Note 7 — Chapter IV

Tertullian appealed to the second of these miracles to illustrate the possibility of the resurrection. “The hand of Moses is changed and becomes like that of the dead, bloodless, colourless, and stiff with cold. But on the recovery of heat and restoration of its natural colour, it is the same flesh and blood.... So will changes, conversions and reformation be needed to bring about the resurrection, yet the substance will be preserved safe.” (De Res., lv.) It is far wiser to be content with the declaration of St. Paul that the identity of the body does not depend on that of its corporeal atoms. “Thou sowest not that body that shall be, but a naked grain.... But God giveth ... to every seed his own body” (1 Cor. xv. 37–8).