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The Soul's Comeback: Immortality and Resurrection in Early Christianity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2010

François Bovon
François Bovon*
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Harvard Divinity School
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In the middle of the twentieth century biblical scholars claimed the unity of the human person as the core of biblical anthropology.1 The Hebrew term , “life,” “person,” was no longer to be translated as “soul,” and the best English equivalent for the Greek ψυχή was “person.” In the seventies and eighties, on both sides of the Atlantic, the pendulum swung even further, to the point of favoring the body. In Paris, in the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Pierre Geoltrain offered a lecture course on the “body” in several texts of the New Testament, while in the United States Dale Martin worked on his book published under the title The Corinthian Body.2 In Geneva, where expression corporelle had become a form of instruction in dance and eurhythmic practice at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, some New Testament scholars incorporated bodily experience into their understanding of biblical passages.3 It was also this time that saw—in the secular realm—the creation of “body shops” and the continuous care of one's own body. With Merleau-Ponty we can say that this recent period witnesses a rediscovery of the body.4

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Harvard Theological Review , Volume 103 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 387 - 406
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President and Fellows of Harvard College 2010

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References

1 I would like to express my gratitude to Harvard Divinity School for the invitation to deliver the Ingersoll Lecture 2009, to Dean William A. Graham for his kind introduction, and to my colleague Professor Karen L. King, who in her presentation expressed much understanding for my work and for me. I would like also to thank Héctor G. Amaya and Eunyung Lim, who both helped me as research assistants, one in the beginning and the other at the end. I convey also my thanks to Linda Grant who improved the English of this lecture and contributed to its final edition. I express also my gratitude to Profs. Jon D. Levenson and Kevin J. Madigan, the new editors, who invited me to publish this lecture in HTR, to Margaret Studier, managing editor of HTR, and to the staff of HTR.

2 See Geoltrain, Pierre, “Origines du christianisme,” Annuaire de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études 92 (1983–1984) 355–56Google Scholar and 93 (1984–1985) 365–67; Martin, Dale B., The Corinthian Body (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995Google Scholar).

3 I still feel in my body the meaning of “following,” “waiting,” or “being transformed” as a hermeneutical approach to encountering Jesus or the experience of Pentecost. See Bovon, François, “Le dépassement de l—esprit historique,” in Le christianisme est-il une religion du livre? Actes du Colloque organisé par la Faculté de théologie protestante de l—Université des Sciences humaines de Strasbourg du 20 au 23 mai 1981 (Études et travaux 5; Strasbourg: Association des publications de la Faculté de théologie protestante et Association pour l’étude de la civilisation romaine, 1984) 111–24Google Scholar, esp. 120–22.

4 The full quotation is: “Avant de poser cette question, voyons bien tout ce qui est impliqué dans la redécouverte du corps propre.” Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Phénoménologie de la perception (Bibliothèque des idées; Paris: Gallimard, 1945) 232Google Scholar.

5 Eustratios, , De statu animarum post mortem (CPG 7522) (ed. Van Deun, Peter; CCSG 60; Turnhout: Brepols, 2006Google Scholar).

6 Ibid., 138–41.

7 These opponents, according to Eustratios, do not doubt that souls can manifest themselves from time to time, but in such cases they are not active selves but are moved by God's power.

8 See Gavin, Frank, “The Sleep of the Soul in the Early Syriac Church,” JAOS 40 (1920) 103–20Google Scholar.

9 See Demos, Louis, “The Cult of the Saints and Its Christological Foundations in Eustratios of Consantinople's De statu animarum post mortem” (Th.D. diss., Harvard University, 2010Google Scholar).

10 Augustine, City of God 22.1; English translation slighty changed from Augustine, Saint, The City of God (trans. Marcus Dods; intro. Thomas Merton; New York: The Modern Library, 1993) 810Google Scholar.

