It remains that we say something about the end of the world,^ and the dispensing of re- ward. As soon as Achamoth has completed the full harvest of her seed, and has then pro- ceeded to gather it into her garner, or, after it has been taken to the mill and ground to flour, has hidden it in the kneading-trough with yeast until the whole be leavened, then shall the end speedily come.'* Then, to begin with, Achamoth herself removes from the middle region, s from the second stage to the highest, since she is restored to the Pleroma: she is immediately received by that paragon of perfection^ Soter, as her spouse of course, and they two aftenvards consummate ^ new nuptials. This must be the spouse of the Scripture,^ the Pleroma of espousals (for you might suppose that the Julian laws' were in- terposing, since there are these migrations from place to place). In like manner, the Demiurge, too, will then change the scene of his abode from the celestial Hebdomad '° to the higher regions, to his mother's now vacant saloon " — by this time knowing her, without however seeing her. (A happy coincidence!) For if he had caught a glance of her, he would have preferred never to have known her.
CHAP. XXXII. — INDIGNANT IRONY EXPOSING THE VALENTINIAN FABLE ABOUT THE JUDI- CIAL TREATMENT OF MANKIND AT THE LAST JUDGMENT. THE IMMORALITY OF THE DOC- TRINE.
As for the human race, its end will be to the following effect: — To all which bear the earthy" and material mark there accrues an ' Of the jEons.
" Nee legitimum: " not a lawful son."
3 De consummatione.
4Urgebit.
5 See above, ch. xxiii. p. 514.
* Compacticius ille. 7 Fient.
* Query, the Holy Scriptures,or the writings of the Valentintians? 9 Very severe against adultery, and even against celibacy.
'°In ch. XX. this " scenam de Hebdomade cselesti" is called "caelorum septemplicem scenam" = " the sevenfold stage of heav- en."
" Coenaculum. See above, ch. vii. p. 506.
'2 Choicse: " clayey."
entire destruction, because "all flesh is grass," '3 and amongst these is the soul of mortal man, except when it has found salva- tion by faith. The souls of just men, that is to say, our souls, will be conveyed to the Demiurge in the abodes of the middle region. We are duly thankful; we shall be content to be classed with our god, in whom lies our own origin. "* Into the palace of the Pleroma nothing of the animal nature is admitted — nothing but the spiritual swarm of Valentinus. There, then, the first process is the despoiling of men themselves, that is, men within the Pleroma. 's Now this despoiling consists of the putting off of the souls in which they appear to be clothed, which they will give back to their Demiurge as they had obtained'^ them from him. They will then become wholly intellectual spirits — impalpable, '^ invisible '* — and in this state will be readmitted invisibly to the Pleroma — stealthily, if the case admits of the idea. '9 What then? They will be dis- persed amongst the angels, the attendants on Soter. As sons, do you suppose? Not at all. As servants, then? No, not even so. Well, as phantoms? Would that it were nothing more! Then in what capacity, if you are ashamed to tell us? In the capacity of brides. Then will they end =~ their Sabine rapes with the sanction of wedlock. This will be the guerdon of the spiritual, this the rec- ompense of their faith! Such fables have, their use. Although but a Marcus or a Gaius,^' full-grown in this flesh of ours, with a beard and such like proofs (of virility,) it may be a stern husband, a father, a grandfather, a great- grandfather (never mind what, in fact, if only a male), you may perhaps in the bridal-cham- ber of the Pleroma — I have already said so tacitly ^ — even become the parent by an angel of some ^on of high numerical rank. '^ For the right celebration of these nuptials, instead of the torch and veil, I suppose that secret fire is then to burst forth, which, after dev- astating the whole existence of things, will itself also be reduced to nothing at last, after everything has been reduced to ashes; and so their fable too will be ended. '* But I, too, i3lsa. xl. 6.
»4 See above, in ch. xxiv. p. 515.
'5 Interiores.
'* Averterant.
>7 Neque detentui obnoxii.
18 Neque conspectui obnoxii. • »9 Si ita est: or, " since such is the fact."
zoClaudent.
21 But slaves, in fact.
22 This parenthetic clause, " tacendo jam dixi," perhaps means, " I say this with shame," " I would rather not have to say it."
