9 Ps. xlv. 4, but changed.
11 Traductiones.
13 Ejusmodi.
14 Exempla. •5 Interim.
17 Ex dispositione. This word seems to mean what is implied in the phrases, "Christian dispensation" "Mosaic dispen- sation" etc.
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book III, vised different dispensations for two Gods, thiey admit into this diversity of dispensation a community of names; whereas no proof could be more useful of two Gods being rival ones, than if there should be found coincident with their (diverse) dispensations a diversity also of names? For that is not a state of diverse qualities, which is not distinctly indicated ' in the specific meanings = of their designations. Whenever these are wanting, there occurs what the Greeks call the katachrcsis^ of a term, by its improper application to what does not belong to it." In God, however, there ought, I suppose, to be no defect, no setting up of His dispensations by katachrestic abuse of words. Who is this god, that claims for his son names from the Creator? I say not uiiaes which do not belong to him, but an- cient ard well-known names, which even in this view of them would be unsuitable for a novel and unknown god. How is it, again, that he tells us that " a piece of new cloth is not sewed on to an old garment," or that "new wine is not trusted to old bottles," ^ when he is himself patched and clad in an old suit* of names? How is it he has rent off the gospel from the law, when he is wholly invested with the law, — in the name, forsooth, of Christ? What hindered his calling himself by some other name, seeing that he preached another (gospel), came from another source, and refused to take on him a real body, for the very purpose that he might not be sup- posed to be the Creator's Christ? Vain, however, was his unwillingness to seem to be He whose name he was willing to assume; since, even if he had been truly corporeal, he would more certainly escape being taken for the Christ of the Creator, if he had not taken on him His name. But, as it is, he rejects the substantial verity of Him whose name he has assumed, even though he should give a proof of that verity by his name. For Christ means anointed, and to be anointed is certainly an affair 7 of the body. He who had not a body, could not by any possibility have been anointed; he who could not by any possibility have been anointed, could not in any wise have been called Christ. It is a different thing (quite), if he only assumed the phantom of a name too. But how, he asks, was he to in- sinuate himself into being believed by the Jews, except through a name which was usual and familiar amongst them? Then 'tis a ' Consijcnalur. ~ Proprietatibus.
3 Quintilian, Inst. viii. 6, defines this as a figure " which lends , name to things which have it not."
4 ])e alieno abutendo.
^Senio.
' T':i<isio.
fickle and tricksty God whom you describe! To promote any plan by deception, is the re- source of either distrust or of maliciousness. Much more frank and simple was the conduct of the false prophets against the Creator, when they came in His name as their own God.® But I do not find that any good came of this proceeding,^ since they were more apt to sup- pose either that Christ was their own, or rather was some deceiver, than that He was the Christ of the other god; and this the gospel will show.
CHAP. XVI. — THE SACRED NAME JESUS MOST SUITED TO THE CHRIST OF THE CREATOR. JOSHUA A TYPE OF HIM.
Now if he caught at the name Christ, just as the pickpocket clutches the dole-basket, why did he wish to be called Jesus too, by a name which was not so much looked for by the Jews? For although we, who have by God's grace attained to the understanding of His mysteries, acknowledge that this name also was destined for Christ, yet, for all that, the fact was not known to the Jews, from whom wisdom was taken away. To this day, in short, it is Christ that they are looking for, not Jesus; and they interpret Elias to be Christ rather than Jesus. He, therefore, who came also in a name in which Christ was not expected, might have come only in that name which was solely anticipated for Him." But since he has mixed up the two," the expected one and the unexpected, his twofold project is defeated. For if he be Christ for the very purpose of insinuating himself as the Cre- ator's, then Jesus opposes him, because Jesus was not looked for in the Christ of the Crea- tor; or if he be Jesus, in order that he might pass as belonging to the other (God), then Christ hinders him, because Christ was not ex- pected to belong to any other than the Creator. I know not which one of these names may be able to hold its ground.'^ In the Christ of the Creator, however, both will keep their place, for in Him a Jesus too is found. Do you ask, how? Learn it then here, with the Jews also who are partakers of your heresy. When Oshea the son of Nun was destined to be the successor of Moses, is not his old name then changed, and for the first time he is called '^ Joshua? It is true, you say. This, then, we first observe, was a figure of Him who was to come. For inasmuch as Jesus Christ was to introduce a new generation ''' (because we are born in the wilderness of this world) into 8 Adversus Creatorem, in sui Dei nomine venientes.
