By Water & Blood

Resurrection of the dead; closing of the heresy

8. And concerning the resurrection of the dead, indicating that it will come to be, the Son from him again says: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”; and he was speaking of the temple as his own body, being destroyed by the hands of men—that is, being killed.

But what was not even a body, but only appearing in semblance, as these people again say, could not have come into hands and be raised on the third day, as he promised.

It has been clearly shown, then, through such an economy, that the resurrection of the dead is beyond dispute, and that there is no need of an apology for the soul to speak to each authority (for they invent this too, as has been said), but need of the Lord’s benefaction, which is established through works and faith, as the most holy Paul says,

writing to Timothy in these words: “so that you may know how one ought to walk in the house of the Lord, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth,” “which many, having abandoned, have turned aside into myths and foolish talk,” “understanding neither what they say nor the things about which they make confident assertions”; “of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.”

And also in the second letter he says that Hymenaeus and Philetus have missed the mark concerning the truth—who themselves also followed this heresy, proclaiming another god and endless genealogies, and sowing error among people and saying that the world has not come into being from God but by principalities and authorities, and that the resurrection has already come about through the children born by each of those who beget, while they deny that there will be a resurrection of the dead.

And see, brothers, the character of the truth and the refutation of these people’s lawlessness.

I suppose that enough has also been said about these; therefore, leaving this aside, I shall make my way to those that follow, saying only this: that this heresy, through its many-named “archontic” designation, appears very much like the intricate malice of serpents.

For in a way the venom of their error has been gathered mixed from many reptiles—having, for example, the boldness of the dragon, the craftiness of the puff-adder, the drawing-in of the breath of the baîton, the pride of the acontias, the rashness of the ostracites.

Having trampled the head of all these with the foundation of the truth, let us pass on to the rest, beloved ones, trying in God to uncover the error of each.