John Chrysostom : "For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven." What habitation? tell me. The incorruptible body. And why do we groan now? Because that is far better. And "from heaven" he calls it because of its incorruptibleness. For it is not surely that a body will come down to us from above: but by this expression he signifies the grace which is sent from thence. So far then ought we to be from grieving at these trials which are in part that we ought to seek even for their fulness, as if he had said: Groanest thou, that thou art persecuted, that this thy man is decaying? Groan that this is not done unto excess and that it perishes not entirely. Seest thou how he hath turned round what was said unto the contrary; having proved that they ought to groan that those things were not done fully; for which because they were done partially; they groaned. Therefore he henceforth calls it not a tabernacle, but a house, and with great reason. For a tabernacle indeed is easily taken to pieces; but a house abideth continually. — Homily 10 on 2 Corinthians Methodius of Olympus : For what the Lord then called "habitations," the apostle here calls "clothing." And what He there calls "friends" "of unrighteousness," the apostle here calls "houses" "dissolved." ... Whence also "we groan," "not for that we would be unclothed," as to the body, "but clothed upon" by it in the other life. For the "house in heaven," with which we desire to be "clothed," is immortality; with which, when we are clothed, every weakness and mortality will be entirely "swallowed up" in it, being consumed by endless life. — Methodius From the Discourse on the Resurrection Pelagius : Our groanings are like those of a woman in labor, awaiting a new birth. — COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 5 Tertullian : He treats of this subject in order to offer consolation against the fear of death and the dread of this very dissolution, as is even more manifest from what follows, when he adds, that "in this tabernacle of our earthly body we do groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with the vesture which is from heaven, if so be, that having been unclothed, we shall not be found naked; "in other words, shall regain that of which we have been divested, even our body. — Against Marcion Book V Tertullian : For the apostle makes a distinction, when he goes on to say, "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked; " which means, before we put off the garment of the flesh, we wish to be clothed with the celestial glory of immortality. — On the Resurrection of the Flesh Theodoret of Cyrus : The heavenly body is not some different one but the one we have now, which will be transformed. — COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 313