9 i.e., to the Marcionite position. •o That is, Christ.
" Surely it is Z)«o, not Deo.
•^Constare.
'3 Incipit vocari.
'4 Secundum popuKira.
CHAP. XVII.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
the promised land which flows with milk and honey, that is, into the possession of eternal life, than which nothing can be sweeter; inas- much, too, as this was to be brought about not by Moses, that is to say, not by the disci- pline of the law, but by Joshua, by the grace of the gospel, our circumcision being effected by a knife of stone, that is, (by the circumci- sion) of Christ, for Christ is a rock (or stone), therefore that great man,' who was ordained as a type of this mystery, was actually conse- crated with the figure of the Lord's own name, being called Joshua. This name Christ Him- self even then testified to be His own, when He talked with Moses. For who was it that talked with him, but the Spirit of the Creator, which is Christ? When He there- fore spake this commandment to the people, "Behold, I send my angel before thy face, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the land which I have prepared for thee; at- tend to him, and obey his voice and do not provoke him; for he has not shunned you,- since my name is upon him," ^ He called him an angel indeed, because of the greatness of the powers which he was to exercise, and be- cause of his prophetic office,"* while announc- ing the will of God; but Joshua also (Jesus), because it was a type^ of His own future name. Often '^ did He confirm that name of His which He had thus conferred upon (His servant); because it was not the name of angel, nor Oshea, but Joshua (Jesus), which He had commanded him to bear as his usual appellation for the time to come. Since, there- fore, both these names are suitable to the Christ of the Creator, they are proportionate- ly unsuitable to the non- Creator' s Christ; and so indeed is all the rest of (our Christ's) des- tined course. 7 In short, there must now for the future be made between us that certain and equitable rule, necessary to both sides, which shall determine that there ought to be absolutely nothing at all in common between the Christ of the other god and the Creator's Christ. For you will have as great a necessity to maintain their diversity as we have to resist it, inasmuch as you will be as unable to show that the Christ of the other god has come, until you have prvoed him to be a far different being from the Creator's Christ, as we, to claim Him (who has come) as the Creator's, until we have shown Him to be such a one as the Creator has appointed. Now respecting their names, such is our conclusion against (Mar- »Vir.
2 Non celavit te, " not concealed Himself from you.'
4 Officium prophetae.
5 Sacramentura. * Identidem.
7 Reliquus ordo.
cion).^ I claim for myself Christ; I maintain for myself Jesus, CHAP. XVII. — PROPHECIES IN ISAIAH AND THE PSALMS RESPECTING CHRIST'S HUMILIATION.
Let us compare with Scripture the rest of His dispensation. Whatever that poor de- spised body 9 may be, because it was an object of touch '° and sight," it shall be my Christ, be He inglorious, be He ignoble, be He dis- honoured; for such was it announced that He should be, both in bodily condition and aspect. Isaiah comes to our help again: " We have announced (His way) before Him," says he; " He is like a servant,'^ like a root in a dry ground; He hath no form nor comeliness; we saw Him, and He had neither form nor beauty; but His form was despised, marred above all men." '^ Similarly the Father addressed the Son just before: " Inasmuch as many will be astonished at Thee, so also will Thy beauty be without glory from men. ' ' '" For although, in David's words, " He is fairer than the chil- dren of men," 's yet it is in that figurative state of spiritual grace, when He is girded with the sword of the Spirit, which is verily His form, and beauty, and glory. According to the same prophet, however, He is in bodily condition "a very worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and an outcast of the people." '^ But no internal quality of such a kind does He announce as belonging to Him. In Him dwelt the fulness of the Spirit; there- fore I acknowledge Him to be "the rod of the stem of Jesse." His blooming flower shall be my Christ, upon whom hath rested, according to Isaiah, "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of piety, and of the fear of the Lord." '^ Now to no man, except Christ, wouUl the diversity of spiritual proofs suitably apply. He is in- deed like a flower for the Spirit's grace, reck- oned indeed of the stem of Jesse, but thence to derive His descent through Mary. Now I purposely demand of you, whether you grant to Him the destination '^ of all this humilia- tion, and suffering, and tranquillity, from which He will be the Christ of Isaiah, — a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, who was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and who, like a lamb before the shearer, opened 8 Obduximus.
