Annotatio CLXXXV

”Thou hast led us into a snare.” — Psalm 65:11

Methodius, bishop of Olympus, imputes it as a fault to Origen that, interpreting this verse in the commentaries on the Psalter, he said that Souls were brought into bodies in order that in these — as in a snare, and a chain, and a prison — they might pay the penalties of the crimes which, while dwelling in heaven, they had committed.¹ This same error in Origen was condemned by Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, in book 2 of the Panarion; by Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, in his first Paschal [letter]; by Jerome, in the epistle to Pammachius; and especially by Cyril, bishop of Alexandria — who, in the first book of the commentaries on John, confuted this very dogma with many reasons of no small moment brought forward: which, because thou wilt find them in no one of the school of theologians, it has pleased [me] to append here, for the favor of the studious reader.

First: if the Souls existed before the bodies of men, and — by a certain inclination to evil, as [Origen] himself says — are joined to bodies in place of punishment, how are they said to be illumined when coming into this world?² For illumination seems to bring greater grace, and is certainly [a thing] of honor, not of punishment; but he who is honored is not punished, nor is he vexed with torments who partakes of the divine light. Wherefore it is certain that the Soul, which in the body itself is honored, is not punished by [its] conjunction with the body.

Secondly, it is added, that it would be altogether false that the Soul is illumined [when] coming into this world — if indeed it was already a mind and an entire intellect beforehand: for if, while it comes into the body, it is illumined, it is necessary that, before it comes, it lack light. How, therefore, will the intellect be entire and pure, if it then at last began to be illumined, when it descended into this world and into the mass of the flesh?

Thirdly, if the Soul existed before the body, and — as a pure mind and an entire intellect — was more closely joined to the good itself, but by the depravity and desire of worse things was pressed down to earthly things: how is not a great injury done to it, which — now pressed down in this body — is bidden to live rightly and not to sin? Whereas it would rather have behooved [it to do so] then, when — not yet bound to a body — it was farther from all perturbation. One certainly could not say either that the fitting occasion for admonishing the soul was unknown to God, or that [the soul] was injuriously handled by him who cannot sin. Fittingly, therefore, and justly, are we bidden not to sin in this flesh, since we began to be at that time in which, together with the body, we came into this world, and, as it were, arrived from a certain [nothingness] out of nothing unto being.

Fourthly, I would gladly ask of him what likelihood the reasoning has, when he says that, on account of the offenses which the Soul had previously committed, it is thrust into a body, that by the experience of things it may learn the baseness of its own concupiscence: how does he not blush to say these things? For it seems rather that [the soul] ought to be freed from depraved thoughts, than to be thrust down into the depth of the basest pleasures — for not thus, but that [other] manner, could have healed it. But if it was thrust into a body in order that it might enjoy the pleasures of the body, and in that manner be the more sickened, then the physician can rightly be accused of the crime as much of ignorance as of injury — [the physician] who thought that the sick [soul] could be healed by that method, if she were driven by injury into greater and more numerous offenses. But if [it was done] that he might make an end of her sinning: how did he think she would rather emerge from the utmost depth of misery and of desire, than [that], at the very beginning of evils — when she lacked the tinder of sin, that is, the body — she would retain her state with a small chastisement?

Fifthly, besides these things: if the Soul offended before the body, and was joined to a body in order to pay the penalties, it would certainly behoove that believers, who by faith are freed from sins, should straightway be freed from the punishment — that is, from the body. For how, tell me, I pray, would the Soul be understood to have thoroughly obtained the remission of sins, when it is still held enclosed in the body on account of sin? But we see it happen far otherwise: for not only do the faithful not straightway fly forth from [their] bodies, but even, by the profession of the resurrection and by faith, they believe that they shall live immortally with [their] bodies. Not, therefore, is the body joined to the Soul for torment — especially since it has been so divinely honored that it both attests the omnipotence of the Savior who is to raise it again, and is destined to have an immortal life.

Sixthly, add that, according to the law, the greater offenses are punished with death, while those who have sinned more lightly are permitted to live; but those who seem altogether innocent are even affected with rewards, as it were with certain enticements to living. But it would have behooved, if the Soul was joined to the body in order to pay the penalties of things committed, that wicked men should rather be invited to live, so that they might be the more vexed by the mass of the body; and that the innocent, on the contrary, should the sooner [be freed] from this body — that is, from the punishment —³ that is, from the punishment.⁴ But the law would justly have ordered the homicide, and others of this kind, to die, and the just to be adorned with honors. Falsely, therefore, is it said that Souls are attached to bodies for the sake of punishment.

