But God gives it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed its own body.
Read Chapter 15
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
He did not say God “gave” or “ordered” but God “gives,” that you may know how the Creator applies the effective power of his wisdom to the creation of things which come into existence daily at their appointed times.
But God giveth . . . to every seed his own body. He gives to each seed the body that belongs to its own natural species, as, e.g, to a grain of wheat He gives a body of wheat, and not of barley or of oats.
It seems to me that here Paul is refuting those who ignore the particular standards of nature and assess the divine power in the light of their own strength. They think that God can do only as much as man can comprehend. They think that what is beyond us also exceeds the power of God. .
Yes, says one, but in that case it is the work of nature. Of what nature, tell me? For in that case likewise God surely does the whole; not nature, nor the earth, nor the rain. Wherefore also he making these things manifest, leaves out both earth and rain, atmosphere, sun, and hands of husbandmen, and subjoins, God gives it a body as it pleased Him. Do not thou therefore curiously inquire, nor busy yourself with the how and in what manner, when you hear of the power and will of God.
And to each seed a body of its own. Where then is the alien matter which they speak of? For He gives to each his own. So that when he says, You sow not that which shall be, he says not this, that one substance is raised up instead of another, but that it is improved, that it is more glorious. For to each of the seeds, says he, a body of its own.
4. From hence in what follows, he introducing also the difference of the resurrection which shall then be. For do not suppose, because grain is sown and all c...
