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| Chapter VI.—The resurrection consistent with the opinions of the philosophers.
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Chapter VI.—The resurrection
consistent with the opinions of the philosophers.
Those, then, who are called natural
philosophers, say, some of them, as Plato, that the universe is matter
and God; others, as Epicurus, that it is atoms and the void;2625
| 2625 τὸ κενόν, the void of
space in which the infinity of atoms moved. | others, like the
Stoics, that it is these four—fire, water, air, earth. For it is
sufficient to mention the most prevalent opinions. And Plato says that
all things are made from matter by God, and according to His design; but
Epicures and his followers say that all things are made from the atom and
the void by some kind of self-regulating action of the natural movement
of the bodies; and the Stoics, that all are made of the four elements,
God pervading them. But while there is such discrepancy among them, there
are some doctrines acknowledged by them all in common, one of which is
that neither can anything be produced from what is not in being, nor
anything be destroyed or dissolved into what has not any being, and that
the elements exist indestructible out of which all things are generated.
And this being so, the regeneration of the flesh will, according to all
these philosophers, appear to be possible. For if, according to Plato, it
is matter and God, both these are indestructible and God; and God indeed
occupies the position of an artificer, to wit, a potter; and matter
occupies the place of clay or wax, or some such thing. That, then, which
is formed of matter, be it an image or a statue, is destructible; but the
matter itself is indestructible, such as clay or wax, or any other such
kind of matter. Thus the artist designs in the clay or wax, and makes the
form of a living animal; and again, if his handiwork be destroyed, it is
not impossible for him to make the same form, by working up the same
material, and fashioning it anew. So that, according to Plato, neither
will it be impossible for God, who is Himself indestructible, and has
also indestructible material, even after that which has been first formed
of it has been destroyed, to make it anew again, and to make the same
form just as it was before. But according to the Stoics even, the body
being produced by the mixture of the four elementary substances, when
this body has been dissolved into the four elements, these remaining
indestructible, it is possible that they receive a second time the same
fusion and composition, from God pervading them, and so re-make the body
which they formerly made. Like as if a man shall make a composition of
gold and silver, and brass and tin, and then shall wish to dissolve it
again, so that each element exist separately, having again mixed them, he
may, if he pleases, make the very same composition as he had formerly
made. Again, according to Epicurus, the atoms and the void being
indestructible, it is by a definite arrangement and adjustment of the
atoms as they come together, that both all other formations are produced,
and the body itself; and it being in course of time dissolved, is
dissolved again into those atoms from which it was also produced. And as
these remain indestructible, it is not at all impossible, that by coming
together again, and receiving the same arrangement and position, they
should make a body of like nature to what was formerly produced by them;
as if a jeweller should make in mosaic the form of an animal, and the
stones should be scattered by time or by the man himself who made them,
he having still in his possession the scattered stones, may gather them
together again, and having gathered, may dispose them in the same way,
and make the same form of an animal. And shall not God be able to collect
again the decomposed members of the flesh, and make the same body as was
formerly produced by Him?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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