There is therefore nothing beyond probability in believing that in the bodies that rise again there will be a return from the common stock to the individual, especially for any one who examines our nature with careful attention. For neither does our being consist altogether in flux and change-for surely that which had by nature no stability would be absolutely incomprehensible-but according to the more accurate statement some one of our constituent parts is stationary while the rest goes through a process of alteration: for the body is on the one hand altered by way of growth and diminution, changing, like garments, the vesture of its successive statures, while the form, on the other hand, remains in itself unaltered through every change, not varying from the marks once imposed upon it by nature, but appearing with its own tokens of identity in all the changes which the body undergoes.

We must except, however, from this statement the change which happens to the form as the result of disease: for the deformity of sickness takes possession of the form like some strange mask, and when this is removed by the word , as in the case of Naaman the Syrian, or of those whose story is recorded in the Gospel, the form that had been hidden by disease is once more by means of health restored to sight again with its own marks of identity.

Οὐκοῦν οὐδὲν ἕξω τοῦ εἰκότος ἐστί, πάλιν πιστεύειν ἐκ τοῦ κοινοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἴδιον τὴν ἀνάλυσιν γίνεσθαι τῶν ἀνισταμένων σωμάτων καὶ μάλιστά γε τῷ φιλοπονώτερον τὴν φύσιν ἡμῶν κατεξετάζοντι. Οὔτε γὰρ δι' ὅλου ἐν ῥύσει καὶ μεταβολῇ τὸ ἡμέτερον. ῏Η γὰρ ἂν ἄληπτον ἦν καθόλου τῷ μηδεμίαν στάσιν ἔχειν ἐκ φύσεως, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸν ἀκριβέστερον λόγον͵ τὸ μέν τι ἔστηκε τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν͵ τὸ δὲ δι' ἀλλοιώσεως πρόεισιν. Ἀλλοιοῦται μὲν γὰρ δι' αὐξήσεώς τε καὶ μειώσεως τὸ σῶμα͵ οἷον ἱμάτιά τινα͵ τὰς καθεξῆς ἡλικίας μετενδυόμενον. Ἕστηκε δὲ διὰ πάσης τροπῆς ἀμετάβλητον ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ τὸ εἶδος͵ τῶν ἅπαξ ἐπιβληθέντων αὐτῷ παρὰ τῆς φύσεως σημείων οὐκ ἐξιστάμενον͵ ἀλλὰ πάσαις ταῖς κατὰ τὸ σῶμα τροπαῖς μετὰ τῶν ἰδίων ἐμφαινόμενον γνωρισμάτων.   

Ὑπεξαιρείσθω δὲ τοῦ λόγου ἡ ἐκ πάθους ἀλλοίωσις͵ ἡ τῷ εἴδει ἐπισυμβαίνουσα, οἶον γάρ τι προσωπεῖον ἀλλότριον ἡ κατὰ τὴν νόσον ἀμορφία διαλαμβάνει τὸ εἶδος͵ [228] ἧς τῷ λόγῳ περιαιρεθείσης, καθάπερ ἐπὶ Νεεμὰν τοῦ Σύρου ἢ ἐπὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον ἱστορηθέντων͵ πάλιν τὸ κεκρυμμένον ὑπὸ τοῦ πάθους εἶδος διὰ τῆς ὑγείας ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνεφάνη γνωρίσμασι.