Death and Change

Nunc vero sermonem convertimus ad nonnullos nostrorum, qui vel pro intellectus exiguitate, vel explanationis inopia, valde vilem et abjectum sensum de resurrectione corporis introducunt. Quos interrogamus, quomodo intelligant animale corpus gratia resurrectionis immutandum, et spiritale futurum; et quomodo quod in infirmitate seminatur, resurrecturum sentiant in virtute; quod in ignobilitate, quomodo resurgat in gloria; et quod in corruptione, quomodo ad incorruptionem transferatur. Quod utique si credunt Apostolo, quia corpus in gloria et virtute et incorruptibilitate resurgens, spiritale jam effectum sit, absurdum videtur et contra sensum Apostoli dicere id rursum carnis et sanguinis passionibus implicari, cum manifeste dicat Apostolus: ' Quonaim caro et sanguis regnum Dei non possidebunt; neque corruption incorruptionem possidebit'  Sed illud quomodo accipiunt quod dicit Apostolus: 'Omnes autem immutabimur'  Quae utique immutatio secundum illum ordinem quem superius docuimus, exspectanda est; in qua sine dubio dignum aliquids divine gratia sperare nos convenit: quod futurum credimus hoc ordine quo 'nudum granum frumenti aut alicujus caeterorum' in terra seminatum describit Apostolus cui 'Deus dat corpus prout vult'  cum primum granum ipsum frumenti mortuum fuerit. Ita namque etiam nostra corpora velut granum cadere in terram putanda sunt; quibis insita ratio ea quae substantiam continet corporalem, quamvis emortua fuerint corpora et corrupta atque dispera, verbo tamen Dei ratio illa ipsa quae semper in substantia corporis salva est, erigat ea de terra et restituat ac reparet, sicut ea virtus quae est in grano frumenti, post corruptionem ejus et mortem reparat ac resituit granum in culmi corpus et spicae. Et ita his quidem qui regni coelorum haereditatem consequi merebuntur, ratio illa reparandi corporis quam supra diximus, Dei jussu ex terreno et animali corpore corpus reparat spiritale, quod habitare possit in coelis; his vero qui inferioris meriti fuerint, vel abjectioris, vel etiam ultimi et abstrusi, pro uniuscujusque vitae atque animae dignitate, etiam gloria corporis et dignitas datur; ita tamen it etiam eorum qui ad ignem aeternum, vel ad supplicia destinandi sunt, per ipsam resurrectionis permutationem ita corpus incorruptum sit quod resurgit, ut ne suppliciis quidem corrumpi valeat et dissolvi. Origenes, De Principiis, Liber II, Cap X

We now turn our attention to not a few of our own, who, either from poverty of intellect or lack of instruction, propose a very poor and abject opinion concerning the resurrection of the body. We ask them how they understand that an animal body will be changed by the grace of the resurrection into a spiritual one, and how what is sown in weakness will be in the power of the resurrection, and how what is in dishonour will arise in glory, and how what was sown in corruption will be transformed into a state of incorruption. Because if they believe the Apostle, that a body which arises in glory, and power, and incorruptibility, has already become spiritual, it seems absurd and opposed to the Apostle's meaning to say that again it will be embroiled with the passions of flesh and blood, seeing that the Apostle openly says: 'Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, nor shall corruption inherit incorruption.' 1 But how do they understand the speech of the Apostle: 'We shall all be changed?' 2 This change, according to the order which we have taught above, must be expected, and in it, without doubt, it befits us to hope for something worthy of Divine grace, and this we believe will happen in the order in which 'a bare grain of corn, or of any other fruit,' 3 in the earth is sown, as the Apostle describes, to which 'God gives a body as it pleases Him,' 4 as soon as the grain of the crop is dead. For in like manner our bodies should be supposed to fall into the earth like grain, in which is implanted that which contains the bodily substance, and although the bodies die, and become corrupted and are scattered, yet by the word of God that same germ, always safe in the substance of the body, raises them from the earth and restores and repairs, as the power which is in the grain of wheat, after its corruption and death, repairs and restores the grain into a body of stalk and ear. And so it will be to those who shall deserve to obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, that germ of the body's restoration of which we have spoken, by God's command, restoring out of the earthly and animal body a spiritual one, which is able to dwell in the heavens, while to those who are of inferior merit, or more abject, or indeed accounted the least and thrust aside, even to these is given, in accordance with the dignity of life and soul, a glory and dignity of body, in such a way, that even those who are destined to go to eternal fire or to severe punishments, are by the same change of the resurrection given a body so incorruptible that it cannot be destroyed or dissolved even by torments. Origen, On First Principles, Book 2 Chap 10, 1 1 Cor 15.50 2 1 Cor 15.15 3 1 Cor 15 37,38 4 Is 50.11