Letters 119.7–119.12

"Let us pass to the second reading, which is found thus in many manuscripts: 'We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.' From this some assert that many will be found alive in their bodies, and that if not all sleep, not all will die; and if not all die, not all will rise. For one is properly said to rise who has first fallen by dying. Hence they would have Paul also write in the first letter to the Thessalonians: 'We who are alive, who are left at the coming of the Lord, shall not go before those who sleep; for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a command, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.' And from these words they try to prove that Paul, and those who were writing the letter with him, thought that they would not die but would be found in the body on the day of the consummation. But if this is true, Paul erred and was deceived by human opinion, supposing that he would be found in the body; and the outcome of events has proved this false. The Thessalonians themselves had understood it so, not knowing the mysteries of the mystical saying; they wavered among various conjectures and said: 'If Paul is to be found in the body, the day of judgment is near.' Hence he corrects them, writing the second letter: 'We ask you, brothers, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering to him, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us, as though the day of the Lord were at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way; for unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above everything that is called god or that is worshiped, so that he sits in the temple of God, displaying himself as if he were God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?' By these words he aims to call them back from error, so that they would not think the day of judgment was approaching, nor understand what he had written, 'We who are alive, who are left at the coming of the Lord, shall not go before those who have slept,' otherwise than he who wrote it wished it to be understood. For it cannot be that he who had written to Timothy, 'I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is at hand,' thought that he would remain forever in the flesh, never die, and pass straight from earthly life to the heavenly kingdom, especially since, writing to the Romans, he had said the same: 'Who will deliver me from the body of this death?' and to the Corinthians: 'While we dwell in the body we are exiles from the Lord. We would rather go out of the body and be with the Lord.' The man who said these things certainly knew that he would die. It is better, therefore, to understand what is written spiritually, and to take 'sleep' in this place not as the death by which the soul is separated from the body, but as sin after faith and offense against God, a sleeping after baptism, of which he also spoke to the Corinthians: 'That is why many among you are weak, and many sleep,' and in another place: 'Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.' Though these are dead, they will not perish by perpetual death, because they are held not by a mortal crime but by a light and moderate sin. Another saint too, wishing to avoid this, said: 'Lest I sleep in death.' For there is a sleep of sin that leads to death, and there is another sleep of fault that is not bound by death. Whoever, then, has lived that life which says, 'I am the life' (for 'our life is hidden with Christ in God'), and has never been separated from it nor sinned unto death, is said to be one of the living and ever-living, of whom the Savior too testifies in a mystical saying in John's Gospel: 'He who believes in me shall never die.' Hence the apostle too, treading in his Lord's footsteps, taught his disciples what he had learned from the Master. 'We shall not all sleep,' then. For he who keeps his heart with all vigilance, watches for the commands of Christ, and remembers his command, which says, 'Watch, for you do not know at what hour the thief comes,' and in another place, 'Give no sleep to your eyes and no slumber to your eyelids, that you may be saved like a gazelle from bonds and like a bird from snares,' he will not sleep. Since, then, some do not sleep, those who always live and watch in Christ, it follows that by no means do all sleep, and on the other hand that all are changed, not by the change of glory which is properly owed to the saints, but by that change by which this corruptible is made incorruptible, so that it may receive everlasting punishments or rewards. But even if someone has slept in Christ and fallen asleep in the slumber of negligence, he ought to hear what is written: 'Shall not he who sleeps rise again?' But he who does not sleep but watches and always lives in Christ will pass from life to life, or will be caught up in the clouds, to be always with the Lord. Lazarus was one of these sleepers, of whom the Lord says: 'Lazarus our friend sleeps.' And of this sleeper he said to Martha: 'He who believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.' For he who trusts in Christ with his whole mind, even if as a man he has slipped and died in sin, lives forever by his faith. Otherwise this common death is owed equally to believers and unbelievers, and all alike will rise, some to eternal shame, others, because they believe, to everlasting life. And so it can stand that he who believes in Christ does not die, and even if he dies, lives forever; which, as regards bodily death, has plainly happened to no one except Enoch and Elijah. But those who by the greatness of their faith always live in Christ will not sleep, will not die, but will be imitators of the apostolic life, of those who lived without any fault under the law of righteousness and, passing over to faith in the Lord and believing in him who is called the Life and the Resurrection, never slept and never died. For 'the soul that sins shall die.' Just as the soul that sins is dead while the body lives, and on the very day it sins it sleeps into death, as Ecclesiastes says, 'He who sins is dead from that moment,' so the soul that has kept Christ's commands will live forever, even if the body has died. But this must be known: it will fit the truth better to read thus: 'We shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed,' especially because there follows: 'The dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.' For if all are to be changed, according to the other reading, how is it afterwards said, as something special, particular, and proper to the apostles: 'And we shall be changed'? And when he says 'we,' he means all the saints."

