Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Some Christians, who have a liking for Plato on account of\r\nhis magnificent style and the truths which he now and then\r\nuttered, say that he even held an opinion similar to our own\r\nregarding the resurrection of the dead. Cicero, however, alluding\r\nto this in his <i>Republic</i>, asserts that Plato meant it rather\r\nas a playful fancy than as a reality; for he introduces a man<a id=\"FNanchor_1026_1026\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1026_1026\">[1026]</a>\r\nwho had come to life again, and gave a narrative of his experience\r\nin corroboration of the doctrines of Plato. Labeo, too,\r\nsays that two men died on one day, and met at a cross-road,\r\nand that, being afterwards ordered to return to their bodies,\r\nthey agreed to be friends for life, and were so till they died\r\nagain. But the resurrection which these writers instance resembles\r\nthat of those persons whom we have ourselves known\r\nto rise again, and who came back indeed to this life, but not\r\nso as never to die again. Marcus Varro, however, in his work\r\n<i>On the Origin of the Roman People</i>, records something more\r\nremarkable; I think his own words should be given. \"Certain\r\nastrologers,\" he says, \"have written that men are destined to\r\na new birth, which the Greeks call <i>palingenesy</i>. This will take\r\nplace after four hundred and forty years have elapsed; and then\r\nthe same soul and the same body, which were formerly united\r\nin the person, shall again be reunited.\" This Varro, indeed, or\r\nthose nameless astrologers,—for he does not give us the names<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_534\">[Pg 534]</a></span>\r\nof the men whose statement he cites,—have affirmed what is\r\nindeed not altogether true; for once the souls have returned to\r\nthe bodies they wore, they shall never afterwards leave them.\r\nYet what they say upsets and demolishes much of that idle\r\ntalk of our adversaries about the impossibility of the resurrection.\r\nFor those who have been or are of this opinion, have\r\nnot thought it possible that bodies which have dissolved into\r\nair, or dust, or ashes, or water, or into the bodies of the beasts\r\nor even of the men that fed on them, should be restored again\r\nto that which they formerly were. And therefore, if Plato\r\nand Porphyry, or rather, if their disciples now living, agree\r\nwith us that holy souls shall return to the body, as Plato says,\r\nand that, nevertheless, they shall not return to misery, as Porphyry\r\nmaintains,—if they accept the consequence of these two\r\npropositions which is taught by the Christian faith, that they\r\nshall receive bodies in which they may live eternally without\r\nsuffering any misery,—let them also adopt from Varro the\r\nopinion that they shall return to the same bodies as they were\r\nformerly in, and thus the whole question of the eternal resurrection\r\nof the body shall be resolved out of their own mouths.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-SECOND.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-839"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ce4fbe1d77987f1dd89cf5a7ca744063bf7521b806cbaec4e6e6b0112c5e9124","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_1026_1026","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_1026_1026","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1026_1026\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1026_1026\"><span class=\"label\">[1026]</span></a> In the <i>Republic</i>, x.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_1026_1026","text_sha256":"34feeafff6b7c529ef41784710bc0e3b23949a43e30acdc284938a8a791b769f","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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