Chapter 9

And Josaphat said to him: "You tell me certain great and wonderful things, my friend, worthy of much fear and trembling, if indeed they are so, and if there is again, after dying and being dissolved into ashes and dust, a resurrection and a new birth, and recompenses and a reckoning of the things one has lived. But what is the proof of these things? And how have you, having learned what has hitherto not been seen, believed so firmly and beyond all doubt? For the things already done and made manifest in deeds, even if you yourselves did not see them, yet you heard them from those who recorded them; but how, proclaiming such great and extraordinary things about things to come as well, have you gained a sure conviction concerning them?" And Barlaam said: "From the things already done I have gained conviction concerning things to come; for those who proclaimed these things, having failed in nothing of the truth, but having established what they said with signs and wonders and various powers, themselves also taught about things to come.

As, then, here they taught nothing perverse and feigned, but everything they said and did shone brighter than the sun, so there too they decreed true things — which our Lord and Master Jesus Christ himself confirmed by word and deed. For 'Truly,' he says, 'I say to you that an hour is coming, in which all those in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live'; and again: 'An hour is coming, when the dead will hear his voice, and will come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, but those who have practised evil to the resurrection of judgement'; and again, concerning the resurrection of the dead, he says: 'Have you not read what was said to you by God, saying: I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.' For 'As the tares are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the consummation of this age; the Son of God will send forth his angels, and they will gather all the stumbling-blocks and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth; then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.' Saying these things, he added: 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.' With such words and many others the Lord

made manifest the resurrection of our bodies; and he confirmed the words by deed, raising many dead, and, near the end of his life upon earth, calling from the tomb a certain Lazarus, his friend, already decayed and stinking after four days, and presenting alive the man who had no breath. And besides these things the Lord himself became the first-fruits of the perfect resurrection that no longer falls under death, having tasted of death in the flesh, but having risen on the third day and become the first-born of the dead. For others too were raised from the dead, but they died again and did not come to present an image of the true resurrection to come; but he alone became the author of that resurrection, the first to be raised to the immortal resurrection. These things also they who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word proclaimed. For the blessed Paul says, whose calling was not from men but from heaven: 'I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached to you; for I delivered to you among the first things what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.' And: 'If Christ is proclaimed, that he has been raised from the dead,

how do some say that there is no resurrection? For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, our faith is vain, you are still in your iniquities; if in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, having become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep; for since through a man came death, also through a man comes the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.' And a little later: 'For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality; and when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then will be fulfilled the word that is written: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?' For then the power of death is wholly abolished and made to vanish, no longer working at all, but immortality henceforth and incorruption is given to men, eternal. There will be, then, there will be beyond doubt the resurrection of the dead, and this we believe without hesitation; but we know also of recompenses and a reckoning of the things one has lived, on the fearful day of the coming of Christ, through which the heavens, set on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements, burning, will melt, as one of the inspired writers says,

but we look for new heavens and a new earth, according to his promise. For that there are recompenses and a reckoning of works there, and that nothing at all of good or evil things will be overlooked, but that the requitals of deeds and words and thoughts are laid up, is plain. For the Lord says: 'Whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, will by no means lose his reward.' And again he says: 'When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will set the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand: Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Why does he say this? Because he makes the kindnesses done by us toward the needy his own. And in another place he says: 'Everyone who confesses me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in heaven.' Behold, through all these things and many others he showed that the recompenses

of good works are sure and secure; but he also foretold that a reckoning of the opposite things is laid up, through wonderful and extraordinary parables, which the fountain of wisdom related most wisely: at one time bringing in a certain rich man clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day, but ungiving and unmerciful toward the needy, so that he overlooked a certain poor man named Lazarus cast at his gate, and did not give him even of the very crumbs of his table. When, then, both had died, that poor and ulcered man was carried, he says, into the bosom of Abraham, thus signifying the company of the righteous; but the rich man was given over to the flame of bitter torment in Hades; to whom Abraham said: 'You received your good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise the evil; but now this man is comforted, and you are in anguish.' And elsewhere, likening the kingdom of heaven, he says: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a king, who made a wedding for his son,' thus signifying the gladness and splendour to come. For making his discourse to lowly men who minded earthly things, he gave his parables from things familiar and known to them. Yet he did not mean that there are weddings and tables in that age; but, condescending to their dullness, he used such names, wishing to make known to them things to come.

