Chapter XXXIV.—Souls can be recognised in the separate state, and are immortal
although they once had a beginning.
1. The Lord has taught with very great fulness, that souls not only continue to exist, not
by passing from body to body, but that they preserve the same form639 [in their separate
state] as the body had to which they were adapted, and that they remember the deeds which
they did in this state of existence, and from which they have now ceased,—in that narrative
which is recorded respecting the rich man and that Lazarus who found repose in the bosom
of Abraham. In this account He states640 that Dives knew Lazarus after death, and Abraham
in like manner, and that each one of these persons continued in his own proper position,
and that [Dives] requested Lazarus to be sent to relieve him—[Lazarus], on whom he did
not [formerly] bestow even the crumbs [which fell] from his table. [He tells us] also of the
answer given by Abraham, who was acquainted not only with what respected himself, but
Dives also, and who enjoined those who did not wish to come into that place of torment to
believe Moses and the prophets, and to receive641 the preaching of Him who was642 to rise
again from the dead. By these things, then, it is plainly declared that souls continue to exist,
that they do not pass from body to body, that they possess the form of a man, so that they
may be recognised, and retain the memory of things in this world; moreover, that the gift
of prophecy was possessed by Abraham, and that each class [of souls] receives a habitation
such as it has deserved, even before the judgment.
2. But if any persons at this point maintain that those souls, which only began a little
while ago to exist, cannot endure for any length of time; but that they must, on the one hand,
either be unborn, in order that they may be immortal, or if they have had a beginning in
the way of generation, that they should die with the body itself—let them learn that God
alone, who is Lord of all, is without beginning and without end, being truly and for ever the
same, and always remaining the same unchangeable Being. But all things which proceed
from Him, whatsoever have been made, and are made, do indeed receive their own beginning
of generation, and on this account are inferior to Him who formed them, inasmuch as they
are not unbegotten. Nevertheless they endure, and extend their existence into a long series
of ages in accordance with the will of God their Creator; so that He grants them that they
should be thus formed at the beginning, and that they should so exist afterwards.
639 Grabe refers to Tertullian, De Anima, ch. vii., as making a similar statement. Massuet, on the other hand,
denies that Irenæus here expresses an opinion like that of Tertullian in the passage referred to, and thinks that
the special form (character) mentioned is to be understood as simply denoting individual spiritual properties.
But his remarks are not satisfactory.
640 Luke xvi. 19, etc.
641 With Massuet and Stieren, we here supply esse.
642 Some read resurgeret, and others resurrexerit; we deem the former reading preferable.
Chapter XXXIV.—Souls can be recognised in the separate state, and are immortal although they once had a beginning.
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Chapter XXXIV.—Souls can be recognised in the separate state, and are immortal…