11 Ibid., 22.2.

12 Ibid., 22.3.

13 Ibid., 22.4.

14 Ibid., 22.6–7. Augustine confirms his point with a double reference to the witness of faith and the witness of blood. Rejecting the contemporary cosmological argument that at the resurrection the body will not be allowed to reach the peak of creation, he asserts that resurrected people will have their residence above earth, water, air and heaven, and this because their bodies will not be of flesh but of spirit (22.11). See also 22.21.

15 See Nestle-Aland, , Novum Testament Graece (27th ed.; Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006)Google Scholar, apparatus criticus ad loc.

16 Jerome, , Lettres (ed. Labourt, Jéràme; 8 vols.; Collection des Universtités de France; Paris: Belles Lettres, 1958) 6:97–120Google Scholar.

17 Those who believe have a living soul and imitate the destiny of the apostles, while those who do not believe have a soul that is already dead even if they are still physically alive. Jerome mentions that this is the opinion of Origen, who, according to Jerome, understands the eternal life of believers as the bodily life of asceticism (a bodily life hic et nunc according not to the flesh but to the spirit).

18 At the end of his letter Jerome mentions even a third textual variant of 1 Cor 15:51, preserved, according to him, only in the Latin version of First Corinthians: “Omnes quidem resurgemus, non omnes autem inmutabimur” (“All of us will rise; not all, however, will be transformed”). (The third edition of the Vulgate by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, 1983, has “sed” [but] before “non omnes autem inmutabimur”). Actually the variant reading is found in the codex Claromontanus, a bilingual manuscript in Greek and Latin (D=06). It is therefore attested in at least one Greek manuscript.

19 Gregory of Nyssa, Dialogus de anima et resurrectione (PG 46, 11–160); see idem, On the Soul and the Resurrection (ed. Schaff, Philip and Wace, Henry; NPNF2; 14 vols.; repr., Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1994) 5:428–68Google Scholar; idem, On the Soul and the Resurrection (trans. and intro. Roth, Catharine P.; Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2002)Google Scholar; idem, L—âme et la résurrection (trans. Bouchet, Christian; intro. Bernard Pottier; notes Marie-Hélène Congourdeau; Paris: Migne, 1998)Google Scholar.

20 See Völker, Walther, Das Vollkommenheitsideal des Origenes. Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte der Frömmigkeit und zu den Anfängen christlicher Mystik (BHT 7; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1931) 36–38, 215–22Google Scholar.

21 Origen, Princ. 3.6.

22 Behind the Latin translation imago there must be the Greek ∊ἰκών, and behind similitudo, ὁμοίωσιϛ. Irenaeus had already made use of this distinction, based on an exegesis of Genesis 1; see Irenaeus of Lyon, Haer. 4.38.3–4; 5.6.1; 5.16.1; 5.28.4; 5.36.3. Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.8.38 and 2.22.131, also used the distinction in a way that is similar to Irenaeus.

23 Origen, Princ. 2.10.

24 Bynum, Carolyn Walker, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200–1336 (Lectures on the History of Religion 15; New York: Columbia University Press, 1995) 1–43Google Scholar.

25 See Tertullian, , De anima, mit Einleitung, Übersetzung und Kommentar (ed. Waszink, Jan H.; Amsterdam: H. J. Paris, 1933) 9Google Scholar. More recently, see by the same editor the edition in Tertullian, , Opera (2 vols.; CCSL 1–2; Turnhout: Brepols, 1954) 2:779–869Google Scholar.

26 As we have seen, Gregory of Nyssa offers a different interpretation. See above, 391. For Tertullian, De anima 11–12, the soul is one and simple. Her strength and power is the animus, the equivalent of the mind (mens, νοῦϛ). Her “leading part,” the ἡγ∊μονικόν (a Stoic formulation), is the equivalent of what Scripture calls “heart” (ibid., 15.1 and 4).

