Moralia in Job 701

Verse 26. — And again I shall be encompassed with my skin. 72. The error of Eutychius, who asserted that the body would be impalpable and more subtle than the air, is refuted. — When 'skin' is plainly named, all doubt of a true resurrection is taken away; for our body will not be, as Eutychius, bishop of the city of Constantinople, wrote, impalpable in that glory of the resurrection, and more subtle than the winds and the air. For in that glory of the resurrection our body will indeed be subtle through the working of a spiritual power, yet palpable through the truth of its nature. Whence also our Redeemer, to His disciples who doubted concerning His resurrection, showed His hands and His side, and offered His bones and flesh to be handled, saying:

Handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have (Luke xxiv, 39). When I, being present with the same Eutychius in the city of Constantinople, had brought forward this testimony of the evangelical truth, he said: For this reason the Lord did this, that He might remove the doubt of His resurrection from the hearts of the disciples. To whom I said: A very strange thing thou dost build up, that from thence a doubt should arise for us, whence the hearts of the disciples were healed of doubt. For what worse can be said than that this should be made doubtful to us concerning His true flesh, whereby His disciples were restored to faith and freed from all doubt?

For if it be asserted that He did not have that which He showed, then whence the faith of His disciples was confirmed, thence ours is destroyed. He added also, saying: He had a palpable body which He showed; but after the hearts of those who handled it were confirmed, all that in the Lord which could be handled was reduced into some subtlety. To this I made answer, saying: It is written: Christ rising from the dead dieth now no more; death shall no more have dominion over Him (Rom. vi, 9). If therefore anything in His body could have been changed after the resurrection, then, against the truthful sentence of Paul, the Lord returned into death after the resurrection. And who, even a fool, would presume to say such a thing, save one who denies the true resurrection of His flesh?

Then he objected to me, saying: Since it is written: Flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. xv, 50), by what reason is it to be believed that the flesh truly rises again? To whom I said: In the sacred discourse flesh is spoken of in one way according to nature, and in another way according to guilt or corruption. Flesh according to nature, as it is written: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh (Gen. ii, 23); and: The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John i, 14). But flesh according to guilt, as it is written: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh (Gen. vi, 3). And as the Psalmist says: He remembered that they are flesh: a wind that goeth and returneth not (Ps. lxxvii, 39).

Whence also Paul said to his disciples: But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit (Rom. viii, 9). For it was not that they to whom he was sending his epistles were not in the flesh; but because they had overcome the passions of carnal desires, being now free through the power of the spirit, they were not in the flesh. So then, when Paul the apostle says: That flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God, he means flesh to be understood according to guilt, not flesh according to nature. Whence also presently, to show that he was speaking of flesh according to guilt, he adds: Neither shall corruption possess incorruption.

In that glory of the heavenly kingdom, therefore, the flesh will exist according to nature, but will not exist according to the desires of the passions; for, the sting of death being overcome, it shall reign in eternal incorruption. [Old div. XXXII.] 73. The answers and evasions of Eutychius are dissolved. — When these things had been said, the same Eutychius answered that he forthwith consented; yet he still denied that a palpable body could rise again. He had also, in the little book which he had written concerning the resurrection, inserted the testimony of Paul the apostle also, who says: That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it first die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain (1 Cor. xv, 36).

Being eager, forsooth, to show by this that the flesh will either be impalpable or will not itself exist, since the holy Apostle, in treating of the glory of the resurrection, said that the body which shall be is not sown. But to this a ready answer is given. For Paul the apostle, in saying: Thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain, insinuates this which we see, namely that the grain is born with stalk and leaves, which is sown without stalk and leaves. He therefore, in the increase of the glory of the resurrection, did not say that there would be lacking to the grain of seed what it had, but that there would be present what it had not. But this man, while he denies that a true body rises again, by no means says that there is present what was lacking, but that there is lacking what was present. 74. The emperor plans to consign the book of Eutychius to the flames.

Eutychius dies, having abjured his error. — Then, being thus brought into a long contention over this matter, we began to draw back from a most grievous quarrel, when the emperor Tiberius Constantine, of pious memory, receiving me and him privately, learned what discord was being carried on between us; and weighing the allegation of each party, he determined that the same book which he had written concerning the resurrection, being overthrown even by his own allegations, ought to be burned in the flames. From whom, as soon as we had departed, a grave sickness followed me, but the same Eutychius was straightway followed by sickness and death. And when he was dead, since there was scarcely anyone who would follow his sayings, I forbore to pursue what I had begun, lest I should seem to be hurling words against ashes.

Yet while he was still alive, and I was sick with most violent fevers, whosoever of my acquaintances went to him for the sake of a greeting — as I learned from their report — he would hold the skin of his own hand before their eyes, saying: I confess that we shall all rise again in this flesh. Which thing, as they themselves acknowledged, he had formerly been altogether wont to deny. 75. From the words of Job the resurrection is proved. — But let us, setting these things aside, subtly inquire in the discourses of blessed Job whether the resurrection will be true and the body true in the resurrection. [Old div. XXXIII.] For behold, we can now no longer doubt of the hope of the resurrection, since he says: And in the last day I shall rise from the earth. He has also taken away doubt concerning the true restoration of the body, who says:

And again I shall be encompassed with my skin. Who, further, to take away the evasions of our thought, adds: Verse 26. — And in my flesh I shall see God. 76. Job believed that the flesh would be brought back into an entire state. — Behold, resurrection, behold skin, behold flesh, he confesses with open words. What then remains from which our mind can doubt? If therefore this holy man, before the accomplishment of the Lord's resurrection, believed that the flesh would be brought back into an entire state, what guilt will there be in our doubting, if the true resurrection of the flesh is not believed even after the example of the Redeemer?

For if after the resurrection the body will not be palpable, then assuredly another rises than he who dies — which it is a wickedness even to say one believes, namely that I die and another rises. Wherefore I beseech thee, blessed Job, add what thou dost feel, and take from us the scruple of this question. It follows: