In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again incorruptible: and we shall be changed.

“Let our opponents-that is, they who speak against their own salvation-inform us [as to this point]: The deceased daughter of the high priest; the widow's dead son, who was being carried out [to burial] near the gate [of the city]; and Lazarus, who had lain four days in the tomb, -in what bodies did they rise again? In those same, no doubt, in which they had also died. For if it were not in the very same, then certainly those same individuals who had died did not rise again. For [the Scripture] says, "The Lord took the hand of the dead man, and said to him, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And the dead man sat up, and He commanded that something should be given him to eat; and He delivered him to his mother." Again, He called Lazarus "with a loud voice, saying, Lazarus, come forth; and he that was dead came forth bound with bandages, feet and hands." This was symbolical of that man who had been bound in sins. And therefore the Lord said, "Loose him, and let him depart." As, therefore, those who were healed were made whole in those members which had in times past been afflicted; and the dead rose in the identical bodies, their limbs and bodies receiving health, and that life which was granted by the Lord, who prefigures eternal things by temporal, and shows that it is He who is Himself able to extend both healing and life to His handiwork, that His words concerning its [future] resurrection may also be believed; so also at the end, when the Lord utters His voice "by the last trumpet," the dead shall be raised, as He Himself declares: "The hour shall come, in which all the dead which are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth; those that have done good to the resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment."”

“Well, then, what difference is there between heathens and Christians, if the same prison awaits them all when dead? How, indeed, shall the soul mount up to heaven, where Christ is already sitting at the Father's right hand, when as yet the archangel's trumpet has not been heard by the command of God, -when as yet those whom the coming of the Lord is to find on the earth, have not been caught up into the air to meet Him at His coming, in company with the dead in Christ, who shall be the first to arise? To no one is heaven opened; the earth is still safe for him, I would not say it is shut against him.”

“For at that time the trumpet shall sound, and awake those that sleep from the lowest parts of the earth, righteous and sinners alike. And every kindred, and tongue, and nation, and tribe shall be raised in the twinkling of an eye; and they shall stand upon the face of the earth, waiting for the coming of the righteous and terrible Judge, in fear and trembling unutterable. For the river of fire shall come forth in fury like an angry sea, and shall burn up mountains and hills, and shall make the sea vanish, and shall dissolve the atmosphere with its heat like wax. The stars of heaven shall fall, the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. The heaven shall be rolled together like a scroll: the whole earth shall be burnt up by reason of the deeds done in it, which men did corruptly, in fornications, in adulteries, and in lies and uncleanness, and in idolatries, and in murders, and in battles. For there shall be the new heaven and the new earth.”

“At her death Macrina prayed: "O Lord, you have freed us from the fear of death. You have made the end of life here the beginning of a true life for us. You give rest to our bodies in sleep, and you awaken us again with the last trumpet. The dust from which you fashioned us with your hands you give back to the dust of the earth for safe keeping, and you who have relinquished it will recall it after reshaping with incorruptibility and grace our mortal and graceless substance." … As she said this, she made the sign of the cross upon her eyes and mouth and heart, and little by little, as the fever dried up her tongue, she was no longer able to speak clearly. Her voice gave out and only from the trembling of her lips and motion of her hands did we know that she was continuing to pray. Then the evening came on and the lamp was brought in.… When she had completed the thanksgiving and indicated that the prayer was over by making the sign of the cross, she breathed a deep breath and with the prayer her life came to an end.”

“Why am I so earthly in my thoughts? I shall await the voice of the archangel, the last trumpet, the transformation of heaven, the change of earth, the freedom of the elements, the renewal of the universe. Then I shall see my brother Caesarius himself, no longer in exile, no longer being buried, no longer mourned, no longer pitied, but splendid, glorious, sublime, such as you were often seen in a dream, dearest and most loving of brothers, whether my desire or truth itself represented you.”

“Thou, O Lord, hast freed us from the fear of death. Thou hast made the end of this life the beginning to us of true life. Thou for a season restest our bodies in sleep and awakest them again at the last trump. Thou givest our earth, which Thou hast fashioned with Thy hands, to the earth to keep in safety. One day Thou wilt take again what Thou hast given, transfiguring with immortality and grace our mortal and unsightly remains. … As she said these words she sealed her eyes and mouth and heart with the cross. And gradually her tongue dried up with the fever, she could articulate her words no longer, and her voice died away, and only by the trembling of her lips and the motion of her hands did we recognise that she was praying. Meanwhile evening had come and a lamp was brought in… But when she had finished the thanksgiving, and her hand brought to her face to make the Sign had signified the end of the prayer, she drew a great deep breath and closed her life and her prayer together.”