27 Jacques Le Goff distinguishes between the formation of the belief in purgatory already in antiquity and the birth of purgatory itself in the Middle Ages: “Je me propose de suivre la formation séculaire de ce troisième lieu depuis le judéo-christianisme antique, d—en montrer la naissance au moment de l’épanouissement de l—Occident médiéval dans la seconde moitié du XIIe siècle, et le rapide succès au cours du siècle suivant” (“I propose to trace the secular formation of this third place since the Jewish Christianity of antiquity in order to demonstrate its birth at the time of the blossoming of the medieval West in the second half of the twelfth century C.E. and its rapid success in the course of the next century”). La naissance du Purgatoire (Collection Folio; Histoire 31; Paris: Gallimard, 1991) 9Google Scholar.

28 The success of the Christian message of eschatological hope through the expression of immortal life was widespread in the third century, as in the centuries that followed. In Acts Phil. 12.8, even animals convert and express their gratitude in the following prayer: “We glorify you, Lord, the only begotten Son, on account of the undying life into which we have been born, having received in place of an animal body a human one.” In the History of Joseph the Carpenter 24.4, preserved in Coptic, death is understood as an exodus out of the body. And considering this death, Jesus, who is presumed to speak, observes: “Yes, he [Joseph] died, but this death of my father Joseph is not a death, this is eternal life.” Everyone must die, even the most holy ones such as Joseph, Enoch, and Elijah (even if taken alive to heaven Enoch and Elijah will have also to die before the final resurrection). In the Armenian Martyrdom of Thaddeus 22, the apostle, who is praised for having converted Sandoukht, the king's daughter, is considered to be “a way of life and a medicine of immortality.” That means that he is able to bring his converts on the way to eternal life. Book eight of the Sibylline Oracles (8.310–17) presents Christ's passion in a poetic way: through his agony the Son has put death to death and has become a source of immortality. See Écrits apocryphes chrétiens (ed. Bovon, François, Geoltrain, Pierre, and Kaestli, Jean-Daniel; 2 vols.; La Pléiade 442 and 516; Paris: Gallimard, 1997–2005) 1:1285–2Google Scholar:53, 688, and 1077.

29 Irenaeus, Haer. 5.1–14. Irenaeus, , Contre les hérésies. Livre V (ed. Rousseau, Adelin, Doutreleau, Louis, and Mercier, Charles; SC 152–53; Paris: Cerf, 1969)Google Scholar.

30 Ricœur, Paul, Le conflit des interprétations. Essais d—herméneutique (L—ordre philosophique; Paris: Seuil, 1969)Google Scholar.

31 Irenaeus, Haer. 5.12.1–4.

32 Lattke, Michael, Odes of Solomon: A Commentary (trans. Marianne Ehrhardt; Hermeneia; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2009) 35Google Scholar.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid., 140.

35 Ibid., 149.

36 Ibid., 206.

37 See Athenagoras, , Supplique au sujet des chrétiens et Sur la résurrection des morts (ed. Pouderon, Bernard; SC 379; Paris: Cerf, 1992)Google Scholar; idem, Embassy for the Christians: The Resurrection of the Dead (trans. and annotated by Crehan, Joseph Hugh; ACW 23; Westminster, Md.: Newman, 1956)Google Scholar; Pseudo-Justin, , Sulla resurrezione. Discorso cristiano del II secolo (ed. D—Anna, Alberto; Antica, Letteratura Cristiana; Brescia: Morcelliana, 2001)Google Scholar; idem, Über die Auferstehung. Text und Studie (ed. Heimgartner, Martin; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2001)Google Scholar; Terza Lettera ai Corinzi, Pseudo-Giustino, La Risurrezione (ed. D—Anna, Alberto; Letture Cristiane del Primo Milennio 44; Milan: Paoline, 2009)Google Scholar; Hovhanessian, Vahan, Third Corinthians: Reclaiming Paul for Christian Orthodoxy (New York: Lang, 2000)Google Scholar. Recently two Harvard doctoral students submitted their dissertations on the topics treated here: Taylor Petrey, “Carnal Resurrection: Sexuality and Sexual Difference in Early Christianity” (Th.D. diss., Harvard University, 2010); Glenn E. Snyder, “Remembering the Acts of Paul” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2010).