9 Corpusculum illud. '0 Habitum.
" Conspectum.
'= Puerulus, "little child,' perhaps.
'3 Sentences out of Isa. lii. 14 and liii, 2, etc.
ISPs. xlv. 2.
'8 Intentionem.
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[ilOOK III.
not His mouth;' who did not struggle nor cry, nor was His voice heard in the street; who broke not the bruised reed — that is, the shattered faith of the Jews — nor quenched the smoking flax— that is, the freshly-kindled - ardour of the Gentiles. He can be none other than the Man who was foretold. It is right that His conduct ^ be investigated according to the rule of Scripture, distinguishable as it is unless I am mistaken, by the twofold opera- tion of preaching '' and of miracle. But the treatment of both these topics I shall so ar- range as to postpone, to the chapter wherein I have determined to discuss the actual gospel of Marcion, the consideration of His wonder- ful doctrnies and miracles — with a view, how- ever, to our present purpose. Let us here, then, in general terms complete the subject which we had entered upon, by iixlicating, as we pass on, 5 how Christ was fore-announced by Isaiah as a preacher: " For who is there among you," says he, " that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His Son? " ^ And likewise as a healer: "For," says he, "He hath taken away our infirmities, and carried our sorrows." ^ CHAP. XVIII.* TYPES OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
ISAAC; JOSEPH; JACOB AGAINST SIMEON AND LEVI; MOSES PRAYING AGAINST AM ALEK; THE BRAZEN SERPENT.
On the subject of His death,' I suppose, you endeavour to introduce a diversity of opinion, simply because you deny that the suffering of the cross was predicted of the Christ of the Creator, and because you con- tend, moreover, that it is not to be believed that the Creator would expose His Son to that kind of death on which He had Himself pro- nounced a curse. "Cursed," says He, "is every one who hangeth on a tree."'° But what is meant by this curse, worthy as it is of the simple prediction of the cross, of which we are now mainly inquiring, I defer to con- sider, because in another passage " we have given the reason" of the thing preceded by proof. First, I shall offer a full explanation '^ = Momentaneum.
3 Actum.
4 Praedicationis.
5 Interim.
9 De exitu.
•" Compare Deut. xxi. 23 with Gal. iii. i^.
'' The words "quia et alias antecedit rerum probatio ra- tionem," seem to refer to the parallel passage in adzi. Judt^os, where he has described the Jewish law of capital punishment, and argued for the exemption of Christ from its terms. He begins that paragraph with saying, " Sed hujus maledictionis sensum antecedit rerum ra'io.'" [See, p. 164, sitpra.^ •2 Perhaps rationale or procedure.
'3 Edocebo.
