptelam, et mortale 0853C istud induere immortalitatem; hoc erit istud domicilium de coelo, quod gementes in hac carne superinduere desideramus; utique super carnem, in 0854A qua deprehendemur; quia gravari nos ait, qui sumus in tabernaculo; quod nolimus exui, sed potius superindui; uti devoretur mortale a vita, scilicet dum demutatur , superinduendo quod est de coelis. Quis enim non desiderabit, dum in carne est, superinduere immortalitatem, et continuare vitam, lucrifacta morte per vicariam demutationem, ne inferos experiatur, usque novissimum quadrantem exacturos? Caeterum, demutationem etiam post resurrectionem consecuturus est, inferos jam expertus. Abhinc enim definimus, carnem quidem omni modo resurrecturam, atque illa ex demutatione superventura, habitum angelicum suscepturam. Aut si in his solis qui invenientur in carne, demutari eum oportebit, uti devoretur mortale a 0854B vita, id est caro ab illo superindumento coelesti et aeterno; ergo qui mortui deprehendentur, vitam non consequentur, privati jam materia, et, ut ita dixerim, esca vitae, id est carne. Aut necesse est recipiant eam et illi, ut et in ipsis mortale devorari possit a vita, si vitam sunt consecuturi. Sed in mortuis, inquis, jam devoratum erit mortale istud. Non utique in omnibus. Quantos enim licebit vel pridianos inveniri, tam recentia cadavera, ut nihil in illis devoratum videri possit! Utique enim devoratum non aliud existimas, quam interceptam, quam abolitum, quam omni sensu ereptum, quod comparere omni genere cessaverit. Nec gigantum autem antiquissima cadavera devorata constabit, quorum crates adhuc vivunt. Diximus jam de isto alibi. Sed et proxime in 0854C ista civitate, cum Odei fundamenta, tot veterum sepulturarum sacrilega , collocarentur, quingentorum fere annorum ossa , adhuc succida, et capillos olentes populus exhorruit. 0855A Constat, non tantum ossa durare, verum et dentes incorruptos perennare; quae ut semina retinentur fructificaturi corporis in resurrectione. Postremo, etsi tunc devoratum invenietur mortale in omnibus mortuis, certe a morte, certe ab aevo, certe per aetatem; numquid a vita, numquid a superindumento, numquid ab immortalitatis ingestu? Porro, qui ab his ait devoratum iri mortale, ab aliis negavit. Et utique hoc a divinis viribus, non a naturalibus legibus perfici praestarique conveniet! Ergo cum a vita habeat devorari quod mortale est, id exhiberi omnifariam necesse est, ut devoretur, et devorari, ut demutetur. Si ignem dicas accendi oportere, non potes id per quod accenditur, alibi necessarium adfirmare, alibi non. Sic et cum infulcit: Siquidem 0855B exuti, non nudi inveniamur , de eis scilicet qui non in vita, nec in carne deprehendentur a die Domini; non alias negavit nudos, quos praedixit exutos, nisi quia revestitos voluit intelligi eadem substantia, qua fuerant spoliati. Ut nudi enim invenientur, carne deposita, vel ex parte discissa, sive detrita: et hoc enim nuditas potest dici. Dehinc recipient eam, ut, redinduti carnem, fieri possint etiam superinduti immortalitatem. Superindui enim, nisi vestito jam, convenire non poterit.