38 In the Vision of Ezra (recension B), Ezra is taken by seven angels to visit Hell and by four archangels to visit the seventh heaven. Then he must die, and like many strong believers, he is afraid of dying. The Lord consoles him by telling him that his body will go back to the earth while his soul will go back to God. The document may be dated from the second century C.E., but the Latin recensions must be later (4th–9th century C.E.). See Flavio G. Nuvolone, “Vision d—Esdras,” in Écrits apocryphes chrétiens, 1:593–632, esp. 631. Then, in so-called 5 Ezra, when the seer observes the Son in the company of a crowd of believers and asks who the people are, he receives the answer: “These are they who have put off mortal clothing and put on the immortal, and they have confessed the name of God; now they are being crowned, and receive palms” (5 Ezra 2.45). See Pierre Geoltrain, “Cinquième livre d—Esdras,” in Écrits apocryphes chrétiens, 1:633–51. Probable date of 5 Ezra, second half of the second century or beginning of the third century C.E.

39 See Bouvier, Bertrand and Bovon, François, “Prière et Apocalypse de Paul. Un fragment grec inédit conservé au Sinaï. Introduction, texte, traduction et notes,” Apocrypha 15 (2004) 9–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Even if the text is later than the second century, it defends the same position as the Apocapypse of Peter and the Apocalypse of Paul. On these two early Christian apocalypses, see below, n. 43. See Dudley, Louise, The Egyptian Elements in the Legend of the Body and the Soul (Baltimore, Md.: Furst, 1911)Google Scholar; eadem, “An Early Homily on the ‘Body and Soul’ Theme,” Journal of English and German Philology 8 (1909) 225–53Google Scholar.

40 I hesitate to mention here the Gospel of Truth. See Gospel of Truth 20.32–34; 15.12–14 and 35–36; Attridge, Harold and MacRae, George W., “The Gospel of Truth (I,3 and XII, 2),” in The Nag Hammadi Library in English (ed. Robinson, James M.; 3d ed.; New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990) 38–39Google Scholar. Regarding this document, Hurtado, writes: “In the Gospel of Truth, however, Jesus— death does not provide a ransom for sins. Instead, it vividly portrays the futility and unimportance of the flesh, and the secret of the transcendent destiny to which the elect can now aspire in consequence of Jesus— own pathfinding action.” Hurtado, Larry W., Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2003) 545Google Scholar.

41 See Malcolm L. Peel, “The Treatise on the Resurrection (I, 4),” in The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 52–54.

42 See King, Karen L., The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle (Santa Rosa, Calif.: Polebridge, 2003)Google Scholar.

43 On Origen, see above, 391–92, and below, 399–400. On the Apocalypse of Peter and the Apocalypse of Paul, see Bauckham, Richard and Marrassini, Paolo, “Apocalypse de Pierre,” in Écrits apocryphes chrétiens, 1:745–74Google Scholar; and Kappler, Claude-Claire and Kappler, René, “Apocalyse de Paul,” in Écrits apocryphes chrétiens, 1:775–826Google Scholar; Claude Carozzi, , Eschatologie et au-delà. Recherches sur l—Apocalypse de Paul (Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l—Université de Provence, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 “The most ancient paintings of the catacombs breathe of this sweetness and express this faith in immortality, and few masterpieces move us more than these poor, half-erased frescoes.” Mâle, Émile, Rome et ses vieilles églises (Paris: Flammarion, 1942) 18Google Scholar.

45 Calvin, John, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke (trans. Pringle, William; Commentaries, Calvin's; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845–1846Google Scholar; repr.; Calvin's Commentaries 16; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2003) 1:462. “Car qui est cause qu—au combat la crainte des hommes l—emporte, sinon pour ce qu—on préfère le corps à l—âme, et que l—immortalité est moins estimée que ceste vie caduque?” Idem, Sur la Concordance ou Harmonie composée de trois évangélistes, ascavoir S. Matthieu, S. Marc, et S. Luc (vol. 1 of Commentaires de Jehan Calvin sur le Nouveau Testament; 4 vols.; Paris: Meyrueis, 1854) 263.