You ask how we should understand what is written in the first letter to the Thessalonians: "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left at the coming of the Lord, shall not go before those who have fallen asleep; for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead who are in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord." Although Acacius's discussion above has aired this more fully, we must still say what others think, namely Theodore, Apollinaris, and Diodore, who follow one opinion. Of these Diodore wrote as follows: "The apostle Paul speaks of those 'left' and 'alive' not because he wishes it to be understood that he and others will be found in the body at the time of the resurrection; he said 'we' in the sense of 'the righteous, of whose number I too am.' For they, and not sinners, will be caught up to meet Christ. By 'the living' we do not understand, by a figurative sense, the saints who are dead to sin, but all whom Christ at his coming will find in the body. And what follows, 'we shall not go before those who sleep,' we ought not to refer to sinners (for sinners will not be caught up with the righteous to meet Christ), but to those whom death has dissolved. But why do I inquire into these things and bring false charges against the apostle's words, when he himself writes most plainly: 'we who are left until the coming of the Lord'? Who those left are we learn from the words of the Savior: 'As in the days of Noah they married wives and were given in marriage, and suddenly the flood came and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.' These words prove that at the end of the world many will be found alive and still in their bodies. There follows: 'with a command, with the voice of an archangel, and the dead will rise first.' And the Savior again says this in the gospel: 'At midnight the bridegroom comes,' who will surely find the living in the body, when two will be in one bed, one will be taken and the other left, and two women grinding, one will be taken and the other left. These words show that the consummation of the world will come in the middle of the night, when all are unsuspecting."

Origen, in the third volume of his Expositions of Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians, after much that he discussed in varied and wise language, added the following, from which, no one doubts, Acacius too borrowed a good deal: "What is it, then, that Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy write to the Thessalonians in the word of God: 'We who are alive, who are left at the coming of the Lord, shall not go before those who have fallen asleep'? Who are these living ones who say such things? Surely Paul, an apostle not from men nor through men, and his dearest son in the faith, Timothy, and Silvanus, who was joined to them in affection and in virtues. And not only they, but whoever is like Paul in knowledge and way of life can say: 'We who are alive,' whose body is dead because of sin but whose spirit lives because of righteousness, and whose members upon earth have been put to death, so that the flesh in no way lusts against the spirit. For if the flesh still desires, it lives, and because it lives it desires, and its members upon earth have not been put to death; whereas if they have been put to death, they do not lust against the spirit, having lost desire of this kind by the force of mortification. Just as those who have left the present life and been carried over to better things live more truly, having laid aside the body of death and all the incitements of vice, so those who carry about in their body the dying of Jesus, and live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit, live in him who is life, and Christ lives in them, of whom it is written: 'The word of God is living and effective,' who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For they live in whom the power of God lives, all human frailty laid aside, and in whom lives the wisdom that is hidden in God, and in whom righteousness lives and works. For Christ has become for us not only righteousness from God but also wisdom and everything that is virtue. And if in this place those who write the letter were distinguishing themselves from those who sleep and are dead in Christ, the remark would seem superfluous, and a testimony taken from a single place would have no force; but in fact, with the same sense, because with the same Spirit, he also says in the first letter to the Corinthians: 'We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for it will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.' Compare what is written in the present place, 'he will descend from heaven with the trumpet of God,' with what is said to the Corinthians, 'at the last trumpet; for it will sound'; and what is read to the Thessalonians, 'and the dead in Christ will rise first,' with what is written to the Corinthians, 'and the dead will rise incorruptible.' Further, what follows, 'then we who are alive, who are left,' corresponds to 'and we shall be changed.' Both of these can be understood thus: 'we who are alive, who are left at the coming of the Lord,' and 'we who shall be changed,' and are not of those who are called dead but are alive, await the presence of God not in death but in life for this reason, that we are of the race of Israel and a remnant has been chosen from us, of whom the Lord once said: 'I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.' In John's Gospel too a twofold order of the living and the not-living is described: 'Everyone who believes in me, even if he dies, will live; and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.' If we understand 'the living' as we have said, let us believe that those who sleep and are dead in Christ are those who, though they wish to live in Christ, are nevertheless dead in sin. But if the remnant and the election according to grace are called 'the living,' then those who do not believe in this way and were not born of Israelite nobility will be called 'the sleeping' and 'the dead in Christ.'"

