Same-genus rising; seed and stalk; sown corruptible, raised spiritual
—of brothers of the same kind; for Reuben is not of another nature and Simeon or Levi and the rest of another. And with the other firstborns it is the same. If then Jesus also is firstborn from the dead, the resurrection of those who rise must be of the same kind. And if he wore a body, and his resurrection was with a body so that he even ate, as is written in the Gospel according to John, while those who rise among believers in Christ rise otherwise, as those from the heresies think, they cannot show how Jesus is firstborn from the dead. For if we have become conformed to the death of Christ, we shall also be conformed to his resurrection; and how does Paul teach saying, who will transform the body of our humiliation conformed to the body of Christ’s glory?
Some shamelessly admit that Christ has been raised from the dead, yet say there is no resurrection of the dead. Therefore the apostle says, If Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?Even if someone does not say it with the mouth, but says in the heart “there is no resurrection of the dead,” he effectively rejects also Jesus Christ’s resurrection. For if the universal is false, clearly the one who rose from the dead is also contained in the universal. For if the dead are not raised, and Jesus also was among the dead, then Jesus has not been raised either; but if he has been raised, through him the resurrection of the dead is shown—unless we disbelieve the thing as impossible in itself, forgetting who promised. For what, among impossibles so to speak, is more impossible: that the body be made alive, or that heaven come to be from things that are not, or the sun, or the rest of the creatures?
Come also to the human’s very beginning; recall his beginning. A human seed is shown you. If someone said, “This seed will be a human; it will be formed; there will be bones from it, flesh, sinews, veins; he will walk; from this small, cheap seed a human raised on earth will use organs”—would we not call the one preaching this to us mindless, if we had not taken experience of it? So then let me dare also to show you the resurrection, and you will rather accept it, trusting God’s perfection. What that seed was toward this present body—now the present, the generic, the sowing, the organ of words and works according to righteousness—this body becomes toward that: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it falls into the earth and dies and decays, from the decay of the wheat grain a hundredfold ear comesThat your body is seed of what will rise, hear Paul saying: It is sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a soulish body, raised a spiritual bodyYou see how there, upon the seed, something cheap and of no account was sown, and a fair and beautiful human was raised; in the same way this dead thing is a grain of wheat to God as what is about to rise. Just as God had means from the wheat grain to make an ear—not outside the starting points in the small seed; for from that he raised the ear, and from each seed he raises what potentially exists in the seed—so from a human seed according to the beginning this human came to be. And if his body dies, it becomes seed of the one who will rise from the dead in glory in Christ Jesus.
