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pierced hands and side . His flesh had, therefore, recovered life through its
reintegration with the soul. Now, according to Saint Paul, Christ is the first fruits of them
that slept. He is the symbol of the resurrected, as Adam is that of the victims of death.

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Man's flesh will, therefore, one day, meet with the same fate as Christ's flesh .
Even though the Jews, as we have just pointed out, had not the slightest idea of this

mode of resurrection, the Christians had absolutely no doubt about it. They knew that
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God quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were .
They were convinced that He who raised up Christ from the dead, would also quicken

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our mortal bodies by His Ghost that dwelleth in us .
Taking these texts as a basis, Theology advances the following theory: we know that
the elements of the human body are renewed constantly during this earthly existence. It

is possible that there is not a single common molecule between the body of an old man

and the one he had as a child. However, it is the same body, because it is the same soul

which animates it and which holds together all the elements associated with it.
Whatever the elements that compose the resurrected body, its identity will be ensured

by the presence of the Soul. And this transfigured body (as described by Saint Paul) will

be the same as the one of the earthly life, just as truly as the body at the old man is the

same as the one

16
John, XX, 27.
17 I Corinthians, XV, 20-28.
18
Romans, IV, 17.
19
Romans, VIII, 11.