“(Socrates answering why suicide is an evil) There is a doctrine uttered in secret that man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door of his prison and run away; this is a great mystery which I do not quite understand. Yet I, too, believe that the gods are our guardians, and that we are a possession of theirs.” Plato, Phaedo

The Orthodox Sect rashly condemns ever referring to the body as a “prison” because of their carnal infatuation with matter.

“This, of course, is a disparagement of the human body, because, besides this there’s the belief that the body is a prison for the soul, that there’s a diarchy in the world involving spirit and body. These notions were condemned by the holy Fathers.” – Metropolitan Athanasios of Lemessos, The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and the Importance of the Human Body

“The true person, of the Christian understanding as I have already said in my opening talk, is a undivided unity of soul and body together. The body is not a prison or tomb.” – Bishop Kallistos, A peaceful ending to our life

“According to platonic philosophy, man’s purpose is to liberate his nous from his body, which he regards as a prison of his soul. However, as St. Gregory Palamas says, for the nous to go out of the body is a “discovery of the demons and a lesson taught by pagans”. On the contrary, our own effort lies in the return of the nous to the heart, for the body is not a prison of the soul, but a positive work of creation by God.” – Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou, The Hagiorite Tome of Saint Gregory Palamas

“The Jewish and the Christian interpretation of Creation precludes altogether the overall Hellenic dualism between body and soul. Because according to this interpretation, the visible, the physical and the carnal are equally a divine creation, as are the invisible and the spiritual. God is the Creator of the body. The body is not the prison of the soul.” – ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE Orthodox Metropolitanate, IS THE TEACHING OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH PLATONIC?

The analogy of referring to the body as a prison isn’t impious, it actually works quite well as an illustration: prison does not take away all free will, but it does limit the things we are capable of doing, much like how our current bodies are limited in what they are capable of doing, not being able to do anything it wills whatsoever but within a fixed limit. And the purpose of the prison is to monitor the behavior of the inmates’ limited behavior to see if he is worthy of obtaining greater freedom (a resurrected body that can do anything).

Do the Scriptures Ever Call the Body a Prison?

For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly tent burdens the mind full of thoughts. Wisdom of Solomon 9:15

• Although this verse does not explicitly state that “the body is a prison”, it is implicit. This passage parallels the reasoning that Ambrose gives for the body being a prison in his Letter 34.4; it echoes the same sentiment.

Do the Fathers Ever Call the Body a Prison?

“The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet keeps together that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they keep together the world. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell as sojourners in corruptible [bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens.” The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, Chapter 6

“Moreover, as often as the soul has fallen short as a defaulter in sin, it has to be recalled to existence, until it ‘pays the utmost farthing,’ thrust out from time to time into the prison of the body. To this effect does he tamper with the whole of that allegory of the Lord which is extremely clear and simple in its meaning, and ought to be from the first understood in its plain and natural sense.” Tertullian, On the Soul, Chapter 35

“Like someone who is in the prison of the body and sees that no one is freeing him from it so that he can be released from the world with hope, except for the one whom he himself held in his arms, he says, ‘Now you are letting your servant go free, according to your word.’” Origen, Homily 15 on Luke

But according to my view and that of the word of God, the soul which has departed from the troubles, the sweat, and the body, that which can say, “Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, “is that which departs in peace and rests with Christ. It is thus that the soul of Abraham understood the words: “As for thee, thou shalt go in peace to thy fathers, having lived to a good old age.”He departed to his fathers. What fathers? Those of whom Paul says: “For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of whom all fatherhood is derived. “In our view it was in this sense that Aaron was set free. Also it is written in Ecclesiastes concerning the just man who has fought a good fight, who is departing from the fetter of the body, that “From the house of the prisoners he will go forth to be a king.” Thus I am persuaded to die for the truth, thus I readily despise what is called death. Bring wild beasts, bring crosses, bring fire, bring tortures. I know that as soon as I die, I come forth from the body, I rest with Christ. Therefore let us struggle, therefore let us wrestle, let us groan being in the body, not as if we shall again be in the tombs in the body, because we shall be set free from it, and shall change our body to one which is more spiritual. Destined as we are to be with Christ, how we groan while we are in the body! Origen, Dialogue with Heraclides (and the Bishops with him concerning the Father and the Son and the Soul)

“After all, there is no one so ignorant of worldly wisdom that he would dare to claim that the soul perishes along with the body, that the heavenly is doomed to the same destruction as the earthly. Even the wisest of the Greeks said that death is when the spirit is confined within the body like a prison and that true life is when the spirit is freed from this imprisonment and returns to the place from which it came. And if he, who did not know Christ, thought this way, why should the Christian doubt? He hears that there will be a resurrection, he believes in it, and he confidently assumes that it has been prepared for him by Christ.” Zeno of Verona, Book 1, Treatise XIV: On the Resurrection

“His prophetic powers showed that he, freed from his ailing body’s prison, would have the peace of death once he saw him…” Juvencus’ Four Books of the Gospels Book 1.190

“For nothing so arouses the soul, gives it wings, sets it free from earth, releases it from the prison of the body, teaches it to love wisdom, and to despise all the things of this life, as harmonious melody and sacred song….” John Chrysostom, In psalmum XLI

“Every soul, seeing herself shut up in the prison-house of the body, …groans under the burden of the body to which she is joined; for the corruptible body presses down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weighs down the mind.” Ambrose of Milan, Letter 34.4

We often read that the body is called the prison of the soul. The soul is confined as if in a cage. Paul, for example, was constrained by the ties of the body and did not return to be with Christ so that the preaching to the Gentiles might be perfectly accomplished through him. But I grant that there are some who introduce another meaning here: Paul before his birth was predestined and sanctified from his mother’s womb for the purpose of preaching to the Gentiles. For this vocation, he took on the bonds of flesh. — Jerome, Epistle to the Ephesians 2.3.1.4

“Hence comes also your mysterious question, Why do infants die? Since it is because of their sins, as you hold, that they received bodies. There exists a treatise of Didymus addressed to you, in which he meets this inquiry of yours, with the answer, that they had not sinned much, and therefore it was enough punishment for them just to have touched their bodily prisons. He, who was your master and mine also, when you asked this question.” Jerome, Apology Against Rufinus, Book 3

Suppose a person who has been baptized to have been carried off by death either immediately, or on the very day of his baptism, and I will generously concede that he neither thought nor said anything whereby, through error and ignorance, he fell into sin. Does it follow that he will, therefore, be without sin, because he appears not to have overcome, but to have avoided sin? Is not the true reason rather that by the mercy of God he was released from the prison of sins and departed to the Lord? – Jerome, Against the Pelagians, book 3, chapter 2

“Let God then lead us forth from the body, when He will. Our body too might be said to be a prison, not because that is a prison which God has made, but because it is under punishment and liable to death. For there are two things to be considered in our body, God’s workmanship, and the punishment it has deserved… Perhaps then he meant by, Bring my soul out of prison, bring my soul out of corruption. If thus we understand it, it is no blasphemy, the meaning is consistent.” Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 142, Chapter 8

“And thus it doth often fall out, by the sweet providence of God, that good men at their death do behold his Saints going before them, and leading as it were the way, to the end they should not be afraid at the pangs thereof; and that whiles their souls do see the Saints in heaven, they may be discharged from the prison of this body, without all fear and grief.” Gregory the Great, Dialogues Book 4, Chapter 11