of the types. And no doubt it was proper that this mystery should be prophetically set forth by types, and indeed chiefly by that method: for in proportion to its incredibilit)'- would it be a stumbling-block, if it were set forth in bare prophecy; and in proportion too, to its grandeur, was the need of obscuring it in shadow, ■'» that the difficulty of understanding- it might lead to prayer for the grace of God. First, then, Isaac, when he was given up by his father as an offering, himself carried the wood for his own death. By this act he even then was setting forth the death of Christ, who was destined by His Father as a sacrifice, and carried the cross whereon He suffered. Joseph likewise was a type of Christ, not in- deed on this ground (that I may not delay my course '5), that he suffered persecution for the cause of God from his brethren, as Christ did from His brethren after the flesh, the Jews; but when he is blessed by his father in these words: " His glory is that of a bullock; his horns are the horns of a unicorn; with them shall he push the nations to the very ends of the earth," '* — he was not, of course, designated as a mere unicorn with its one horn, or a minotaur with two; but Christ was indicated in him — a bullock in respect of both His characteristics: to some as severe as a Judge, to others gentle as a Saviour, whose horns were the extremi- ties of His cross. For of the antenna, which is a part of a cross, the ends are called hortis; while the midway stake of the whole frame is the unicorn. By this virtue, then, of His cross, and in this manner "horned," He is both now pushing all nations through faith, bearing them away from earth to heaven; and will then push them through judgment, casting them down from heaven to earth. He will also, according to another passage in the same scripture, be a bullock, when He is spiritually interpreted to be Jacob against Simeon and Levi, which means against the scribes and the Pharisees; for it was from them that these last derived their origin. '^ Like Simeon and Levi, they consummated their wickedness by their heresy, with which they persecuted Christ. " Into their counsel let not my soul enter; to their assembly let not my heart be united: for in their anger they slew men," that is, the prophets; "and in their self-will they hacked the sinews of a bullock,"'" that is, of Christ. For against Him did they wreak their fury after they "4 Magis obumbrandum.
'5 But he may mean, by " ne drinorer rurston," " that I may not obstruct the course of the type," by taking off attention from its true force. In the parallel place, however, another turn is given to the sense; Joseph is a type, " even on t/tis ground -th-AX. I may but briefly allude to it — that he suffered," etc.
•6 Deut. xxxiii. 17.
'7 Census.
'" Gen. xlix. 6. The last clause is, "ceciderunt nerves tauro."
riiAr. XIX.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
had slain His prophets, even by affixing Him with nails to the cross. Otherwise, it is an idle thing" when, after slaying men, he inveighs against them for the torture of a bul- lock! Again, in the case of Moses, wherefore did he at that moment particularly, when Joshua was fighting Amalek, pray in a sitting posture with outstretched hands, when in such a conflict it would surely have been more seemly to have bent the knee, and smitten the breast, and to have fallen on the face to the ground, and in such prostration to have offered prayer? Wherefore, but because in a battle fought in the name of that Lord who was one day to fight against the devil, the shape was necessary of that very cross through which Jesus was to win the victory? Why, once more, did the same Moses, after prohibiting the likeness of everything, set up the golden serpent on the pole; and as it hung there, propose it as an object to be looked at for a cure?^ Did he not here also intend to show the power of our Lord's cross, where- by that old serpent the devil was vanquished, — whereby also to every man who was bitten by spiritual serpents, but who yet turned with an eye of faith to it, was proclaimed a cure from the bite of sin, and health for ever- more?
CHAP. XIX. — PROPHECIES OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
Come now, when you read in the words of David, how that "the Lord reigneth from the tree," ^ I want to know what you under- stand by it. Perhaps you think some wooden ^ king of the Jews is meant! — and not Christ, who overcame death by His suffering on the cross, and thence reigned! Now, although death reigned from Adam even to Christ, why may not Christ be said to have reigned from the tree, from His having shut up the king- dom of death by dying upon the tree of His cross? Likewise Isaiah also says: " For unto us a child is born."5 But what is there un- usual in this, unless he speaks of the Son of God? " To us is given He whose government is upon His shoulder." s Now, what king is there who bears the ensign of his dominion upon his shoulder, and not rather upon his head as a diadem, or in his hand as a sceptre, or else as a mark in some royal apparel? But the one new King of the new ages, Jesus Christ, carried on His shoulder both the power and the excellence of His new glory, even His cross; so that, according to our former 3 Ps. xcvi. lo, with a Itgno added.
