Chapter VI.—The resurrection consistent with the opinions of the philosophers.
Those, then, who are called natural philosophers, say, some of them, as Plato, that the
universe is matter and God; others, as Epicurus, that it is atoms and the void;861 others, like
the Stoics, that it is these four—fire, water, air, earth. For it is sufficient to mention the most
prevalent opinions. And Plato says that all things are made from matter by God, and accord-
ing to His design; but Epicures and his followers say that all things are made from the atom
and the void by some kind of self-regulating action of the natural movement of the bodies;
and the Stoics, that all are made of the four elements, God pervading them. But while there
is such discrepancy among them, there are some doctrines acknowledged by them all in
common, one of which is that neither can anything be produced from what is not in being,
nor anything be destroyed or dissolved into what has not any being, and that the elements
exist indestructible out of which all things are generated. And this being so, the regeneration
of the flesh will, according to all these philosophers, appear to be possible. For if, according
to Plato, it is matter and God, both these are indestructible and God; and God indeed occupies
the position of an artificer, to wit, a potter; and matter occupies the place of clay or wax, or
some such thing. That, then, which is formed of matter, be it an image or a statue, is destruct-
ible; but the matter itself is indestructible, such as clay or wax, or any other such kind of
matter. Thus the artist designs in the clay or wax, and makes the form of a living animal;
and again, if his handiwork be destroyed, it is not impossible for him to make the same
form, by working up the same material, and fashioning it anew. So that, according to Plato,
neither will it be impossible for God, who is Himself indestructible, and has also indestructible
material, even after that which has been first formed of it has been destroyed, to make it
anew again, and to make the same form just as it was before. But according to the Stoics
even, the body being produced by the mixture of the four elementary substances, when this
body has been dissolved into the four elements, these remaining indestructible, it is possible
that they receive a second time the same fusion and composition, from God pervading them,
and so re-make the body which they formerly made. Like as if a man shall make a compos-
ition of gold and silver, and brass and tin, and then shall wish to dissolve it again, so that
each element exist separately, having again mixed them, he may, if he pleases, make the very
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same composition as he had formerly made. Again, according to Epicurus, the atoms and
the void being indestructible, it is by a definite arrangement and adjustment of the atoms
as they come together, that both all other formations are produced, and the body itself; and
it being in course of time dissolved, is dissolved again into those atoms from which it was
also produced. And as these remain indestructible, it is not at all impossible, that by coming
together again, and receiving the same arrangement and position, they should make a body
of like nature to what was formerly produced by them; as if a jeweller should make in mosaic
861 τὸ κενόν, the void of space in which the infinity of atoms moved.
Chapter VI.—The resurrection consistent with the opinions of the philosophers.
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Chapter VI.—The resurrection consistent with the opinions of the philos…