At the very moment of the departure of our holy brother Sisinnius, who brought me your letters, I am forced to dictate whatever I can.
I cannot leave the questions of your wisdom unanswered. I only ask you not to take this word as flattery, still less as a debt of courtesy, because I speak to you as to myself.
He brought me many questions from the holy brothers and sisters of your province. I had intended to prepare a very extensive answer to them only by the day of Theophany.
But when, working in fragments by night, I had already composed answers to most of the questions, I satisfied the others and saved my strength for answering your question, as the most difficult.
Then Sisinnius unexpectedly came to me, saying that he was leaving at once. When I asked him to postpone his departure, he set before me the famine in Libya, the needs of the Egyptian monasteries, the low water of the Nile, and the helpless condition of many.
Thus to keep him here any longer would almost have been a sin before God.
Therefore I send you only what I had prepared as the lining for your tunic: the warp, the weft, and the loom, still unfinished. Let what is lacking in me be woven by your wisdom.
You are prudent and educated, and from the canine eloquence, as Appius says, you have already passed to the beauty of Christ's speech.
I need not labor much for you, like the philosopher in the fables who tested himself by teaching a simple man. "As soon as I had said half," he said, "the man already understood the rest."
In the same way, because time is lacking, I have presented to you only the opinions of each of those who left commentaries on Holy Scripture.
I have translated most of these opinions word for word, so that I may be free from objections, and you may have the authority of the ancient writers themselves.
Thus, when you read and approve the opinion of one or another, you will do so not according to my desire, but according to your own will.
You ask in what sense it is said, and how one must read 1 Corinthians 15:51. Is it, "We shall all die, but we shall not all be changed," or, according to other copies, "We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed"?
Both readings are found in Greek codices.
Theodore, from the city of Heraclea, formerly called Perinthus, spoke thus in his brief commentaries on the Apostle Paul: "Though we shall not all die, we shall all be changed."
For Enoch and Elijah overcame the laws of death. They were taken from earthly society into the heavenly kingdom just as they were, in their bodies (Gen 5:24; 4 Kgs 2:11).
Therefore those saints whom the day of destruction and judgment finds in their bodies will be caught up on the clouds to meet Christ, together with the other saints who have risen from the dead.
They will not taste death and will always be with the Lord, having trampled down the heavy law of death.
Therefore the Apostle says: "We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed."
Both those raised from the dead and the living who are caught up on the clouds will pass into incorruption and be changed from mortality into immortality.
They will be changed not over some period of time, nor even in a brief interval, but in an atom, a point of time, in the blink in which an eyelid can move, at the last trumpet.
The resurrection of the dead will take place so quickly that the living, whom the last time finds in their bodies, will not have time to precede the dead who rise from the graves.
The Apostle Paul plainly confirms this when he says: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Cor 15:52-53).
Thus it may live forever in either state, in torments or in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Diodore, bishop of Tarsus, omitted this section. In the subsequent explanation he made a brief remark on the words, "and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
He says: "If the dead will rise incorruptible, and if without doubt they too will be changed for the better, why was it necessary to say, 'and we shall be changed'? Did he not wish by this to indicate that incorruption is common to all, but change belongs only to the righteous, since they inherit not only incorruption and immortality, but also glory?"
Apollinaris, though in other words, said the same as Theodore. Namely, some will not die, but will be caught up from the present life into the life to come.
After their bodies have been changed and glorified, they will be with Christ forever. We believe this is already happening now with Enoch and Elijah.
Didymus, passing over to Origen's opinion not in steps but in words, takes the opposite path. On the words, "I tell you a mystery: we shall all die, but we shall not all be changed," he reasoned thus.
"If the resurrection did not need interpretation, and had no obscurity for understanding, Paul would never have added, after all that he said about the resurrection, 'I tell you a mystery.'"
"Although we shall all sleep, that is, die, not all of us, but only the saints, will be changed."
"I know that in some codices it is written: 'We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.'"
"But one must consider whether what follows, 'the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed,' can correspond to the preceding phrase, 'we shall all be changed.'"
"For if all are changed and this is common to all, it would have been superfluous to say, 'and we shall be changed.'"
"Therefore one must read: 'We shall all die, but we shall not all be changed.'"
"For if all die in Adam, and death is nothing other than sleep, it follows that we shall all sleep, or all die."
"According to the character of the Scriptures, the one who dies with hope of the future resurrection falls asleep. Everyone who falls asleep certainly awakens, unless sudden death strikes him and death is joined with sleep."
"If, then, all sleep according to the law of nature, only the saints will be changed for the better, both in body and in soul. Thus incorruption will belong to all who rise, but glory and change only to the saints."
