words, "Thou art the Christ," he could not but have perceived that He was that Christ, beside whom he knew of none else in the Scriptures, and whom he was now surveying '° in His wonderful deeds. This conclusion He even Himself confirms by thus far bearing with it, nay, even enjoining silence respecting it. '7 For if Peter was unable to acknowledge Him to be any other than the Creator's Christ, while He commanded them " to tell no man that saying," surely'* He was unwilling to have the conclusion promulged which Petei had drawn. No doubt of that,'' you say; but as Peter's conclusion was a wrong one, therefore He was unwilling to have a lie dis- seminated. It was, however, a different reason which He assigned for the silence, even be- cause " the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and scribes, and priests, and be slain, and be raised again the third day."=° Now, inasmuch as these sufferi?igs were actually foretold for the Creator's Christ (as we shall fully show in the proper place '''), so by this application of them to His own case " does He prove that it is He Himself of whom they were predicted. At all events, even if they had not been predicted, the reason which He alleged for imposing silence (on the disciples) was such as made it clear enough that Peter had made no mistake, that reason being the necessity of His undergoing these sufferings. "Whosoever," says He, "will save his life, shall lose it; and whoso- ever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. ' ' ^^ Surely =" it is the Son of man "* wh*^ uttered this sentence. Look carefully, then, along with the king of Babylon, into his burning fiery furnace, and there you will dis- cover one "like the Son of man" (for He was not yet really Son of man, because not yet born of man), even as early as then^* ap- pointing issues such as these. He saved the lives of the three brethren, ^^ who had agreed to lose them for God's sake; but He de- stroyed those of the Chaldaeans, when they had preferred to save them by the means of their idolatry. Where is that novelty, whidi you pretend, =* in a doctrine which possesses these ancient proofs? But all the predictions have been fulfilled^' concerning martydoms which were to happen, and were to receive =' See below, chaps. xl.-xliii, 22 Sic quoque. 24Certe.
-5 Compare above, chap, x., towards the ettd« 2* Jam tunc. =8 Ista. 29 Decucurrerunt.
82 TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book IV.
the recompenses of their reward from God. " See," says Isaiah, " how the righteous per- isheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and just men are taken away, and no man con- sidereth." ' When does this more frequently happen than in the persecution of His saints? This, indeed, is no ordinary matter,^ no com- mon casualty of the law of nature; but it is that illustrious devotion, that fighting for the faith, wherein whosoever loses his life for God saves it, so that you may here again recognize the Judge who recompenses the evil gain of life with its destruction, and the good loss thereof with its salvation. It is, however, a jealous God whom He here presents to me; one who returns evil for evil. " For whoso- ever," says He, " shall be ashamed of me, of him will I also be ashamed." ^ Now to none but my Christ can be assigned the occasion * of such a shame as this. His whole course ^ was so exposed to shame as to open a way for even the taunts of heretics, declaiming* with all the bitterness in their power against the utter disgrace" of His birth and bringing-up, and the unworthiness of His very flesh. ^ But how can that Christ of yours be liable to a shame, which it is impossible for him to experience? Since he was never condensed ' into human flesh in the womb of a woman, although a virgin; never grew from human seed, although only after the law of corporeal substance, from the fluids'" of a woman; was never deemed flesh before shaped in the womb; never called fcvtiis" after such shap- ing; was never delivered from a ten months' writhing in the womb;'^ was never shed forth upon the ground, amidst the sudden pains of parturition, with the unclean issue which flows at such a time through the sewerage of the body, forthwith to inaugurate the light '^ of life with tears, and with that primal wound which » Isa. Ivii. I.
2 We have, by understanding res, treated these adjectives as nouns. Rigalt. applies them to the docirina of the sentence just previous. Perhaps, however, ^^ persecutione " is the noun.
4 Materia conveniat.
5 Ordo.
sipsius etiara carnis indignitatem; because His flesh, being capable of suffering and subject to death, seemed to them unworthy of God. So Adv. Jxdteos, chap, xiv., he says: " Primo sordidis indutus est, id est carnis passibilis et mortalis indignitate." Or His "indignity" may have been eiSo? oiiit a|io»' Tvpofi'ifios, His '■'■ unking.'y aspect" (as Origen expresses it. Contra Celsunt,6)\ His " form of a servant," or slave, as St. Paul says. See also Ter- tullian's De Patientia, iii. (Rigalt.)
sCoaguIatur. [Job.\. 10.] 'o Ex feminse huniore.
