The Genuine Acts of Peter

GOD DID NOT MAKE EVIL: and He is not in any way the author of evil. But whatever did not keep the law, which He justly established, after being made by Him with the power of free will for the purpose of guarding and keeping it, is called evil. Now the most serious fault is to disobey God by going beyond the limits of that righteousness which agrees with free will.

THE QUESTION HAS ALREADY BEEN RAISED AND ANSWERED: the coats of skins in Genesis 3:21 are not bodies. Nevertheless, let us speak about it again, because it is not enough to mention it only once. Before these coats of skins were made, the first man himself admits that he has both bones and flesh. For when he saw the woman brought to him, he cried out, "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." And again, "She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. For this cause a man shall leave his father" Genesis 2:23-24, "and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh." For I cannot endure the foolish talk of some who shamelessly twist Scripture, so that their opinion may find support, namely, that the resurrection is without flesh. They imagine rational bones and flesh, and by allegory they change them back and forth in different ways. And Christ confirms that these things are to be taken as they are written. When the Pharisees asked Him about sending away a wife, He answered, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this cause a man shall leave his father,'" Matthew 19:4-5, and so on.

III: But it is plainly absurd to think that the body will not exist together with the soul in the eternal state, because it is a bond and fetters, so that, according to their view, we who are to live in the kingdom of light might not be forever condemned to be bondmen of corruption. For since the question has been sufficiently answered, and the statement has been corrected in which they defined the flesh to be the soul's chain, the argument is also destroyed that the flesh will not rise again, lest, if we take it up again, we should be prisoners in the kingdom of light.

SO THEN: in order that man might not become an unending or ever-living evil—as he would have been if sin had ruled within him, since it had sprung up in an immortal body and had immortal nourishment—God declared him mortal and clothed him with mortality. This is what was meant by the coats of skins: that through the body's dissolution, sin might be completely destroyed from its very roots, so that not even the smallest piece of root would be left, from which new shoots of sin might burst out again.

FOR EXAMPLE: suppose a fig tree grows inside the magnificent buildings of a temple. It becomes very large, and its thick roots spread through all the joints of the stones. It does not stop growing until, by loosening the stones from the place where it first sprang up, it is completely torn out. For when the fig tree is removed, the stones can be fitted back into their proper places, so that the temple may be preserved, no longer having to carry what caused its destruction. But the fig tree, torn out by the roots, dies. In the same way, God the builder, by the timely use of death, stopped His own temple, man, when he had nourished sin like a wild fig tree, killing, as Scripture says in Deuteronomy 32:39, and making alive. He does this so that, after sin has withered and died, the flesh may be raised up again like a restored temple, with the same parts, unharmed and immortal, while sin is utterly and completely destroyed. For as long as the body still lives, before it has passed through death, sin also must live with it, because its roots are hidden within us, even though it is outwardly restrained by the wounds given through correction and warning. Otherwise, it would not happen that we do wrong after baptism, since we would be entirely and absolutely free from sin. But as things are, even after believing, and after the time when we have been touched by the water of sanctification, we are often found in sin. For no one can boast that he is so free from sin as not even to have an evil thought. So it has happened that sin is now restrained and put to sleep by faith, so that it does not produce harmful fruits, but still is not torn up by the roots. For now we hold back its shoots, such as evil thoughts, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble us, as Hebrews 12:15 says, and we do not allow its leaves to unfold and open into shoots, while the Word, like an axe, cuts at its roots growing below. But later, even the very thought of evil will disappear.

BUT COME NOW: since we need many examples in matters like this, let us examine them carefully from this point of view. Let us not stop until our argument reaches a clearer explanation and proof. It is like a skilled craftsman who casts again a fine image that he himself had made from gold or some other material, well proportioned in all its parts, when he suddenly sees that some wicked man has mutilated it. That man, too jealous to endure the image’s beauty, ruined it and so enjoyed the empty pleasure of his jealousy. For notice, most wise Aglaophon, that if the craftsman wants the work on which he has spent so much effort, care, and labor to be completely free from damage, he will be moved to melt it down and restore it to its former condition. But if he does not cast it again or rebuild it, and instead leaves it as it is while trying to repair and restore it, then the image, after passing through the fire and being worked on, can no longer be kept unchanged, but will be altered and worn away. Therefore, if he wants it to be perfectly beautiful and without fault, it must be broken up and cast again, so that all the disfigurements and mutilations caused by treachery and envy may be removed by its breaking up and recasting, while the image itself is restored unharmed and pure to the same form as before, and made as much like itself as possible. For it is impossible for an image under the hands of its original artist to be lost, even if it is melted down again, because it can be restored. But blemishes and damages can be cast off, for they melt away and cannot be restored, because in every work of art the best craftsman looks not for blemish or failure, but for proportion and correctness in his work. Now God’s divine arrangement seems to me to have been the same as what we see among ourselves. For when He saw man, His most beautiful work, corrupted by envious treachery, He could not, because of His love for man, bear to leave him in that condition, lest he should remain forever defective and bear blame for eternity. So He dissolved him again into his original materials, so that by remolding him, all the blemishes in him might waste away and disappear. For the melting down of the statue in the first case corresponds to the death and dissolution of the body in the second, and the remolding of the material in the first corresponds to the resurrection after death in the second. So also the prophet Jeremiah says, for he speaks to the Jews in these words: "And I went down to the potter’s house; and behold, he made a work upon the stones. And the vessel that he made in his hands was broken; and again he made another vessel, as it pleased him to make it. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Cannot I do to you as this potter, O house of Israel? Behold, as the clay of the potter are you in my hands." Jeremiah 18:3-6

FOR I WANT TO DRAW YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS: as I said, after man's transgression, the Great Hand was not willing to leave its own work as a trophy of victory, after it had been degraded by the Evil One, who wickedly harmed it out of envy. Instead, it moistened it and reduced it to clay, just as a potter breaks up a vessel, so that by reshaping it, all its blemishes and bruises might disappear, and it might be made again fresh, faultless, and pleasing.

BUT IT IS NOT RIGHT TO SAY THAT THE UNIVERSE WILL BE COMPLETELY DESTROYED: and that the sea and air and sky will no longer exist. For the whole world will be flooded with fire from heaven and burned for purification and renewal. However, it will not come to complete ruin and decay. For if it were better for the world not to exist than to exist, why did God, in making the world, choose the worse course? But God did not work in vain or do what was worst. Therefore, God ordered creation with a view to its existence and continuance, as the Book of Wisdom also confirms, saying, "For God created all things that they might exist; and the generations of the world were healthful, and there is no poison of destruction in them." Wisdom 1:14 And Paul also clearly testifies to this, saying, "For the eager expectation of the creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Romans 8:19-21 For the creation was made subject to vanity, he says, and he expects that it will be set free from such slavery, since he means this world when he uses the name creation. For it is not what is unseen, but what is seen, that is subject to corruption. Then, after the creation has been restored to a better and more fitting condition, it remains, rejoicing and exulting over the children of God at the resurrection. For their sake it now groans and labors in pain, while it also waits for our redemption from the corruption of the body, so that, when we have risen and shaken off the mortality of the flesh, according to what is written, "Shake off the dust, arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem," Isaiah 52:2 and have been set free from sin, it also will be freed from corruption and no longer be subject to vanity, but to righteousness. Isaiah also says, "For as the new heaven and the new earth which I make remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain." Isaiah 66:22 And again, "Thus says the Lord who created heaven, He is the one who prepared the earth and created it, He established it; He created it not in vain, but formed it to be inhabited." Isaiah 45:18 For in truth God did not establish the universe in vain, or for no purpose but destruction, as those weak-minded men say, but to exist, and be inhabited, and continue. Therefore the earth and the heaven must exist again after the burning and shaking of all things.

