Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines

by John Claudius Pitrat

Tatian believed in Metempsychosis, but not in the resurrection of the body. St. Gregory of Nysse denied that there was anything corporeal in the person of Jesus Christ, since the time he ascended to the heavens. Origen admitted the resurrection of the bodies, but not that of the flesh. Synesius, bishop of Ptolemaïda, in his Series of Epistles, declares that the doctrine of the resurrection of the body is a mystery, whose solution ought to be kept secret, and considered as sacred: that it is well to teach it to the people; and that he, the bishop, would publicly profess and preach this doctrine, though it is not his personal belief. If the reader desires to find lengthier particulars, about the divergency of the opinions of the Fathers concerning the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, we refer him to the work of Beausobre, headed, History of Manicheanism, tome 2, book 8, chap. 5, No. 3, and following.

Therefore the Fathers of the first centuries did not agree about the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.

2d. It can be proved that nearly all the Christian sects, or denominations, of the first two centuries, and the majority, to say the least, of those of the century following, disbelieved the doctrine of the resurrection of the body:——

According to the unanimous testimony of the Roman Catholic authors themselves, Bergier, Feller, Fleury, etc., etc., the following Christian sects of the first three centuries held the dogma of Metempsychosis: The Basilidians, the Bardesanists, the Barules, the Barborians, the Valentinians, the Marcionites, the Marcosians, the Theodotians, the Artemonians, the Carpocratians, the Docetes, the Tatianists, the Apellites, the Montanists, the Artotyrites, the Severians, the Ascites, the Ascodrutes, the Ophites, the Cainites, the Sethians, the Hermogenians, the Hermians, the Valesians, the Hieracites, the Samosatians, and the Manicheans: this latter sect, Catholic authors say, were subdivided into more than sixty sects, which professed, each one of them, to believe in Metempsychosis. The same authors add, that many of the other sects named above denied the resurrection of the body. Though they do not say so of all, we may safely affirm that every one of the above named Christian sects disbelieved the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. This we demonstrate thus:—

According to the doctrine of Metempsychosis, when, at death, a soul separates from the body, she passes into another body to animate it; and to thus expiate, by many and successive transmigrations, the faults she has committed in an anterior existence, and so continually. But the doctrine of the resurrection of the body teaches that the same soul which animated it in its prior existence, shall animate it anew when it will come again to life. How can then this same soul animate this same body, and at the same time the thousands of other human bodies, which she had also animated in her various transmigrations? Therefore the belief of the doctrine of Metempsychosis necessarily implies a disbelief of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Consequently, although the Roman Catholic authors do not positively state that all the above named Christian sects disbelieved the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, we may safely affirm, from the fact that they held the doctrine of Metempsychosis, that they disbelieved the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.

Therefore nearly all the Christian sects, or denominations, of the first two centuries, and the majority, to say the least, of those of the century following, disbelieved the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.

3d. It can be proved that the doctrine of the resurrection of the body is irrational.

All the reasons which have been brought forth by St. Cyrille, bishop of Jerusalem, in his Catechism, page 18; by St. Gregory of Nysse, in his oratio on the Resurrection of the Flesh; by St. Augustine, in his City of God, book 20; by St. Chrysostome, in his homily on the Resurrection of the Flesh; by Tertullian, in his treatise on the Resurrection of the Flesh; by St. Gregory, the Pope, in his Fourth Dialogue; by St. Ambrosius, in his sermon on the Faith of the Resurrection of the Flesh; and by St. Epiphane, Ancyrot, page 38, can be summed up as follows:—

God himself has formed with his own hands man's body; he has animated it with the breath of his own mouth, and has placed within it a soul made to his likeness. The flesh of the Christian is, in some manner, associated to all the functions of its soul, and is the instrument of all the graces of God. It is the body that is washed by baptism to purify the soul, it is the body that in order to feed the soul receives the Eucharist; it is the body that is immolated to God by mortifications, by fasts, by vigils, by virginity, and by martyrdom. Thus St. Paul reminds that our bodies are the members of Jesus Christ, and the temples of the Holy Spirit. Would God leave in the grave forever the work of his own hands, the master-piece of his might, the depository of his breath, the king of the other bodies, the canal of his graces, and the victim of his worship?

If God has condemned the body to death as a punishment for sin, Jesus Christ came to save all that was lost. Without this complete reparation, we would not know how far the goodness, the mercy, and the parental tenderness of our God, extend. The flesh of man, restored by incarnation to its former dignity, ought to come again to life, as well as that of Jesus Christ. Is not he who created the flesh mighty enough to bring it again to life? Nothing entirely perishes in nature: forms change, but all renews itself, and seems to grow young again; God has stamped immortality upon all his works. Night follows the day, eclipsed stars appear anew; the spring makes us forget the winter; plants grow again, and resume their hues and perfumes; and several animals which seem to die receive a new life. Thus, by the lessons of nature, God has prepared the lessons of the revelation; and he has shown us the image of the resurrection, before showing us its reality.