23 The common reading is, " Onesimum ^Eonem,' an JEon callod Onesimus, in supposed allusion to Philemon's Onesimus. But this is too far-fetched. Oehlcr discovers in " Onesimum" the corrup- tion of some higher number ending in " esimum."
24 This is Oehler's idea of " et nulla jam fabula." RiiraltMic. however, gives a good sense to this clause: " All wil! coi-.iu ' r: ■..t last; there will be no fable."
CHAP. XXXVI.]
AGAINST THE VALENTINIANS.
am no doubt a rash man, in having exposed so great a mystery in so derisive a way: I ouglit to be afraid that Achamoth, who did not choose to make herself known even to her own son, would turn mad, that Theletus would be enraged, that Fortune' would be irritated. But I am yet a liege-man of the Demiurge. I have to return after death to the place where there is no more giving in marriage, where I have to be clothed upon rather than to be de- spoiled,— where, even if I am despoiled of my sex, I am classed with angels — not a male angel, nor a female one. There will be no one to do aught against me, nor will they then find any male energy in me.
CHAP. XXXIII. — THESE REMAINING CHAPTERS AN APPENDIX TO THE MAIN WORK. IN THIS CHAPTER TERTULLIAN NOTICES A DIFFERENCE AMONG SUNDRY FOLLOWERS OF PTOLEMY, A DISCIPLE OF VALENTINUS.
1 shall now at last produce, by way of^- nale,'^ilQX so long a story, those points which, not to interrupt the course of it, and by the interruption distract the reader's attention, I have preferred reserving to this place. They have been variously advanced by those who have improved on ^ the doctrines of Ptolemy. For there have been in his school "disciples above their master, " who have attributed to their Bythus two wives — Cogitatio [Thought) and Voluntas {Will). For Cogitatio alone was not sufficient wherewith to produce any offspring, although from the two wives pro- creation was most easy to him. The former bore him Monogenes {Only-Begolten) and Veritas [Truth). Veritas was a female after the likeness of Cogitatio; Monogenes a male, bearing a resemblance to Voluntas. For it is the strength of Voluntas which procures the masculine nature,* inasmuch as she affords efficiency to Cogitatio.
CHAP. XXXIV. OTHER VARYING OPINIONS AMONG THE VALENTINIANS RESPECTING THE DEITY. CHARACTERISTIC RAILLERY.
Others of purer mind, mindful of the honour of the Deity, have, for the purpose of freeing him from the discredit of even single wedlock, preferred assigning no sex whatever to By- thus; and therefore very likely they talk of " this deity " in the neuter gender rather than " this god." Others again, on the other hand, speak of him as both masculine and feminine, so that the worthy chronicler Fen- estella must not suppose that an hermaphrodite • The same as Macariotes, in ch. viii. above, p. 5C7.
2 Velut epicitharisma. 5 Einendatoribus, ■4Censuin.
was only to be found among the good people of Luna.
CHAP. XXXV. — YET MORE DISCREPANCIES. JUST NOW THE SEX OF BYTHUS WAS AN OBJECT OF DISPUTE; NOW HIS RANK COMES IN QUESTION. ABSURD SUBSTITUTES FOR BYTHUS.CRITICISED BY TERTULLIAN.
There are some who do not claim the first place for Bythus, but only a lower one. They put their Ogdoad in the foremost rank; itself, however, derived from a Tetrad, but under different names. For they put Pro-arche {Be- fore the Beginning) first, Anennoetos [Incon- ceivable) second, Arrhetos [Indescribable) third, Aoratos [Itivisible) fourth. Then after Pro- arche they say Arche [Beginning) came forth and occupied the first and the fifth place; from Anennoetos came Acataleptos [Incomprehen- sible) in the second and the sixth place; from Arrhetos came Anonomastos [Nameless) in the third and the seventh place; from Aoratos ^ came Agennetos [Unbegotten) in the fourth and the eight place. Now by what method he arranges this, that each of these ^ons should be born in two places, and that, too, at such intervals, I prefer to be ignorant of than to be informed. For what can be right in a system which is propounded with such absurd particulars?
CHAP. XXXVI. LESS REPREHENSIBLE THEORIES IN THE HERESY. BAD IS THE BEST OF VAL- ENTINIANISM.