II Pecus. Julius Kirmicus, iii. i, uses the word in the same way: " Pecus intra viscera matris artuatim concisum a medicis profere- tur." [Jul. Firraicus Maternus, floruit circa, a.d. 340.]
'= Such is probably the meaning of " non decern mensium cru- eiatu deliberatus." For such is the situation of the infant in the womb, that it seems to writhe (cruciari) all curved and contracted (Rigalt.). Latinius read delibratus instead of deliberatus, which means, "suspended or poised in the womb as in a scale." This has my approbation. I would compare De Came Christi, chap, iv. (Fr. Junius.) Oehler reads deliberatus in the sense of liber- al its.
'3Statim lucem lacrimis auspicatus.
severs the child from her who bears him;'* never received the copious ablution, nor the medication of salt and honey; 's nor did he in- itiate a shroud with swaddling clothes; '* nor afterwards did he ever wallow '^ in his own un- cleanness, in his mother's lap; nibbling at her breast; long an infant; gradually'^ a boy; by slow degrees '' a man.^° But he was re- vealed "'^ from heaven, full-grown at once, at once complete; immediately Christ; simply spirit, and power, and god. But as withal he was not true, because not visible; therefore he was no object to be ashamed of from the curse of the cross, the real endurance - of which he escaped, because wanting in bodily substance. Never, therefore, could he have said, " Whosever shall be ashamed of me." But as for our Christ, He could do no other- wise than make such a declaration; ^^ " made ' ' by the Father " a little lower than the an- gels," ^^ " a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people;" =5 seeing that it was His will that " with His stripes we should be healed," ^ that by His humiliation our salvation should be established. And justly did He humble Himself ^^ for His own creature man, for the image and likeness of Himself, and not of another, in order that man, since he had not felt ashamed when bowing down to a stone or a stock, might with simi- lar courage give satisfaction to God for the shamelessness of his idolatry, by displaying an equal degree of shamelessness in his faith, in not being ashamed of Christ. Now, Mar- cion, which of these courses is better suited to your Christ, in respect of a meritorious shame? ^^ Plainly, you ought yourself to blush with shame for having ^'ven him a fictitious existence. ''^ CHAP. XXII. THE SAME CONCLUSION SUPPORTED BY THE TRANSFIGURATION. MARCION INCON- SISTENT IN ASSOCIATING WITH CHRIST IN GLORY TWO SUCH EMINENT SERVANTS OF THE CREATOR AS MOSES AND ELIJAH. ST. PETER's IGNORANCE ACCOUNTED FOR ON A MONTAN- IST PRINCIPLE.
You ought to be very much ashamed of '4 Primo retinaculi sui vulnere: the cutting of the umbilical nerve. [Contrast Jer. Taylor, on the Nativity, Opp. I. p. 34.]
15 Nee sale ac melle medicatus. Of this application in the case of a recent childbirth we know nothing; it seems to have been meant for the skin. See Pliny, in his Hist. Nat. xxii. 25.
^f> Nee pannis jam sepulturae involucrum initiatus.
17 Volutatus per immunditias.
iSVix.
>9 Tarde.
^ Expositus.
2' i.e., he never passed through stages like these.
22 Veritate.
=3 Debuit pronuntiasse.