"There are some who explain this passage thus: those are called 'living' who have never died through sin; but those who have sinned and died in that they sinned, and afterwards, turned to repentance, cleanse their old offenses, are called 'dead' because they sinned, but 'dead in Christ' because they have turned to God with their whole mind. Further, those who live and have the testimony of faith and have not yet received the promise of God, who has planned something better concerning others, so that they may not be crowned apart from those who are righteous, will have their blessedness in this, that they enjoy the good of a clear conscience and live and are left at the coming of the Lord and Savior. But because God is merciful and wills the salvation even of those who have slept and are dead in Christ, the living will not go before them nor be caught up alone in the clouds; rather, after the example of the gospel parable, the workers of the eleventh hour and those of the first, who were sent into the vineyard, will receive one denarius and one wage of salvation. Let no one think it unjust that unequal labor should obtain one prize. For there is a great difference between those who have been healed after wounds and those who have never seen the terror of death. Of these, I think, it was said: 'Who is the man who shall live and not see death, who shall rescue his soul from death?' For 'who' is not to be taken, as some think, in the sense of 'no one,' but as if he said 'who, let us suppose,' according to what is written: 'Who is wise and will understand these things?' and in another place: 'Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle?' and again: 'Who has known the mind of the Lord?' Those left, then, will be few among the believers, who will see the coming of the Lord as God the Word, not at all in the lowliness of the flesh but in the glory of one who triumphs. And we must consider how he first called them 'sleeping,' then 'dead in Christ,' whom the living will not be able to go before. For he who has not kept what is written, 'Give no sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids, that you may be saved like a gazelle from bonds and like a bird from snares,' will sleep and grow torpid in a blameworthy slumber, and when he has slept he will pass into death. For as he who is awake moves, so he who sleeps lies motionless and is torpid in the likeness of death. That death follows on sleep the first letter to the Corinthians can also teach us, where it is written thus: 'But now Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who sleep; for since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man,' and a little later: 'We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for it will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.' Since, then, these things are said of sleep and of death, and we read in the apostle, 'Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light,' let us swear to the Lord and make a vow to the God of Jacob, each saying in his heart: 'If I go up to my bed, if I give sleep to my eyes and slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord' (without doubt in your soul), 'a tabernacle for the God of Jacob,' so that God may rest in it as in an eternal seat. There follows: 'For the Lord himself with a command,' and the rest. For he will descend, sent by the Father, not through any difference of power but by the ordering of a judge, and there will descend to those who are below the Word of God, and Wisdom, and Truth, and Righteousness. And although those to whom he deigns to descend are dead, yet they are not strangers to him; for they are called 'dead in Christ.' But those who live have this privilege, that they are chosen out of many. Yet both companies, the dead in Christ and the living, will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord, so that they do not wait for him until he descends to earthly things, but enjoy his presence and company on high. How great is the mercy of Christ, that for our salvation he not only became flesh but descended even to the dead, and in death itself bears the signs of the living! For water and blood came out of his side. The divine Word, then, descends with the voice of the archangel going before and preparing a way for him in those who can bear his presence. That we may understand this, let us learn the mysteries of the first coming. It is written of John, who was his forerunner, that he said in the wilderness: 'I am the voice of one crying in the desert,' and the rest. What did the voice cry in the desert? 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.' For what prize or what reward? 'Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low, and the crooked shall become straight and the rough ways smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' And this because 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.' But now it will not be the voice of the prophet in the desert, but the voice of the archangel preparing the ways, not for one who comes in the lowliness of the flesh, but for him who is God the Word with the Father. Then indeed they went out into the desert to hear the forerunner of the man who was assumed, and to see a reed shaken by the wind, from which pipes are made, and the tuneful reed, which sounds with sweet melody in the mouths of children singing in the streets and saying, 'We piped for you and you did not dance'; but now, at the voice of the archangel going before the Lord as he descends from heaven, and with the clearest trumpet, each believer is called either to battle or to priestly ministries. We read in the book of Numbers of