How much more sensible are they who,, rejecting all this tiresome nonsense, have re- fused to believe that any one ^on has de- scended from another by steps like these,, which are really neither more nor less Gemo- nianj ^ but that on a given signal ^ the eight- fold emanation, of which we have heard,* issued all at once from the Father and His Ennoea [Thought),^ — that it is, in fact, from His mere motion that they gain their des- ignations. When, as they say, He thought of producing offspring. He on that account gained the name of Father. After producing, because the issue which He produced was. true, He received the name of Truth. When He wanted Himself to be manifested. He on that account was announced as Mafi. Those, moreover, whom He preconceived in His thought when He produced them, were then designated the Church. As man. He uttered STertuIlian, however, here gives the Latin synonyme, fHvisi- biiis.
^The " Gemonian steps" on the Aventine led to the Tiber, to which the bodies of executed criminals were dragged by hooks, to> be cast into the river.
7 Mappa, quod aiunt, missa: a proverbial expreasion.
8 Istam.
9 See above, ch. vii, p. 506.
AGAINST THE VALENTINIANS.
[chap. XXXIX.
His Word; and so this Word is His first-be- gotten Son, and to the Word was added Life. And by this process the first Ogdoad was com- pleted. However, the whole of this tiresome story is utterly poor and weak.
CHAP. XXXVII. OTHER TURGID AND RIDICU- LOUS THEORIES ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE ^ONS AND CREATION, STATED AND CON- DEMNED.
Now listen to some other buffooneries ' of a master who is a great swell among them,^ and who has pronounced his dicta with an even priestly authority. They run thus: There comes, says he, before all things Pro-arche, the inconceivable, and indescribable, and nameless, which I for my own part call Mo- notes {Solitude). With this was associated another power, to which also I give the name of Henotes {Unity). Now, inasmuch as Mo- notes and Henotes — that is to say, Solitude and Union — were only one being, they pro- duced, and yet not in the way of production, ^ the intellectual, innascible, invisible beginning of all things, which human language* has called Monad {Solitude).^ This has inherent in itself a consubstantial force, which it calls Unity/ These powers, accordingly. Solitude or Solitariness, and Unity, or Union, prop- agated all the other emanations of ^ons.^ Wonderful distinction, to be sure! Whatever change Union and Unity may undergo. Sol- itariness and Solitude is profoundly supreme. Whatever designation you give the power, it is one and the same.
CHAP. XXXVIII. DIVERSITY IN THE OPINIONS OF SECUNDUS, AS COMPARED WITH THE GEN- ERAL DOCTRINE OF VALENTINUS.
Secundus is a trifle more human, as he is briefer: he divides the Ogdoad into a pair of » Oehler gives good reasons for the reading " ingenia circula- toria," instead of the various readings of other editors. 2lnsignioris apud eos magistri.
3 Non proferentes. Another reading is " non proserentes " (not generating).
4 Sermo.
5 Or, solitariness. * Or, Union.
Tetrads, a right hand one and a left hand one, one light and the other darkness. Only he is unwilling to derive the power which aposta- tized and fell away * from any one of the ^ons, but from the fruits which issued from their substance.
CHAP. XXXIX. THEIR DIVERSITY OF SENTIMENT AFFECTS THE VERY CENTRAL DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIANITY, EVEN THE PERSON AND CHAR- ACTER OF THE LORD JESUS. THIS DIVERSITY VITIATES EVERY GNOSTIC SCHOOL.
Now, concerning- even the Lord Jesus, into how great a diversity of opinion are they di- vided! One party form Him of the blossoms of all the JEons.^ Another party will have it that He is made up only of those ten whom the Word and the Z//> '° produced;" from which circumstance the titles of the Word and the Life were suitably transferred to Him. Others, again, that He rather sprang from the twelve, the offspring of Ma7i and the Church f'' and therefore, they say, He was designated "Son of man." Others, moreover, maintain that He was formed by Christ and the Holy Spirit, who have to provide for the establish- ment of the universe,'^ and that He inherits by right His Father's appellation. Some there are who have imagined that another origin must be found for the title " Son of man; " for they have had the presumption to call the Father Himself Alan, by reason of the profound mystery of this title: so that what can you hope for more ample concerning faith in that God, with whom you are now yourself on a par? Such conceits are con- stantly cropping ouf^ amongst them, from the redundance of their mother's seed.'^ And so it happens that the doctrines which have grown up amongst the Valentinians have al- ready extended their rank growth to the woods of the Gnostics.
