Against Celsus 5.19

"God," then, "gives to each a body as he has chosen," as with things that are sown, so also with those who are, as it were, sown in dying, and who at the appropriate time receive from what is sown the "body" that God puts upon each according to his worth. We hear also the Word teaching at greater length the difference between what is, as it were, sown and what is, as it were, raised from it, and saying: "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Let one who is able grasp further what is meant by the one who says: "As was the man of dust, so are those who are of dust; and as is the heavenly man, so are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, so let us also bear the image of the heavenly man." And although the apostle wished to conceal the secret meanings of the passage, which are not suited to the simpler and to the common hearing of those led to what is better by believing, he was nevertheless compelled afterwards, so that we might not misunderstand his words, to say after "let us bear the image of the heavenly man": "But I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption." Then, knowing that there was something secret and mystical in the passage, as befitted one leaving his meaning in writing to those after him, he adds: "Behold, I tell you a mystery," which is the customary formula for things that are deeper and more mystical and are rightly hidden from the many; as it is written in Tobit too: "It is good to hide the secret of a king," while, as regards what is glorious and suited to the many, with what is true in the manner of the dispensation, it is "good" "to reveal the works of God gloriously." Our hope, then, is not that of worms, nor does our soul long for the body that has rotted; but, even if it needs a body for moving from place to place, the soul that has meditated on "wisdom," according to "the mouth of the righteous will meditate on wisdom," understands the difference between the earthly house, in which the tent is, which is being destroyed, and the tent in which the righteous, "being" in it, groan, "being burdened," not wishing to put off the tent but to "put on" over the tent, so that by "putting on" over it "what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." For since every nature of body is corruptible, "this corruptible" tent "must put on incorruption," and the other part of it, being "mortal" and liable to the death that follows sin, "must put on immortality"; so that when "the corruptible puts on incorruption and the mortal immortality, then" there "will come about" what was foretold long ago by the prophets: the abolition of the victory of death, by which it conquered us and subjected us to itself, and of its sting, with which it stings the soul that is not fully protected and inflicts on it the wounds of sin.