blessings. And your own gospel likewise has it in thiswise: " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and these things shall be added unto ' Evanescente.
2 Et alias de proximo nullam: or " de proximo " may mean, " on a near approach."
3 Ratio.
4 Apud: or, " in the dispensation of the Creator."
7 Nostri, i.e., Christians. [Not Montanisi, but Catholic] you." * But to Esau the blessing promised is an earthly one, which he supplements with a heavenly, after the fatness of the earth, say- ing, " Thy dwelling shall be also of the dew of heaven."' For the dispensation of the Jews (who were in Esau, the prior of the sons in birth, but the later in affection '") at first was imbued with earthly blessings through the law, and afterwards brought round to heavenly ones through the gospel by faith. When Jacob sees in his dream the steps of a ladder set upon the earth, and reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending thereon, and the Lord standing above, we shall without hesitation venture to suppose," that by this ladder the Lord has in judgment appointed that the way to heaven is shown to men, whereby some may attain to it, and others fall therefrom. For why, as soon as he awoke out of his sleep, and shook through a dread of the spot, does he fall to an interpretation of his dream? He exclaims, "How terrible is this place! " And then adds, " This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!"'^ For he had seen Christ the Lord, the temple of God, and also the gate by whom heaven is entered. Now surely he would not have mentioned the gate of heaven, if heaven is not entered in the dispensation of the '3 Creator. But there is now a gate pro- vided by Christ, which admits and conducts to glory. Of this Amos says: " He buildeth His ascensions into heaven; " "* certainly not for Himself alone, but for His people also, who will be with Him. "And Thou shalt bind them about Thee," says he, "like the adornment of a bride." '^ Accordingly the Spirit, admiring such as soar up to the celes- tial realms by these ascensions, says, "They fly, as if they were kites; they fly as clouds, and as young doves, unto me"'* — that is, simply like a dove.'^ For we shall, according to the apostle, be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord (even the Son of man, who shall come in the clouds, according to Daniel '*), and so shall we ever be with the Lord,'' so long as He remains both on the earth and in heaven, who, against such as are thankless 8 Luke xii. ji.
9 Gen. xxvii. 39.
10 Judaeorum enim dispositio in Esau priorum natu et posteri- orum affectu filiorum. This is the original of a difficult passage, in which Tertullian, who has taken Jacob as a type of the later, the Christian church, seems to make Esau the symbol of the former, the Jewish church, which, although prior in time, was bter m allegiance to the full truth of God.
" Temere, si forte, interpretabimur.
»3 Apud, •7 In allusion to the dove as the symbol of the Spirit, s«e Matt, TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[chap. XXV.
for both one promise and the other, calls the elements themselves to witness: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth." ' Now, for my own part indeed, even though Scripture held out no hand of heavenly hope to me (as, in fact, it so often does), I should still pos- sess a sufificient presumption^ of even this promise, in my present enjoyment of the earthly gift; and I should look out for some- thing also of the heavenly, from Him who is the God of heaven as well as of earth. I should thus believe that the Christ who prom- ises the higher blessings is (the Son) of Him who had also promised the lower ones; who had, moreover, afforded proofs of greater gifts by smaller ones; who had reserved for His Christ alone this revelation ^ of a (perhaps ■») unheard of kingdom, so that, while the earthly glory was announced by His servants, the ^Praejudicium. 3 Praeconium. •4 Si forte.
heavenly might have God Himself for its messenger. You, however, argue for another Christ, from the very circumstance that He proclaims a new kingdom. You ought first to bring forward some example of His benefi- cence,= that I may have no good reason for doubting the credibility of the great promise, which you say ought to be hoped for; nay, it is before all things necessary that you should prove that a heaven belongs to Him, whom you declare to be a promiser of heavenly things. As it is, you invite us to dinner, but do not point out your house; you assert a kingdom, but show us no royal state.* Can it be that your Christ promises a kingdom of heaven, without having a heaven; as He dis- played Himself man, without having flesh? O what a phantom from first to last! ^ O hol- low pretence of a mighty promise!
5 Indulgentise.
6 Regiam: perhaps " capital " or " palace."
7 Omne.
THE FIVE BOOKS AGAINST MARCION.
