On the Resurrection of the Dead · §16 · Athenagoras

Sleep as a model for interrupted life

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Athenagoras is answering the objection that death interrupts life, so resurrection cannot restore the same life; he argues that human life is already marked by interruptions such as sleep, yet we still call it one life.

No one should be surprised if we call a life that is cut short by death and decay a continuance. The word does not mean one thing, and continuance does not have one measure, because the things that continue do not have one nature. Each thing that continues has its continuance according to its own nature. So among things that are purely incorruptible and immortal you would not find an equal continuance, since the substances of the higher beings are not made equal to those that differ by being inferior. Nor is it right to demand for human beings that smooth, unchanging continuance.

The beings that existed from the beginning are immortal and continue endlessly by the purpose of their Maker alone. Human beings, however, have an unchanging continuance in soul from birth, but in body they receive incorruptibility in addition through change. This is what the doctrine of the resurrection intends. Looking toward it, we await the dissolution of the body, since it follows a life marked by need and decay, and after that we hope for a continuance with incorruptibility. We do not make our death equal to the death of irrational animals, nor do we make the continuance of human beings equal to the continuance of the immortals. Otherwise we would without realizing it make human nature and life equal to things to which they do not belong.

So it is not right to be troubled if some irregularity is observed in the continuance of human beings. Nor, because the separation of the soul from the parts and members of the body and their dissolution cuts short continuous life, should we for that reason despair of the resurrection. Sleep brings natural relaxations of the senses and natural powers, and people sleep for measured intervals of time and then in a way come back to life. We do not refuse to call this the same life, even though these relaxations seem to cut short the life of conscious awareness. For this reason, I think, some call sleep the brother of death. They are not tracing a genealogy as if the two were born from the same ancestors or parents, but because similar experiences come to those who have died and those who sleep: the stillness, the lack of awareness of what is present or happening, and not even awareness of being or of one's own life.

Human life is full of so much irregularity from birth to dissolution, and it is cut short by all the things we have mentioned. Yet we do not refuse to call it the same life. So we ought not to despair of the life beyond dissolution, which brings the resurrection with it, even if it is cut short for a time by the separation of the soul from the body.

