Against the Greeks, on the Cause of the Universe (Discourse on Hades)

And this is the passage concerning demons. But we must speak about Hades, in which the souls both of the righteous and of the unrighteous are held. Hades is a place in creation left unwrought, a region under the earth, on which the light of the world does not shine; and since light does not shine in this region, there must be perpetual darkness there. This region was assigned to souls as a guardhouse, over which angels were appointed as guards, allotting temporary punishments for their characters according to the deeds of each. In this region a certain place has been set apart, a lake of unquenchable fire, into which we suppose that no one has yet been cast; but it has been prepared by God for the appointed day, on which one sentence of righteous judgment will be fittingly applied to all. And the unrighteous, who disobeyed God and honoured as God idols, the vain works made by human hands, will be condemned to this everlasting punishment as the authors of defilements; but the righteous will obtain the incorruptible and unfailing kingdom. They are now held in Hades, but not in the same place as the unrighteous. For there is one way down into this region, at whose gate we believe an archangel stands with a host. When those who are led down by the angels appointed over souls have passed through this gate, they do not go by one road. The righteous, led in light toward the right, and hymned by the angels stationed in the place, are brought to a region full of light, in which the righteous from the beginning live, not held by necessity, but always enjoying the sight of the good things they behold, delighting in the expectation of ever new ones, and thinking those still better than these. For them the place brings no toil: there is no burning heat, no cold, no thorn in it; but the face of the fathers and of the righteous, as it is seen, is always smiling, as they wait for the rest and eternal new life in heaven that follow this region. This we call by the name of Abraham's bosom. But the unrighteous are dragged to the left by angels of punishment, no longer going of their own will, but dragged by force as prisoners. The angels set over them send them on, reproaching them and threatening them with a fearful eye, thrusting them toward the lower parts; and those in charge drag them along until they are near Gehenna. Being nearer, they hear the seething without ceasing and do not escape the vapour of its heat. And seeing at closer range the fearful and overwhelming sight of the fire, they are struck rigid with the expectation of the coming judgment, already being punished in effect. But they also see where the place of the fathers and the righteous is, and are punished by this very thing. For a deep and great chasm is fixed between, so that neither can a righteous person, moved by pity, receive one of them, nor can an unrighteous person dare to cross.

This is the account of Hades, in which the souls of all are held until the time that God has appointed, when he will then bring about the resurrection of all, not by transferring souls into other bodies, but by raising the bodies themselves. And if you disbelieve, seeing them dissolved, learn not to disbelieve. For if you believe, following Plato's account, that the soul was made by God as something that came into being and yet immortal, in time, do not disbelieve that God is able to bring back to life the body too, composed of the same elements, and to make it immortal. It will not be said of God that he is able in one thing and unable in another. We, then, have believed that the body also rises. For if it is corrupted, it is still not destroyed; for the earth, receiving its remains, keeps them; and becoming like seed, and mingled with the richer part of the earth, they flower. What is sown is sown as a bare grain; but at the command of God the Creator it sprouts and is raised clothed and glorious, though not before it has died and been dissolved and mingled (with the earth). So it is not in vain that we have believed in the resurrection of the body. And though it is dissolved for a season because of the disobedience that took place at the beginning, it is put into the earth as into a smelting furnace, to be refashioned again; it does not rise such as it is now, but pure and no longer corruptible. And to each body its own soul will be restored; and having put it on again, the soul will not be grieved but will rejoice with it, abiding pure with the pure. Having travelled with it righteously now in the world, and finding it in nothing a plotter against it, it will receive it back with all gladness. But the unrighteous will receive their bodies not changed, not freed from suffering or disease, and not glorified, but with the diseases in which they died; and such as they were in unbelief, such they will be judged faithfully.

For all, righteous and unrighteous, will be brought before God the Word. For the Father has given all judgment to him, and he, carrying out the counsel of the Father, comes as Judge, he whom we call Christ. For it is not Minos and Rhadamanthys who are judges, as you Greeks hold, but he whom God and the Father glorified, about whom we have gone through things in more detail elsewhere for those who seek the truth. He, executing the righteous judgment of the Father toward all, has prepared what is just for each according to his works. Standing before his judgment, all, men and angels and demons, will utter one voice, saying: "Your judgment is righteous." The recompense for that voice he brings upon both, justly: to those who have done well he grants eternal enjoyment, and to the lovers of evil he assigns eternal punishment. For these the fire remains unquenchable and endless, and a certain fiery worm, which does not die and does not destroy the body, remains, bursting out of the body with unceasing pain. No sleep will give them rest, no night will soothe them, no death will release them from punishment, no plea of kinsfolk interceding will help them. For the righteous are no longer seen by them, nor are they thought worthy of remembrance. But the righteous alone will remember the righteous deeds by which they reached the heavenly kingdom, in which there is no sleep, no grief, no corruption, no anxiety, no night, no day measured by time; no sun driven by necessity in its course around the circle of heaven, marking out the measures of hours or points set for the easy reckoning of human life; no moon waning or waxing or bringing the turns of the seasons; no (moon) moistening the earth nor sun scorching it; no Bear revolving, no Orion rising, no numbered wandering of stars; no earth hard to walk, no court of paradise hard to find, no terrible roaring of the sea preventing one from setting foot on it and walking; but it too will become easy to walk for the righteous, though it is not deprived of its water. No heaven uninhabitable for men, nor will the way of ascent to it be impossible to find; no earth unworked or toilsome for men, but producing fruits of its own accord for their adornment; no new births of wild beasts, nor the teeming substance of the other living things. For it will not give birth to men again either; but the number of the righteous remains unfailing, together with righteous angels and spirits. You who are persuaded by these words, O men, will be partners with the righteous and will attain the good things to come, which "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those who love him." To him be the glory and the power to the ages of ages. Amen.