“"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." After he had discoursed much of the resurrection, then opportunely he points out also its very marvellous character. As thus: "not this only," saith he, "is wonderful that our bodies first turn to corruption, and then are raised; nor that the bodies which rise again after their corruption are better than these present ones; nor that they pass on to a much better state, nor that each receives back his own and none that of another; but that things so many and so great, and surpassing all man's reason and conception, are done 'in a moment,' i.e., in an instant of time: and to show this more clearly, 'in the twinkling of an eye,' saith he, 'while one can wink an eyelid.'" Further, because he had said a great thing and full of astonishment; that so many and so great results should take place so quickly; he alleges, to prove it, the credibility of Him who performs it; as follows, "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." The expression, "we," he uses not of himself, but of them that are then found alive.”

“The glance of our eye does not reach nearer objects more quickly and distant ones more slowly. Rather it reaches both with equal speed. Similarly when, as the apostle says, the resurrection of the dead is effected in the twinkling of the eye, it is as easy for the omnipotence of God and his awe-inspiring authority to raise the recently dead as those long since fallen into decay. To some minds, these things are hard to accept because they are outside their experience, yet the whole universe is full of wonders which seem to us hardly worth noticing or examining, not because they are easily penetrated by our reason but because we are accustomed to seeing them. But I, and those who join me and are striving to understand the "invisible things of God by the things that are made," wonder neither more nor less at the fact that in one tiny seed all that we praise in the tree lies folded away. It is as easy for God to raise the recently dead as those long since fallen into decay.”

