De anima contra Arianos

Concerning the Soul, against the Arians. What would they say, looking upon the nurture of the infant, or the growth of his age, or the increase of his years, or the development of his body? To pass over the miracles accomplished upon the earth, let them see the resurrections of the dead, the symbols of the passion, the marks of the scourges, the welts of the blows, the pierced side, the imprints of the nails, the shedding of blood, the signs of death, and, to speak comprehensively, the resurrection of his own body. And if one looks to the birth of his body, he would clearly find that, having been born in Bethlehem, he was swaddled, and in Egypt he was nourished for some time because of the plot of the wicked Herod, and in Nazareth he grew to manhood. For the tabernacle of the Word and God, through which the blessed Stephen beheld the divine glory, is not the same. Before the passion, he repeatedly foretold his own bodily death, saying that he would be handed over to the high priests, and announcing the trophy of the cross. After the passion, having risen from the dead on the third day, when the disciples were doubting that he had been raised, he appeared to them in his own body, confessing that he had all flesh together with bones, and presenting to their eyes his pierced side, and showing them the imprints of his nails. It is possible to refute their impious slander in few words: for especially if not for the sake of the salvation of men he had voluntarily given his own body to the slaughter of death.

First, they ascribe to him great impotence, because he was not able to check the onset of his enemies. And why do they make it a point to show that Christ assumed a soulless body, fabricating earthly deceits? So that if they should be able to corrupt some, and have them define these things as so, then, having attached the alterations of the passions to the divine Spirit, they might easily persuade them that the mutable is not born from the immutable nature. 16 And in agreement with these things, the same Jeremiah, expounding, sets forth the voices of God which he ministers, through which he shows that he does not even accept the intercessions of the righteous, if they should wish to plead for the sake of the murderers. And the Lord said to me, saying: If Moses and Samuel stand before my face, my soul is not toward them. 17 But if through the manifestation of Christ he introduces the race of men into paradise, and when he was crucified he foretold that he would bring the thief there on the same day, while the body still lay in the tomb, it is established that the soul of Christ, dwelling properly with the Word and God, who contains all creation of generated things together, introduced the kindred soul of man into paradise. For it is not written that before the resurrection of the holy body, the body of the thief was raised first, receiving the promise. It is fitting, therefore, to suppose intelligently that the soul, kindly guiding the kindred soul, since it also holds greater authority, brought the promise to completion on the same day, and opened paradise, leading into the exceptional inheritance.