8 Achamoth.
8 Achamoth.
9 See above, ch. xii. p. 510.
10 The ^ons Sermo and Vita. " See above, ch. vii. p. 506. '2 See above, ch. viii. p. 507, '4 Superfruticant. »5 Archamoth is referred to.
V.
ON THE FLESH OF CHRIST.'
THIS WAS WRITTEN BY OUR AUTHOR IN CONFUTATION OF CERTAIN HERETICS WHO DENIED THE REALITY OF CHRIST'S FLESH, OR AT LEAST ITS IDENTITY WITH HUMAN FLESH— FEARING THAT, IF THEY ADMITTED THE REALITY OF CHRIST'S FLESH, THEY MUST ALSO ADMIT HIS RESURRECTION IN THE FLESH; AND, CONSEQUENTLY, THE RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY AFTER DEATH.
[TRANSLATED BY DR. HOLMES.]
CHAP. I. — THE GENERAL PURPORT OF THIS WORK. THE HERETICS, MARCION, APELLES, AND VAL- ENTINUS, WISHING TO IMPUGN THE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION, DEPRIVE CHRIST OF ALL CAPACITY FOR SUCH A CHANGE BY DENY- ING HIS FLESH.
They who are so anxious to shake that be- lief in the resurrection which was firmly set- tled' before the appearance of our modern Sadducees,3 as even to deny that the ex- pectation thereof has any relation whatever to the flesh, have great cause for besetting the flesh of Christ also with doubtful ques- tions, as if it either had no existence at all, or possessed a nature altogether different from human flesh. For they camwt but be ap- '' prehetisive that, if it be once determined that Chrisf s flesh was human, a presumption would immediately arise in opposition to them, that that flesh must by all means rise again, which has already risen in Christ. Therefore we shall have to guard our belief in the resurrec- tion* from the same armoury, whence they get their weapons of destruction. Let us ex- amine our Lord's bodily substance, for about His spiritual nature all are agreed. s It is • In his work On the Resurrection of the Flesh (chap, ii.), Tertullian refers to this tract, and calls it '' De Came Domini ad- \ ersus quatuor haereses:" the four heresies being those of Mar- cion, Apelles, BasiHdes.and Valentinus. Paineliiis, indeed, desig- nates the tract by this fuller title instead of the usual one, " De Came Christi." ['I'his tract contains references to works written while our author was Montanistic, but it contains no positive Mon- tanism. It should not be dated earlier than a.d. 207.]
- Moratam.
3 The allusion is to Matt. xxii. 23; comp. de Prtescr. Ha-ret. 33(Fr.Junius).
4 Tertullian s phrase is " carais vota " — the future prospects of the flesh.
5 Certum est.
His flesh that is in question. Its verity and quality are the points in dispute. Did it ever exist? whence was it derived? and of what kind was it? If we succeed in demonstrating it, we shall lay down a law for our own resur- rection. Marcion, in order that he might deny the flesh of Christ, denied also His na- tivity, or else he denied His flesh in order that he might deny His nativity; because, of course, he was afraid that His nativity and His flesh bore mutual testimony to each other's reality, since there is no nativity with- out flesh, and no flesh without nativity. As if indeed, under the prompting of that licence which is ever the same in all heresy, he too might not very well have either denied the nativity, although admitting the flesh, — like Apelles, who was first a disciple of his, and afterwards an apostate, — or, while admitting both the flesh and the nativity, have inter- preted them in a different sense, as did Val- entinus, who resembled Apelles both in his discipleship and desertion of Marciofi. At all events, he who represented the flesh of Christ to be imaginary was equally able to pass off His nativity as a phantom; so that the virgin's conception, and pregnancy, and child-bearing, and then the whole course^ of her infant too, would have to be regarded as putative.^ These facts pertaini'fig to the na- tivity of Christ would escape the notice of the same eyes and the same senses as failed to grasp the full idea* of His flesh.
eOrdo.
7 Tip SoKslv haberentur. This term gave name to the Docetic rors. ~ 8 Opinio.
ON THE FLESH OF CHRIST.