“Here is a mystery, I tell you, brothers, meaning something hidden, which ought to be revealed to you and to all believers. Lc. VIII, 10: to you it is given to know, etc. Above, II, 6: we speak wisdom among the perfect, and afterward: but we speak the wisdom of God which is hidden, etc. But what this mystery is, he adds: we shall all indeed, etc. On the first point, it should be known that, as Jerome says in a certain letter to the monks Minervius and Alexander, what is said here—we shall all rise again, etc.—is found in no Greek book; but in certain ones it is found: we shall all indeed sleep, that is, we shall all die. And death is called sleep on account of the hope of the resurrection. Hence it is the same as if he said, we shall all rise again, since no one will rise again unless he dies. But we shall not all be changed. This is not altered in the Greek books. And this is true, because this change of which he speaks here will occur only with respect to the bodies of the blessed, since they will be changed into those four qualities set down above, which are called the endowments of glorified bodies. And this Job desired: Iob. XIV, 14: all the days in which I am now in warfare, I wait until my change comes. In certain books, however, it is found: we shall not all indeed sleep, that is, die, but we shall all be changed. And this is understood in two ways. First, according to the letter, because it was the opinion of some that not all men will die, but that some at the coming of Christ to judgment will come alive, and these will not die but will be changed into the state of incorruption, and on this account they say, we shall not all indeed sleep, that is, die, but we shall all be changed, both good and evil, both living and dead. Hence according to these the change is not understood as from the state of animality to the state of spirituality, since according to this only the good would be changed, but from the state of corruption to the state of incorruption. In another way it is expounded mystically by Origen, and he says that this is not said of the sleep of death, since all will die—Ps. LXXXVIII, 49: what man is there who shall live, etc.—but of the sleep of sin, of which in Ps. XII, 4: enlighten my eyes, lest I ever sleep, so that it may be said thus: we shall not all die, that is, we shall not all sin mortally, but we shall all be changed, just as above concerning the state from corruption to incorruption. And although this reading, namely we shall not all die, etc., is not against the faith, nevertheless the Church accepts the first more, namely that we shall all die or rise again, etc., because all will die even if there are then some who are living. He then makes manifest the order and manner of the resurrection when he says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, et cetera. And this in three respects. First he makes manifest the order as to time; second as to the cause of the resurrection, where he says, at the last trumpet; third as to the progress of the effect from the cause, where he says, for the trumpet shall sound, et cetera. He says therefore that we shall all rise again, but how? In a moment. By which he excludes the error of those saying that the resurrection of all will not be at the same time, but they say that the martyrs will rise before the others by a thousand years, and then Christ will descend with them, and will possess the bodily kingdom of Jerusalem for a thousand years with them. And this was the opinion of Lactantius. But this is clearly false, because we shall all rise in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye. Also excluded by this is another error of the same man, who said that the judgment would last for a space of a thousand years. But this is false, because there will be no perceptible time there, but in a moment, et cetera. It should be known, moreover, that a moment can be taken either for the very instant of time, which is called now, or for some imperceptible time; yet it can be taken in either way, referring it to different things. For if we refer this to the gathering of the dust (which will be accomplished by the ministry of angels), then the moment is taken for imperceptible time. For since in the gathering of that dust there is a change from place to place, there must be some time there. But if we refer it to the reuniting of bodies and to the union with the soul, all of which will be done by God, then the moment is taken for an instant of time, because God unites the soul to the body and gives life to the body in an instant. Also, what he says, in the twinkling of an eye, can be referred to either, as if by in the twinkling of an eye only the opening of the eyelids is understood (which occurs in perceptible time), then it is referred to the gathering of the dust. But if by in the twinkling of an eye the sudden glance itself of the eye is understood, which occurs in an instant, then it is referred to the union of the soul with the body. Next, when he says, at the last trumpet, he shows the order of the resurrection as to the immediate cause. And this trumpet is that voice of Christ, of which Matth. XXVI, 6 it is said: at midnight a cry was made; Io. V, 25: they shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who shall have heard, et cetera. Or the very presence of Christ made manifest to the world, according to what Gregory says: the trumpet signifies nothing other than the presence of Christ made manifest to the world, which is called a trumpet on account of the manifestation, since it will be manifest to all. And in this way trumpet is taken Matth. VI, 2: when you do alms, do not sound a trumpet before you. Likewise it is called a trumpet on account of the office of the trumpet, which was for four purposes, as is said Num. X, v. 1-10, namely: to call a council, and this will be at the resurrection, since then he will call together for a council, that is, for judgment. Is. III, v. 14: the Lord will come to judgment, et cetera. To solemnize a feast. Ps. LXXX, 4: blow the trumpet in the new moon. So also at the resurrection. Is. XXXIII, 20: look upon Sion, the city of our solemnity. For battle, and this at the resurrection. Sap. V, 21: he will fight for him, et cetera. Is. XXX, 32: with harps and timbrels, et cetera. To move the camp, so also at the resurrection: some going to Paradise, some going to Hell. Matth. XXV, 46: they who have done good shall go into life everlasting, but they who have done evil into everlasting fire. Next, when he says, for the trumpet shall sound, et cetera, he sets down the progress of the effect from the aforesaid cause. And concerning this he does two things. First he sets down the progress of the effect; second he assigns the necessity of this, where he says, for this mortal, et cetera. The progress of the effect is that immediately at the sound of the trumpet the effect will follow, since the dead, et cetera, Ps. LXVII, 34: he will give to his voice the voice of power, et cetera. He sets down, moreover, a twofold effect. One is common, since the dead shall rise incorrupt, that is, whole, without any diminishment of members. And this indeed is common to all, since in the resurrection everything that pertains to the restoration of nature is common, because all have communion with Christ in nature. And although Augustine leaves it in doubt whether deformities remain in the damned, I nevertheless believe that whatever pertains to the restoration of nature is conferred on them entirely; but what pertains to grace is conferred only on the elect. And therefore all will rise incorrupt, that is, whole, even the damned. Jerome, however, expounds incorrupt as meaning in a state of incorruption, namely that afterward, after the resurrection, they will not be corrupted further, since the good will go to eternal beatitude, but the evil to eternal punishment. Dan. XII, 2: many from the dust of the earth shall awake. The other effect is proper, that is, of the apostles only, since we shall be changed, namely the apostles, and we shall not only be incorrupt, but also we shall be changed, namely from a state of misery to a state of glory, since it is sown an animal body, but it shall rise a spiritual body. And according to this manner of expounding it appears that that reading is better which says we shall all indeed rise again, but we shall not all be changed, than that which has we shall all be changed, because although all will rise, yet only the saints and elect will be changed. It could, however, also according to those who have we shall not all indeed die, but we shall all be changed, be read thus: the dead shall rise incorrupt, that is, into a state of incorruption, and we who are alive, although we shall not rise again, since we do not die, will nevertheless be changed from a state of corruption to incorruption. And this seems to agree with what is said I Thess. IV, 16: we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them, etc.; so that, just as there, here too he numbers himself among the living.”