Seventhly, let him say, I pray: if the body is attached to the Soul for punishment, what good has the Savior conferred on us — death being destroyed, and immortality bestowed on the body through the resurrection? We ought rather to give thanks to the perpetual corruption of the body, [as the thing] setting an end to the punishment, than to our Lord Jesus Christ (whom we believe to have bestowed resurrection on [our] bodies): but the Church does not do so; rather it gives thanks to Christ, esteeming him Savior in very deed, because he freed us from death. Not, therefore, were bodies given to Souls for punishment; for, if it were so, the resurrection would bring greater evils upon us, enclosing the wretched Souls in bodies perpetually, and driving [them] back thither whence they had escaped through death. But [the body] was given by Christ as nothing evil, but for the renovation of nature, as a singular gift: not for a penalty were bodies given to souls.

Eighthly, a certain prophet, announcing to us a singular joy, cried out: “The dead shall rise, and they shall be raised up who are in the tombs; and all who are in the earth shall exult.”⁵ [But if the body were a punishment,] it ought rather to have been said that they would be affected with great sadness, returning again into bodies; or, if he truly wished to affect the human race with joy, he would have affirmed that the dead were not to rise, but that the nature of the flesh was given over to perpetual corruption. But since, breathed upon by the divine Spirit, he announces the resurrection of the flesh unto joy — we are not annexed to the body for punishment, in whose immortality we are bidden to rejoice and exult.

Ninthly, it is added, that God, when he blessed the blessed Abraham, promised that his [offspring] would be innumerable, like the stars of heaven.⁶ Wherefore, if the Soul is introduced into the body as into a punishment, then [God] promises a throng of souls divinely damned, and, as it were, of fugitives from the good, and slaves of malignity, and rather a seed of malediction than of benediction: but in very deed Abraham was blessed by God; therefore the conjunction of body and Soul is free from all fault.

Tenthly, similarly, that divine man Moses, when not without cause he had marveled at the multitude of the Jews, said: “For behold, ye are this day as a multitude, like the stars of heaven”; and, praying, he added: “May the Lord God of your fathers add to this number many thousands.”⁷ Which thing, if souls fallen into bodies are [thereby] punished, ought not to have been desired by Moses, but rather repelled by [his] prayer and intercession to God; yet it was a thing to be desired (for we do not say that Moses was some empty [foolish] man). Falsely, therefore, and out of themselves — not out of the Scriptures — do wicked men devise falsities of this kind.

Eleventhly, we are not ignorant that nothing is granted by God to those who ask amiss: “For ye ask,” he says, “and receive not, because ye ask amiss.”⁸ If, therefore, incarnation is given to the Soul for the paying of penalties, as [Origen] says, then Hannah, the daughter of Phanuel, sinned not a little, demanding a son from God by long prayer;⁹ for she was asking first the fall of a soul, then [its] punishment. And if the woman, as a human [being], erred, how did she prevail upon God? For the woman could not conceive in the womb unless a Soul had offended in the heavens — so that, on account of [its] offense, entering the womb of the woman, it might assume a body. But God had been [successfully] entreated, because she asked well. Not, therefore, are [souls] joined to flesh because we sinned beforehand — inasmuch as we did not exist before the body.

Twelfthly, if we are attached to the body for the sake of punishment: why did Hezekiah, a holy and upright man, ask for the prolongation of this life?¹⁰ Or how did God, moved by his piety and tears, add to him fifteen years in the place of a benefit? For [God] would seem to have conferred on him rather a calamity and a torment than a gift and a grace — if these trifles [of Origen] have anything of truth. But certainly the prolongation of life was a gift and a grace: not, therefore, are bodies given to Souls for punishment.

Thirteenthly, if the body was given to the Soul for punishment: God repaid an empty grace, who led Jeremiah out of the pit — [Jeremiah] whom he promises would escape the assault of the Chaldeans and would live longer¹¹ — whereas he ought rather, if he wished to honor him, to have freed him as soon as possible from the vexation of the body. Nor, besides, did he impart any good to those three young men, whom he saved from the Babylonian flame,¹² nor to Daniel, whom he snatched from the ferocity of the lions.¹³ But this is altogether false: for [God] is praised, and thanks are given to him, because he conferred on them a chief benefit; false, therefore, is also that [premise] from which this follows.