The same Didymus explained the following words according to the Greek text, ἐν ἀτόμῳ, ἐν ῥιπῇ, or ἐν ῥοπῇ ὀφθαλμοῦ, for it is read both ways.
Our translators rendered these words in momento et in ictu or in motu oculi.
He explained them thus: "After the common resurrection of all, they will be caught up to meet Christ, but those whom death will release are indicated by the preceding words."
"For when he says that the resurrection of all will occur in the briefest time, in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, every fiction about a first and second resurrection is excluded."
"That is, it excludes the idea that some will rise first and others last."
"An atom is a particle of time that cannot be divided or broken up. For this reason Epicurus also constructs the world from his atoms and produces everything from them."
"The blink or moment, which in Greek is read ῥοπή, passes so quickly that it almost escapes the consciousness of the observer."
"Since in most codices, instead of ῥοπή, that is, blink or moment, ῥιπή is read, we must understand it in this sense."
"Just as light down, a straw, or a thin dry leaf is easily lifted by wind and storm, so too, in the twinkling of an eye, by God's command all the bodies of the dead will be raised, being prepared for the coming of the Judge."
"What the Apostle then adds, saying, 'at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality,' has a twofold meaning."
"Either the sound of the trumpet or voice signifies solemnity, as it is said, 'Lift up your voice like a trumpet' (Isa 58:1). Or it signifies the open resurrection of all, according to the Gospel words, 'When you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you' (Mt 6:2)."
"This means: do works of mercy secretly and hiddenly, so that you do not appear to seek vainglory through another's misfortune."
"But I ask: why did the Apostle write that the dead will rise at the last trumpet? Because if the last is mentioned, others will certainly precede it."
"In the Apocalypse of John, seven angels are shown with trumpets. It is shown what occurs at the trumpet sound of each, that is, the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth (Rev 8-9)."
"At the loud trumpet sound of the last one, the dead rise, receiving incorruptible bodies that were formerly corruptible."
"Therefore the Apostle describes what will follow the last trumpet in this way: 'The trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.'"
"When he says 'we,' he shows that he and those with him will be different from the dead."
"In explaining this passage, some say that the dead who will rise incorruptible are the bodies of the dead. By those said to be changed, one must understand souls, since they will be changed to greater glory and will attain to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:13)."
"Others maintain that by the dead one must understand sinners, who will rise incorruptible so that they may endure eternal torments. Those who are changed are the saints, who pass from strength to strength, from glory to glory."
"For this reason, to the incorruption of the dead he adds: 'This corruptible must put on incorruption.' But to the words, 'we shall be changed,' he joins: 'and this mortal must put on immortality.'"
"For immortality and incorruption are not one and the same, just as mortal and corruptible are different. Everything mortal is also corruptible, but not everything corruptible is already mortal."
"Bodies in which there is no soul are corruptible, and yet they are not mortal, since they never had the life that properly belongs to ensouled beings."
"For this reason the Apostle so clearly set corruption beside incorruption, and mortality beside immortality, which is to follow at the resurrection."
Acacius, after Eusebius Pamphili, bishop of Caesarea, formerly called the Tower of Strato, treats this same question at great length in the fourth book of the Συμμίκτων ζητημάτων.
He accepts both readings, which appear to be opposed to one another. After an introduction, which I omit, he says this:
"Let us first speak about what is found in most codices: 'I tell you a mystery: though we shall all die, we shall not all be changed.'"
"Intending to speak at length about the resurrection, the Apostle called it a mystery, wishing to awaken the attention of his hearers."
"Since repose, or falling asleep, signifies death itself, which is the common lot of all, the Apostle very rightly said that we shall all sleep, that is, die."
"So he also said above: 'As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.'"
"And since all must die in this way, listen to the mysteries that I proclaim to you: though we shall all die, that is, sleep, we shall not all be changed."
"The trumpet will sound, without doubt the seventh angel, and the dead will rise incorruptible."
"But if the dead will be incorruptible, how will they not be changed, when incorruption itself is already a change?"
"The change by which Paul and the saints will be changed must here be understood in the sense of glorification. Incorruption will be the lot of all, because through it sinners will be even more wretched, so that they may be tormented forever and not be destroyed by a mortal and corruptible body."
"In the same epistle of the Apostle, when he reasons about mysteries, we read that those who rise will differ not by the nature of their bodies, but by the difference of glory."
"Some will rise to eternal torment, and others to eternal glory. For the flesh of birds is one kind, that of fish another, and that of beasts another. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. 'So also,' he says, 'is the resurrection of the dead' (1 Cor 15:39-40, 42)."
THEOSIS