“In a moment We shall rise in an instant, in a point of time, so short as to be indivisible, as S. Jerome says. In the twinkling of an eye. The word for “twinkling” is derived from the hurling of a thunderbolt or a javelin. Others, with S. Jerome ( Ep . ad Menerium) y read another word, which denotes the instant fall of the balance when a heavier weight is placed in one scale. Cf. Wisd. xi. 23. Theodoret, (Ecumenius, Anselm, Gregory of Nyssa ( Oral '. de Resurr .), S. Jerome (in the passage just quoted), Augustine (Ep. 49, c. 1) gather from this that the resurrection will take place, not in a very short space of time, but instantaneously. This may be true of the formation, organisation, and re-vivification of the body when it rises, and indeed the Apostle says as much when he writes “ in a moment,” but it is very doubtful whether it refers to local motion, as to the coming together of the different parts of the body from different places. S. Augustine maintains, and Suarez (part iii. qu. 53, disp. 44, sect. 4) shows that it is possible that by the power of God these different parts of the body can pass from point to point without travelling over the intermediate space, and that so all can at once come to the same place, in a moment of time. But, as was pointed out at ver. 44, the nature of space and of motion does not seem to allow of that, but rather to force us to admit that nothing THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY 399 can pass from one place to another without crossing over the space between. Hence it seems to others more likely that by the power of God motion may take place in an instant from one point to another by a passage over the intervening space, as the sun uniformly pours his light in every direction over half the world in a single instant Why should it not be said that the body can in the same way, by the power of God, dart itself from one place to another? If one is instantaneous, why may not the other be ? But it may plausibly be answered that there is a great difference between the nature of light and of material bodies ; for though the mode of travelling of both may seem the same, yet in the case of light it is not the same point of light that is carried continuously onward, but point succeeding point ; but in the case of a body it is the same identical body that in one instant has to leave one Space and pass through the next, and in the self-same instant leave that and pass through a third, and a fourth, fifth, and sixth, and so on, through all the intermediate spaces to the end. But this seems impossible; for if so, in the same instant the same body would be crossing through and leaving the same space, would be in this space and not be in it, nay, would be in all the intervening spaces and would not be in them. Hence S. Thomas and others are better advised in denying that this transference of the parts of the body to the same place will take place instantaneously, especially since it will be brought about by the ministry of angels, who move bodies, not instantaneously, but in a very brief space of time. The Apostle then is speaking here of the resurrection alone, not of the transference of the risen bodies, when he says that it will take place in the twinkling of an eye, even in a moment. At the last trump . From Rev. viii. and ix. it appears that, at the end of the world, the seven angels to whom the care of man has been wholly given will sound with seven trumpets, to announce the last calamities and punishments which are coming on the world, and as it were to call them forth and to bring them to pass. After them there will follow this last trumpet, calling 4C0 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE out, “Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment” See notes to i Thess. iv. 1 6”

