Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
Read Chapter 15
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The pious people will be raised as they transform the remnants of the “old man” that cling to them into the “new man.” The impious people who have kept the “old man” from the beginning to the end will be raised in order to be precipitated into the second death. Those who read diligently can make out the divisions of the ages. They have no horror of tares or chaff.
The radiance of the saints refers to when they will gleam at the resurrection like the angels of God. They will be so cleansed and radiant that they can gaze on the Majesty with the heart’s eyes. They cannot gaze on that Light unless they are changed for the better. In Paul’s words: “We shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed.”
We shall all indeed rise again, but we shall not all be changed. This is the reading of the Latin Vulgate, and of some Greek manuscripts, and the sense is, that all both good and bad shall rise, but only the elect to the happy change of a glorified body. The reading in most Greek copies at present is, we shall not all sleep, (i.e. die) but we shall be all changed: so also read St. Chrysostom: and St. Jerome found it in many manuscripts from which divers, especially of the Greek interpreters, thought that such as should be found living at the day of judgment should not die, but the bodies of the elect (of whom St. Paul here speaks) should be changed to a happy state of immortality. This opinion, if it deserve not to be censured, is at least against the common persuasion of the faithful, who look upon it certain that all shall die before they come to judgment. Some expound the Greek only to signify, that all shall not sleep, i.e. shall not remain for any time in the grave, as others who ...
It is something awful and ineffable and which all know not, which he is about to speak of: which also indicates the greatness of the honor he confers on them; I mean, his speaking mysteries to them. But what is this?
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. He means as follows: we shall not all die, 'but we shall all be changed,' even those who die not. For they too are mortal. Do not thou therefore because you die, on this account fear, says he, as if you should not rise again: for there are, there are some who shall even escape this, and yet this suffices them not for that resurrection, but even those bodies which die not must be changed and be transformed into incorruption.
But how shall it be changed, if it shall have no real existence? If, however, this is only said of those who shall be found in the flesh.
For when he adds, "This corruptible must put on in corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality"
