The First Apology

To any thoughtful person, is anything more incredible than if we were not in the body, and someone said it was possible that from a small drop of human seed, bones, sinews, and flesh could form into the shape we see? Let's consider this hypothetically: if you were not as you are now, and born of such parents, and someone showed you human seed and a picture of a man, claiming confidently that such a being could be produced from such a substance, would you believe it before seeing the actual production? No one would dare deny that such a statement would be beyond belief.

Similarly, you are now incredulous because you have never seen a dead man rise again.

But just as you would not have initially believed it possible for such persons to be produced from a small drop, and now see them produced, judge also that it is not impossible for the bodies of men, after they have been dissolved and like seeds returned to earth, to rise again in God’s appointed time and put on incorruption. We cannot comprehend what power worthy of God those who claim that everything returns to its origin and that beyond this not even God can do anything, imagine.

Yet, we clearly see that they would not have believed it possible for themselves, and the whole world, to become what they now see, produced from such materials. We have learned that it is better to believe even what seems impossible to our nature and to humanity than to be unbelieving like the rest of the world, for we know that our Master Jesus Christ said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God,” and, “Do not fear those who kill you and afterward can do no more; rather fear Him who, after death, can cast both soul and body into hell.” Hell is a place where those who have lived wickedly, and who do not believe that what God has taught us through Christ will come to pass, are to be punished.