Seeds And Bodies

Γεγράφηκας, ὅτι Τὸν κόκκον τοῦ σίτου ἀλέσω, καὶ ποιήσω ἄλευρον. Κἂν μυριάκις σπείρω αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν γῆν, οὐκ ἔτι ζωογονεῖται, ἀλλ' οὐδ' ἐξανίσταται, οὐ μὴ βλαστήσει ποτὲ, οὐ μὴ καρποφορήσει· οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὸ σῶμα σποδιὰ καὶ κόνις γενόμενον, οὐκ ἂν δύναιτο ἔτι ἐξαναστῆναι, ἤ ζῆσαι παντάπασιν. Ἀλλ' ἐγώ σοι πᾴλιν καὶ νῦν τὰ αὐτὰ προσαγάγοιμι σύν πραότητι ῥήματα, ἄπερ καὶ πάλαι ἐπέσταλκα, ὅτι ὥσπερ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐκ χοὸς ἄνθρωπος ἀνεδείχθη τῇ δυνάμει καὶ τῇ τέχνῇ τοῦ πανσόφου καὶ πάντα ἰσχύοντος Κυρίου, οὕτω καὶ ἐν τῷ τέλει τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος ἐκ τῆς σποδιᾶς γενήσεται ἡ ἀνάστασις τοῦ ἐφθαρμένου σώματος, καὶ ἐξαναστήσεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος ζωοποιηθείς τε καὶ ψυχωθεὶς, τὴν μὲν προλαβοῦσαν φθορὰν ἀποτιναξαμενος, ἐπενδυσάμενος δὲ τὴν θείαν ἀφθαρσίαν. Ἅγιος Νειλος, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΡΙΑ' Ἀφονιῳ Σαμαριτῃ Source: Migne PG 79.129d-132a

You have written that wheat seed is ground down and made into flour, and that when thousands of seeds are sown in the earth, not all survive, and not all shoot up, and not all bud, and not all produce fruit, and likewise it is for this body of dust and ash, that there cannot be a wholesale raising up and living. But again I exhort you, even now the same things with meek words, that this has been told of old, for as the power and wise art of the almighty Lord took man from the earth in the beginning, 1 so even in the end of present things He shall fashion the resurrection of this body of dust and raise man up with life and soul, and that with the old corruption cast off, endowed with the Divine incorruption. 2 Saint Nilus of Sinai, Book 1, Letter 111, to Aphthonius the Samaritan 1 Gen 2.7 2 1 Cor 15.42, 53-54