Eran. -Indubitably mortal.
Orth. -And do we say that man consists of these natures?
Eran. -Yes.
Orth. -So the immortalis conjoinedwith the mortal?
Eran. -True.
Orth. -But when the connexion or union is at an end, the mortal submits to the law of death, while the soul remains immortal though sin has introduced death, or do you not hold death to be a penalty?
Eran. -So divine Scripture teaches. For we learn that when God forbade Adam to partake of the tree of knowledge He added "on the day that ye eat thereof ye shall surely die."
Orth. -Then death is the punishment of them that have sinned?
Eran. -Agreed.
Orth. -Why then, when soul and body have both sinned together, does the body alone undergo the punishment of death?
Eran. -It was the body that cast its evil eye upon the tree, and stretched forth its hands, and plucked the forbidden fruit. It was the mouth that bit it with the teeth, and ground it small, and then the gullet committed it to the belly, and the belly digested it, and delivered it to the liver; and the liver turned what it had received into blood and passed it on to the hollow vein and the vein to the adjacent parts and they through the rest, and so the theft of the forbidden food pervaded the whole body. Very properly then the body alone underwent the punishment of sin.
Orth. -You have given us a physiological disquisition on the nature of food, on all the parts that it goes through and on the modifications to which it is subject before it is assimilated with the body. But there is one point that you have refused to observe, and that is that the body goes through none of these processes which you have mentioned without the soul. When bereft of the soul which is its yoke mate the body lies breathless, voiceless, motionless; the eye sees neither wrong nor aright; no sound of voices reaches the ears, the hands cannot stir; the feet cannot walk; the body is like an instrument without music. How then can you say that only the body sinned when the body without the soul cannot even take a breath?
Eran. -The body does indeed receive life from the soul, and it furnishes the soul with the penal possession of sin.
Orth. -How, and in what manner?
Eran. -Through the eyes it makes it see amiss; through the ears it makes it hear unprofitable sounds; and through the tongue utter injurious words, and through all the other parts act ill.
Orth. -Then I suppose we may say Blessed are the deaf; blessed are they that have lost their sight and have been deprived of their other faculties, for the souls of men so incapacitated have neither part nor lot in the wickedness of the body. And why, O most sagacious sir, have you mentioned those functions of the body which are culpable, and said nothing about the laudable? It is possible to look with eyes of love and of kindliness; it is possible to wipe away a tear of compunction, to hear oracles of God, to bend the ear to the poor, to praise the Creator with the tongue, to give good lessons to our neighbour, to move the hand in mercy, and in a word to use the parts of the body for complete acquisition of goodness.
Eran. -This is all true.
Orth. -Therefore the observance and transgression of law is common to both soul and body.
Eran. -Yes.
Orth. -It seems to me that the soul takes the leading part in both, since it uses reasoning before the body acts.
Eran. -In what sense do you say this?
Orth. -First of all the mind makes, as it were, a sketch of virtue or of vice, and then gives to one or the other form with appropriate material and colour, using for its instruments the parts of the body.
Eran. -So it seems.
Orth. -If then the soul sins with the body; nay rather takes the lead in the sin, for to it is entrusted the bridling and direction of the animal part, why, as it shares the sin, does it not also share the punishment?
Eran. -But how were it possible for the immortal soul to share death?