BUT IF OUR OPPONENTS SAY: "How then can this be, if the universe is not destroyed, since the Lord says that heaven and earth will pass away, Matthew 24:35, and the prophet says that the heaven will vanish like smoke, and the earth will grow old like a garment, Isaiah 51:6?" we answer that Scripture commonly calls the world's change from its present condition to a better and more glorious one a destruction, because its earlier form is lost when all things are changed into a state of greater splendor. For there is no contradiction or absurdity in the Holy Scriptures. For it says, not that the world passes away, but that "the form of this world passes away," 1 Corinthians 7:31. So Scripture commonly calls the change from an earlier form to a better and more beautiful state a destruction, just as someone might call it a destruction when a child changes into a mature man, since the child's size is changed into manly stature and beauty. We may expect that the creation will pass away, as if it were to perish in the burning, so that it may be renewed. It will not, however, be destroyed. Then we who are renewed may live in a renewed world without any taste of sorrow, just as it is said, "When You send forth Your Spirit, they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth," God from now on providing the proper condition of what surrounds it. For since the earth is to exist after the present age, there must certainly be inhabitants for it who will no longer be subject to death. They will neither marry nor beget children, but will live in all happiness, like the angels, without change or decay. Therefore it is foolish to argue about what way of life our bodies will then have, if there is no longer air, or earth, or anything else.

BUT BESIDES WHAT HAS BEEN SAID: there is this point that deserves attention, because it causes great confusion, if I may speak plainly about matters of such importance, Aglaophon. You said that the Lord clearly declared that those who obtain the resurrection will then be like the angels, Matthew 22:30. You raised this objection: the angels, being without flesh, are therefore in the highest happiness and glory. So then, since we are to be made equal to the angels, we too must be like them, stripped of flesh, and become angels. But you overlooked this, my excellent friend: He who created and ordered the universe out of nothing arranged the nature of immortal beings to be divided not only among angels and ministers, but also among principalities, thrones, and powers. For the race of angels is one thing, and that of principalities and powers is another. Immortal beings are not all of one order, constitution, tribe, and family, but there are differences of race and tribe. And the cherubim do not leave their own nature and take the form of angels. Nor do angels take the form of the others. For they cannot be anything except what they are and what they were made to be. In the same way, man also, having been appointed by the original order of things to live in the world and to rule over all that is in it, when he becomes immortal, will never be changed from being a man into the form either of angels or of anything else. For angels also do not undergo a change from their original form into another. For Christ, at His coming, did not proclaim that human nature, when it becomes immortal, would be remade or transformed into another nature, but into what it was before the fall. For each one among created things must remain in its own proper place, so that nothing may be lacking to any, but all may be full: heaven with angels, thrones with powers, the heavenly lights with ministers, and the more divine places, and the undefiled and unstained lights, with seraphim, who attend the Supreme Council and uphold the universe, and the world with men. For if we granted that men are changed into angels, it would follow that we must also say that angels are changed into powers, and these into one thing and another, until our argument goes farther than is safe.

GOD DID NOT DECIDE LATER TO MAKE AN ANGEL: as if He had made man badly or made a mistake in forming him, and then repented of His work, the way the worst craftsmen do. Nor did He make man after first wanting to make an angel and then failing, for that would be a sign of weakness, and so on. Why, then, did He make man and not angels, if He wanted men to be angels and not men? Was it because He was unable? It is blasphemy to think that. Or was He so occupied in making the worse thing that He delayed over the better? This also is absurd. For He does not fail to make what is good, nor does He put it off, nor is He unable to do it. Rather, He has the power to act how and when He pleases, since He is Himself power. Therefore, it was because He intended man to be man that He made him that way from the beginning. But if He intended this, and since He intends what is good, then man is good. Now man is said to be made up of soul and body. He cannot, then, exist without a body, but with a body, unless another man besides man is brought into being. For all the ranks of immortal beings must be preserved by God, and man is among these. For the Book of Wisdom says, "God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of His own eternity." Wisdom 2:23. Therefore, the body does not perish, for man is made up of soul and body.

