Resurrection Oddities II
Here's part two of my periodical "Resurrection Oddities" series. The following passage occurs in the context of Jerome's attack on Origen's view of the resurrection of the body which is taken up by a certain John with whom Jerome is debating. Jerome takes issue with Origen for affirming a resurrection of the body but denying the resurrection of the flesh. Jerome first explains Origen's viewpoint and then argues why its in error. Here's the passage:
"I (Jerome) shall explain briefly the teaching of Origen concerning the resurrection...He says we would be simple-minded and flesh-loving to say that these bones and this blood and flesh-that is, face and members and the whole complex of the body-will rise again in the last day, that is, that we will walk with feet, work with hands,...and digest food with stomachs...Those who believe this tell us [he says] that we will then produce feces, give forth humors, take wives, and produce children. For why are there genitals, if not for marrying?"
Jerome's reply: "You, heretic, say 'body and do not mean 'flesh' at the same time, for you wish to deceive the ears of the ignorant. Believe me, your silence is not simple. For 'flesh' has one definition and 'body another...Job said:'And I shall be surrounded again with my skin and in my flesh I shall see God' (Job 19.26) Does it not seem to you, then, that Job writes against Origen and for the truth of the flesh which he sustained torments: For it grieves him that the suffering is in vain if another rises spiritually when this flesh has been carnally tortured...If he is not to rise in his own sex and with the same members that were thrown on the dung heap, if the same eyes are not opened for seeing God by which he then saw worms, where therefore will Job be? You take away the things in which Job consists and give me empty words concerning resurrection; for how, if you want to restore a ship after shipwreck, do you deny a single part of which the ship is constituted."
Taken from Caroline Walker Bynum's The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336, pp 87-88.
"I (Jerome) shall explain briefly the teaching of Origen concerning the resurrection...He says we would be simple-minded and flesh-loving to say that these bones and this blood and flesh-that is, face and members and the whole complex of the body-will rise again in the last day, that is, that we will walk with feet, work with hands,...and digest food with stomachs...Those who believe this tell us [he says] that we will then produce feces, give forth humors, take wives, and produce children. For why are there genitals, if not for marrying?"
Jerome's reply: "You, heretic, say 'body and do not mean 'flesh' at the same time, for you wish to deceive the ears of the ignorant. Believe me, your silence is not simple. For 'flesh' has one definition and 'body another...Job said:'And I shall be surrounded again with my skin and in my flesh I shall see God' (Job 19.26) Does it not seem to you, then, that Job writes against Origen and for the truth of the flesh which he sustained torments: For it grieves him that the suffering is in vain if another rises spiritually when this flesh has been carnally tortured...If he is not to rise in his own sex and with the same members that were thrown on the dung heap, if the same eyes are not opened for seeing God by which he then saw worms, where therefore will Job be? You take away the things in which Job consists and give me empty words concerning resurrection; for how, if you want to restore a ship after shipwreck, do you deny a single part of which the ship is constituted."
Taken from Caroline Walker Bynum's The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336, pp 87-88.
Good post! I'm also looking forward to your series of interaction with Patrick.
Posted by
Anonymous |
10:53 PM
Thanks, Rob.
Posted by
Chris Petersen |
11:09 AM
A very valuable post.
Jerome writes 'For it grieves him that the suffering is in vain if another rises spiritually when this flesh has been carnally tortured...If he is not to rise in his own sex and with the same members that were thrown on the dung heap, if the same eyes are not opened for seeing God by which he then saw worms, where therefore will Job be?'
This problem also worried rabbis some of whom thought that God would raise people just as they died, and then heal them after the resurrection. If he raised them in a different form from how they died, how could it be the same person who was raised? Which is Jerome's point as well.
But isn't Jerome discussing the questions 'How are the dead raised? With what sort of body do they come?' Paul would have called Jerome a fool for discussing such questions. But they are sensible questions, if you think flesh is going to be raised. They are so sensible that people still quote Jerome on their blogs, 1600 years after he wrote. Paul, of course, talks nothing like Jerome when 'answering' such questions. He just ignores them, because they are irrelevant.
You do not plant the body that will be - Paul.
Doesn't Jerome say that you DO plant the body that will be?
To Paul, the body is just a seed. God gives it a new body - 'and to each kind of seed its own body'. The seed is there to tell God what kind of body to create.
Posted by
Steven Carr |
1:57 AM