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| Chapter XVIII
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Chapter
XVIII.
But since he has ridiculed at great length the
doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh, which has been preached in
the Churches, and which is more clearly understood by the more
intelligent believer; and as it is unnecessary again to quote his
words, which have been already adduced, let us, with regard to the
problem4145
| 4145 περὶ τοῦ
προβλήματος
τούτου. | (as in an
apologetic work directed against an alien from the faith, and for the
sake of those who are still “children, tossed to and fro, and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and
cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive”4146
), state and establish to the best of our
ability a few points expressly intended for our readers. Neither
we, then, nor the holy Scriptures, assert that with the same bodies,
without a change to a higher condition, “shall those who were
long dead arise from the earth and live again;” for in so
speaking, Celsus makes a false charge against us. For we may
listen to many passages of Scripture treating of the resurrection in a
manner worthy of God, although it may suffice for the present to quote
the language of Paul from the first Epistle to the Corinthians, where
he says: “But some man will say, How are the dead raised
up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou
sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou
sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may
chance of wheat, or of some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it
hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body.”4147
Now, observe how in these words he
says that there is sown, “not that body that shall be;” but
that of the body which is sown and cast naked into the earth (God
giving to each seed its own body), there takes place as it were a
resurrection: from the seed that was cast into the ground there
arising a stalk, e.g., among such plants as the following, viz., the
mustard plant, or of a larger tree, as in the olive,4148
or one of the
fruit-trees.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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