46 ἡ γὰρ “κατ j∊ἰκόνα θ∊οῦ” δ∊δημιουργημένη τιμιωτέρα ἐστὶ πάντων σωμάτων. Origen, Mart. 12 (GCS 2; Berlin: Hinrichs,1899) 13. See also 4 Macc. 7.16–19.

47 On the Gospel of John, see Brown, Raymond E., An Introduction to the Gospel of John (ed. Moloney, Francis J.; ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 2003)Google Scholar; Zumstein, Jean, L—Évangile selon saint Jean (13–21) (CNT 2d series 4b; Geneva: Labor et Fides, 2007)Google Scholar.

48 On another occasion, changing the metaphor, the Gospel of John describes the Son as the origin of special healing water: “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

49 Augustine, City of God, 22.1. Augustine actually shares an opinion already defended by Origen; see Tzamalikos, Panagiōtēs, Origen: Philosophy of History and Eschatology (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 85; Leiden: Brill, 2007) 230CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who writes: “Reference to eternal in the first place alludes not to a quantity of time, but to the quality of a certain existential state” [emphasis in original].

50 It is not surprising that the Son himself declares: “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). The words “resurrection” and “life” constitute a hendiadys, a way of expressing by two terms one and the same reality. The term “life” is qualified by the term “resurrection.” It is new life, different from the natural life. It is at the same time a “resurrection” of the person, but with the presence of the word “life” it is not just a future hope for the body. It is a present reality for the self as well. Through the gift of this special type of life the self ceases to be “flesh”: “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13).

51 Just as there were several distinct synagogues in Jerusalem, as well as in Rome, a plurality that was not felt as a threat against Jewish identity and unity, there were different Christian communities in Jerusalem, Antioch of Syria, and Ephesus. The Johannine community in Ephesus, to whom one of the seven letters of the book of Revelation was addressed (Rev 2:1–7), was probably different from the community established by Paul in the same city (see 1 Cor 15 and Acts 19). Despite this difference, the same fundamental structure of faith was accepted by the two groups. What we have seen for the Johannine group can be found also in the Pauline churches.

52 On Paul's anthropological terminology, see Jewett, Robert, Paul's Anthropological Terms: A Study of Their Use in Conflict Settings (AGJU 1; Leiden: Brill, 1971)Google Scholar; van Kooten, George H., Paul's Anthropology in Context: The Image of God, Assimilation to God and Tripartite Man in Ancient Judaism, Ancient Philosophy and Early Christianity (WUNT 232; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008)Google Scholar.

53 Although 1 Thess 4:23 seems to display a complete and firm anthropology (“May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”), this verse is an exception, and Paul—different from Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius, the two stoic thinkers—is not interested in the practice of the body as a source of sanctification.

54 On Jesus— death and resurrection as a saving event received by faith, see Bultmann, Rudolf, Theologie des Neuen Testaments (ed. Merk, Otto; 8th ed.; Uni-Taschenbücher 630; Tübingen: Mohr, 1980) § 33, pp. 292–306Google Scholar. On the parallels between Jesus— resurrection and the believers— resurrection, see Rom 6:3–11; Byrne, Brendan, Romans (SP 6; Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical, 1996) 189–93Google Scholar.

55 Here in nuce we find already the future distinction between imago and similitudo, for today human beings look like Adam and Eve, born from earth, natural and mortal (in the image of God, imago), but as Christians they shall be assimilated to Christ, the last Adam, who came not from earth but from heaven (in similarity with God, similitudo; see 1 Cor 15:42–49). See Altermath, François, Du corps psychique au corps spirituel. Interprétation de 1 Cor 15, 35–49 par les auteurs chrétiens des quatre premiers siècles (BGBE 18; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1977)Google Scholar.

56 On 1 Cor 15, see Schrage, Wolfgang, Der erste Brief an die Korinther (1Kor 15,1–16,24) (EKKNT 7.4; Düsseldorf: Benziger; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2001)Google Scholar.

