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Thursday, May 12, 2022

Epiphanios of Salamis and the Doctrine of the Bodily Resurrection

 

In his polemic with pagans and heretics (especially with Origen), Epiphanios reveals the Church teaching about bodily resurrection: “Our holy Mother Church believes, as she herself truly preached and truly prescribed, that we shall all die and be resurrected with this very body and with this very soul (σὺν σώματι τούτῳ, σὺν ψυχῇ ταύτῃ), with all our members, so that each one may receive according to what he has done" (Ancor. 119.11).

Against the pagans, Epiphanios proves the possibility of resurrection with examples from nature: day follows night, awakening follows sleep; seeds planted into the ground, as if dead, germinate and are reborn into a new plant, etc. (Ancor. 833-5). Pagan writers also knew and cited stories about the resurrection of people or their return from the underworld - for example, Alcestis, Pelops, Amphiaraus, Glaucus, Castor, etc. (Ibid. 85.2-4).