Chapter XXVII.--Certain Metaphorical Terms Explained of the Resurrection of the Flesh.
We have also in the Scriptures robes mentioned as allegorizing the hope of the flesh. Thus in the Revelation of John it is said: "These are they which have not defiled their clothes with women," [7473] --indicating, of course, virgins, and such as have become "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." [7474] Therefore they shall be "clothed in white raiment," [7475] that is, in the bright beauty of the unwedded flesh. In the gospel even, "the wedding garment" may be regarded as the sanctity of the flesh. [7476] And so, when Isaiah tells us what sort of "fast the Lord hath chosen," and subjoins a statement about the reward of good works, he says: "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy garments, [7477] shall speedily arise;" [7478] where he has no thought of cloaks or stuff gowns, but means the rising of the flesh, which he declared the resurrection of, after its fall in death. Thus we are furnished even with an allegorical defence of the resurrection of the body. When, then, we read, "Go, my people, enter into your closets for a little season, until my anger pass away," [7479] we have in the closets graves, in which they will have to rest for a little while, who shall have at the end of the world departed this life in the last furious onset of the power of Antichrist. Why else did He use the expression closets, in preference to some other receptacle, if it were not that the flesh is kept in these closets or cellars salted and reserved for use, to be drawn out thence on a suitable occasion? It is on a like principle that embalmed corpses are set aside for burial in mausoleums and sepulchres, in order that they may be removed therefrom when the Master shall order it. Since, therefore, there is consistency in thus understanding the passage (for what refuge of little closets could possibly shelter us from the wrath of God?), it appears that by the very phrase which he uses, "Until His anger pass away," [7480] which shall extinguish Antichrist, he in fact shows that after that indignation the flesh will come forth from the sepulchre, in which it had been deposited previous to the bursting out of the anger. Now out of the closets nothing else is brought than that which had been put into them, and after the extirpation of Antichrist shall be busily transacted the great process of the resurrection.
[7473] Rev. iii. 4 and xiv. 4.
[7474] Matt. xix. 12.
[7475] Rev. iii. 5.
[7476] Matt. xxii. 11, 12.
[7477] There is a curious change of the word here made by Tertullian, who reads himatia instead of iamata, "thy health," or "healings," which is the word in the Sept.
[7478] Isa. lviii. 8.
[7479] Isa. xxvi. 20.
[7480] Isa. xxvi. 20.
Chapter XXVIII.--Prophetic Things and Actions, as Well as Words, Attest This Great Doctrine.
But we know that prophecy expressed itself by things no less than by words. By words, and also by deeds, is the resurrection foretold. When Moses puts his hand into his bosom, and then draws it out again dead, and again puts his hand into his bosom, and plucks it out living, [7481] does not this apply as a presage to all mankind?--inasmuch as those three signs [7482] denoted the threefold power of God: when it shall, first, in the appointed order, subdue to man the old serpent, the devil, [7483] however formidable; then, secondly, draw forth the flesh from the bosom of death; [7484] and then, at last, shall pursue all blood (shed) in judgment. [7485] On this subject we read in the writings of the same prophet, (how that) God says: "For your blood of your lives will I require of all wild beasts; and I will require it of the hand of man, and of his brother's hand." [7486] Now nothing is required except that which is demanded back again, and nothing is thus demanded except that which is to be given up; and that will of course be given up, which shall be demanded and required on the ground of vengeance. But indeed there cannot possibly be punishment of that which never had any existence. Existence, however, it will have, when it is restored in order to be punished. To the flesh, therefore, applies everything which is declared respecting the blood, for without the flesh there cannot be blood. The flesh will be raised up in order that the blood may be punished. There are, again, some statements (of Scripture) so plainly made as to be free from all obscurity of allegory, and yet they strongly require [7487] their very simplicity to be interpreted. There is, for instance, that passage in Isaiah: "I will kill, and I will make alive." [7488] Certainly His making alive is to take place after He has killed. As, therefore, it is by death that He kills, it is by the resurrection that He will make alive. Now it is the flesh which is killed by death; the flesh, therefore, will be revived by the resurrection. Surely if killing means taking away life from the flesh, and its opposite, reviving, amounts to restoring life to the flesh, it must needs be that the flesh rise again, to which the life, which has been taken away by killing, has to be restored by vivification.
[7481] Ex. iv. 6, 7.
[7482] Ex. iv. 2-9.
[7483] Comp. vers. 3, 4.
[7484] Comp. vers. 6, 7.
[7485] Comp. ver. 9.
[7486] Gen. ix. 5.
[7487] Sitiant.
[7488] Isa. xxxviii. 12, 13, 16. The very words, however, occur not in Isaiah, but in 1 Sam. ii. 6, Deut. xxxii. 39.