THEREFORE: notice that these are the very things the Lord wanted to teach the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the flesh. For this was the opinion of the Sadducees. So, after they made up the case about the woman and the seven brothers in order to cast doubt on the resurrection of the flesh, the Sadducees came to Him, as it says in Matthew 22:23, who say that there is no resurrection. Then, if there had been no resurrection of the flesh, and only the soul were saved, Christ would have agreed that their opinion was right and excellent. But instead, He answered and said, "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven," Matthew 22:23, not because they have no flesh, but because they do not marry or are given in marriage, and from now on are incorruptible. And He speaks of our being near the angels in this respect: just as the angels in heaven, so we also in paradise spend our time no longer in marriage feasts or other celebrations, but in seeing God and living life under the direction of Christ. For He did not say they shall be angels, but like angels, being, for example, crowned, as it is written, "with glory and honor," differing a little from the angels while coming near to being like angels. It is just as if He had said, while looking at the beautiful order of the sky, the stillness of the night, and everything lit by the moon's heavenly light, that the moon shines like the sun. We would not then say that He declared the moon to be the sun itself, but like the sun. In the same way, something that is not gold, but comes near the nature of gold, is said not to be gold, but to be like gold. But if it were gold, it would be said to be gold, and not to be like gold. Since it is not gold, but comes near its nature and has its appearance, it is said to be like gold. So also, when He says that the saints in the resurrection shall be like the angels, we do not understand Him to say that they will actually be angels, but that they will come near the condition of angels. So it is completely unreasonable to say, "Since Christ declared that the saints in the resurrection appear as angels, therefore their bodies do not rise," although the very words used clearly prove what the real case is. For the term resurrection is not used of what has not fallen, but of what has fallen and rises again, as when the prophet says, "I will also raise up again the tabernacle of David which has fallen down," Amos 9:11. Now the much-desired tabernacle of the soul has fallen and sunk down into the dust of the earth, Daniel 12:2. For it is not what is not dead, but what is dead, that is laid down. But it is the flesh that dies; the soul is immortal. So then, if the soul is immortal, and the body is the corpse, those who say that there is a resurrection, but not of the flesh, deny any resurrection. Because it is not what remains standing, but what has fallen and been laid down, that is raised up, according to what is written, "Does not he who falls rise again, and he who turns aside return?" Jeremiah 8:4.

SINCE THE FLESH WAS MADE TO STAND BETWEEN INCORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION: being itself neither one nor the other, and since it was overcome by corruption for the sake of pleasure, though it was the work and property of incorruption, it therefore became corruptible and was laid in the dust of the earth. Then, when it had been overcome by corruption and handed over to death through disobedience, God did not leave it to corruption to be claimed as its possession. Instead, after conquering death by the resurrection, He gave it back again to incorruption, so that corruption might not receive the property of incorruption, but incorruption might receive that of corruption. Therefore the apostle answers in this way: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality," 1 Corinthians 15:53. Now when the corruptible and mortal puts on immortality, what else is this but that which "is sown in corruption and raised in incorruption," 1 Corinthians 15:42? For the soul is not corruptible or mortal. Rather, what is mortal and decaying is the flesh. This is so that, "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly," 1 Corinthians 15:49. For the image of the earthy that we have borne is this: "Dust you are, and to dust shall you return," Genesis 3:19. But the image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the dead and incorruption, so that, "as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life," Romans 6:4. But if anyone thinks that the earthy image is the flesh itself, while the heavenly image is some other spiritual body besides the flesh, let him first consider that Christ, the heavenly man, when He appeared, bore the same form of limbs and the same image of flesh as ours. Through this also, He who was not man became man, so that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," 1 Corinthians 15:22. For if He bore flesh for any other reason than to set the flesh free and raise it up, why did He bear flesh needlessly, if He intended neither to save it nor to raise it up? But the Son of God does nothing needlessly. He did not, then, take the form of a servant for no purpose, but to raise it up and save it. For He truly was made man, and died, not merely in appearance, but so that He might truly be shown to be the first begotten from the dead, changing the earthy into the heavenly, and the mortal into the immortal. Then, when Paul says that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," 1 Corinthians 15:50, he is not speaking against the regeneration of the flesh. Rather, he means to teach that the kingdom of God, which is eternal life, is not possessed by the body, but that the body is possessed by life. For if the kingdom of God, which is life, were possessed by the body, then life would be used up by corruption. But as it is, life possesses what is dying, so that "death may be swallowed up in victory," 1 Corinthians 15:54, by life, and so that the corruptible may be seen to belong to incorruption and immortality, as it becomes released and free from death and sin, yet the slave and servant of immortality. So the body may be the possession of incorruption, and not incorruption the possession of the body.

