Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
All Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 12:7 Go To Ecclesiastes 12
John Cassian
AD 435
“Before the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God, who gave it.” What could be said more clearly than his having declared the stuff of the flesh, which he has called dust because it originated from the seed of man and seems to be sown by his doing, will return to the earth once more just as it was taken from the earth? Whereas he has indicated that the spirit, which is not begotten from the mingling of the sexes but is bestowed particularly by God alone, will return to its Creator? This is clearly expressed, too, by that inbreathing of God by which Adam was first ensouled. .
