Resurrection of the Body
Not souls drifting free, but bodies raised — death itself undone at the end of the age
The Resurrection of the Body is the belief in the future bodily raising of the dead at the end of the age. Paul defends it at length in 1 Corinthians 15, the early creeds confess it, and Athenagoras devoted a treatise, On the Resurrection, to its defense. Christians affirm that salvation embraces the whole person, body and soul, not merely a disembodied immortality of the soul.
How it traveled
- 1 CorinthiansEphesus · 67explains
- MatthewAntioch · 80explains
- RevelationPatmos · 100explains
- JohnEphesus · 100explains
- On the Resurrection, FragmentsRome · 165explains
- The Resurrection of the DeadAlexandria · 190explains
- Against Heresies: Book VLyons · 202explains
- On the Resurrection of the Flesh.— · 220explains
- A Treatise on the Soul.— · 220explains
- The Instructions of Commodianus.— · 220explains
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · 339explains
- Aphrahat: Select DemonstrationsMosul · 345explains
- Ephraim Syrus: The Nisibene HymnsEdessa · 373explains
- The Catechetical Lectures of S. CyrilJerusalem · 386explains
- On the Soul and the ResurrectionNyssa · 395explains
- On the Making of ManNyssa · 395explains
- On the Decease of His Brother SatyrusMilan · 397explains
- Homilies on First CorinthiansConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and ThessaloniansConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John ChrysostomConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the HebrewsConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the RomansConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. JohnConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- A Commentary on the Apostles' CreedAquileia · 411explains
- The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to PammachiusAquileia · 411explains
- The Letters of St. JeromeBethlehem · 420explains
- City of GodHippo Regius · 430explains
- Expositions on the Book of PsalmsHippo Regius · 430explains
- Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. JohnHippo Regius · 430explains
- Letters of St. AugustinHippo Regius · 430explains
- The EnchiridionHippo Regius · 430explains
- A Treatise on the Soul and its OriginHippo Regius · 430explains
- Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New TestamentHippo Regius · 430explains
- The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of TheodoretCyrrhus · 458explains
- Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59)Paris · 1274explains
- Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from ItGeneva · 1564explains
- Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the GospelGeneva · 1564explains
- Seventeen Occasional SermonsNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758explains
- HeavenNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758explains
- The Final JudgmentNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758explains
Key passages(20)
Introduction to Christianity · Pope Benedict XVI
The Bride of the Lamb · Sergei Bulgakov
Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations · Aphrahat
Demonstration VIII.—Of the Resurrection of the Dead. 1. At all times controversies arise on this matter, how the dead shall rise and with what body they shall come? 1 Cor. xv. 35. 2. Whosoever refl
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Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations · Aphrahat
8. Thus also Joseph bound his brethren by an oath,When God shall remember you, take up my bones from hence with you. And according to the word of Joseph his brethren did, and kept the oath a hundred a
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John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith · John of Damascus
And again to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob: God is not the God of the dead (that is, those who are dead and will be no more), but of the livingThou takest away
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
Lecture XVIII. On the Words, And in One Holy Catholic Church, and in the Resurrection of the Flesh, and the Life Everlasting. Ezekiel xxxvii. 1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out
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Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations · Aphrahat
15. And concerning all this that I have explained to thee, that those dead persons were raised with two words each, it was because for them two resurrections take place; that former one, and the secon
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
7. Equally monstrous is the error of those who imagine that the soul, instead of resuming the body with which it is now clothed, will obtain a new and different body. Nothing can be more futile than 2
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
8. I am ashamed to waste so many words on so clear a matter; but my readers will kindly submit to the annoyance, in order that perverse and presumptuous minds may not be able to avail themselves of an
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 21.—Of the New Spiritual Body into Which the Flesh of the Saints Shall Be Transformed. Whatever, therefore, has been taken from the body, either during life or after death shall be restored t
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 20.—That, in the Resurrection, the Substance of Our Bodies, However Disintegrated, Shall Be Entirely Reunited. Far be it from us to fear that the omnipotence of the Creator cannot, for the re
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 20.—What the Same Apostle Taught in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians Regarding the Resurrection of the Dead. But the apostle has said nothing here regarding the resurrection of the dead
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Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus · Irenaeus of Lyons
We therefore have formed the belief that [our] bodies also do rise again. For although they go to corruption, yet they do not perish; for the earth, receiving the remains, preserves them, even like fe
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On the Resurrection of the Flesh. · Anti-marcion
Chapter XLII.—Death Changes, Without Destroying, Our Mortal Bodies. Remains of the Giants. It is the transformation these shall undergo which he explains to the Corinthians, when he writes: “We shall
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On the Resurrection of the Flesh. · Anti-marcion
Chapter XXXV.—Explanation of What is Meant by the Body, Which is to Be Raised Again. Not the Corporeality of the Soul. But He also teaches us, that “He is rather to be feared, who is able to destroy
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On the Resurrection of the Flesh. · Anti-marcion
Chapter LII.—From St. Paul’s Analogy of the Seed We Learn that the Body Which Died Will Rise Again, Garnished with the Appliances of Eternal Life. Let us now see in what body he asserts that the dead
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Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament · Augustine of Hippo
14. Speaking then of the future resurrection of the body, and not leaving us thus, He saith, “He hath given Him power to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for th
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Seventeen Occasional Sermons · Jonathan Edwards
4. When the day of judgment comes they shall rise to the resurrection of damnation.’ When that day comes, all mankind that have died from off the face of the earth shall arise; not only the righteous,
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Seventeen Occasional Sermons · Jonathan Edwards
4. The dead in Christ shall arise at the sound of the last trumpet with glorified bodies, and the living saints shall see them. The holy and blessed souls of saints that descended from heaven with Chr
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
14. These questions, therefore, are for them, the unbelievers: but the words of the Prophets are for us who believe. But since some who have also used the Prophets believe not what is written, and all
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Modern teachers who discuss this idea
Modern and living teachers whose books take up Resurrection of the Body. These works are still in copyright, so we can’t show the text here — each links out to the book.
- Sergei BulgakovThe Bride of the Lamb(1945)View on Amazon→
- Pope Benedict XVIIntroduction to Christianity(1968)View on Amazon→