IF: then, from such a drop—small, and previously having no existence, in its actual state of wetness, smallness, and insignificance, in fact out of nothing—a man is brought into being, how much more will a man come into being again from a man who previously existed? For it is not as difficult to make something anew after it has once existed and fallen into decay as it is to produce out of nothing what has never existed. Now if we choose to show the seed discharged from a man, and place beside it a corpse, each by itself, which of them, as they both lie open to view, will the spectators think is more likely to become a man—that drop, which is nothing at all, or that which already has shape, size, and substance? For if the very thing that is nothing at all becomes a man simply because God is pleased to do it, how much more will that which has existence and has been brought to completion become a man again, if God is pleased to do so? For what was the purpose of the theologian Moses in introducing, in a mystical sense, the Feast of Tabernacles in the Book of Leviticus? Was it so that we may keep a feast to God, as the Jews, with their low view of the Scriptures, interpret it? As if God took pleasure in such tabernacles, decorated with fruits and branches and leaves, which quickly wither and lose their greenness. We cannot say that. Tell me, then, what was the purpose of the Feast of Tabernacles? It was introduced to point to this real tabernacle of ours, which, after it had fallen into corruption through the transgression of the law and had been broken apart by sin, God promised to put together again and to raise up in incorruptibility, so that we may truly celebrate in His honor the great and famous Feast of Tabernacles at the resurrection. Then our tabernacles will be put together in the perfect order of immortality and harmony, and raised up from the dust in incorruption. Then the dry bones, according to the most true prophecy, will hear a voice, and by God the Creator and perfect Craftsman they will be brought to their joints, and He will renew the flesh and bind it on, no longer with such bonds as those by which it was first held together, but with such as will be forever undecaying and indissoluble. For I once saw on Olympus, a mountain of Lycia, fire bursting up from the ground by itself on the top of the mountain. Beside it stood an agnos tree, so flourishing, green, and shady that one might think a never-failing stream of water had fed its growth, rather than what was actually the case. Therefore, although the natures of things are corruptible, and their bodies are consumed by fire, and it is impossible for things that are by nature flammable once to remain untouched by fire, yet this tree, far from being burned, is actually more vigorous and greener than usual, though it is naturally flammable, and even though the fire is blazing around its very roots. I myself threw some branches of trees from the nearby wood onto the place where the fire burst out, and they immediately caught fire and were burned to ashes. Now then, tell me why it is that what cannot bear even the heat of the sun, but withers under it unless it is sprinkled with water, is not consumed when surrounded by such fiery heat, but instead both lives and thrives. What does this wonder mean? God appointed this as an example and an introduction to the day that is coming, so that we may know more certainly that, when all things are flooded with fire from heaven, the bodies marked by chastity and righteousness will be taken up by Him as free from all harm from the fire as if they were in cold water. For truly, O kind and generous Lord, the creature that serves You, who are the Maker, increases its strength against the unrighteous for their punishment, and lessens its strength for the good of those who put their trust in You; Wisdom 16:24. And at Your pleasure fire becomes cool, and harms nothing that You decide to preserve; and again, water burns more fiercely than fire, and nothing withstands Your unconquerable power and might. For You created all things out of nothing; therefore You also change and transform all things as You will, since they are Yours, and You alone are God.

THE APOSTLE CERTAINLY: after assigning planting and watering to skill and to earth and water, gave growth to God alone, where he says, "Neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." 1 Corinthians 3:7 For he knew that Wisdom, the first-born of God, the parent and maker of all things, brings everything into the world. The ancients called her Nature and Providence, because she, with constant provision and care, gives birth and growth to all things. For the Wisdom of God says, "My Father works until now, and I work." John 5:17 Now it is for this reason that Solomon called Wisdom the maker of all things, since God is in no way poor, but is able richly to create, make, order in different ways, and increase all things.

GOD: who created all things and provides for and cares for all things, took dust from the ground and made our outer man.