4 Lignarium aliquem regem. 5 Isa. ix. fi.
prophecy, He might thenceforth reign from the tree as Lord. This tree it is which Jere- miah likewise gives you intimation of, when he prophesies to the Jews, who should say, " Come, let us destroy the tree with the fruit, (the bread) thereof,"* that is. His body. For so did God in your own gospel even reveal the sense, when He called His body bread; so that, for the time to come, you may un- derstand that He has given to His body the figure of bread, whose body the prophet of old figuratively turned into bread, the Lord Himself designing to give by and by an in- terpretation of the mystery. If you require still further prediction of the Lord's cross, the twenty-first Psalm ^ is sufficiently able to afford it to you, containing as it does the en- tire passion of Christ, who was even then prophetically declaring^ His glory. "They pierced," says He, "my hands and my feet," 9 which is the special cruelty of the cross. And again, when He implores His Father's help, He says, " Save me from the- lion's mouth," that is, the jaws of death, " and my humiliation from the horns of the unicorns;" in otherwords, from the extremi- ties of the cross, as we have shown above. Now, David himself did not suffer this cross, nor did any other king of the Jews; so that you cannot suppose that this is the prophecy of any other's passion than His who alone was so notably crucified by the nation. Now should the heretics, in their obstinacy," re- ject and despise all these interpretations, I will grant to them that the Creator has given us no signs of the cross of His Christ; but they will not prove from this concession that He who was crucified was another (Christ), unless they could somehow show that this death was predicted as His by their own god, so that from the diversity of predictions there might be maintained to be a diversity of suf- ferers," and thereby also a diversity of per- sons. But since there is no prophecy of even Marcion's Christ, much less of his cross, it is enough for my Christ that there is a proph- ecy merely of death. For, from the fact that the kind oi death is not declared, it was pos- sible for the death of the cross to have been still intended, whicli would then have to be assigned to another (Christ), if the prophecy had had reference to another. Besides,'- if he should be unwilling to allow that the deatii of my Christ was predicted, his confusion 'o Hseretica duritia.
»• Passionum, literally sufferings^ which would hardly give the sense. >- Nisi.
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book III.
must be the greater ' if he announces that his own Christ indeed died, whom he denies to have had a nativity, whilst denying that my Christ is mortal, though he allows Him to be capable of birth. However, I will show him the death, and burial, and resurrection of my Christ all ^ indicated in a single sentence of Isaiah, who says, " His sepulture was removed from the midst of them." Now there could have been no sepulture without death, and no removal of sepulture except by resurrec- tion. Then, finally, he added: "Therefore He shall have many for his inheritance, and He shall divide the spoil of the many, because He poured out His soul unto death." ^ For there is here set forth the cause of this favour to Him, even that it was to recompense Him for His suffering of death. It was equally shown that He was to obtain this recompense for His death, was certainly to obtain it after His death by means of the resurrection.* chap. xx.5 the subsequent influence of Christ's death in the world predicted.
THE sure mercies OF DAVID. WHAT THESE ARE.
It is sufficient for my purpose to have traced thus far the course of Christ's dispensation in these particulars. This has proved Him to be such a one as prophecy announced He should be, so that He ought not to be re- garded in any other character than that which prediction assigned to Him; and the result of this agreement between the facts of His course and the Scriptures of the Creator should be the restoration of belief in them from that prejudice which has, by contributing to diver- sity of opinion, either thrown doubt upon, or led to a denial of, a considerable part of them. And now we go further and build up the su- perstructure of those kindred events^ out of the Scriptures of the Creator which were pre- dicted and destined to happen after Christ. For the dispensation would not be found com- plete, if He had not come after whom it had to run on its course.' Look at all nations from the vorte.x of human error emerging out of it up to the Divine Creator, the Divine Christ, and deny Him to be the object of prophecy, if you dare. At once there will occur to you the Father's promise in the Psalms: " Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy pos- • Quo magis erubescat. = Et— et— et.
4 Both His own and His people's.
5 Comp. adv. Judfos, \i and 12. '> Ea paria.
7 fivenire.