"The king, then," he says, "called all by a lofty proclamation to come together to the wedding and to be filled with those secret good things; but many of those called, being careless, did not go, but, occupying themselves, some with fields, some with trades, some with newly-wedded wives, deprived themselves of the splendour of the bridal chamber. And when those had of their own will estranged themselves from the delightful gladness, others were called; and the wedding was filled with guests reclining. But the king, coming in to behold those reclining, saw there a man not clothed in a wedding garment, and says to him: 'Friend, how did you come in here not having a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants: 'Bind his hands and feet, take him, and cast him into the outer darkness; there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.'" Those, then, who excused themselves and did not at all obey the call are those who have not run to the faith of Christ, but have remained either in idolatry or in some heresy; while the man not having the wedding garment is he who believed, but stained the spiritual garment with filthy deeds, and who was justly cast out from the joy of the bridal chamber. And he set forth another parable in accord with this, picturing certain ten virgins, "of whom five were prudent, and five foolish;

and the foolish, taking their lamps, did not take oil with them; but the prudent took oil" — by the oil signifying the possession of good works. "And at midnight," he says, "a cry arose: Behold, the bridegroom comes; go out to meet him" — by the midnight setting forth the uncertainty of that day. "Then all those virgins arose; and the ready ones went out to meet the bridegroom, and went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut; but the unready ones, whom he fittingly called foolish, seeing their lamps going out, went away to buy oil. And coming when the door was already shut, they cried, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us; but he," he says, "answering, said: Truly, I say to you, I do not know you." Through all these things, then, it is plain that there is requital not only of opposite deeds, but also of words and of the very thoughts. For the Saviour said: "I say to you that for every idle word which men speak, they will render an account concerning it on the day of judgement." And again: "But of you," he says, "even the hairs of the head are numbered" — by the hairs setting forth the finest of the reasonings and thoughts.

In accord with these things the blessed Paul also teaches: "For the word of God," he says, "is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; and there is no creature hidden before him, but all things are naked and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." These things also the prophets, shining with the grace of the Spirit, proclaimed most clearly many ages before. For Isaiah says: "I know their works and their reasonings, and I will requite them; behold, I come to gather all the nations and the tongues, and they will come, and will see my glory. And the heaven will be new and the earth new, which I make before me; and all flesh will come to worship before me, says the Lord, and they will go forth, and will see the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh." And again, concerning that day, he says: "And the heaven will be rolled up like a book, and all the stars will fall like leaves from a vine; for behold, the day of the Lord comes, incurable, of wrath and anger, to make the whole inhabited world desolate and to destroy the sinners out of it; for the stars of heaven and Orion and all the array of heaven

will not give their light, and it will be darkened at the sun's rising, and the moon will not give its light; and I will destroy the insolence of the lawless and humble the insolence of the proud." And again he says: "Woe to those who draw their sins to themselves as with a long cord, and their iniquities as with the strap of a heifer's yoke; woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who make darkness light and light darkness, who make bitter sweet and sweet bitter. Woe to your mighty men, the powerful, who mix strong drink, who justify the impious for the sake of gifts and take away the justice of the just, who turn aside the judgement of the poor and snatch away the cause of the needy, so that the widow becomes their plunder and the orphan their prey. And what will they do on the day of visitation? And to whom will they flee for help? And where will they leave their glory, that they may not fall into captivity?" As stubble is burned by a coal of fire and consumed by a kindled flame, their root will be as chaff, and their flower will go up as dust; for they would not have the law of the Lord of Hosts, but provoked the oracle of the Holy One of Israel. In accord with this another prophet also says:

"Near is the great day of the Lord, near and exceedingly swift; the voice of the day of the Lord is appointed bitter and harsh; that day is a mighty day of wrath, a day of affliction and distress, a day of misery and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and mist, a day of the trumpet and the cry; and I will afflict the wicked, and they will walk as the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; for in the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be consumed, because he will make a full end of all those who dwell upon the earth." Besides these things David also, the king and prophet, cries out: "God will come openly, our God, and will not keep silence. Fire will burn before him, and round about him a mighty storm; he will call to the heaven above and to the earth, to judge his people." And again: "Arise," he says, "O God, judge the earth, for the thought of man will confess to you; and you will render to each according to his works." And many other such things the psalmist and all the prophets, initiated by the divine Spirit, proclaimed concerning the judgement and recompense to come; whose words the Saviour also, confirming them most surely,

taught us to believe in the resurrection of the dead and the recompense of the things one has lived and the unending life of the age to come.