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Audiobook edition · 34 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 26 pagesAbout this book
What if resurrection is not a distant promise, but a change already at work?
In The Treatise on the Resurrection, also called the Epistle to Rheginos, an unnamed Christian teacher answers a pupil’s doubts about death. Rheginos wants to understand resurrection. His teacher offers a striking answer: according to the letter, it is real, spiritual, and already shared by those who belong to the Saviour.
This short letter brings faith and philosophy into close conversation. The teacher draws on Christ, Paul, and images of light, seed, and clothing to explain a change that is not the revival of a corpse. At stake is how believers understand death, identity, and their part in Christ’s rising.
What you’ll discover
- A pupil’s urgent question Meet Rheginos through a personal reply that treats his doubts as questions worth answering.
- The Saviour’s two natures Explore how the teacher grounds his argument in Christ as both human and divine.
- Resurrection in the present Consider the letter’s claim that believers already share in the Saviour’s suffering and rising.
- Truth rather than illusion Follow the teacher’s response to those who dismiss a spiritual resurrection as a pleasing story.
- Light overcoming darkness Discover images of imperishability clothing the perishable, making a difficult idea vivid and concrete.
Who will love it
Readers drawn to early Christian letters, the Nag Hammadi library and questions about life beyond death will love this work. It also suits those who enjoy a teacher's personal voice and images of sunlight.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Resurrection may already belong to you
- Truth brings rest rather than pride
- Christ joins humanity and divinity
- Believers are beams of Christ's light
- Faith sees what truly belongs
- Resurrection reveals what remains real
- Live the risen life now
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The Treatise on the Resurrection
by Attributed to Athenagoras of Athens · 175
A teacher writes to his pupil Rheginos to say that the resurrection is something you already possess.
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“It is always the disclosure of those who have risen.”
In short
What if the great change you fear has in some sense already happened? That is the startling offer of a short letter from the ancient world, written by a teacher to a student named Rheginos.
The Treatise on the Resurrection at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 min5 min fast, 8 min slow
- Length
- 1,550 words5 chapters
- Pages
- 36 pages36 in large print
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- about AD 175by Attributed to Athenagoras of Athens
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Listen freeOr hold it in print: paperback, hardcover or large print, at costFrom the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A teacher answers a student named Rheginos
The Treatise on the Resurrection is a letter, and it reads like one. A teacher addresses a pupil he calls my son Rheginos, who has asked what is proper to believe about the resurrection. The teacher says the matter is necessary and promises to explain it. He writes as a guide who knows his student and cares how he lives.
The letter was copied into a papyrus book that belonged to thirteen books found near Nag Hammadi in 1945. Scholars think the Coptic is a translation from Greek, and most place the original in the second or third century. Nobody can say exactly when or by whom.
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A teacher writes to his pupil Rheginos to say that the resurrection is something you already possess.
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Details
- First published
- 175
- Language
- English
- Listening time
- 34 min
- Level
- Medium level
- Paperback
- 26 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 36 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Delivery and returns
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Cite this edition
Athenagoras of Athens. The Treatise on the Resurrection. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-treatise-on-the-resurrection.
Athenagoras of Athens. (2026). The treatise on the resurrection. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-treatise-on-the-resurrection (Original work published ca. 175)
Athenagoras of Athens. The Treatise on the Resurrection. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-treatise-on-the-resurrection.
@book{athenagorasofathens2026treatise,
author = {Athenagoras of Athens},
title = {The Treatise on the Resurrection},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-treatise-on-the-resurrection},
note = {First published ca. 175}
}
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What is the Treatise on the Resurrection about?
It is a teacher's letter to a pupil named Rheginos. It explains that Christ swallowed up death, that believers are drawn upward like beams of light, and that the resurrection is a spiritual reality that those who know the truth already possess.
Who is Rheginos in the Epistle to Rheginos?
Rheginos is the student to whom the letter is addressed. The teacher calls him my son, answers his question about the resurrection, and urges him to live as one already risen. Nothing else about him is known from the letter.
Where was the Treatise on the Resurrection found and when was it written?
It was found near Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945, in a Coptic papyrus book known as Codex One. Scholars generally date the original Greek to the second or third century, and its author remains anonymous.
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