57 When Jesus, according to Mark 10:45, says that the Son of man has come not to be served but to serve, and to give his ψυχή as a ransom for many, there is little doubt that he means here “his life.” But when at Gethsemane he sighs, saying “my ψυχή is deeply grieved,” he means his soul and his spirit, his mental and affective parts (Matt 26:38). Compared with Luke 22:37, Mark 10:45—as it is formulated with the soteriological allusion to a ransom—is more likely the expression of the first community than words spoken by the historical Jesus. See also Luke 21:19, Acts 20:10, and Heb 4:12.

58 On Matt 10:28 see Luz, Ulrich, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus (Mt 8–17) (EKKNT 1.2; Zurich: Benziger; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1990) 126–28Google Scholar. One should remember the parallel to the saying in 4 Macc. 13.13b–15: “With all our hearts let us consecrate ourselves unto God, who gave us our souls, and let us expend our bodies for the custodianship of the Law. Let us have no fear of him who thinks he kills. Great is the ordeal and peril of the soul that lies in wait in eternal torment for those who transgress the commandment of God.” H. Anderson, “4 Maccabees: A New Translation and Introduction,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (ed. James H. Charlesworth; 2 vols.; London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1983–1985) 2:558.

59 In subsequent centuries Christian leaders emphasized and contrasted the destiny of the elect and the punishment of others. The separation of the two groups began in early apocalyptic literature: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some for everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2). This eschatological perspective is present as well in the Synoptic Gospels (remember the great picture of the sheep and the goats; Matt 25:31–46) just as it is in the Gospel of John (“Do not be astonished at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation”; John 5:28–29).

60 See Aristotle, , On the Soul, Parva Naturalia, On Breath (ed. Hett, Walter S.; Aristotle 8; LCL 288; rev. ed.; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000)Google Scholar.

61 René Descartes, Méditations touchant la première philosophie, mainly the second and the sixth meditations; see also the fourth part of Descartes's Discours de la méthode; see Martin, The Corinthian Body, 4–6.

62 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phénoménologie de la perception; idem, L—union de l—âme et du corps chez Malebranche, Biran et Bergson. Notes prises au cours de Maurice Merleau-Ponty (ed. Deprun, Jean; rev. ed.; Bibliothèque d—histoire de la philosophie 98; Paris: Vrin, 1978)Google Scholar.

63 See also Riley, Gregory J., Resurrection Reconsidered: Thomas and John in Controversy (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 1995) 31Google Scholar: “Socrates felt it his divine mission to persuade his fellow Athenians to concentrate their efforts on the cultivation of the good of the soul over against that of the body.”

64 Foucault, Michel, Le souci de soi (vol. 3 of Histoire de la sexualité; Bibliothèque des histoires; Paris: Gallimard, 1976)Google Scholar; Arendt, Hannah, Vita activa oder Vom tätigen Leben (2d ed.; Munich: Piper, 1981)Google Scholar; Hadot, Pierre, Exercices spirituels et philosophie antique, préface d—Arnold I. Davidson (Bibliothèque de l’évolution de l—humanité; 2d ed.; Paris: Albin Michel, 2002)Google Scholar; Brown, Peter, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (Twentieth anniversary edition with a new introduction; New York: Columbia University Press, 2008)Google Scholar.

65 Beside the reference to Byrne's commentary (see above, n. 54), see also Wilckens, Ulrich, Der Brief an die Römer (Röm 6–11) (3d ed.; EKKNT 6.2; Zurich: Benziger; Neukirchener-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1993) 5–33Google Scholar.

66 On the “eschatological reservation,” see Käsemann, Ernst, An die Römer (HNT 8a; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1973) 214 and 336Google Scholar; idem, Paulinische Perspektiven (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1969) 215Google ScholarPubMed.

67 Henri-Louis Mermod was an influential editor in the middle of the twentieth century in French-speaking Switzerland. The conversation I recall took place at Vidy, along the Lake of Geneva, during a preparation of the Chemin du Château à Vidy, an early morning walk honoring Major Davel and following, on 24 April 1959, the path that he took 24 April 1723 going from his prison to his execution. See Juste Olivier, Le Major Davel followed by Hommage au Major by Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz (Lausanne: Mermod, 1959).