Greek

Ξενιζέσθω δὲ μηδεὶς εἰ τὴν θανάτῳ καὶ φθορᾷ διακοπτομένην ζωὴν ὀνομάζομεν διαμονήν, λογιζόμενος ὡς οὐχ εἷς τοῦ προσρήματος ὁ λόγος, οὐχ ἓν τῆς διαμονῆς τὸ μέτρον, ὅτι μηδὲ τῶν διαμενόντων φύσις μία. Εἴπερ γὰρ κατὰ τὴν οἰκείαν φύσιν ἕκαστον τῶν διαμενόντων ἔχει τὴν διαμονήν, οὔτ᾿ ἐπὶ τῶν καθαρῶς ἀφθάρτων καὶ ἀθανάτων εὕροι τις ἂν ἰσάζουσαν τὴν διαμονήν, τῷ μηδὲ τὰς οὐσίας τῶν κρειττόνων συνεξισοῦσθαι ταῖς καθ᾿ ὑπόβασιν διαφερούσαις, οὔτ᾿ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὴν ὁμαλὴν ἐκείνην τὴν ἀμετάβλητον ἐπιζητεῖν ἄξιον, ἅτε δὴ τῶν μὲν ἐξ ἀρχῆς γενομένων ἀθανάτων καὶ διαμενόντων μόνῃ τῇ γνώμῃ τοῦ ποιήσαντος ἀτελευτήτως, τῶν δὲ ἀνθρώπων κατὰ μὲν τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ γενέσεως ἐχόντων τὴν ἀμετάβλητον διαμονήν, κατὰ δὲ τὸ σῶμα προσλαμβανόντων ἐκ μεταβολῆς τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν· ὅπερ ὁ τῆς ἀναστάσεως λόγος βούλεται· πρὸς ἣν ἀποβλέποντες, τήν τε διάλυσιν τοῦ σώματος, ὡς ἑπομένην τῇ μετ᾿ ἐνδείας καὶ φθορᾶς ζωῇ, περιμένομεν, καὶ μετὰ ταύτην τὴν μετ᾿ ἀφθαρσίας ἐλπίζομεν διαμονήν, οὔτε τῇ τῶν ἀλόγων τελευτῇ συνεξισοῦντες τὴν ἡμετέραν τελευτήν, οὔτε τῇ τῶν ἀθανάτων διαμονῇ τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων διαμονήν, ἵνα μὴ λάθωμεν ταύτῃ συνεξισοῦντες καὶ τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν καὶ ζωὴν οἷς μὴ προσῆκεν. Οὐ τοίνυν ἐπὶ τούτῳ δυσχεραίνειν ἄξιον, εἴ τις ἀνωμαλία θεωρεῖται περὶ τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων διαμονήν, οὐδ᾿ ἐπειδὴ χωρισμὸς ψυχῆς ἀπὸ τῶν τοῦ σώματος μερῶν καὶ μορίων διάλυσις τὴν συνεχῆ διακόπτει ζωήν, διὰ τοῦτ᾿ ἀπογινώσκειν χρὴ τὴν ἀνάστασιν. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐπειδὴ τὴν κατὰ συναίσθησιν ζωὴν διακόπτειν δοκοῦσιν αἱ κατὰ τὸν ὕπνον φυσικῶς ἐγγινόμεναι παρέσεις τῶν αἰσθήσεων καὶ τῶν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων, ἰσομέτροις χρόνου διαστήμασιν ὑπνούντων τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ τρόπον τινὰ πάλιν ἀναβιωσκόντων, τὴν αὐτὴν παραιτούμεθα ζωὴν λέγειν· παρ᾿ ἣν αἰτίαν, οἶμαι, τινὲς ἀδελφὸν τοῦ θανάτου τὸν ὕπνον ὀνομάζουσιν, οὐχ ὡς ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν προγόνων ἢ πατέρων φύντας γενεαλογοῦντες, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς τῶν ὁμοίων παθῶν τοῖς τε θανοῦσι καὶ τοῖς ὑπνοῦσιν ἐγγινομένων, ἕνεκά γε τῆς ἠρεμίας καὶ τοῦ μηδενὸς ἐπαισθάνεσθαι τῶν παρόντων ἢ γινομένων, μᾶλλον δὲ μηδὲ τοῦ εἶναι καὶ τῆς ἰδίας ζωῆς. Εἴπερ οὖν τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ζωὴν τοσαύτης γέμουσαν ἀνωμαλίας ἀπὸ γενέσεως μέχρι διαλύσεως, καὶ διακοπτομένην πᾶσιν οἷς προείπομεν, οὐ παραιτούμεθα τὴν αὐτὴν λέγειν ζωήν, οὐδὲ τὴν ἐπέκεινα τῆς διαλύσεως ζωήν, ἥτις ἑαυτῇ συνεισάγει τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ἀπογινώσκειν ὀφείλομεν, κἂν ἐπὶ ποσὸν διακόπτηται τῷ χωρισμῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος.

About this text

Athenagoras argues that God can raise the dead, and that the rising of the body fits God's purpose, human nature, and justice.

Athenagoras (fl. c. 177) was an Athenian philosopher who converted to Christianity and wrote in Greek as a Christian apologist. This treatise is addressed to those who disbelieve or doubt the resurrection of the dead, urging them to examine the question rationally rather than by idle speculation. He wrote to show that bodily resurrection is both possible for God and consistent with God's purpose, human nature, and divine justice.

The work answers pagan philosophers and other critics who claimed that resurrection was impossible or contrary to God's will. Athenagoras first argues that disbelief is unreasonable unless critics can prove resurrection impossible or unwilled by God. He then shows that God's knowledge and power make resurrection possible, and that apparent difficulties such as bodies eaten by animals do not prevent it, because only what is truly proper food can be united to a body.

A reader will meet the critics who raise objections, including the mythological figure Thyestes as an example of cannibalism, and an unnamed apostle quoted as saying that the corruptible must put on incorruptibility. Athenagoras argues from God's purpose in creating humans, from human nature as a compound of soul and body, and from divine justice, which requires that the whole human being receive reward or punishment. The apostle quoted is Paul, and the saying about the corruptible putting on incorruptibility comes from 1 Corinthians 15:54.

New English from the Greek base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Athenagorae Philosophi Atheniensis Opera Athenagoras Johann Karl Theodor von Otto Mauke Jena 1857 (Greek)

This work has not yet been re-checked against its source. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.