the cause of our grace, according
to John 1:16: "Of His fulness we all have received." But in point of
time some others had grace previous to Christ--for instance all the
fathers of the Old Testament. Therefore some others came to the
resurrection of the body before Christ.

_On the contrary,_ It is written (1 Cor. 15:20): "Christ is risen
from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep--because," says
the gloss, "He rose first in point of time and dignity."

_I answer that,_ Resurrection is a restoring from death to life. Now
a man is snatched from death in two ways: first of all, from actual
death, so that he begins in any way to live anew after being actually
dead: in another way, so that he is not only rescued from death, but
from the necessity, nay more, from the possibility of dying again.
Such is a true and perfect resurrection, because so long as a man
lives, subject to the necessity of dying, death has dominion over him
in a measure, according to Rom. 8:10: "The body indeed is dead
because of sin." Furthermore, what has the possibility of existence,
is said to exist in some respect, that is, in potentiality. Thus it
is evident that the resurrection, whereby one is rescued from actual
death only, is but an imperfect one.

Consequently, speaking of perfect resurrection, Christ is the first
of them who rise, because by rising He was the first to attain life
utterly immortal, according to Rom. 6:9: "Christ rising from the dead
dieth now no more." But by an imperfect resurrection, some others
have risen before Christ, so as to be a kind of figure of His
Resurrection.

And thus the answer to the first objection is clear: because both
those raised from the dead in the old Testament, and those raised by
Christ, so returned to life that they had to die again.

Reply Obj. 2: There are two opinions regarding them who rose with
Christ. Some hold that they rose to life so as to die no more,
because it would be a greater torment for them to die a second time
than not to rise at all. According to this view, as Jerome observes
on Matt. 27:52, 53, we must understand that "they had not risen
before our Lord rose." Hence the Evangelist says that "coming out of
the tombs after His Resurrection, they came into the holy city, and
appeared to many." But Augustine (Ep. ad Evod. clxiv) while giving
this opinion, says: "I know that it appears some, that by the death
of Christ the Lord the same resurrection was bestowed upon the