Book IV.- IN WHICH TERTULLIAN PURSUES HIS ARGUMENT. JESUS IS THE CHRIST OF THE CREATOR. HE DERIVES HIS PROOFS FROM ST. LUKE'S GOS- PEL; THAT BEING THE ONLY HISTORICAL PORTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PARTIALLY ACCEPTED BY MARCION. THIS BOOK MAY ALSO BE REGARDED AS A COMMENTARY ON ST. LUKE. IT GIVES REMARKABLE PROOF OF TERTULLIAN'S GRASP OF SCRIPTURE, AND PROVES THAT "THE OLD TESTAMENT IS NOT CONTRARY TO THE NEW." IT ALSO ABOUNDS IN STRIKING EXPOSITIONS OF SCRIPTURAL PASSAGES, EMBRACING PROFOUND VIEWS OF REVELATION, IN CON- NECTION WITH THE NATURE OF MAN.
CHAP. I. — EXAMINATION OF THE ANTITHESES OF MARCION, BRINGING THEM TO THE TEST OF MARCION's OWN GOSPEL. CERTAIN TRUE ANTITHESES IN THE DISPENSATIONS OF THE OLD AND THE NEW TESTAMENTS. THESE VARIATIONS QUITE COMPATIBLE WITH ONE AND THE SAME GOD, WHO ORDERED THEM.
Every opinion and the whole scheme - of the impious and sacrilegious Marcion we now bring to the test^ of that very Gospel which, by his process of interpolation, he has made his own. To encourage a belief of this Gospel he has actually" devised for it a sort of dower.s in a work composed of contrary state- ments set in opposition, thence entitled A?itith- eses, and compiled with a view to such a severance of the law from the gospel as should divide the Deity into two, nay, diverse, gods — one for each Instrument, or Testament* as it is more usual to call it; that by such means ' [The remarks of Bishop Kaye on our author's Marcion are simply invaluable, and the student cannot dispense with what is said more particularly of this Book. See Kaye, pp. 450-480.]
' Paraturam.
3 Provocamus ad. [Kaye, p. 469, refers to Schleierraacher's Critical Essay on St. Luke and to a learned note of Mr. Andrews Norton of Harvard (vol. iii. Appendix C.) for valuable remarks on Marcion's Gospel.]
4 Et, emphatic.
5 Dotem quandam.
he might also patronize^ belief in " the Gos- pel according to the Antitheses." These, however, I would have attacked in special combat, hand to hand; that is to say, I would have encountered singly the several devices of the Pontic heretic, if it were not much more convenient to refute them in and with that very gospel to which they contribute their support. Although it is so easy to meet them at once with a peremptory demurrer,* yet, in order that I may both make them ad- missible in argument, and account them valid expressions of opinion, and even contend that they make for our side, that so there may be all the redder shame for the blindness of their author, we have now drawn out some antitheses oi our own in opposition to Marcion. And indeed ^ I do allow that one order did run its course in the old dispensation under the Creator,'" and that another is on its way in the new under Christ. I do not deny that there is a difference in the language of their docu- ments, in their precepts of virtue, and in their 7 Patrocinaretur.
** Praescriptive occurrere. This law term (the Greek wapaypa^ri) seems to refer to the Church's " rule of faith " (praescriptio), which he might at once put in against Marcion's heresy; only he prefers to refute him on his own ground.
9Atque adeo. «o Apud Creatorem.
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book IV.
teachings of the law; but yet all this diversity is consistent with one and the same God, even Him by whom it was arranged and also foretold, i^ong ago ' did Isaiah declare that "out of Sion should go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem"- — some other law, that is, and another word. In short, says he, " He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; "^ meaning not those of the Jewish people only, but of the nations which are judged by the new law of the gospel and the new word of the apostles, and are amongst themselves re- buked of their old error as soon as they have believed. And as the result of this, "they beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears (which are a kind of hunting instru- ments) into pruning-hooks; " " that is to say, minds, which once were fierce and cruel, are changed by them into good dispositions pro- ductive of good fruit. And again: " Hearken unto me, hearken unto me, my people, and ye kings, give ear unto me; for a law shall proceed from me, and my judgment for a light to the na- tions;" 5 wherefore He had determined and de- creed that the nations also were to be enlight- ened by the law and the word of the gospel. This will be that law which (according to David also) is unblameable, because " perfect, con- verting the soul"* from idols unto God. This likewise will be the word concerning which the same Isaiah says, " For the Lord will make a decisive word in the land."'' Because the New Testament is compendiously short,* and freed from the minute and per- plexing« burdens of the law. But why en- large, when the Creator by the same prophet foretells the renovation more manifestly and clearly than the light itself? " Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old " (the old things have passed away, and new things are arising). " Behold, I will do new things, which shall now spring forth." '° So by Jeremiah: "Break up for yourselves new pastures," and sow not among thorns, and circumcise yourselves in the foreskin of your heart." " And in another passage: " Be- hold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Jacob, and with the house of Judah; not ac- cording to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I arrested their dis- 'Olim.
5 Isa. Ii. 4, according to the Sept.
8 Compendiatum.
9l^clniosi9.
" Novate novamen novum. Agricultural words. >2 Altered version of Jer. iv. 3, 4.
pensation, in order to bring them out of the land of Egypt." '3 He thus shows that the ancient covenant is temporary only, when He indicates its change; also when He promises that it shall be followed by an eternal one. For by Isaiah He says: "Hear me, and ye shall live; and I will make an everlasting cove- nant with you," adding " the sure mercies of David," ''* in order that He might show that that covenant was to run its course in Christ. That He was of the family of David, accord- ing to the genealogy of Mary,'^ He declared in a figurative way even by the rod which was to proceed out of the stem of Jesse.'* Foras- much then as he said, that from the Creator there would come other laws, and other words, and new dispensations of covenants, indicat- ing also that the very sacrifices were to receive higher offices, and that amongst all nations, by Malachi when he says: " I have no pleas- ure in you, saith the Lord, neither will I ac- cept your sacrifices at your hands. For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place a sac- rifice is offered unto my name, even a pure offering"''' — meaning simple prayer from a pure conscience, — it is of necessity that every change which comes as the result of innova- tion, introduces a diversity in those things of which the change is made, from which diversity arises also a contrariety. For as there is nothing, after it has undergone a change, which does not become different, so there is nothing different which is not contrary.'^ Of that very thing, therefore, there will be pred- icated a contrariety in consequence of its diversity, to which there accrued a change of condition after an innovation. He who brought about the change, the same instituted the diversity also; He who foretold the inno- vation, the same announced beforehand the contrariety likewise. Why, in your interpre- tation, do you impute a difference in the state of things to a difference of powers? Why do you wrest to the Creator's prejudice those ex- amples from which you draw your antitheses, when you may recognise them all in His sen- sations and affections? " I will wound," He says, "and I will heal;" " I will kill," He says again, " and I will make alive " '^ — even '3 Jer. x-xxi. 31, 32, with slight change.
•5 Secundum Mariae censum. See Kitto's Cyclopiedia of Bib- lical Literature (third edition), in the article " Genealogy of Jesus Christ," where the translator of this work has largely given reasons for believing that St. Luke in his genealogy, (chap, iii.) has traced tlie descent of the Virgin Makv. To the authorities there given may be added this passage of Tertullian, and a fuller one, Adversus Juiia'os, ix., towards the end. [p. 164, supra-l "8 To its former self.
'9 Deut. xxxii. 39.
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
the same "who createth evil and maketh peace;"' from which you are used even to censure Him with the imputation of fickleness and inconstancy, as if He forbade what He commanded, and commanded what He for- bade. Why, then, have you not reckoned up the Anf////eses also which occur in the natu- ral works of the Creator, who is for ever con- trary to Himself? You have not been able, unless I am misinformed, to recognise the fact,= that the world, at all events, ^ even amongst your people of Pontus, is made up of a diversity of elements which are hostile to one another.* It was therefore your bounden duty first to have determined that the god of the light was one being, and the god of dark- ness was another, in such wise that you might have been able to have distinctly asserted one of them to be the god of the law and the other the god of the gospel. It is, however, the settled conviction already ^ of my mind from manifest proofs, that, as His works and plans ^ exist in the way of Antitheses, so also iDy the same rule exist the mysteries of His religion. ^ CHAP. II. — ST. Luke's gospel, selected by MARCION AS his AUTHORITY, AND MUTILATED BY HIM. THE OTHER GOSPELS EQUALLY AUTHORITATIVE. MARCION 's TERMS OF DIS- CUSSION, HOWEVER, ACCEPTED, AND GRAP- PLED WITH ON THE FOOTING OF ST. LUKE's GOSPEL ALONE.
You have now our answer to the A?ititheses compendiously indicated by us.^ I pass on to give a proof of the Gospel ' — not, to be sure, of Jewry, but of Pontus — having become meanwhile '° adulterated; and this shall indi- cate" the order by which we proceed. We lay it down as our first position, that the evan- gelical Testament" has apostles for its authors,'^ to whom was assigned by the Lord Himself this office of publishing the gospel. Since, however, there are apostolic '* men also,'= they are yet not alone, but appear with apostles and after apostles; because the = Recogitare.
aSaltim.
4 ^mularum invicem.
SPraejudicatum est.
6 In the external world.
7 Sacramenta.
8 Expeditam a nobis.
9 [The term evayyikiov was often employed for a written book, says Kaye (p. 298), who refers to Book i. cap. i. supra, etc."]
'0 Interim, perhaps " occasionally.''
" Praestructuram.
i^Instrumentum. [See cap. i, supra. And, above, note 9. Also in cap. iii. and the Apology, (cap. xlvii.) he calls the Testa- ments, Digests, or Sancta Digesta.'\ •3 By this canon of his, that thetrue Gospels must have for their authors either apostles or companions and disciples of apostles, he shuts out the false Gospels of the heretics, such as the Ebionites, Encratites, Nazarenes, and Marcionites (Le Prieur).
'4 Apostolicos, companions of the apostles associated in the authorship.
'5 He means, of course, St. Mark and St. Luke.
preaching of disciples might be open to the suspicion of an affectation of glory, if there did not accompany it '^ the authority of the masteif, which means that of Christ,'' for it w;is that which made the apostles their mas- ters. Of the apostles, therefore, John and Matthew first instil '^ faith into us; whilst of apostolic men, Luke and Mark renew it after- wards.'' These all start with the same prin- ciples of the faith, '° so far as relates to the one only God the Creator and His Christ, how that He was born of the Virgin, and came to fulfil =' the law and the prophets. Never mind '^ if there does occur some variation in the order of their narratives, provided that there be agreement in the essential matter-' of the faith, in which there is disagreement with Marcion. Marcion, on the other hand, you must know,""* ascribes no author to his Gospel, as if it could not be allowed him to afiix a title to that from which it was no crime (in his eyes) to subvert ^^ xkve very body. And here I might now make a stand, and contend that a work ought not to be recog- nised, which holds not its head erect, which exhibits no consistency, which gives no prom- ise of credibility from the fulness of its title and the just profession of its author. But we prefer to join issue ^ on every point; nor shall we leave unnoticed ^~ what may fairly be understood to be on our side.^® Now, of the authors whom we possess, Marcion seems to have singled out Luke ^ for his mutilating process. 3° Luke, however, was not an apos- tle, but only an apostolic man; not a master, but a disciple, and so inferior to a master — at least as far subsequent to ^^ him as the apos- tle whom he followed (and that, no doubt, was Paul 3=) was subsequent to the others; so that, had Marcion even published his Gospel in the name of St. Paul himself, the single authority of the document,^^ destitute of all support from preceding authorities, would not be a sufficient basis for our faith. There would be still wanted that Gospel which St. Paul found in existence, to which he yielded 16 Adsistat illi.
17 Immo Christi. '^ Insinuant.
19 Instaurant. =°Isdem regulis. 21 Supplementum. == Viderit. 23 De capite. =4 Scilicet.
25 Evertere.
26 Congredi.
27 Dissimulamus. *8 Ex nostro.
=9 Compare Irenaeus,/lrfi'tfrjaj//«rw^j (Harvey), 1. 25 and iii. II; also Epiphanius, Heer. xlii. See also the editor's notes on the passages in Irenaeus, who quotes other authorities also, and shows the particulars of Marcion's mutilations. [Vol. I. 429.]
30 Quem caederet.
31 Posterior.
32 See Hieronyrai, Catal. Scriptt. Eccles. 7, and Fabricius' notes.
33 Instrumenti.
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book IV.
his belief, and with which he so earnestly wished his own to agree, that he actually on that account went up to Jerusalem to know and consult the apostles, " lest he should run, or had been running in vain;" ' in other words, that the faith which he had learned, and the gospel which he was preaching, might be in accordance with theirs. Then, at last, hav- ing conferred with the (primitive) authors, and having agreed with them touching the rule of faith, they joined their hands in fel- lowship, and divided their labours thenceforth in the office of preaching the gospel, so that they were to go to the Jews, and St, Paul to the Jews and the Gentiles. Inasmuch, there- fore, as the enlightener of St. Luke himself desired the authority of his predecessors for both his own faith and preaching, how much more may not I require for Luke's Gospel that which was necessary for the Gospel of his master. - CHAP. III. 3 MARCION INSINUATED THE UN- TRUSTWORTHINESS OF CERTAIN APOSTLES WHOM ST. PAUL REBUKED. THE REBUKE SHOWS THAT IT CANNOT BE REGARDED AS DEROGATING FROM THEIR AUTHORITY. THE \POSTOLIC GOSPELS PERFECTLY AUTHENTIC.
In the scheme of Marcion, on the con- trary,'* the mystery 5 of the Christian religion begins from the discipleship of Luke. Since, however, it was on its course previous to that point, it must have had^ its own authentic materials,'' by means of which it found its own way down to St. Luke; and by the assist- ance of the testimony which it bore, Luke himself becomes admissible. Well, but^ Marcion, finding the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians (wherein he rebukes even apostles «) for " not walking uprightly according to the truth of the gospel," '° as well as accuses cer- tain false apostles of perverting the gospel of Christ), labours very hard to destroy the cnaracter" of those Gospels which are pub- lished as genuine " and under the name of apostles, in order, forsooth, to secure for his own Gospel the credit which he takes away from them. But then, even if he censures 2 [Dr. Holmes not uniformly, yet constantly inserts the prefix St. before the name of Paul, and brackets it, greatly disfiguring the page. It is not in our author's text, but I venture to dispense with the ever-recurring brackets.]
3 This is Oehler's arrangement of the chapter, for the sake of the sense. The former editions begin this third chapter with " Sed enim Marcion nactus."
4 Aliud est si.
5 Sacramentum. ^ Habuit utique.
7 Paraturam.
8 Sed enim.
•o Compare what has been already said in book i. chap. 20, and below in book v. chap. 3. See also TertuUian's treatise, De Pra- scrifit. Haret. chap. 23. [Kaye, p. 275.]
>' Statum.
'= Propria.
Peter and John and James, who were thought to be pillars, it is for a manifest reason. They seemed to be changing their company '^ from respect of persons. And yet as Paul himself "became all things to all men,"'* that he might gain all, it was possible that Peter also might have betaken himself to the same plan of practising somewhat different from what he taught. And, in like manner, if false apostles also crept in, their character too showed itself in their insisting upon cir- cumcision and the Jewish ceremonies. So that it was not on account of their preaching, but of their conversation, that they were marked by St. Paul, who would with equal impartiality have marked them with censure, if they had erred at all with respect to God the Creator or His Christ. Each several case will therefore have to be distinguished. When Marcion complains that apostles are suspected (for their prevarication and dissimulation) of having even depraved the gospel, he thereby accuses Christ, by accusing those whom Christ chose. If, then, the apostles, who are cen- sured simply for inconsistency of walk, com- posed the Gospel in a pure form,'5 but false apostles interpolated their true record; and if our own copies have been made from these,'* where will that genuine texf of the apostle's writings be found which has not suf- fered adulteration? Which was it that en- lightened Paul, and through him Luke? It is either completely blotted out, as if by some deluge — being obliterated by the inundation of falsifiers — in which case even Marcion does not possess the true Gospel; or else, is that very edition which Marcion alone possesses the true one, that is, of the apostles? How, then, doe§ that agree with ours, which is said not to be (the work) of apostles, but of Luke? Or else, again, if that which Marcion uses is not to be attributed to Luke simply because it does agree with ours (which, of course,'* is, also adulterated in its title), then it is the work of apostles. Our Gospel, therefore, which is in agreement with it, is equally the work of apostles, but also adulterated in its title."
CHAP. IV. EACH SIDE CLAIMS TO POSSESS THE TRUE GOSPEL. ANTIQUITY THE CRITERION OF TRUTH IN SUCH A MATTER. MARCION'S PRETENSIONS AS AN AMENDER OF THE GOSPEL.
We must follow, then, the clue ^ of our dis- cussion, meeting every effort of our opponents '3 Variare convictum.
•5 Integrum.
•6 Inde nostra digesta.
'7 (itriiianum instrumentum.
'i^'lhat is, according to the Marcionite cavil.
2u Funis ilucfndus est.
CHAr. v.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
with reciprocal vigor. I say that my Gospel is the true one; Marcion, that his is. I affirm that Marcion's Gospel is adulterated; Mar- cion, that mine is. Now what is to settle the point for us, except it be that principle ' of time, which rules that the authority lies with that which shall be found to be more ancient; and assumes as an elemental truth, ^ that cor- ruption (of doctrine) belongs to the side which shall be convicted of comparative lateness in its origin. 3 For, inasmuch as error'* is falsi- fication of truth, it must needs be that truth therefore precede error. A thing must exist prior to its suffering any casualty;s and an object* must precede all rivalry to itself. Else how absurd it would be, that, when we have proved our position to be the older one, and Marcion's the later, ours should yet ap- pear to be the false one, before it had even received from truth its objective existence;'' and Marcion's should also be supposed to have experienced rivalry at our hands, even before its publication; and, in fine, that that should be thought to be the truer position which is the later one — a century ^ later than the publication of all the many and great facts and records of the Christian religion, which certainly could not have been published with-