Seven Books of Arguments Against the Pagans, Vol. II

The second [virtues], which they call purgatorial, belong to man, who is capable of the divine; and they set free only his soul, who has determined to purify himself from the contagion of the body, and by a certain flight from human things to introduce himself to divine ones. Where see Is. Pontanus. O.

Audetis ridere nos, quod mortuorum dicamus resurrectionem futuram You dare to laugh at us, because we say that there will be a future resurrection of the dead] It is customary for philosophers and gentiles to lash out at Christians with jocular witticisms because they assert the resurrection of the flesh. Caecilius in Minucius: Not content with this insane opinion, they construct and add on old wives' tales; they claim they are reborn after death, and [are made from] ashes and cinders, and with I know not what confidence they believe each other's lies; you would think they had already come back to life. Origen, Against Celsus, Book I, p. 7: Greek text note: "And indeed the mystery concerning the resurrection is babbled about, laughed at by the unbelievers." Herald.

quam quidem nos dicere confitemur, sed a vobis aliter, quam sentiamus, audiri which indeed we confess to say, but it is heard by you otherwise than we feel] This seems to be said for this reason, because he thought that the same bodies do not rise again, which was the opinion of some others, such as Origen, which he himself explains in the book Against Celsus V. And here Arnobius treats the resurrection in such a way that he seems to be disputing only about the immortality of the soul, and seems in some way to approach the opinion of Marcion, who denies the resurrection of bodies, or at least [to have] nothing certain or established about that doctrine yet; which we do not say as if we think Arnobius was a follower of Marcion, but so that the reader may observe that the errors of Arnobius are the errors of a man not yet sufficiently instructed in the Christian faith, and supported by natural reason rather than by spiritual doctrine. For the various opinions of the ancients about the resurrection, see Athenagoras, Tertullian, and others. Herald. Audiri, here, is the same as to be understood, as it often is. O.

Quid in Politico idem Plato? etc. What about the same Plato in the Politicus? etc.] The passage of Plato is read in the Politicus, p. 270, H. Stephanus ed. (p. 31 seq. Vol. VI, Bipontine ed.). O.

rursus erupturos homines that men will again break forth] Stewechius conjectures reading: rursus se erupturos, in the manner of the ancients, Plautus, Terence, etc., and those who imitated the ancients, Apuleius, and also Arnobius. O.

ad incunabula infantiae desituros that they will fade away to the cradles of infancy] A good reading and not to be tried [to be changed]. Desinere is used elegantly and deiktikōs demonstratively concerning those things that gradually decrease, which, having been made smaller and smaller from being great, finally vanish entirely. Stewechius [proposes] desulturos will leap down; Leiden ed. exituros will depart. Incorrectly. O.

Quid enim sunt homines nisi animae etc. For what are men except souls, etc.?] Marcion, Basilides, Origen, whom Arnobius follows here, distinguished man into exterior and interior, and said that the interior, i.e., the soul, was truly man in the proper sense, against whom Tertullian disputes in his book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, Ch. 40. Herald.