27 Se deposuit.
28 Ad meritum confusionis. ^Quod ilium finxisti.
CHAP. XXII.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
83 yourself on this account too, for permitting him to appear on the retired mountain in the company of Moses and EUas,' whom he had come to destroy. This, to be sure,- was what he wished to be understood as the meaning of that voice from heaven: " This is my be- /oved Son, hear Him " ^ — Him, that is, not Moses or EHas any longer. The voice alone, therefore, was enough, without the display of Moses and Elias; for, by expressly mention- ing whom they were to hear, he must have forbidden all* others from being heard. Or else, did he mean that Isaiah and Jeremiah and the others whom he did not exhibit were to be heard, since he prohibited those whom he did display? Now, even if their presence was necessary, they surely should not be rep- resented as conversing together, which is a sign of familiarity; nor as associated in glory with him, for this indicates respect and gra- ciousness; but they should be shown in some sloughs as a sure" token of their ruin, or even in that darkness of the Creator which Christ was sent to disperse, far removed from the glory of Him who was about to sever their words and writings from His gospel. This, then, is the way^ how he demonstrates them to be aliens,' even by keeping them in his own company! This is how he shows they ought to be relinquished: he associates them with himself instead! This is how he destroys them: he irradiates them with his glory! How would their own Christ act? I suppose He would have imitated the frowardness (of heresy),^ and revealed them just as Marcion's Christ was bound to do, or at least as having with Him any others rather than His own prophets! But what could so well befit the Creator's Christ, as to manifest Him in the company of His own fore-announcers?9 — to let Him be seen with those to whom He had appeared in revelations? — to let Him be speaking with those who had spoken of Him? — to share His glory with those by whom He used to be called the Lord of glory; even with those chief servants of His, one of whom was once the moulder '° of His people, the other afterwards the reformer" thereof; one the initiator of the Old Testament, the other the consummator " of the New? Well there- fore does Peter, when recognizing the com- 2 Scilicet, in ironical allusion to a Marcionite opinion.
4 Quoscunque.
5 In sordibus aliquibus.
6 Sic.
7 To belong to another god.
8 Secundum perversitatem.
9 Praedicatores.
'° Informator, Moses, as having organized the nation.
■I Reformator, Elias, the great prophet.
•2 It was a primitive opinion in the Church that Elijah was to come, with Enoch, at the end of the world. See £>e Ani'ma, chap. XXXV. and 1.; also Irenaeus, £>e H<eres. v. 5. [Vol. I. 530,] panions of his Christ in their indissoluble con- nection with Him, suggest an expedient: " It is good for us to be here" (good: that evi- dently means to be where Moses and Elias are); "and let us make three tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. But he knew not what he said." '^ How knew not? Was his ignorance the result of simple error? Or was it on the principle which we maintain "* in the cause of the new prophecy, '5 that to grace ecstasy or rapture '* is incident. For when a man is rapt in the Spirit, especially when he beholds the glory of God, or when God speaks through him, he necessarily loses his sensation," because he is overshadowed with the power of God, — a point concerning which there is a question between us and the carnally-minded.'® Now, it is no difficult matter to prove the rapture '' of Peter. For how could he have known Moses and Elias, except (by being) in the Spirit? People could not have had their images, or statues, or likenesses; for that the law for- bade. How, if it were not that he had seen them in the Spirit? And therefore, because it was in the Spirit that he had now spoken, and not in his natural senses, he could not know what he had said. But if, on the other hand,^° he was thus ignorant, because he erro- neously supposed that (Jesus) was their Christ, it is then evident that Peter, when previously asked by Christ, "Whom they thought Him to be," meant the Creator's Christ, when he answered, " Thou art tab Christ; " because if he had been then aware that He belonged to the rival god, he would not have made a mis- take here. But if he was in error here be- cause of his previous erroneous opinion," then you may be sure that up to that very day no new divinity h<ad been revealed by Christ, and that Peter had so far made no mistake, because hitherto Christ had revealed nothing of the kind; and that Christ accordingly was not to be regarded as belonging to any other '4 This Tertullian seems to have done in his treatise De Ecs- iasi, which is mentioned by St. Jerome — see his Catalogus Scriptt. Eccles. (in TertuUiano); and by Nicephorus, Hist. Eccles. iv. 22, 34. On this subject of ecstasy, Tertullian has some obser- vations in De Anima, chap. xxi. and xlv. (Rigalt. and Oehler.)
15 [Elucidation VIL] 16 Amentiam.
'7 Excidat sensu.
18 He calls those the carnally-minded (" psychicos '") who thought that ecstatic raptures and revelations had ceased in the church. The term arises from a perverse application of i Cor. ii. 14: ♦uxiKot ii dv6p(onoi ov Sixerai to toO JlveviiaTO<; toC ©eov. In opposition to the wild fanaticism of Montanus, into which Ter- tullian strangely fell, the Catholics believed that the true proph- ets, who were filled with the Spirit of God, discharged their pro- phetic functions with a quiet and tranquil mind. See the anony- mous authorj Contra Cataphrygas, in Eusebius, Hist. EccL v. 17; Epiphanius, Hares. 48. See also Routh, Rell. Sacrce, i. p. 100; and Bp. Kaye, On the Writings of Tertullian, edit. 3, pp. 27-36. (Munter's Primord, Eccles A/ric. p. 138, quoted by Oehler.)
•9 Amentiam.
«> Ceterum.
21 According to the hypothesis.
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book IV.
than the Creator, whose entire dispensation' he, in fact, here described. He selects from His disciples three witnesses of the impending vision and voice. And this is just the way of the Creator. " In the mouth of three wit- nesses," says He, "shall every word be es- tablished."^ He withdraws to a mountain. In the nature of the place I see much mean- ing. For the Creator had originally formed His ancient people on a mountain both with visible glory and His voice. It was only right that the New Testament should be at- tested 3 on such an elevated spot ■» as that whereon the Old Testament had been com- posed;5 under a like covering of cloud also, which nobody will doubt, was condensed out of the Creator's air. Unless, indeed, he^ had brought down his own clouds thither, be- cause he had himself forced his way through the Creator's heaven;' or else it was only a precarious cloud, ^ as it were, of the Creator which he used. On the present (as also on the former) » occasion, therefore, the cloud was not silent; but there was the accustomed voice from heaven, and the Father's testi- mony to the Son; precisely as in the first Psalm He had said, "Thou art my Son, to- day have I begotten thee." " By the mouth of Isaiah also He had asked concerning Him, " Who is there among you that feareth God? Let him hear the voice of His Son." " When therefore He here presents Him with the words, "This is my (beloved) Son," this clause is of course understood, " whom I have promised." For if He once promised, and then afterwards says, " This is He," it is suit- able conduct for one who accomplishes His purpose " that He should utter His voice in proof of the promise which He had formerly made; but unsuitable in one who is amenable to the retort. Can you, indeed, have a right to say, " This is my son," concerning whom you have given us no previous information, '^ any more than you have favoured us with a revelation about your own prior existence? " Hear ye Him," therefore, whom from the beginning (the Creator) had declared entitled to be heard in the name of a prophet, since it was as a prophet that He had to be regarded • Toturo ordinem, in the three periods represented by Moses, and Elijah, and Christ.
2 Compare Deut. xix. 15 with Luke ix. 28.
3 Consignari.
4 In eo suggest u.
5 Conscriptum fuerat. ' Marcion"s god.
7 Compare above, book i. chap. 15, and book iv. chap. 7.
8 Precario. This word is used in book v. chap. xii. to describe the transitoriness of the Creator's paradise and world.
9 Nee nunc.
" Isa. 1. 10, according to the Septuagint. '2 Ejus est exhibentis.
»3 Non prxmisisti. Oebler suggests promisisti, " have given us no promise."
by the people. "A prophet," says Moses, " shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your sons" (that is, of course, after a car- nal descent '•»); " unto Him shall ye hearken, as unto me." '5 "Every one who will not hearken unto Him, his soul '* shall be cut off from amongst his people." '^ So also Isaiah: " Who is there among you that feareth God? Let him hear the voice of His Son." '^ This voice the Father was going Himself to recom- mend. For, says he,'' He establishes the words of His Son, when He says, " This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him." Therefore, even if there be made a transfer of the obedi- ent "hearing" from Moses and Elias tC Christ, it is still not from another God, or to another Christ; but from -' the Creator to His Christ, in consequence of the departure of the old covenant and the supervening of the new. " Not an ambassador, nor an angel, but He Himself," says Isaiah, "shall save them;"''^ for it is He Himself who is now declaring and fulfilling the law and the proph- ets. The Father gave to the Son new disci- ples,^^ after that Moses and Elias had been exhibited along with Him in the honour of His glory, and had then been dismissed as having fully discharged their duty and office, for the express purpose of affirming for Marcion's information the fact that Moses and Elias had a share in even the glory of Christ. But we have the entire structure -"^ of this same vision in Habakkuk also, where the Spirit in the person of some ^^ of the apostles says, " O Lord, I have heard Thy speech, and was afraid." What speech was this, other than the words of the voice from heaven. This is my beloved Son, hear ye, Him? " I considered thy works, and was astonished." When could this have better happened than when Peter, on seeing His glory, knew not what he was saying? "In the midst of the two Thou shalt be known" — even Moses and '4Censum: Some read J^«f«»«, " sense."
