Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
In the flesh in which the saints endured many hardships here, they will receive the fruit of their labors — especially since the whole creation looks forward to this, and God has promised it to Abraham and his seed. (At this point a manuscript note has crept into the text: only our Codex Vossianus has these five chapters, which I have collated most carefully with the printed editions.) Now the opinions of certain people are carried over from heretical discourses, for they are ignorant of God's arrangements and of the mystery of the resurrection of the just and of the kingdom, which is the beginning of incorruption, through which those found worthy gradually grow accustomed to receive God. It is necessary to speak of these things, because it is fitting that the just should first, in this creation as it is renewed, rise at the appearing of God and obtain the inheritance God pledged of old to the patriarchs, and there hold their reign; only after that does judgment follow. For whatever condition marked their toil or suffering, tested through every kind of patience, justice demands they reap in that very condition the harvest of their patience; and whatever condition marked their death for love of God, in that same condition they are to be raised alive; and whatever condition marked their bondage, in that same condition they shall rule. God, after all, abounds in every good thing, and everything belongs to him. It is fitting, then, that creation itself, brought back to its first state, should wait on the just without let or hindrance; and the Apostle showed as much in writing to the Romans, saying: 'The creature waits eagerly, straining for the unveiling of God's children. For the creature was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but through him who subjected it, in hope; because the creature itself shall likewise be set loose from bondage to decay, into the freedom belonging to the glory of God's offspring.'
Likewise the pledge God gave to Abraham stands unshaken. For he said: 'Raise your eyes and survey, from where you now stand, toward north and south, toward the rising sun and the sea; every stretch of land within your sight I give to you and your offspring, for all time.' And once more he said: 'Get up, walk the land across and along, for I am giving it over to you' — and yet he never took possession of it, not even one footprint's worth, but remained throughout a foreigner and a wanderer there. When his wife Sarah died, although the Hittites offered to let him bury her without charge, he declined the gift and instead purchased a burial plot, paying Ephron the Hittite, son of Zohar, four hundred silver didrachms — clinging to what God had pledged, refusing to seem to take as a gift from men what God had promised to bestow, since God had again told him: 'This territory, from the stream of Egypt to the mighty Euphrates, I give to your offspring.' If, then, the land was promised to him as an inheritance, yet he never held it during all his years of wandering, he is bound to obtain it jointly with his offspring — that is, alongside all who revere God and trust him — once the righteous are raised. His offspring is the Church, which is granted sonship toward God through the Lord, just as John the Baptist declared: 'God has power, out of these very stones, to raise up offspring for Abraham.' The Apostle likewise writes, to the Galatians, 'But you, brothers, in the pattern of Isaac, are children born of promise.' And he states plainly again in that same letter that whoever has trusted in Christ inherits what was pledged to Abraham, saying: 'To Abraham the promises were spoken, and to his offspring — not, note, "and to offsprings," as though meaning many, but in the singular, "and to your offspring," meaning Christ.' And to reinforce this same point he adds: 'Abraham put his trust in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness — know, then, that it is those who live by faith who are Abraham's true sons.' And Scripture, having foreseen that God would justify the nations through faith, told Abraham beforehand: 'Through you every nation on earth will find blessing.' Thus those who live by faith share the blessing given to believing Abraham, and it is they who are truly his sons. Now the land was pledged as an inheritance to Abraham and his offspring; yet neither Abraham nor his offspring — meaning those made righteous through faith — hold that inheritance now; it will come to them once the righteous are raised. For God is faithful and does not lie; and on this ground he pronounced the gentle blessed, since the earth will belong to them.