Ambrosiaster : Our present body is our earthly home. Our resurrection body is our heavenly one. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES Augustine of Hippo : Should anyone say that the cause of vices and evil habits lies in the flesh because when the soul is influenced by the flesh it lives in such a manner, he cannot have sufficiently considered human nature as a whole.… But notice that the apostle who, in discussing the corruptible body, had used the words "even though our outer man is decaying," goes on, a little further, to declare: "For we know that if the earthly house in which we dwell be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by human hands, eternal in the heavens." … On the one hand, our corruptible body may be a burden on our soul; on the other hand, the cause of this encumbrance is not in the nature and substance of the body. Therefore, aware as we are of its corruption, we do not desire to be divested of the body but rather to be clothed with its immortality. In immortal life we shall have a body, but it will no longer be a burden since it will no longer be corruptible. — City of God 14.3 Cosmas Indicopleustes : The Apostle Paul, then, speaks to this effect: For we know that if the earthly house of our Tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, in the heavens, in order that he may show that the earthly state here shall be dissolved, but that the future state, which is also a heavenly, is indissoluble and eternal. — The Christian Topography, Book 7 Didymus the Blind : Paul is talking here about two different worlds. One is the earthly, made with hands and visible. The other is invisible, made without hands and heavenly. On earth, our soul is clothed in flesh and blood, which is the visible and organic body. But once this body is left behind, the soul will move to the heavenly realm, where it will receive its body back, but one that has been transformed into a heavenly body. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH John Chrysostom : Again he arouses their zeal because many trials drew on. For it was likely that they, in consequence of his absence, were weaker in respect to this [need]. What then saith he? One ought not to wonder that we suffer affliction; nor to be confounded, for we even reap many gains thereby. And some of these he mentioned before; for instance, that we "bear about the dying of Jesus," and present the greatest proof of His power: for he says, "that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God:" and we exhibit a clear proof of the Resurrection, for, says he, "that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh." But since along with these things he said that our inward man is thus made better also; for "though our outward man is decaying," saith he, "yet the inward man is renewed day by day;" showing again that this being scourged and persecuted is proportionately useful, he adds, that when this is done thoroughly, then the countless good things will spring up for those who have endured these things. For lest when thou hearest that thy outward man perishes, thou shouldest grieve; he says, that when this is completely effected, then most of all shalt thou rejoice and shalt come unto a better inheritance. So that not only ought not one to grieve at its perishing now in part, but even earnestly to seek for the completion of that destruction, for this most conducts thee to immortality. Wherefore also he added, "For we know, that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved: we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." For since he is urging again the doctrine of the Resurrection in respect to which they were particularly unsound; he calls; in aid the judgment of his hearers also, and so establishes it; not however in the same way as before, but, as it were, arriving at it out of another subject: (for they had been already corrected:) and says, "We know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Some indeed say that the 'earthly house' is this world; But I should maintain that he alludes rather to the body. But observe, I pray, how by the terms [he uses,] he shows the superiority of the future things to the present. For having said "earthly" he hath opposed to it "the heavenly;" having said, "house of tabernacle," thereby declaring both that it is easily taken to pieces and is temporary, he hath opposed to it the "eternal," for the name "tabernacle" often times denotes temporariness. Wherefore He saith, "In My Father's house are many abiding places." But if He anywhere also calls the resting places of the saints tabernacles; He calls them not tabernacles simply, but adds an epithet; for he said not, that "they may receive you" into their tabernacles, but "into the eternal tabernacles." Moreover also in that he said, "not made with hands," he alluded to that which was made with hands. What then? Is the body made with hands? By no means; but he either alludes to the houses here that are made with hands, or if not this, then he called the body which is not made with hands, 'a house of tabernacle.' For he has not used the term in antithesis and contradistinction to this, but to heighten those eulogies and swell those commendations. — Homily 10 on 2 Corinthians Methodius of Olympus : Now the followers of Origen bring forward this passage, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved," and so forth, to disprove the resurrection of the body, saying that the "tabernacle" is the body, and the "house not made with hands" "in the heavens" is our spiritual clothing. Therefore, says the holy Methodius, by this earthly house must metaphorically be understood our short-lived existence here, and not this tabernacle; for if you decide to consider the body as being the earthly house which is dissolved, tell us what is the tabernacle whose house is dissolved? For the tabernacle is one thing, and the house of the tabernacle another, and still another we who have the tabernacle. "For," he says, "if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved"—by which he points out that the souls are ourselves, that the body is a tabernacle, and that the house of the tabernacle figuratively represents the enjoyment of the flesh in the present life. If, then, this present life of the body be dissolved like a house, we shall have that which is not made with hands in the heavens. — Methodius From the Discourse on the Resurrection Origen of Alexandria : In regard to our bodily nature we must understand that there is not one body which we now use in lowliness and corruption and weakness and a different one which we are to use hereafter in incorruption and power and glory, but that this same body, having cast off the weaknesses of its present existence, will be transformed into a thing of glory and made spiritual. The result is that what was a vessel of dishonor shall itself be purified and become a vessel of honor and a habitation of blessedness. And we must believe that our body remains in this condition forever unchangeably by the will of the Creator. We are made certain of this fact by the statement of the apostle Paul in which he says, "We have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.6 Tertullian : As to the house of this our earthly dwelling-place, when he says that "we have an eternal home in heaven, not made with hands," he by no means would imply that, because it was built by the Creator's hand, it must perish in a perpetual dissolution after death. — Against Marcion Book V Tertullian : It is still the same sentiment which he follows up in the passage in which he puts the recompense above the sufferings: "for we know; "he says, "that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; " in other words, owing to the fact that our flesh is undergoing dissolution through its sufferings, we shall be provided with a home in heaven. — On the Resurrection of the Flesh Tertullian : Here is a veritable eternity, in the (perennial) youth of your head! Here we have an "incorruptibility" to "put on," with a view to the new house of the Lord which the divine monarchy promises! Well do you speed toward the Lord; well do you hasten to be quit of this most iniquitous world, to whom it is unsightly to approach (your own) end! — On the Apparel of Women Book II