Dialogue with Heraclides · §25

Three deaths; immortal and not immortal

Origen said: To this word I will say that the soul is both immortal and the soul is not immortal. Let us first distinguish the name of death and how many things are signified from the utterance 'death.' I will try to set out how many things are signified, not according to the Greeks, but how many are signified according to the divine scripture. Perhaps someone wiser than I will also set out other significations; I, at any rate, for the present know three deaths. What are these three deaths?

Someone lives to God and has died to sin, according to the apostle. This death is blessed: someone dies to sin. This death my Lord died. For that which he died, he died to sin.

I know another death as well, according to which someone dies to God, about which it is said: The soul that sins, it shall die.

I know also a third death, according to which we commonly think those released from the body have died. For Adam lived thirty and nine hundred years, and he died.

There being, then, three deaths, let us see whether the human soul is immortal according to the three deaths, or not according to the three deaths, but immortal according to some of them. According to the middle death we all die, which we take to be dissolution. This death no human soul dies. For if it died, it would not be punished after death.

Greek

λόγον ἐρῶ ὅτι καὶ ἀθάνατος ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ οὐκ ἀθάνατος ἡ ψυχή. Τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θανάτου πρῶτον διαστείλωμεν καὶ ὅσα σημαίνεται ἐκ τῆς τοῦ θανάτου φωνῆς. Παραστῆσαι πειράσομαι ὅσα σημαίνεται οὐ καθ' Ἕλληνας, ἀλλ' ὅσα σημαίνεται κατὰ τὴν θείαν γραφήν. Ἴσως μέν μου σοφώτερος καὶ ἄλλα σημαινόμενα παραστήσει· ἐγὼ μέντοι γε ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος οἶδα τρεῖς θανάτους. Ποίους τούτους τρεῖς θανάτους; «Ζῇ» τις «τῷ Θεῷ» καὶ «ἀπέθανεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ» κατὰ τὸν ἀπόστολον. Οὗτος μακάριος ὁ θάνατος· ἀποθνῄσκει τις τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ· τοῦτον τὸν θάνατον ὁ Κύριός μου ἀπέθανεν.

«Ὃ γὰρ ἀπέθανεν, τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ἀπέθανεν.». Οἶδα καὶ ἄλλον θάνατον καθ' ὃν ἀποθνῄσκει τις τῷ Θεῷ, περὶ οὗ εἴρηται· «Ψυχὴ ἡ ἁμαρτάνουσα αὐτὴ ἀποθανεῖται.». Οἶδα καὶ τρίτον θάνατον καθ' ὃν κοινῶς νομίζομεν τοὺς ἀπαλλαγέντας τοῦ σώματος ἀποτεθνάναι· «ἔζησεν» γὰρ Ἀδὰμ «ἔτη τριάκοντα καὶ ἐνακόσια, καὶ ἀπέθανεν». Τριῶν τοίνυν ὄντων θανάτων, ἴδωμεν ἡ ψυχὴ ἀνθρωπίνη πότερόν ἐστιν κατὰ τοὺς τρεῖς θανάτους ἀθάνατος, ἢ οὐ κατὰ τοὺς τρεῖς θανάτους, ἀλλὰ κατά τινας τούτων ἀθάνατος.

Κατὰ τὸν μέσον θάνατον πάντες ἄνθρωποι ἀποθνῄσκομεν· ὃν διάλυσιν νομίζομεν εἶναι. <Τοῦτον> τὸν θάνατον οὐδεμία ψυχὴ ἀνθρώπου ἀποθνῄσκει