[chap. II.
CHAP, II. — MARCION, WHO WOULD BLOT OUT THE RECORD OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY, IS RE- BUKED FOR SO STARTLING A HERESY.
Clearly enough is the nativity announced by Gabriel.' But what has he to do with the Creator's angel?^ The conception in the virgin's womb is also set plainly before us. But what concern has he with the Creator's prophet, Isaiah? 3 He* will not brook delay, since suddenly (without any prophetic an- nouncement) did he bring down Christ from heaven. 5 "Away," says he, "with that eternal plaguey taxing of Caesar, and the scanty inn, and the squalid swaddling-clothes, and the hard stable.* We do not care a jot for? that multitude of the heavenly host which praised their Lord at night. ^ Let the shep- herds take better care of their flock,^ and let the wise men spare their legs so long a jour- ney;'" let them keep their gold to them- selves." Let Herod, too, mend his manners, so that Jeremy may not glory over him." Spare also the babe from circumcision, that he may escape the pain thereof; nor let him be brought into the temple, lest he burden his parents with the expense of the offering; '^ nor let him be handed to Simeon, lest the old man be saddened at the point of death.'-* Let that old woman also hold her tongue, lest she should bewitch the child." '^ After such a fashion as this, I suppose you have had, O Marcion, the hardihood of blotting out the original records (of the history) of Christ, that His flesh may lose the proofs of its real- ity. But, prithee, on what grounds (do you do this)? Show me your authority. If you are a prophet, foretell us a thing; if you are an apostle, open your message in public; if a follower of apostles,'* side with apostles in thought; if you are only a (private) Christian, believe what has been handed down to us: if, however, you are nothing of all this, then (as I have the best reason to say) cease to live.'^ For indeed you are already dead, since you are no Christian, because you do not believe that which by being believed makes men Christian, — nay, you are the more dead, the more you are not a Christian; having fallen 2 This is said in opposition to Marcion, who held the Creator s angel, and everything else pertaining to him, to be evil.
3 A reference to Isa. vii. 14.
4 Marcion.
5 See also our A nti-MarctOHx iv, 7« 7 Viderit.
'oMatt. ii. I. " Matt. ii. II.
12 Matt. ii. 16-18, and Jer. X11L13, '6 Apostolicus.
"7 Mcrere.
away, after you had been one, by rejecting '* what you formerly believed, even as you yourself acknowledge in a certain letter of yours, and as your followers do not deny, whilst our (brethren) can prove it.'' Reject- ing, therefore, what you once believed, you have completed the act of rejection, by now no longer believing: the fact, however, of your having ceased to believe has not made your rejection of the faith right and proper; nay, rather,*" by your act of rejection you prove that what you believed previous to the said act was of a different character. =' What you believed to be of a different character, had been handed down just as you believed it. Now ^- that which had been handed down was true, inasmuch as it had been transmitted by those whose duty it was to hand it down. Therefore, when rejecting that which had been handed down, you rejected that which was true. You had no authority for what you did. However, we have already in another treatise availed ourselves more fully of these prescriptive rules against all heresies. Our rep- etition of them here after that large (treatise) is superfluous, ^3 when we ask the reason why you have formed the opinion that Christ was not born.
CHAP. III. — Christ's nativity both possible and becoming. the heretical opinion of Christ's apparent flesh deceptive and DISHONOURABLE TO GOD, EVEN ON MARCION'S principles.
Since ^* you think that this I'ay within the competency of your own arbitrary choice, you must needs have supposed that being born ^^ was either impossible for God, or unbecoming to Him. With God, however, nothing is im- possible but what He does not will. Let us consider, then, whether He willed to be born (for if He had the will, He also had the power, and was born). I put the argument very briefly. If God had willed not to be born, it matters not why. He would not have presented Himself in the likeness of man. Now who, when he sees a man, would deny that he had been born? What God therefore willed not to be. He would in no wise have willed the seem- ing to be. When a thing is distasteful, the very notion^ of it is scouted; because it makes no difference whether a thing exist or Wt '9 Compare our And MavcioK^ i. i, iv. 4 and de Prttscr. Hear.
C. XXX.
=0 Atquin.
=' Aliter fuisse.