“O death, where is thy sting?.... These words, with the following clause, are taken out of Hos 13:14 and that they belong to the times of the Messiah, the ancient Jews acknowledge; and the Chaldee paraphrase interprets them of the Logos, or Word of God, rendering them thus, "my Word shall be among them to kill, and my Word to destroy;'' wherefore the apostle is not to be charged with a misapplication of them, nor with a perversion of them, as he is by the Jew (s): in the prophet they are thus read, "O death, I will be thy plagues, O grave, I will be thy destruction"; between which, and the apostle's citation of them, there is some difference; the word which we render in both clauses, "I will be", the apostle translates "where", and that very rightly, and so it should be rendered there; and so it is by the Septuagint interpreters, who render the whole as he, with a little variation, "where is thy revenge, O death? where is thy sting, O grave?" and so the Arabic version of Hosea still nearer the apostle, "where is now thy victory, O death?" or "where is thy sting, O grave?" and even the Chaldee paraphrase on Hos 13:14 renders the same word "where"; for instead of, "I will be thy king", the Targum reads, , "where is thy king?" and Aben Ezra, a Jewish writer of great note, on Hos 13:14 observes, that there are some that say the word is to be inverted as if it was "where", and he adds, and it is right; a like observation he makes on those words in Co1 15:14 and that that is the true sense of the word in both verses, is attested by Ebn Jannahius Tanchuma (t); so that the apostle is thus far to be justified, in his citation of this passage: it is further to be observed, that instead of "thy plagues", he reads, "thy sting"; and I doubt not, but that among the many things which signifies, as it must be owned it does signify the plague, or pestilence, see Psa 90:6 and which perhaps is so called, from the venomous nature of it, and the poisonous sting that is in it, so likewise a sting, though there is no instance of it; certain it is, that bees are called and as Cocceius (u) observes, from their sting; and so in the Chaldee and Arabic languages, a bee, or a wasp, is called and it is to such sort of creatures, that the allusion is here made; who having lost their stings, can do no hurt; and which will be the case of death in the resurrection morn, when risen saints will insult over it in this triumphant manner; having nothing more to fear from it, any more than a man has to be afraid of any animal whatever, that has lost its sting: and in the following clause, O grave, where is thy victory? instead of "destruction", as it must be allowed the word signifies, see Psa 90:6 the apostle reads victory; but then there is no difference in the sense; for the grave gets its victory over its thousands, and ten thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousands, and millions of millions, by the destruction of them, which now it glories in, and boasts of; but in the resurrection morn, when its destruction will be at an end, the triumphant saints may reasonably ask, where is its boasted victory, since it can destroy no longer. (s) R. lsaac Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 87. p. 463. (t) Apud Pocock. Not. Miscellan. ad Port. Mosis, p. 69, 70. (u) Lex. Heb. in rad.”

“In a moment - Εν ατομῳ· In an atom; that is, an indivisible point of time. In the twinkling of an eye; as soon as a man can wink; which expressions show that this mighty work is to be done by the almighty power of God, as he does all his works, He calls, and it is done. The resurrection of all the dead, from the foundation of the world to that time, and the change of all the living then upon earth, shall be the work of a single moment. At the last trump - This, as well as all the rest of the peculiar phraseology of this chapter, is merely Jewish, and we must go to the Jewish writers to know what is intended. On this subject, the rabbins use the very same expression. Thus Rabbi Akiba: "How shall the holy blessed God raise the dead? We are taught that God has a trumpet a thousand ells long, according to the ell of God: this trumpet he shall blow, so that the sound of it shall extend from one extremity of the earth to the other. At the first blast the earth shall be shaken; at the second, the dust shall be separated; at the third, the bones shall be gathered together; at the fourth, the members shall wax warm; at the fifth, the heads shall be covered with skin; at the sixth, the souls shall be rejoined to their bodies; at the seventh, all shall revive and stand clothed." See Wetstein. This tradition shows us what we are to understand by the last trump of the apostle; it is the seventh of Rab. Akiba, when the dead shall be all raised, and, being clothed upon with their eternal vehicles, they shall be ready to appear before the judgment seat of God. For the trumpet shall sound - By this the apostle confirms the substance of the tradition, there shall be the sound of a trumpet on this great day; and this other scriptures teach: see Zac 9:14; Mat 24:31; Joh 5:25; Th1 4:16, in which latter place, the apostle treats this subject among the Thessalonians, as he does here among the Corinthians. See the notes at Th1 4:16. Shall be raised incorruptible - Fully clothed with a new body, to die no more. We shall be changed - That is, those who shall then be found alive.”

“the last trump--at the sounding of the trumpet on the last day [VATABLUS] (Mat 24:31; Th1 4:16). Or the Spirit by Paul hints that the other trumpets mentioned subsequently in the Apocalypse shall precede, and that this shall be the last of all (compare Isa 27:13; Zac 9:14). As the law was given with the sound of a trumpet, so the final judgment according to it (Heb 12:19; compare Exo 19:16). As the Lord ascended "with the sound of a trumpet" (Psa 47:5), so He shall descend (Rev 11:15). The trumpet was sounded to convoke the people on solemn feasts, especially on the first day of the seventh month (the type of the completion of time; seven being the number for perfection; on the tenth of the same month was the atonement, and on the fifteenth the feast of tabernacles, commemorative of completed salvation out of the spiritual Egypt, compare Zac 14:18-19); compare Psa 50:1-7. Compare His calling forth of Lazarus from the grave "with a loud voice," Joh 11:43, with Joh 5:25, Joh 5:28. and--immediately, in consequence.”