68 Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2005.

69 Long recension of the Greek Testament of Abraham 20.9–10; see Schmidt, Francis, Le Testament grec d—Abraham. Introduction, édition critique des deux recensions grecques, traduction (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 11; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1986) 166–67Google Scholar.

70 Leder, Drew, The Absent Body (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

71 Ibid., 3.

72 Among the books and articles that I have not yet mentioned, I have selected in chronological order: Rohde, Erwin, Psyche. Seelencult und Unsterblichkeitsglaube der Griechen (5th and 6th ed.; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1910)Google Scholar; Cumont, Franz, Lux perpetua (Paris: Geuthner, 1949Google Scholar; a reprinted version, edited by B. Rochette and A. Mott and published or distributed by Brepols in Turnhout [Belgium] is expected for 2010); Cullmann, Oscar, Immortalité de l—âme ou résurrection des morts? (2d ed.; Neuchâtel: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1959)Google Scholar; Hanhart, Karel, The Intermediate State in the New Testament (Groningen: Druk. V. R. B. Kleine, 1966)Google Scholar; Otto, Walter F., Die Manen oder von den Urformen des Totenglaubens. Eine Untersuchung zur Religion der Griechen, Römer und Semiten und zum Volksglauben überhaupt (3d ed.; Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1976)Google Scholar; Bremmer, Jan N., The Early Greek Concept of the Soul (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983)Google Scholar; Bernstein, Alan E., The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993)Google Scholar; Lona, Horacio E., Über die Auferstehung des Fleisches. Studien zur frühchristlichen Eschatologie (BZNW 66; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baumgarten, A. I., Assmann, J., and Stroumsa, G. G., eds., Self, Soul and Body in Religious Experience (SHR 78; Leiden: Brill, 1998)Google Scholar; Constas, Nicholas, “ ‘To Sleep, Perchance to Dream—: The Middle State of Souls in Patristic and Byzantine Literature,” DOP 55 (2001) 91–124Google Scholar; La résurrection chez les Pères (ed. Prieur, Jean-Marc; Cahiers de Biblia Patristica 7; Strasbourg: Université Marc Bloch, 2003)Google Scholar; Levenson, Jon D., Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006)Google Scholar; Prinzivalli, Emanuela, “La risurrezione nei Padri,” in Morte—Risurrezione nei Padri della Chiesa (ed. Panimolle, Salvatore Alberto; Rome: Boria, 2006) 169–288Google Scholar; Feichtinger, Barbara, “‘Quid est autem homo aliud quod caro …— (Tert. adv. Marc. 1,24). Aspekte spätantiker Körperlichkeit,” JAC 50 (2007) 5–33Google Scholar; Madigan, Kevin J. and Levenson, Jon D., Resurrection: The Power of God for Christians and Jews (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008)Google Scholar; Gill, Christopher, The Structured Self in Hellenistic and Roman Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Metamorphoses. Resurrection, Body and Transformative Practices in Early Christianity (ed. Seim, Turid Karlsen and àkland, Jorunn; Ekstasis 1; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ševčenko, Nancy Patterson, “Images of the Second Coming and the Fate of the Soul in Middle Byzantine Art,” in Apocalyptic Thought in Early Christianity (ed. Daly, Robert J.; Holy Cross Studies in Patristic Theology and History; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2009) 250–72Google Scholar; The Afterlife of the Platonic Soul: Reflections of Platonic Psychology in the Monotheistic Religions (ed. Elkaisy-Friemuth, Maha and Dillon, John M.; Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition 9; Leiden: Brill, 2009)Google Scholar; Macchi, Jean-Daniel and Nihan, Christophe, “Mort, résurrection et au-delà dans la Bible hébraïque et dans le judaïsme ancien,” BCPE 62 (2010) 1–53Google Scholar.