Chapter 12.

And so I will speak again, that you may praise me more. If, in your opinion, the body is a bond, then it should not be thought that it is the cause of sin and unrighteousness for the soul, but on the contrary, it is the cause of chastity and good manners. Think about it in this way, for in this way you will better understand: where do we take those who suffer from bodily illnesses? Isn't it to the doctors? "Obviously," he said. And where – criminals? Is it not to the judges? "Certainly." Is it not, I said, that they should receive a fitting punishment for their deeds? "Yes." And what is fair is beautiful? "I agree." Does it mean that he who judges justly does well, because he judges justly? "And I agree to this." And what is beautiful is useful? "It seems so": Because the defendants benefit; for their wickedness is restrained by tortures, just as diseases are stopped by medical operations and medicines, because to punish the offender means to correct the soul and eliminate a strong disease, i.e., unrighteousness. "I agree." What then? Is it not according to the measure of sins, you will say, that the punishments of those who are punished are determined with dignity, just as operations are performed on those who are healed according to their wounds? "I agree." And so he who has done that which is worthy of death is punished with death, that which is worthy of blows with blows, and that which is worthy of chains with chains? "I agree." And so, I said, the guilty one is punished with chains, or blows, or some other similar punishment, so that, having repented, he ceases to do unrighteousness, and by these punishments is reformed, as a crooked tree is reformed? "You speak the perfect truth," he said. Because the judge punishes for guilt not only for the sake of the past, but also for the sake of the future, so that he does not do the same again? "It's obvious," he said. For it is evident that the bonds take away from him the desire for unrighteousness, not allowing him to do what he wants? "Truly so." And so he is restrained from sin, because the bonds do not allow him to indulge freely in pleasures, but constrain him and teach him to respect justice, until he, being admonished, learns to be chaste? "I think so," he said. And so bonds, as it seems, are not the guilt of sin, because they make people chaste and make them more just, serving as a medicine for the soul, although bitter and caustic, but healing. "It's obvious," he said. "What then?" Let us review what has been said before. Have you not allowed the body to be the bond of the soul as a result of the crime? "Yes, I admit it," he said. Again: that the soul sins together with the body, because to commit adultery, to kill, and to act dishonestly seems to you a sin, and yet the soul does this together with the body? "I agree." But have we also admitted that a prisoner cannot offend? "Recognized," he said. Is it because the pain of bondage prevents it? But the flesh is the bond of the soul, isn't it? "I confirm it." But being in the flesh, do we sin with the consent of the flesh? "So," he said. And the bound cannot sin? "And to this I give my consent." From the fact that he feels pain? "Yes!" because bonds do not allow it? "Of course." But does the body cooperate with sin? "Yes!" "I agree." And so, I said, neither according to you, Aglaophon, nor according to anyone else's opinion, is the body not a bond, but in both, that is, in both good and evil, it cooperates with the soul. "I agree."

Chapter 13.

If this is so, then you, Aglaophon, defend what you have said before. For you have affirmed in former discourses that the body is the bonds, the prison, and the fetters of the soul, and you see how this does not agree with what you have said. If it is necessary, my dear, to recognize the flesh as bonds, and the soul uses these bonds as an aid and assistance to unrighteousness, then is it possible to reconcile this? Of course it is impossible. For if the punishment for sin is determined so that the soul, oppressed by sorrow, may learn to worship God, then how can the body serve as an aid and assistance to unrighteousness? Bonds, prisons, fetters, and, in short, all such punitive means relating to correction have the power to restrain the punished from unrighteousness and sin. For it is not in order that he who has offended should commit more iniquity, but that he who may be tormented by chains may cease to do unrighteousness. For this reason the judges put evildoers in chains: the bonds involuntarily restrain them from doing evil; and to do evil is proper to people who enjoy freedom and live without supervision, and are not bound. A person committed murder beforehand, as, for example, Cain, ... strengthened in unbelief, cleaved to idols, apostatized from God; In what way is the body given to him instead of bonds? Or how, when a man sinned before being united with the body, did God give him a body to help him to do more unrighteousness? How, finally, after the establishment of these bonds, it is said: "Behold, I have set before you life and good, death and evil, choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:15); also: if ye will, and obey (Isaiah 1:19); this is said to him as possessing complete freedom, and not as bound by bonds and necessity.

After a sufficient refutation and denunciation of the doctrine according to which the body was recognized as the bondage of the soul, the idea that the body will not be resurrected on the grounds that we will not be imprisoned by it in the kingdom of light which we will receive is also destroyed. Finally, what other proof must be presented to convince the discontented? They are not satisfied with the proof and the clearest of the above. But such a disputation of theirs can be exposed both on the basis of this passage and on the basis of many others. In the further continuation of the discourse, we will prove by natural arguments, and not by assumptions, that neither Jeremiah called us prisoners of the earth (Lamentations 3:34), because of union with the body, nor David, for the same reason, chained (Psalm 145:7). It should also be pointed out in what ways they turn out to be the most deviant from the truth. And so, gentlemen judges (I call you, sovereign Theophilus, judges of speeches), having said what is due about the garments of skins, and that before the dispensation their forefathers lived with the body, enjoying immortality, and also that the body cannot be considered chains and prison, I will finally turn to the following subjects, as I promised, so that we may see more clearly what we desire.

Chapter 14.

