The bodies of the righteous, then, such as they will be in the resurrection, will need neither any fruit to preserve them from dying of disease or the wasting decay of old age, nor any other physical nourishment to allay the cravings of hunger or of thirst; for they will be clothed with so sure and in every way inviolable an immortality that they will not eat except when they choose, nor be under the necessity of eating, while they enjoy the power of doing so. For so it was with the angels who presented themselves to the eye and touch of men, not because they could do nothing else, but because they were able and desirous to suit themselves to men by a kind of human service. For we are not to suppose, when men receive them as guests, that the angels eat only in appearance, though to any who did not know them to be angels they might seem to eat from the same necessity as ourselves. So these words spoken in the Book of Tobit, “You saw me eat, but you saw it only in a vision;”⁠a that is, you thought I took food as you do for the sake of refreshing my body. But if in the case of the angels another opinion seems more capable of defense, certainly our faith leaves no room to doubt regarding our Lord Himself, that even after His resurrection, and when now in spiritual but still real flesh, He ate and drank with His disciples; for not the power, but the need, of eating and drinking is taken from these bodies. And so they will be spiritual, not because they will cease to be bodies, but because they will subsist by the life-giving spirit.