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. "