trumpets consecrated to God, which sounded before the sacrifices. But if the voice of the angel's trumpet and of the archangel is great, how much greater will be that of the trumpet of God, which prepares the ways first of those who sleep and are dead in Christ, then of those who live and are left and await the coming of the Word of God! Perhaps the blast of a simple trumpet is needed for those who sleep and are dead in Christ, but the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God for those who live and are kept for the presence of the Lord. Let us see what can be understood also by what follows: 'We shall be caught up together with them.' By this word, I think, a sudden passing over to better things is shown, and he chose to say 'caught up' so that the speed of the one passing over would outrun the thought of the one thinking. He marked this in another place too, with the proper force of the same word: 'I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago (whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows), such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I know that such a man (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows) was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.' Others, making progress and, so to speak, advancing, grew to greater things, until they became, according to what is written, 'very great indeed,' and we read that some were taken up into heaven. But Paul, the chosen vessel, was caught up and ascended into the third heaven, and therefore heard unspeakable words. How those who are caught up in the clouds are caught up to meet Christ must be considered more carefully. We know that the clouds are the prophets, whom God commanded not to rain upon Israel when they had filled up the measure of their fathers, and the law and the prophets were until John the Baptist. And because God appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, not only the prophets but also the apostles are to be understood as clouds. If anyone, then, is caught up to Christ, he ascends above the clouds of the law and of the gospel, above the prophets and the apostles, and taking the wings of a dove, lifted to the heights by their teaching, he goes to meet him not below but in the air, in the spiritual understanding of the Scriptures. And meeting him among spiritual things and leaving earthly things behind, whether he be one who sleeps, or dead in Christ, or living and kept for his presence, he will always be with him and will enjoy the Word of God, and Wisdom, Truth, and Righteousness."

I have dictated this in hasty words, setting before your wisdom what learned men think about each passage and by what arguments they sought to prove their opinions. For the authority of my littleness (I who am nothing, and exposed only to the bites of the envious) is not as great as that of those who have gone before us in the Lord; nor, as among the disciples of Pythagoras, is the teacher's opinion to be taken as settled beforehand; it is the reasoning of the teaching that must be weighed. But if anyone of the opposing faction murmurs and asks why I read the expositions of those whose doctrines I do not accept, let him know that I gladly listen to the apostle's words, "Test all things; hold fast what is good," and to the words of the Savior, who says, "Be approved money-changers," so that if any coin is counterfeit and does not bear Caesar's image and is not stamped by the public mint, it may be rejected, while the one that shows Christ's face in clear light may be laid up in the purse of our heart. For if I want to learn dialectic, or the doctrines of the philosophers, or (to return to our own field of knowledge) the Scriptures, I ought not to question simple men of the church, who have another gift (each abounds in his own sense, especially since in the great house of the householder a great variety of vessels is spoken of), but those who have learned the art from the artist and meditate on the law of God day and night. I declare, as I did in youth, so in extreme old age, that Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea were most learned men, but erred in the truth of doctrine. How much, on the other hand, can we say of Theodore, Acacius, and Apollinaris! And yet all of them have left us in their expositions of the Scriptures a memorial of their sweat. Gold is sought in the earth, shining gravel is brought out of riverbeds, and the Pactolus is richer in its mud than in its stream. Why do my enemies tear at me, and why do fat sows grunt against one who is silent? Their whole zeal, or rather the arrogance of their knowledge, is to pick at the work of others, and so to defend the faithlessness of the ancients that they lose their own faith. My purpose is to read the ancients, to test each thing, to hold fast what is good, and not to depart from the faith of the catholic church.

I was wishing to answer other small questions and to dictate either my own views or those of others, when I was at once reminded by brother Sisinnius to write letters both to you and to the other holy brothers who deign to love me. I will therefore check my step and, if life stays with me, keep myself for a future work, so that I may obey you piece by piece and my broken and aged little body may bear a moderate burden. This, however, I point out briefly at the end: what is read in the Latin manuscripts, "We shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed," is not found in the Greek volumes, but either "We shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed" or "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed"; what their sense is we have said above.