Early Christian Beliefs About the Soul After Death

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Direct teaching

...f the flesh is destroyed? The same is true in other men also, who are not only flesh, but flesh and soul. In them, the flesh alone suffers decay and death, while the soul is seen to remain unharmed and beyond the laws of destruction and death. For our Lord Himself also said, urging us toward martyrdom and contempt for all human power, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." But if the immortal soul cannot be killed or slain in anyone else, although the body and flesh alone can be slain, how much more certainly could the Word of God, and God in Christ, not be put to death at all, although the flesh alone and the body were slain. For if in any man the soul has this excellence of immortality, that it cannot be slain, much more does the majesty of the Word of God have this power of not being slain. For if the power of men fails to kill the holy power of God, and if human cruelty fails to destroy the soul, much more it ought to fail to kill the Word of God. For as the soul itself, which was made by the Word of God, is not killed by men, certainly it should much more be believed that the Word of God cannot be destroyed. And if the bloody cruelty of men can do n

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Direct teaching

...ubstance of the flesh is destroyed, just as in other men also, who are not only flesh but flesh and soul? In them, the flesh alone suffers decay and death, while the soul is seen to remain uncorrupted and beyond the laws of destruction and death. For our Lord Himself also said this, urging us to martyrdom and to despise all human power: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." But if the immortal soul cannot be killed or slain in anyone else, although the body and flesh alone can be slain, how much more certainly could the Word of God, and God in Christ, not be put to death at all, although the flesh alone and the body were slain. For if in any man the soul has this excellence of immortality, that it cannot be slain, much more does the majesty of the Word of God have this power of not being slain. For if the power of men is not enough to kill the holy power of God, and if human cruelty is not enough to destroy the soul, then much more it ought not to be enough to slay the Word of God. For as the soul itself, which was made by the Word of God, is not killed by men, certainly it must be believed much more that the Word of God cannot be destroyed. And if the

Tertullian, De Anima (On the Soul) Direct teaching

Either it is a very fine thing to be kept in these lower regions with the Aori, that is, souls taken away too soon; or else it is a very bad thing indeed to be there with the Biaeothanati, those who suffered violent deaths. I may be allowed to use the very words and names that magic itself repeats, that inventor of all these strange ideas, with its Ostanes, and Typhon, and Dardanus, and Damigeron, and Nectabis, and Berenice. There is a well-known popular writing that claims to call up from the dwelling of Hades the souls of those who had actually slept out their full age, had passed away by an honorable death, and had even been buried with full rites and proper ceremony. After this, what shall we say about magic? Say, to be sure, what almost everybody says about it: that it is an imposture. But it is not only we Christians who notice this system of imposture. We have discovered these evil spirits, not by joining with them, but by a kind of knowledge that is against them. Nor do we deal with them by any method that attracts them, but by a power that brings them under control. I mean their miserable system, that many-sided plague on the mind of man, that maker of all error, that dest

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

...part of the nature of living beings. Or, to put it another way, death is the separation of body and soul. But we define the second death in this way: death is the suffering of eternal pain. Or, to put it another way, death is the sentencing of souls, according to what they deserve, to eternal punishments. This does not apply to dumb animals, whose spirits are not made from God but from the common air, and so are dissolved by death. Therefore, in this union of heaven and earth, the image of which is shown in man, the things that belong to God hold the higher place, namely the soul, which rules over the body. But the things that belong to the devil hold the lower place, plainly the body. For the body, being earthly, ought to be subject to the soul, just as the earth is subject to heaven. For it is like a vessel that this heavenly spirit may use as a temporary dwelling. The duties of both are these: the latter, which is from heaven and from God, is to command; but the former, which is from the earth and the devil, is to obey. And this, indeed, was not missed even by Sallust, a morally corrupt man, who says, "But all our power consists in soul and body; we use the soul to command, t

Athenagoras, The Resurrection of the Dead Direct teaching

For either death is the entire extinction of life, the soul being dissolved and corrupted along with the body, or the soul remains by itself, incapable of dissolution, of dispersion, of corruption, while the body is corrupted and dissolved, retaining no longer any remembrance of past actions, nor sense of what it experienced in connection with the soul.

Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching

Moreover, if it is believed not only among Christians and Jews, but also by many others among the Greeks and Barbarians, that the human soul lives and subsists after its separation from the body;

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

For if the earthly and frail body after the departure of the soul does not immediately flow away and waste into earth, from which it has its origin, therefore the soul, which is not frail, endures to eternity, since its origin is eternal.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Direct teaching

1. The Lord has taught with very great fulness, that souls not only continue to exist, not by passing from body to body, but that they preserve the same form [in their separate state] as the body had to which they were adapted, and that they remember the deeds which they did in this state of existence, and from which they have now ceased,—in that narrative which is recorded respecting the rich man and that Lazarus who found repose in the bosom of Abraham.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

Others, again, discuss things contrary to these, namely, that the soul survives after death;

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Direct teaching

...ere he says that there are judgments after death, and courts of justice in Hades, and that virtuous souls receive a good reward, while the wicked receive fitting punishment. Some nevertheless say that he also accepts a passing of souls from one body to another, and that different souls, those marked out for this purpose, pass into different bodies according to what each deserves, and that after certain fixed periods they are sent up into this world to give proof of their choice once again. Others, however, do not admit that this is his teaching, but say that Plato affirms that souls obtain a place according to what each deserves. And they use as evidence his saying that some good men are with Jove, and that others are traveling through heaven with other gods, while others are caught in eternal punishments, as many as have committed wicked and unjust deeds during this life.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Supporting witness

Those, however, who assert the immortality of the soul are especially strengthened in their opinion by those passages (in Plato's writings), where he says, that both there are judgments after death, and tribunals of justice in Hades, and that the virtuous (souls) receive a good reward, while the wicked (ones) suitable punishment.

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching

Therefore the Lord preached the gospel to those in Hades. So Scripture says, "Hades says to Destruction, We have not seen His form, but we have heard His voice." It is not the place itself that heard the voice, as the words above say. Rather, it was those who had been put in Hades and had given themselves over to destruction, like people who voluntarily throw themselves from a ship into the sea. They, then, are the ones who hear the divine power and voice. For who, if he is in his right mind, can suppose that the souls of the righteous and the souls of sinners are under the same condemnation, and so accuse Providence of injustice?

Hippolytus, Against Plato Direct teaching

And this is the passage about demons. But now we must speak about Hades, where the souls of both the righteous and the unrighteous are kept. Hades is a place in the created order, rough and under the earth, where the light of the world does not shine. And since the sun does not shine in that place, there must be continual darkness there. This place has been appointed, as it were, to be a guardhouse for souls. Angels stand there as guards, giving temporary punishments, according to each person's deeds, for different kinds of character. And in this place there is a certain area set apart by itself, a lake of unquenchable fire, into which we suppose no one has yet been thrown. For it has been prepared for the day appointed by God, when one sentence of righteous judgment will justly be applied to all. And the unrighteous, and those who did not believe God, who have honored as God the useless works of human hands, idols made by themselves, will be sentenced to this endless punishment. But the righteous will receive the incorruptible and unfading kingdom. Indeed, at present they are kept in Hades, but not in the same place as the unrighteous. For there is one descent to this place, at th

Tertullian, De Anima (On the Soul) Direct teaching

All other souls they thrust down to Hades, which Plato, in his Phædo, describes as the bosom of the earth, where all the filth of the world accumulates, settles, and exhales, and where every separate draught of air only renders denser still the impurities of the seething mass.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Direct teaching

And they maintain that the soul, when separated in the present life, (departs) into one place, which is well ventilated and lightsome, where, they say, it rests until judgment.

Hippolytus, Against Plato Supporting witness

1. And this is the passage regarding demons. But now we must speak of Hades, in which the souls both of the righteous and the unrighteous are detained.

Hippolytus, Against Plato Supporting witness

2. Thus far, then, on the subject of Hades, in which the souls of all are detained until the time which God has determined;

Tertullian, De Anima (On the Soul) Supporting witness

This raises a question. Does this happen right after the soul leaves the body? Or are some souls kept here on earth for special reasons for a time? And are they allowed, either by their own choice or by some authority, to be taken out of Hades later on? There are certainly people who confidently put forward views like these. People believed that the dead who were not buried were not allowed into the lower regions until they had received proper burial. Homer gives this idea in the case of Patroclus. In a dream, Patroclus urgently asks Achilles to bury him, because he says he cannot enter Hades by any other entrance, since the souls of those who had been buried kept driving him away. We know that Homer was doing more here than using poetic freedom. He was thinking about the rights of the dead. In fact, just as he cared about giving the tomb its proper honor, he also condemned delay in burial as something harmful to souls. He also meant to give a warning: no one should keep the body of a friend in his house, and so bring greater harm and trouble on himself as well as on the dead person, because of a kind of comfort that is disorderly and fed by pain and grief. So, in describing the co

Gregory Thaumaturgus, On All the Saints Supporting witness

...y take their leap to heaven. They let their limbs be scattered abroad so that they might keep their souls. And by bursting the bars of life, they open the gates of heaven. And if anyone does not believe that death has been abolished, that Hades has been trampled underfoot, that its chains are broken, and that the tyrant is bound, let him look at the martyrs sporting in the presence of death and raising the joyful song of Christ's victory. O what a wonder! From the hour when Christ plundered Hades, men have danced in triumph over death. "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:55. Hades and the devil have been plundered, stripped of their ancient armor, and driven out of their own power. And just as Goliath had his head cut off with his own sword, so also the devil, who has been the father of death, is put to flight through death. He finds that the very thing he used to use as the ready weapon of his deceit has become the mighty instrument of his own destruction. Yes, if we may speak this way, when he cast his hook toward the Godhead and took the familiar pleasure of the bait, he himself is clearly caught while he thinks he is the captor, a