After God, the Creator of all things, had beautifully arranged the universe like a great city, and adorned it with the dictates of his word, after having proportionately arranged each element in it, and filled everything with various animals, so that the world might attain to perfect beauty, — He, having created the various kinds of nature, the stars in the heavens, the feathered ones in the air, the four-footed creatures on the earth, and those swimming in the waters, after all things He brought man into the world, an exact likeness of His own image, having prepared this world for Him as a most beautiful dwelling, and having formed it with His own hands, as if it were a beautiful statue in a magnificent temple. He knew that what was done by His hand would necessarily be immortal, as the work of immortality; For from immortality the immortal becomes immortal, just as from malice the evil is evil, from unrighteousness the unrighteous becomes unrighteous. Unrighteousness is not the work of righteousness, but of unrighteousness: just as to make corruptible is not incorruptible, but corruptible, and to immortalize is not the work of corruption, but of incorruption, and to say briefly: as it produces, so is (usually) also that which proceeds from it. God is immortality, life, and incorruption: and man is the work of God; and since that which is produced by immortality is immortal, man is immortal. For this reason God Himself produced man, and commanded the other kinds of animals to produce air, earth, and water. Man in the truest sense of nature is not a soul without a body, nor a body without a soul, but that which has been formed into one beautiful image from the union of soul and body. From this it is revealed that man was created immortal and not involved in any corruption or disease. This can be sufficiently seen from the Scriptures; For of other creatures, which change in the course of time, growing and growing old, it is said: Let the water bring forth creeping things, a living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth in the firmament of heaven. And again: "Let the earth bring forth a living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind" (Gen. 1:20-24). But it is not said of man as of those, Let the earth bring forth, or let the waters bring forth, or, Let there be lights; but it is said, Let us make man in our image (and) in our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the beasts, and over the cattle, v. 26. And the Lord God created man from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7).

Chapter 15.

And in order that you may better understand the difference between man, how he differs in all things from other creatures, and, being immortal, finds himself placed in second place after the Angels, and we will also set this forth in the true and Orthodox sense. Other animals were given to live by means of air animation, and to man from the most immortal and distinct essence, and God breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). Those are commanded to serve and to be in subjection: to rule and to rule; to them are given various kinds and forms of nature, which, by God's command, coarse and visible nature has begotten: to this is something God-like and God-like, corresponding in all things to the original and only-begotten image of the Father: and God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him (Gen. 1:27); wherefore He took care that His image might be established in it, that it might not be accessible to decay, as the makers of statues are wont to do: they take care not only of the beauty and splendor of their statues, that they may be beautiful to the point of splendor, but they also endeavour, as far as is possible for them, for the immortality of their works, that they may remain intact for a long time, as, for example, Phidias, having made a statue of Jupiter Olympian (and it was made of ivory), ordered oil to be poured near the feet in front of the statue, in order to preserve it as immortal as possible. Thus, if the artists of man-made things act in this way, then could not God, the supreme artist, Who can create all things out of the bearer, undoubtedly arrange for His rational work, man, to be non-perishable and immortal? Would He have allowed that that which He deliberately vouchsafed to create with His own hands, having formed in His own image and likeness, this adornment of the world, for which the world was created, should be so ingloriously destroyed and given over to destruction and corruption? It is impossible to say. Whoever dares to think in this way would fall into madness.

Chapter 16.

But perhaps, without dwelling attentively on what has just been said, you, Aglaophon, will say: "If, in your opinion, this living being was immortal from birth, how was it made mortal, when the immortal must necessarily be what it is, without descending and passing into a worse and mortal nature? It is impossible, otherwise it is not immortal." To this I will say: the freedom in the election of good, given to man and having received such a law, rose up with malicious joy the hater of good, envy. God created man for incorruption, and made him the image of his own eternity: God did not create death, and does not rejoice in the destruction of the living: but through the envy of the devil death entered into the world, as the wisdom of Solomon also bears witness (Wis. 1:2:24). "But again it is necessary to ask: whence comes death, if God did not create death? If from envy, then how could envy be stronger than God's will? This we will call offensive to God."

But that which is subjected to torment is changed and suffered, for the unborn is not subjected to suffering, and consequently the devil is not the one who has not received existence, but the one who has received. But if he received existence, and if that which received existence came from some beginning and his creator exists, then it follows that there is some creator of the devil as well. And so, did he receive existence, or did he not receive it? It must be thought that there is only one thing that has an unborrowed being, namely God: for in general, there can be absolutely no other creator besides Him. I am the first, and I am the last, saith the Lord, and besides Me there is no God (Isaiah 44:6). Without His will, nothing can be changed or created, for even the Son confesses that He cannot create of Himself unless He sees the Father creating. For whatsoever He doeth, that also doeth the Son (John 5:19). There is nothing hostile or hostile or resisting God; for if anything were to oppose God, it would cease to exist, since its existence would be destroyed by the power and power of God; only the creator can destroy the immortal.

Chapter 17.

And so, you say, what is the devil? The spirit revolving around matter, as it is also said in Athenagoras,13 who received existence from God, as well as the other Angels, received existence from Him, and they were entrusted with the control of matter and types of matter. Such was the destiny of the Angels, to be with God in His providence for the creatures which He has ordered, so that God should have the universal and chief care for everything, possessing dominion and authority over everything and everything, like a ship, unswervingly guiding the rule of wisdom, and in part the Angels assigned to this would watch over this. The rest of the angels remained in the state in which God created them and distributed them; but this one became proud, and in the government entrusted to him became evil, having become jealous of us, like those who afterwards were inflamed with the flesh and entered into lustful communion with the daughters of men (Gen. 6:2). For they, as well as men, have been ordained by God to have the free will of one or the other, that either by obeying His word they may abide with Him and enjoy blessedness, or, if they do not obey, they may be condemned. The devil was also the morning star: how hast thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? (Isaiah 14:12) Together with the angels, He shone with light, He was the morning star, but He fell and was cast down to the earth, and directed man in the opposite direction. For God is angry with the proud, and puts up a barrier to haughty thoughts. It occurs to me to say about it in verse: