session." * You will not be able to put in a claim for some son of David being here meant, rather than Christ; or for the ends of the earth being promised to David, whose kingdom was confined to the Jewish nation simply, rather than to Christ, who now em- braces the whole world in the faith of His gospel. So again He says by Isaiah: " I have given Thee for a dispensation of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind," that is, those that be in error, " to bring out the prisoners from the prison," that is, to free them from sin, "and from the prison-house," that is, of death, "those that sit in darkness" — even that of ignorance.' If these things are accomplished through Christ, they would not have been designed in prophecy for any other than Him through whom they have their accomplishment In another passage He also says: "Behold, I have set Him as a testimony to the nationSi a prince and commander to the nations; na- tions which know Thee not shall invoke Thee, and peoples shall run together unto Thee." " You will not interpret these words of David, because He previously said, " I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." " Indeed, you will be obliged from these words all the more to understand that Christ is reckoned to spring from David by carnal descent, by reason of His birth '"^ of the Virgin Mary. Touching this promise of Him, there is the oath to David in the psalm, " Of the fruit of thy body '3 will I set upon thy throne." ^^ What body is meant? David's own? Certainly not. For David was not to give birth to a son. '5 Nor his wife's either. For instead of saying, " Of the fruit of thy body," he would then have rather said, " Of the fruit of thy wife's body." But by mentioning ^/j- '* body, it follows that He pointed to some one of his race of whose body the flesh of Christ was to be the fruit, which bloomed forth from '^ Mary's womb. He named the fruit of the body (womb) alone, because it was peculiarly fruit of the womb, of the womb only in fact, and not of the husband also; and he refers the womb (body) to David, as to the chief of the race and father of the family. Because it could not consist with a virgin's condition to consort her with a husband,'^ He therefore attributed the body (womb) to the father.
•4Ps. cx.xxii. II.
'3 He treats " body " as here meaning ivomi, '* Ipsius.
17 Floruit ex. ^ 18 Viro deputare.
CHAP. XXI.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
That new dispensation, then, which is found in Christ now, will prove to be what the Cre- ator then promised under the appellation of "the sure mercies of David," which were Christ's, inasmuch as Christ sprang from David, or rather His very flesh itself was David's " sure mercies," consecrated by reli- gion, and "sure" after its resurrection. Accordingly the prophet Nathan, in the first of Kings,' makes a promise to David for his seed, "which shall proceed," says he, "out of thy bowels."- Now, if you explain this simply of Solomon, you will send me into a fit of laughter. For David will evidently have brought forth Solomon! But is not Christ here designated the seed of David, as of that womb which was derived from David, that is, Mary's? Now, because Christ rather than any other 3 was to build the temple of God, that is to say, a holy manhood, wherein God's Spirit might dwell as in a better temple, Christ rather than David's son Solomon was to be looked for as* the Son of God. Then, again, the throne for ever with the kingdom for ever is more suited to Christ than to Solo- mon, a mere temporal king. From Christ, too, God's mercy did not depart, whereas on Solomon even God's anger alighted, after his luxury and idolatry. For Satan s stirred up an Edomite as an enemy against him. Since, therefore, nothing of these things is compat- ible with Solomon, but only with Christ, the method of our interpretations will certainly be true; and the very issue of the facts shows that they were clearly predicted of Christ. And so in Him we shall have " the sure mer- cies of David." Him, not David, has God appointed for a testimony to the nations; Hi7n, for a prince and commander to the nations, not David, who ruled over Israel alone. It is Christ whom all nations now invoke, which knew Him not; Christ to whom all races now betake themselves, whom they were ignorant of before. It is impossible that that should be said to be future, which you see (daily) coming to pass.
CHAP. XXI. — THE CALL OF THE GENTILES UN- DER THE INFLUENCE OF THE GOSPEL FORE- TOLD.
So you cannot get out of this notion of yours a basis for your difference between the two Christs, as if the Jewish Christ were or- ' The four books of the Kings were sometimes regarded as twOy " the first " of which contained i and 2 Samuel, " the sec- ond" I and 2 Kings. The reference in this place is to 2 Samuel 2 He here again makes bowels synonymous with ivotnb.
3 Magls. 4Habendus in.
Sin 1 Kings Ki. 14, " the Lord" is said to have done this. Comp. 2 Sam, xxiv. i with i Chron. xxi. i.
dained by the Creator for the restoration of the people alone* from its dispersion, whilst yours was appointed by the supremely good God for the liberation of the whole human race. Because, after all, the earliest Chris- tians are found on the side of the Creator, not of Marcion,' all nations being called to His kingdom, from the fact that God set up that kingdom from the tree (of the cross), when no Cerdon was yet born, much less a Marcion. However, when you are refuted on the call of the nations, you betake yourself to proselytes. You ask, who among the na- tions can turn to the Creator, when those whom the prophet names are proselytes of individually different and private condition? * " Behold," says Isaiah, " the proselytes shall come unto me through Thee," showing that they were even proselytes who were to find their way to God through Christ. But nations (Gentiles) also, like ourselves, had likewise their mention (by the prophet) as trusting in Christ. "And in His name," says he, "shall the Gentiles trust." Besides, the proselytes whom you substitute for the nations in prophecy, are not in the habit of trusting in Christ's name, but in the dispensation of Moses, from whom comes their instruction. But it was in the last days that the choice' of the nations had its commencement.'" In these very words Isaiah says: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord," that is, God's eminence, " and the house of God," that is, Christ, the Catho- lic temple of God, in which God is wor- shipped, " shall be established upon the mountains," over all the eminences of vir- tues and powers; " and all nations shall come unto it; and many people shall go and say. Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in it: for out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." " The gospel will be this "way," of the new law and the new word in Christ, no longer in Moses. " And He shall judge among the nations," even concerning their error. " And these shall rebuke a large na- tion," that of the Jews themselves and their proselytes. " And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears "* into prun- 6 i.e., the Jews.
7 Or perhaps, " are found to belong to the Creator's Christ, not to Marcion's. ' 8 Marcion denied that there was any prophecy of national or Gentile conversion; it was only the conversion of individual pros- elytes that he held.
9 Allectio. •"Exorta est.
•-Sibynas, 2t|8vi'>)" 'o-n\av Sopari jrapanKiiiTioi'. Hesychius, ".SVfi^wrtw appellant I llyrii telum venabuli simile." Paulus, ex Festo, p. 336, Miill. (Oehler.)
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book hi.
ing-hooks; " in other words, they shall change into pursuits of moderation and peace the dispositions of injurious minds, and hos- tile tongues, and all kinds of evil, and blas- phemy. " Nation shall not lift up sword against nation," shall not stir up discord. " Neither shall they learn war any more," ' that is, the provocation of hostilities; so that you here learn that Christ is promised not as powerful in war, but pursuing peace. Now you must deny either that these things were predicted, although they are plainly seen, or that they have been accomplished, although you read of them; else, if you cannot deny either one fact or the other, they must have been accomplished in Him of whom they were predicted. For look at the entire course of His call up to the present time from its be- ginning, how it is addressed to the nations (Gentiles) who are in these last days approach- ing to God the Creator, and not to proselytes, whose election =" was rather an event of the earliest days. Verily the apostles have an- nulled 3 that belief of yours.
CHAP. XXII. — THE SUCCESS OF THE APOSTLES, AND THEIR SUFFERINGS IN THE CAUSE OF THE GOSPEL, FORETOLD.
You have the work of the apostles also pre- dicted: "How beautiful are the feet of them which preach the gospel of peace, which bring good tidings of good, ' ' * not of war nor evil tid- ings. In response to which is the psalm, "Their sound is gone through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world; " s that is, the words of them who carry round about the law that proceeded from Sion and the Lord's word from Jerusalem, in order that that might come to j)ass wliich was writ- ten: " They who were far from my righteous- ness, have come near to my righteousness and truth." ^ When the apostles girded their loins for this business, they renounced the elders and rulers and priests of the Jews. Well, says he, but was it not above all things that they might preach the other god? Rather 7 (that they might preach) that very self-same God, whose scripture they were with all their might fulfilling! " Depart ye, depart ye," exclaims Isaiah; " go ye out from thence, and touch not the unclean thing," that IS blasphemy against Christ; "Go ye out of s Allectio.
s Allectio.
3 Junius explains the author's indu.ri'rinit l>y deleverunt; i.e., *' they annulled your opinion about proselytes being the sole <allecl, by their promulgation of the gospel."
* Pamelius regards this as a quotation from Is.t..\lvi. 12, 13, oaly put nnrrati-.ifly^ in order to indicate briefly its realization. 7 Atquin.
the midst of her," even of the synagogue " Be ye separate who bear the vessels of the Lord." ^ For already had the Lord; according to the preceding words (of the prophet), revealed His Holy One with His arm, that is to say^ Christ by His mighty power, in the eyes of the nations, so that all the ' nations and the utmost parts of the earth have seen the salva- tion, which was from God. By thus departing from Judaism itself, when they exchanged the obligations and burdens of the law for the liberty of the gospel, they were fulfilling the psalm, " Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us; " and this indeed (they did) after that "the heathen raged, and the people imagined vain de- vices;" after that " the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers took their counsel together against the Lord, and against His Christ." '" What did the apostles there- upon suffer? You answer: Every sort of Tn- iquitous persecutions, from men that belonged indeed to that Creator who was the adversary of Him whom they were preaching. Then why does the Creator, if an adversary of Christ, not only predict that the apostles should incur this suffering, but even express His displeasure" thereat? For He ought neither to predict the course of the other god, whom, as you contend. He knew not, nor to have expressed displeasure at that which He had taken care to bring about. " See how the righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and how merciful men are taken away, and no man considereth. For the righteous man has been removed from the evil person. ' ' '- Who is this but Christ? "Come, say they, let us take away the righteous, because He is not for our turn, (and He is clean contrary to our doings)." '^ Premising, therefore, and like- wise subjoining the fact that Christ suffered, He foretold that His just ones should suffer equally with Him — both the apostles and all the faithful in succession; and He signed them with that very seal of which Ezekiel spake: "The Lord said unto me, Go through the gate, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set the mark Tau upon the foreheads of the men." '" Now the Greek letter Tau and out own letter T is the very form of the cross, which He predicted would be the sign on our ^ Isa. lii. II. 9 Uni versa;.
"> Conip. Ps. ii. 2, 3, with Acts iv. 25-30.
'■ Exprobrat.
'- I.sa. Ivii. I.
'4 Kzek. ix. 4. The Ms. which T. used seems to have agreed with the versions of Theodotion and Aquila mentioned thus bv Origen (Selecta in Ezek.): 6 Se 'AxuAas icai ©coSotiwc (/>a<r(. ^rineiuxTii; ToO &av cjri To fxcTuin-a, k.t.A. Origen, in his own re- marks, refers to //t^.s'/T" i^f tht: iross^ as indicated by this letter. r,d. Hcned. (by Migne^, iii. 802.
CHAP. XXIII.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
foreheads in the true Catholic Jerusalem,' in which, according to the twenty-first Psalm, the brethren of Christ or children of God would ascribe glory to God the Father, in the person of Christ Himself addressing His Father; " I will declare Thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto Thee." For that which had to come to pass in our day in His name, and by His Spirit, He rightly foretold would be of Him. And a little afterwards He says: "My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation."- In the sixty-seventh Psalm He says again: " In the congregations bless ye the Lord God." ^ So that with this agrees also the prophecy of Malachi: " I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord; neither will I accept your offerings: for from the ris- ing of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place sacrifice shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering " " — such as the ascription of glory, and bless- ing, and praise, and hymns. Now, inasmuch as all these things are also found amongst you, and the sign upon the forehead, s and the sacraments of the church, and the offer- ings of the pure sacrifice, you ought now to burst forth, and declare that the Spirit of the Creator prophesied of your Christ.
CHAP. XXIII. — THE DISPERSION OF THE JEWS, AND THEIR DESOLATE CONDITION FOR RE- JECTING CHRIST, FORETOLD.
Now, since you join the Jews in denying that their Christ has come, recollect also what is that end which they were predicted as about to bring on themselves after the time of Christ, for the impiety wherewith they both rejected and slew Him. For it began to come to pass from that day, when, according to Isaiah, " a man threw away his idols of gold and of silver, which they made into use- less and hurtful objects of worship;"^ in other words, from the time when he threw away his idols after the truth had been made clear by Christ. Consider whether what fol- lows in the prophet has not received its ful- filment: " The Lord of hosts hath taken away from Judah and from Jerusalem, amongst other things, both the prophet and the wise artifi- cer;" 7 that is, His Holy Spirit, who builds the ' [Ambiguous, according to Kaye, p. 304, may mean a transition from Paganism to true Christianity.]
3 Ps. Ixviii. 26.
5 [Kaye remarks that traditions of /rdc/Zo-, unlike the traditions of doctiine, may be varied according to times and circumstances.
?5\rchitectum. Isa. iii. 1-3, abridged.
church, which is indeed the temple, and house- hold and city of God. For thenceforth God's grace failed amongst them; and "the clouds were commanded to rain no rain upon the vineyard " of Sorech; to withhold, that is, the graces of heaven, that they shed no blessing upon "the house of Israel," which had but produced "the thorns" wherewith it had crowned the Lord, and " instead of righteous- ness, the cry " wherewith it had hurried Him away to the cross. ^ And so in this manner the law and the prophets were until John, but the dews of divine grace were withdrawn from the nation. After his time their madness still continued, and the name of the Lord was blasphemed by them, as saith the Scripture: " Because of you my name is continually blas- phemed amongst the nations " ' (for from them did the blasphemy originate); neither in the interval from Tiberius to Vespasian did they learn repentance." Therefore " has their land become desolate, their cities are burnt with fire, their country strangers are devouring before their own eyes; the daugh- ter of Sion has been deserted like a cottage in a vineyard, or a lodge in a garden of cucumbers," " ever since the time when " Israel acknowledged not the Lord, and the people understood Him not, but forsook Him, and provoked the Holy One of Israel unto an- ger."'- So likewise that conditional threat of the sword, " If ye refuse and hear me not, the sword shall devour you," ^^ has proved that it was Christ, for rebellion against whom they have perished. In the fifty-eighth Psalm He demands of the Father their dispersion: " Scatter them in Thy power." '^ By Isaiah He also says, as He finishes a prophecy of their consumption by fire:'^ "Because of me has this happened to you; ye shall lie down in sorrow." '* But all this would be unmeaning enough, if they suffered this retribution not on account of Him, who had in prophecy assigned their suffering to His own cause, but for the sake of the Christ of the other god. Well, then, although you affirm that it is the Christ of the other god who was driven to the cross by the powers and authorities of the Creator, as it were by hostile beings, still I have to say. See how manifestly He was de- fended'' by the Creator: there were given to Him both "the wicked for His burial," even those who had strenuously maintained that TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book hi.
His corpse had been stolen, " and the rich for His death," ' even those who had redeemed Him from the treachery of Judas, as well as from the lying report of the soldiers that His body had been taken away. Therefore these things either did not happen to the Jews on His account, in which case you will be re- futed by the sense of the Scriptures tallying with the issue of the facts and the order of the times, or else they did happen on His account, and then the Creator could not have inflicted the vengeance except for His own Christ; nay. He must have rather had a re- ward for Judas, if it had been his master's enemy whom they put to death. At all events, = if the Creator's Christ has not come yet, on whose account the prophecy dooms them to such sufferings, they will have to endure the sufferings when He shall have come. Then where will there be a daughter of Sion to be reduced to desolation, for there is none now to be found? Where will there be cities to be burnt with fire, for they are now in heaps? ^ Where a nation to be dispersed, which is already in banishment? Restore to Judaea its former state, that the Creator's Christ may find it, and then you may contend that another Christ has come. But then, again, * how is it that He can have permitted to range through 5 His own heaven one whom He was some day to put to death on His own earth, after the more noble and glorious region of His kingdom had been violated, and His own very palace and sublimest height had been trodden by him? Or was it only in ap- pearance rather that he did this?* God is no doubt ' a jealous God! Yet he gained the victory. You should blush with shame, who put your faith in a vanquished god! What have you to hope for from him, who was not strong enough to protect himself? For it was either through his infirmity that he was crushed by the powers and human agents of the Creator, or else through maliciousness, in order that he might fasten so great a stigma on them by his endurance of their wickedness.
CHAP. XXV. — Christ's millennial and heav- enly GLORY IN company WITH HIS SAINTS.
Yes, certainly,* you say, I do hope from Him that which amounts in itself to a proof of the diversity (of Christs), God's kingdom in an everlasting and heavenly possession. Besides, your Christ promises to the Jews ' See Isa. liii. 9. a Certe.
3 Compare a passage in the Apology, chap. xxi. p. 34, tupra.
4 Jam vero.
5 Admiserit per. * Hoc affectavit." 7 Plane. *Immo.
their primitive condition, with the recovery of their country; and after this life's course is over, repose in Hades' in Abraham's bosom. Oh, most excellent God, when He restores in amnesty " what He took away in wrath! Oh, what a God is yours, who both wounds and heals, creates evil and makes peace! Oh, what a God, that is merciful even down to Hades! I shall have some- thing to say about Abraham's bosom in the proper place." As for the restoration of Judaea, however, which even the Jews them- selves, induced by the names of places and countries, hope for just as it is described,'^ it would be tedious to state at length '3 how the figurative "* interpretation is spiritually appli- cable to Christ and His church, and to the character and fruits thereof; besides, the subject has been regularly treated 's in another work, which we entitle De Spe Fidelium.^^ At present, too, it would be superfluous'' for this reason, that our inquiry relates to what is promised in heaven, not on earth. But we do confess that a kingdom is promised to us upon the earth, although before heaven, only in another state of existence; inasmuch as it will be after the resurrection for a thousand years in the divinely-built city of Jerusalem,'^ " let down from heaven," '' which the apostle also calls " our mother from above;"'='' and, while declaring that our nolirevfia, or citizen- ship, is in heaven, ^'^ he predicates of it^= that it is really a city in heaven. This both Eze- kiel had knowledge of^^ and the Apostle John beheld.^'' And the word of the new prophecy which is a part of our belief,-^ attests how it foretold that there would be for a sign a picture of this very city exhibited to view previous to its manifestation. This prophecy, indeed, has been very lately ful- filled in an expedition to the East."* For it is evident from the testimony of even heathen witnesses, that in Judaea there was suspended 9 Apud inferos.
10 Placatus.
" See below, in book iv. chap. iv.
" Ita ut describitur, i.e., in the literal sense.
'3 Persequi.
'4 Allegorica.
'5 Digestum.
•6 On the Hope of the Faithful. This work, which is not ex- tant (although its title appears in one of the oldest MSS. of Ter- tullian, the Codex Agobardinus), is mentioned by St. Jerome in his Commentary on Ezekiel, chap, xxxvi.; in the preface to his Comment, on Isaiah, chap, xviii.; and in his notice of Papias of Hierapolis (Oehler).
»7 Otiosum.
22 Deputat.
25 That is, xhc Montanist. [Regarded as conclusive * but not conclusive evidence of an accomplished lapse from Catholic Com- munion.]
26 He means that of Severus against the P.irthians. TertuIliaH is the only author who mentions this prorlig".
CHAV. XXV.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
in the sky a city early every morning for forty days. As the day advanced, the entire figure of its walls would wane gradually,' and sometimes it would vanish instantly. = We say that this city has been provided by God for receiving the saints on their resurrection, and refreshing them with the abundance of all really spiritual blessings, as a recompense for those which in the world we have either despised or lost; since it is both just and God- worthy that His servants should have their joy in the place where they have also suffered affliction for His name's sake. Of the heavenly kingdom this is the process. ^ After its thou- sand years are over, within which period is completed the resurrection of the saints, who rise sooner or later according to their deserts, there will ensue the destruction of the world and the conflagration of all things at the judg- ment: we shall then be changed in a moment into the substance of angels, even by the in- vestiture of an incorruptible nature, and so be removed to that kingdom in heaven of which we have now been treating, just as if it had not been predicted by the Creator, and as if it were proving Christ to belong to the other god and as if he were the first and sole revealer of it. But now learn that it has been, in fact, predicted by the Creator, and that even without prediction it has a claim upon our faith in respect of* the Creator. What appears to be probable to you, when Abraham's seed, after the primal promise of being like the sand of the sea for multitude, is destined likewise to an equality with the stars of heaven — are not these the indications both of an earthly and a heavenly dispensa- tion?s When Isaac, in blessing his son Jacob, says, " God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth," ^ are there not in his words examples of both kinds of bless- ing? Indeed, the very form of the blessing is in this instance worthy of notice. For in relation to Jacob, who is the type of the later and more excellent people, that is to say our- selves,^ first comes the promise of the hea- enly dew, and afterwards that about the fat- ness of the earth. So are 7tie first invited to heavenly blessings when we are separated from the world, and afterwards we thus find ourselves in the way of obtaining also earthly