Methodius, From the Discourse on the Resurrection Direct teaching

...ction of the form, as you teach, and then Christ is no longer the first begotten of the dead, since souls appeared before Him having this form after death; or He is truly the first begotten, and then it is completely impossible that anyone should have been considered worthy of a resurrection before Him, so as not to die again. But if no one rose before Him, and Moses and Elijah appeared to the apostles not having flesh, but only its appearance, then the resurrection in the flesh is clearly shown. For it is utterly absurd that the resurrection should be presented as only a form, since souls, after departing from the flesh, never seem to lay aside the form which he says rises again. But if that form remains with them, so that it cannot be taken away, as with the soul of Moses and Elijah, and if it neither perishes, as you think, nor is destroyed, but is always present with them, then surely that form, which never fell, cannot be said to rise again."

Peter of Alexandria, The Genuine Acts of Peter Supporting witness

...ction of the form, as you teach, and then Christ is no longer the first begotten of the dead, since souls appeared before Him in this form after death; or He is truly the first begotten, and it is completely impossible that anyone should have been considered worthy of a resurrection before Him, so as not to die again. But if no one rose before Him, and Moses and Elijah appeared to the apostles not having flesh, but only its appearance, then the resurrection in the flesh is clearly shown. For it is utterly absurd that the resurrection should be presented only in form, since souls, after they depart from the flesh, never seem to lay aside the form which, he says, rises again. But if that remains with them, so that it cannot be taken away, as with the soul of Moses and Elijah, and if it neither perishes, as you think, nor is destroyed, but is present with them everywhere, then surely that form which never fell cannot be said to rise again.”

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Supporting witness

...e Savior as her consort; that they themselves, as being spiritual, when they have shed their animal souls and become intellectual spirits, will be the consorts of the spiritual angels; but that the Demiurge, whom they call animal, will take the place of the Mother; that the souls of the righteous will psychically rest in the intermediate place—when they claim that like will be gathered with like, spiritual things with spiritual, while material things remain with material, they actually contradict themselves. They no longer maintain that souls enter the intermediate place because of their nature and similarity to these substances, but [that they do so] because of their actions [in the body], since they say that the righteous do indeed enter [that place], but the impious remain in the fire. For if it is because of their nature that all souls reach the place of enjoyment and all belong to the intermediate place simply because they are souls, as being of the same nature with it, then it follows that faith is entirely unnecessary, as would also be the descent of the Savior [to this world]. If, on the other hand, it is because of their righteousness [that they attain such a place of r

Athenagoras, The Resurrection of the Dead Supporting witness

For if good deeds are rewarded, then the body would clearly be treated unjustly. It shared with the soul in the hard work connected with doing good, but it would not share in the reward for those good deeds. Also, the soul is often excused for certain faults because of the body's weakness and need, yet the body itself is kept from any share in the good deeds done, even though during life it helped bear the labor for them. On the other hand, if faults are judged, then the soul is not treated fairly either, if it alone pays the penalty for faults it committed after being urged by the body and drawn away by it to its own desires and movements. Sometimes the soul is overpowered and carried off. At other times it is drawn very violently. And sometimes it goes along with the body out of care and concern for preserving it. How could it be anything but unjust for the soul to be judged by itself for things toward which, by its own nature, it feels no desire, no movement, and no impulse, such as sexual immorality, violence, greed, injustice, and the unjust acts that come from these? For if most evils of this kind come from people's failure to master the passions that tempt them, and if they

Irenaeus, Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus Supporting witness

...the place. So he cut down a tree and threw it in there, and the iron floated." This was a sign that souls should be lifted through the instrument of wood, upon which He suffered, who can lift those souls that follow His ascension. This event also indicated that when the holy soul of Christ descended to Hades, many souls ascended and were seen in their bodies. Just as the wood, which is lighter, was submerged in the water, but the iron, heavier, floated: so, when the Word of God became one with flesh, through a physical and hypostatic union, the heavy and earthly part, made immortal, was lifted into heaven by the divine nature after the resurrection.

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness

5. After these points, also, the apostolic teaching is that the soul, having a substance and life of its own, shall, after its departure from the world, be rewarded according to its deserts, being destined to obtain either an inheritance of eternal life and blessedness, if its actions shall have procured this for it, or to be delivered up to eternal fire and punishments, if the guilt of its crimes shall have brought it down to this: and also, that there is to be a time of resurrection from the dead, when this body, which now is sown in corruption, shall rise in incorruption, and that which is sown in dishonour will rise in glory.

Athenagoras, Connection to 1 Corinthians 15:42 Background

the resurrection of the flesh must be believed, since the same body which is dissolved will be raised... not another body, but the same one.