22 Porro.
23 E> abundanti. [Dr. Holmes, in this sentence actually u«es the word lengthy, for which I have said large.'\ =4 Ouatenus. =5 Nativitatem. -■^ Opinio.
ON THE FLESH OF CHRIST.
do not exist, if, when it does not exist, it is yet assumed to exist. It is of course of the greatest importance that there should be nothing."alse {or pretended) attributed to that which really aoes not exist.' But, say you. His own consciousness (of the truth of His nature) was enough for Him. If any sup- posed that He had been born, because they saw Him as a man, that was their concern. = Yet with how much more dignity and con- sistency would He have sustained the human character on the supposition that He was truly born; for if He were not born. He could not have undertaken the said character without injury to that consciousness of His which you on your side attribute to His confidence of being able to sustain, although not born, the character of having been born even against His own consciousness! ^ Why, I want to know,^ was it of so much importance, that Christ should, when perfectly aware what He really was, exhibit Himself as being that which He was not? You cannot express any apprehension that,^ if He had been born and truly clothed Himself with man's nature. He (would have ceased to be God, losing what He was, while becoming what He was not. For God is in no danger of losing His own state and condition. But, say you, I deny that God was truly changed to man in such wise as to be born and endued with a body of flesh, on this ground, that a being who is without end is also of necessity incapable of change. For being changed into something else puts an end to the former state. Change, there- ' fore, is not possible to a Being who cannot come to an end. Without doubt, the nature of things which are subject to change is regu- lated by this law, that they have no perma- nence in the state which is undergoing change in them, and that they come to an end from thus wanting permanence, whilst they lose that in the process of change which they pre- viously were. But nothing is equal with God; His nature is different* from the condition of all things. If, then, the things which differ from God, and from which God differs, lose what existence they had whilst they are un- dergoing change, wherein will consist the dif- ference of the Divine Being from all other ' If Christ's flesh was not real, the pretence of it was wholly wrong.
2 Viderint homines.
3 It did not much matter (according to the view which Tertul- l.an attributes to Marcion) if God did practise deception in affect- ing the assumption of a humanity which He knew to be unreal. Men took it- to be real, and that answered every purpose. God knew better: and He was moreover, strong enough to obviate all inconveniences of the deception by His unfaltenng fortitutje, etc. All this, however, seemed to Tertuliian to be simply damaging and perilous to the character of God, even from Marcion's own point of view.
* Fdoce.
5 Non pKJtes dicerc ne, etc, * DJstat.
things except in His possessing the contrary, faculty of theirs, — in other words, that God can be changed into all conditions, and yet continue just as He is? On any other sup- position. He would be on the same level with those things which, when changed, lose the existence they had before; whose equal, of course. He is not in any other respect, as He certainly is not in the changeful issues^ of their nature. You have sometimes read and believed that the Creator's angels have been changed into human form, and have even borne about so veritable a body, that Abra- ham even washed their feet,* and Lot was rescued from the Sodomites by their hands; ^ an angel, moreover, wrestled with a man so strenuously with his body, that the latter de- sired to be let loose, so tightly was he held.'" Has it, then, been permitted to angels, which \ are inferior to God, after they have been changed into human bodily form," neverthe- less to remain angels? and will you deprive God, their superior, of this faculty, as if Christ could not continue to be God, after His ■ real assumption of the nature of man? Or '' else, did those angels appear as phantoms of flesh? You will not, however, have the cour- age to say this; for if it be so held in your belief, that the Creator's angels are in the same condition as Christ, then Christ will be- long to the same God as those angels do, vvb.o are like Christ in their condition. If you had not purposely rejected in some instances, and corrupted in others, the Scriptures which are opposed to your opinion, you would have been confuted in this matter by the Gospel of John, when it declares that the Spirit descended in the body'^ of a dove, and sat upon the Lord.'^ When the said Spirit was in this condition. He was as truly a dove as He was also a spirit; nor did He destroy His own proper substance by the assumption of an extraneous substance. But you ask what becomes of the dove's body, after the return of the Spirit back to heaven, and similarly in the case of the angels. Their withdrawal was effected in the same manner as their appearance had been. If you had seen how their production out of nothing had been effected, you would have known also the process of their return to nothing. If the in- itial step was out of sight, so was also the final one. Still there was solidity in their bodilv