Letter 105

To the Same Person. You have written that: "I shall grind the grain of wheat and make it into flour. And though I sow it into the ground ten thousand times over, it is no longer brought to life, nor does it rise up again; it will never sprout, it will never bear fruit. So too the body, once it has become ashes and dust, could no longer rise up, or live again at all." But I, for my part, would now once more set before you with gentleness the very same words that I sent you long ago: that just as in the beginning man was brought forth out of dust by the power and craft of the all-wise Lord who is mighty over all things, so also at the end of the present age the resurrection of the corrupted body will come to be out of the ashes, and man will rise up again, made alive and ensouled, having shaken off the corruption that overtook him before, and having put on over himself the divine incorruptibility.

Γεγράφηκας, ὅτι Τὸν κόκκον τοῦ σίτου ἀλέσω, καὶ ποιήσω ἄλευρον. Κἂν μυριάκις σπείρω αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν γῆν, οὐκ ἔτι ζωγονοῦται, ἀλλ’ οὐδ’ ἐξανίσταται, οὐ μὴ βλαστήσει ποτὲ, οὐ μὴ καρποφορήσει· οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὸ σῶμα σποδιὰ καὶ κόνις γενόμενον, οὐκ ἂν δύναιτο ἔτι ἐξαναστῆναι, ἢ ζῆσαι παντάπασιν. Ἀλλ’ ἐγώ σοι πάλιν καὶ νῦν τὰ αὐτὰ προσαγάγοιμι σὺν πραότητι ῥήματα, ἅπερ καὶ πάλαι ἐπέσταλκα, ὅτι ἀνάγκη γὰρ ὥσπερ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐκ χοὸς ἄνθρωπος ἀνεδείχθη τῇ δυνάμει καὶ τῇ τέχνῃ τοῦ πανσόφου καὶ πάντα ἰσχύοντος Κυρίου, οὕτω καὶ ἐν τῷ τέλει τοῦ παρόντος αἰῶνος ἐκ τῆς σποδιᾶς γενήσεται ἡ ἀνάστασις τοῦ ἐφθαρμένου σώματος, καὶ ἐξαναστήσεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ζωοποιηθεὶς τε καὶ ψυχωθείς, τὴν μὲν προλαβοῦσαν φθορὰν ἀποτιναξάμενος, ἐπενδυσάμενος δὲ τὴν θείαν ἀφθαρσίαν.