By Water & Blood

On judgment

Concerning judgment.

And how will the judgment take place justly, if, according to the account of the unbelievers, the bodies are not raised at all, and only the souls are required to give account for what they have done wrong? For it is not just that the soul which has sinned with the body—having admitted through the eyes both envy and out-of-place desires, having been enchanted through the ears by lawless words, and having received through each part of the body certain excitements that are not good—should alone be exacted the punishment for what has been done wrong, and should endure this not for some short time but for endless ages. For this we have been taught by the divine Scripture: “These will go away into eternal life, and these into eternal punishment and shame.”

And again, how is it holy that the souls of the saints alone should enjoy the promised goods, when they accomplished virtue together with the bodies? For the eyes pour forth the tears of contrition; the ears convey the divine oracles to the soul; the tongue both hymns the Benefactor and continually offers prayer; the hands serve the care of those in need; and the feet now run to houses of prayer, now endure standing in prayers and a very great deal of toil. How then is it just that the body which with the soul has gathered the wealth of virtue should be dust and cast aside, while the soul alone is proclaimed as victor?

But if this is outrageous, then it is just that the bodies first be raised, and then that they give account in common for what they have done in their life. For this the divine Apostle also said: “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive the things done through the body, according to what he has practiced, whether good or evil.” And the blessed David speaks in harmony: “For you will repay each according to his works.”

Pythagoras, then, mythologized the transmigrations of souls, saying that they pass not only into the bodies of irrational animals but also into plants. And Plato somehow followed this myth. From there Manes, and before him the impious series of those called Gnostics, taking their starting points, said that this is punishment. But the all-defiled Carpocrates and Epiphanes and Prodicus and the Cainites, legislating a swinish life, said that souls are sent across into bodies so that through lust and every licentiousness each of the world-making angels might be served.

But the Church of the pious abhors these myths and such as these; and following the divine words, she believes that the bodies are raised, and that with these the souls are judged, and that those who have lived with wickedness are punished, while those who have cared for virtue obtain the proclamations of victory.