Fourteenthly, add that, before the tribunal of the Lord, all our works shall lie open, that each one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil.¹⁴ If, therefore, retribution shall be made for the works which we have done, wrongly or otherwise, with the body — and there shall be no mention of those things which we did, well or ill, before the body — how do they dare to say that the Soul existed before the body, if only those things are inquired into which it did with the body?

Fifteenthly, how does the same Paul say: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God”?¹⁵ For if bodies are given to Souls for punishment, how do we offer to God, for an odor of sweetness, that through which we are punished? Or how shall that possess virtue which, born for punishing, has driven great roots in sin?

Sixteenthly, on account of the transgression of the first man, corruption invaded our race, as Paul says: “But death reigned from Adam unto Moses”; and he affirms that death reigned even over those who had not sinned.¹⁶ If a mortal body is attached to us because of ancient offenses, how did they “not sin,” if on account of sins they fell into a body?

Seventeenthly, concerning a certain man blind from his mother’s womb, the disciples asked the Savior, saying: “Rabbi, who sinned — this man, or his parents — that he should be born blind?”¹⁷ For, since it is written in the prophetic books that God repays the sins of the parents upon the children,¹⁸ the Apostles thought for this cause that that man had been born blind. What, then, [says] Christ? “Neither did this man sin,” he says, “nor his parents; but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.”¹⁹ But how does he assert that they did not sin — who, since they were men, undoubtedly could not but have erred? It is manifest that is, of Christ.²⁰ For in this manner the integrity of truth will be discerned in the words of the Truth.

Eighteenthly, it is added, that Isaiah, showing for what cause the earth was made, says: “It was not created in vain, but that it might be inhabited”;²¹ and it can fittingly be inhabited not by bare spirits, nor by incorporeal souls, but by ensouled bodies. From which it follows: if we grant that Souls pre-existed and, offending, glide down into bodies, [then we grant] that they offend by the very will of God — namely, that there might be men by whom the world might be inhabited: but this is altogether false; the other [alternative], therefore, is true.

Nineteenthly, add, that Wisdom, the artificer of all things, is introduced in the book of Proverbs saying words of this kind concerning herself: “I was [that] in whom [he] rejoiced” — namely, the creator of all things — “daily I was delighted before him at all times, when, the world being finished, he rejoiced, and was delighted over the sons of men.”²² If, therefore, God the creator rejoiced over man, how are they not mad who think that Souls are thrust into bodies for [their] sins? For if he rejoices because they pay penalties through bodies, he will not be good, who triumphs in the punishment of others; but he himself is good by nature, and the producer of good creatures: not, therefore, are bodies an instrument of punishing, as many falsely proclaim.

Twentiethly, if the Souls which had offended before the bodies are punished by being annexed to bodies, why was the flood sent against the impious, and Noah the just saved in the retribution of [his] faith?²³ For the contrary ought to have happened — that the just should the sooner be loosed from the body, but the wicked be tormented a longer time by the mass of the body. But the just Lord punished the impious with death, [and] honored the just [man] with longer spaces of this life: false, therefore, is the opinion, and to be cast utterly out of our minds.

Twenty-first, why did the Savior raise up Lazarus, whom he loved, and lead back into punishments the friend [who had been] freed from punishments?²⁴ But he raised him up, honoring [the one] whom he loved. Against the truth, therefore, is it said that Souls offended before the bodies.

Twenty-second, add, that if it were so, this rational animal, man, and the nature of man, would seem to have been produced through sin; but through sin, again, death entered into the world — wherefore sin would seem repugnant to itself, since it dissolves the former by the latter. Satan also would be divided against himself: how, then, would his kingdom stand?²⁵ But these things are false: true, therefore, are those which are opposed to them.

Lastly, the Church denies that death was produced by God;²⁶ for the Scripture confirms that it came into the world by the envy of the Devil.²⁷ But if the body is joined to the soul in order to punish the soul, why is the Devil blamed, who by death dissolves the punishment of the soul? And why do we give thanks to the Savior, who by the resurrection restores [our] bodies to us again? But rightly do we both give, and owe, thanks to the Savior, who freed us by his own blood from the corruption which the envy of the Devil brought upon us. Not, therefore, are bodies an instrument of punishment, nor could Souls sin before bodies, when they did not [yet] exist.