Here is an extract from Josephus's

discourse to the Greeks concerning

Hades:

Book 1 ‑ Chapter 1

"This is the discourse concerning Hades,

wherein the souls of all men are

confined until a proper season, which

God hath determined, when he will make

a resurrection of all men from the dead,

not procuring a transmigration of

souls from one body to another, but

raising again those very bodies, which

you Greeks, seeing to be dissolved, do

not believe [their resurrection]. But

learn not to disbelieve it; for while

you believe that the soul is created,

and yet is made immortal by God,

according to the doctrine of Plato, and

this in time, be not incredulous; but

believe that God is able, when he hath

raised to life that body which was made

as a compound of the same elements,

to make it immortal; for it must never

be said of God, that he is able to do

some things, and unable to do others. We

have therefore believed that the

body will be raised again; for although

it be dissolved, it is not perished;

for the earth receives its remains, and

preserves them; and while they are

like seed, and are mixed among the more

fruitful soil, they flourish, and

what is sown is indeed sown bare grain,

but at the mighty sound of God the

Creator, it will sprout up, and be

raised in a clothed and glorious

condition, though not before it has been

dissolved, and mixed [with the

earth]. So that we have not rashly

believed the resurrection of the body;

for although it be dissolved for a time

on account of the original

transgression, it exists still, and is

cast into the earth as into a

potter's furnace, in order to be formed

again, not in order to rise again

such as it was before, but in a state of

purity, and so as never to he

destroyed any more. And to every body

shall its own soul be restored. And

when it hath clothed itself with that

body, it will not be subject to

misery, but, being itself pure, it will

continue with its pure body, and

rejoice with it, with which it having

walked righteously now in this world,

and never having had it as a snare, it

will receive it again with great

gladness. But as for the unjust, they

will receive their bodies not changed,

not freed from diseases or distempers,

nor made glorious, but with the same

diseases wherein they died; and such as

they were in their unbelief, the

same shall they be when they shall be

faithfully judged. "