Loving Their Wives as Their Own Bodies, Continued

Earlier I gave the simple explanation of my own opinion on this passage in these words: [a] “Taking the words in their simple sense, we have a command, following on the precept of mutual kindness between husband and wife, that we should nourish and cherish our wives: that is, that we should supply them with the food and clothing they need.”

This is my own understanding of the passage. My words therefore imply that everything that follows, and that might be brought up against me, must be taken as spoken not as my own view but as the view of my opponents. But someone may think that my way of resolving the difficulty of the passage is too brief and abrupt, and that, going by what was said above, it wraps the true sense in the darkness of allegory, so as to bring it down from its true meaning to a less true one. So I will come closer to the matter and ask what there is in the other interpretation that you need to disagree with. It is this, I suppose: that I said souls should cherish their bodies as men cherish their wives, so that this corruptible body may put on incorruption, and that, lightly poised as if on wings, it may rise more easily into the air. When I say that this corruptible body must put on incorruption, I do not change the nature of the body; I give it a higher rank in the scale of being. The same goes for what follows, that, lightly poised as if on wings, it may rise more easily into the air. A man who gets wings, that is, immortality, so that he may fly more lightly up to heaven, does not stop being what he was before. But you may say, “I am staggered by what follows.” [b]

“So let us men cherish our wives, and let our souls cherish our bodies, in such a way that wives may be turned into men and bodies into spirits, and that there may be no difference of sex; but that, as among the angels there is neither male nor female, so we, who are to be like the angels, may begin to be on earth what we are promised we will be in heaven.”

You might rightly be staggered if I had not, after what goes before, said, “We may begin to be what we are promised we will be in heaven.” When I say, “We will begin to be on earth,” I do not take away the difference of sex. I take away only lust and sexual intercourse, as the apostle does when he says, “The time is short; it remains, therefore, that those who have wives should be as though they had none.” So too the Lord implied this when he was asked which of the seven brothers the woman would be wife to, and answered, “You are mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but they will be like the angels of God.” And indeed, when chastity is kept between a man and a woman, it begins to be true that there is neither male nor female. Rather, though still living in the body, they are being changed into angels, among whom there is neither male nor female. The same apostle says the same thing in another place: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor free, there can be no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” [c]