And the apostle took unbelief in the resurrection from the dead as equal to not believing that we shall exist at all after departure. Therefore to those who do not believe there will be a resurrection of the dead he says, as if according to them there is no other life besides the present, If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all humans most pitiableAnd in what follows also, as according to those who say there is no resurrection of the dead, nor life existing beyond this life, he says, Why are we also in danger every hour? I die daily, and the rest. And the heresy of the Sadducees who reject the resurrection of the dead also shows that it follows for them that you do not even live after the present life. Therefore the Savior toward them takes from the law alone an example about there being a resurrection from the dead, saying the wording—
Greek
ὁμογενῶν τῶν ἀδελφῶν ὄντων· οὐ γὰρ ἄλλης φύσεως ὁ Ῥουβὶμ καὶ ἄλλης φύσεως ὁ Συμεὼν ἢ ὁ Λευῒ καὶ οἱ ἑξῆς. καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων πρωτοτόκων τὸ αὐτό. εἰ τοίνυν καὶ ὁ Ἰησοῦς πρωτότοκό ἐστιν ἐκ νεκρῶν, ἀνάγκη ὁμογενῆ εἶναι τὴν ἀνάστασιν τῶν ἀνισταμένων. εἰ δὲ ἐκεῖνος μὲν ἐφόρεσε σῶμα, καὶ ἡ ἀνάστασις αὐτοῦ μετὰ σώματος ἦν ὥστε αὐτὸν καὶ φαγεῖν ὡς γέγραπται ἐν τῷ κατὰ Ἰωάννην εὐαγγελίῳ. ἄλλως δὲ ἀνίστανται, ὡς οἴονται οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν αἱρέσεων, οἱ ἀνιστάμενοι τῶν πιστευόντων εἰς τὸν χριστόν. οὐ δύνανται παραστῆσαι πῶς Ἰησοῦς πρωτότοκό ἐστιν ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν. εἰ γὰρ ύμμορφοι γεγόναμεν τῷ θανάτῳ τοῦ χριστοῦ, καὶ τῆ ἀνα τά εω αὐτοῦ σύμμορφοι ἐ όμεθα· καὶ πῶς διδάσκει λέγων ὁ Παῦλος Ὃ μετα χηματί ει τὸ ῶμα τῆ ταπεινώ εω ἡμῶν ύμμορφον τῷ ώματι τῆ δόξη τοῦ χριστοῦ. Ἀναιδῶς τοίνυν τινὲς παραδέχονται μὲν ὅτι ἐγήγερται Χρι τὸ ἐκ νεκρῶν, λέ γου ι δὲ ὅτι ἀνά τα ι νεκρῶν οὐκ ἔ τιν. διὸ φησὶν ὁ ἀπόστολος Εἰ δὲ Χρι τὸ κηρύ εται ἐκ νεκρῶν ὅτι ἐγήγερται, πῶ λέγου ιν ἐν ὑμῖν τινε ὅτι ἀνά τα ι νεκρῶν οὐκ ἔ τιν; κἂν μὴ τῷ στόματι λέγῃ τις, τῇ δὲ καρδίᾳ λέγει Ἀνά τα ι νεκρῶν οὐκ ἔ τιν, δυνάμει ἀθετεῖ καὶ τὴν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀνάστασιν. εἰ γὰρ τὸ καθ ολικὸν ψεῦδος, δῆλον ὅτι περιέχεται ἐν τῷ καθολικῷ καὶ ὁ εἷς ἀναστὰς ἐκ νεκρῶν. εἰ γὰρ οὐκ ἐγείρονται οἱ νεκροί, γέγονε δὲ καὶ ἐν νεκροῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς, οὐκ ἐγήγερται οὐδὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· εἰ δὲ ἐκεῖνος ἐγήγερται, δι' ἐκείνου δηλοῦται ἡ ἀνάστασις τῶν νεκρῶν· εἰ μὴ τῷ ἀδυνάτῳ τοῦ πράγματος καθ' αὑτὸ ἀπιστῶμεν, ἐπιλανθανό μενοι τίς ὁ ἐπαγγειλάμενος. τί γὰρ ὡς ἐν ἀδυνάτοις, ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, ἀδυνατώ τερον τὸ ζωοποιηθῆναι τὸ σῶμα ἢ οὐρανὸν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων γενέσθαι ἢ ἥλιον ἢ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν κτισμάτων; Ἐλθὲ δὲ καὶ ἐπ' αὐτὴν τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀρχήν· ἀναπόλ<η>σον αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀρχήν. δείκνυταί σοι σπέρμα ἀνθρώπου· εἰ ἔλεγέν τις Τοῦτο τὸ σπέρμα ἄνθρωπος ἔσται, μορφωθήσεται, ὀστᾶ ἔσται, ἀπὸ τούτου σάρκες, νεῦρα, φλέβες· περιπατήσει· ἀπὸ τούτου τοῦ σπέρματος τοῦ βραχέος, τοῦ εὐτελοῦς, ἄνθρωπος ἐπὶ γῆς διεγηγερμένος χρήσεται ὀργάνοις· οὐκ ἂν ἐλέγομεν ἀνόητον εἶναι τὸν ταῦτα ἡμῖν κηρύσσοντα, εἰ μὴ πεῖραν εἰλήφαμεν τούτου; ἵν' οὖν τολμήσω καὶ παραστήσω σοι τὴν ἀνάστασιν, καὶ μᾶλλον αὐτὴν παραδέξῃ πιστεύσας τῇ τελειότητι τοῦ θεοῦ. ὅπερ ἐκεῖνο τὸ σπέρμα ἦν πρὸς τοῦτο τὸ σῶμα τὸ ἐνεστηκός, νῦν τὸ παρεστηκός, τὸ γενικόν, τὸ σπεῖρον, τὸ ὄργανον γενόμενον λόγων καὶ ἔργων τῶν κατὰ δικαιοσύνην, τοῦτο τὸ σῶμα πρὸς ἐκεῖνο γίνεται· Ὁ κόκκο τοῦ ίτου ἐὰν μὴ πε ὼν εἰ τὴν γῆν ἀποθάνῃ, αὐτὸ μόνο μένει· ἐὰν δὲ πεσὼν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἀποθάνῃ καὶ διασαπῇ, ἐκ τῆς διασήψεως τοῦ κόκκου τοῦ σίτου στάχυς ἑκατοντάκις γίνεται. ὅτι γὰρ τὸ σῶμά σου σπέρμα ἐστὶ τοῦ ἀναστησομένου, ἄκουε Παύλου λέγοντος· Σπείρεται ἐν φθορᾷ, ἐγείρεται ἐν ἀφθαρ ίᾳ· πείρεται ἐν ἀτιμίᾳ, ἐγείρεται ἐν δόξῃ· πείρεται ἐν ἀ θενείᾳ, ἐγείρεται ἐν δυνάμει· πείρεται ῶμα ψυχικόν, ἐγείρεται ῶμα πνευματικόν. ὁρᾷς ὡς ἐκεῖ ἐπὶ τοῦ σπέρματος εὐτελές <τι> καὶ οὐδενὸς λόγου ἄξιον ἐσπάρη, καὶ ἐγήγερται ἄνθρωπος ὡραῖος καὶ καλός· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον τοῦτο τὸ νεκρὸν κόκκος ἐστὶ σίτου τῷ θεῷ ὡς τὸ προαναστησόμενον. ὥσπερ οὖν εὐπόρησεν ὁ θεὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ κόκκου τοῦ σίτου στάχυν ποιῆσαι–οὐκ ἔξωθεν τῶν ἀφορμῶν τῶν ἐν τῷ σπέρματι τῷ βραχεῖ· ἀπὸ γὰρ ἐκείνου ἤγειρεν τὸν στάχυν, καὶ ἀφ' ἑκάστου σπέρματος ἐγείρει τὸ δυνάμει ἐνυπάρχον τῷ σπέρματι–οὕτως ἀπὸ σπέρματος μὲν ἀνθρώπου κατὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν γέγονεν οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος. ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ, σπέρμα γίνεται τοῦ ἀναστησομένου ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐν δόξῃ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ. τὸ ἄπιστον δὲ τῇ ἀναστάσει τῇ ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν ἴσον ὑπέλαβεν εἶναι ὁ ἀπόστολος τῷ μὴ πιστεύειν ὅτι ἐσόμεθα τὴν ἀρχὴν μετὰ τὴν ἔξοδον. διὸ τοῖς <μὴ> πιστεύουσιν ἀνάστασιν ἔσεσθαι νεκρῶν φησιν, ὡς μὴ ἄλλης κατ' αὐτοὺς ζωῆς παρὰ τὴν ἐνεστῶσαν, τὸ Εἰ ἐν τῇ ζωῇ ταύτῃ ἐν Χρι τῷ ἠλπικότε ἐ μὲν μόνον, ἐλεεινότεροι ἐ μὲν πάντων ἀνθρώπων. καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς δὲ ὡς κατὰ τοὺς λέγοντας μὴ εἶναι ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, μηδὲ ζωῆς ὑπαρχούσης κατὰ τὸν βίον τοῦτον, φησὶ Τί καὶ ἡμεῖ κινδυνεύομεν πᾶ αν ὥραν; καθ' ἡμέραν ἀποθνή κω, νὴ τὴν ὑμετέραν καύχη ιν, ἣν ἔχω ἐν Χρι τῷ Ἰη οῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. δηλοῖ δὲ καὶ ἡ αἵρεσις τῶν Σαδδουκαίων ἀθετούντων τὴν ἀνάστασιν τῶν νεκρῶν, ὅτι ἀκολουθεῖ αὐτοῖς τὸ μηδὲ ζῆν ὑμᾶς μετὰ τὴν παροῦσαν ζωήν. διόπερ ὁ Σωτὴρ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου μόνον παράδειγμα λαμβάνει περὶ τοῦ εἶναι ἀνάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ῥητὸν λέγων
About this text
Origen of Alexandria, Fragmenta ex commentariis in epistulam i ad Corinthios (Greek).
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 14 (Khazarzar) (Greek)
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.