15 Deut. xviii. 15.
16 Anima: life.
17 Deut. xviii. 19.
19 Tertullian, by introducing this statement with an " ingutt,'" seems to make a quotation of it; but it is only a comment on the actual quotations. Tertullian's invariable object in this argu- ment is to match some event or word pertaining to the Christ of the New Testament with some declaration of the Old Testament. In this instance the approving words of God upon the mount are in Heb. i. 5 applied to the Son, while in Ps. ii. 7 the Son applies them to Himself. Compare the Adversus Praxean^ chap. xix. (Fr. Junius and Oehler.) It is, however, more likely that Ter- tullian really means to quote Isa. xliv. 26, " that confirmeth the word of His servant," which Tertullian reads, " Sistens verba filii sui," the.Septuagint being, Kal i<rTu)i' prjtia vaiSb<; avrov.
=0 In Christo. /« with an ablative is often used by our author for in with an accusative.
-' Or perhaps " iy the Creator."
22 Isa. Ixiii. 9, according to the Septuagint; only he reaAi/aciet for aorist e<T>o(T(v.
23 A Marcionite position. «4 Habitum.
25 Interdiim.
CHAl'. XXllI.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
Elias.' These likewise did Zecliariah see under the figure of the two oUve trees and olive branches. = For these are they of whom he says, " They are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth." And again Habakkuk says, " His glory cov- ered the heavens" (that is, with that cloud), "and His splendour shall be like the light- even the light, wherewith His very raiment glistened." And if we would make mention of 3 the promise to Moses, we shall find it ac- complished here. For when Moses desired to see the Lord, saying, " If therefore I have found grace in Thy sight, manifest Thyself to me, that I may see Thee distinctly," " the sight which he desired to have was of that condition which he was to assume as man, and which as a prophet he knew was to occur. Respecting the face of God, however, he had already heard, "No man shall see me, and live." " This thing," said He, " which thou hast spoken, will I do unto thee." Then Moses said, " Show me Thy glory." And the Lord, with like reference to the future, re- plied, " I will pass before thee in my glory," etc. Then at the last He says, "And then thou Shalt see my back."s Not loins, or calves of the legs, did he want to behold, but the glory which was to be revealed in the latter days.^ He had promised that He would make Himself thus face to face visible to him, when He said to Aaron, " If there shall be a. prophet among you, I will make myself known to him by vision, and by vision will I speak with him; but not so is my manner to Moses; with/«V« will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently " (that is to say, in the form of man which He was to assume), " and not in dark speeches." ^ Now, although Marcion has denied ^ that he is here represented as speaking with the Lord, but only as standing, yet, inasmuch as he stood " mouth to mouth," he must also have stood " face to face " ivith him, to use his words,^ not far from him, in His very glory — not to say,'° in His presence. And with this glory he went away enlightened from Christ, just as he used to do from the Creator; as then to dazzle the eyes of the chil- dren of Israel, so nmv to smite those of the blinded Marcion, who has failed to see how this argument also makes against him, « Hab. iii. 2, according to the Septuagint. St. Augustine simi- larly applied this passage, De Civit. Dei, ii. 32.
aCommeraoremur: be reminded, or call to mind.
4 Cognoscenter: yvoiaToa, "so as to know Thee."
f> Posterioribus tentporibus. [The awful ribaldry of Voltaire upon this glorious revelation is based upou the Vulgate reading of Exod. xxxiii. 23, needlessly transferred to our Version, but cor- rected by the late Revisers.]
SNoluit.
» It is difficult to see what this ingjtit means. •oNedum.
CHAP. XXIII. — IMPOSSIBLE THAT MARCION's CHRIST SHOULD REPROVE THE FAITHLESS GENERATION. SUCH LOVING CONSIDERATION FOR INFANTS AS THE TRUE CHRIST WAS APJ TO SHEW, ALSO IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE OTHER ON THE THREE DIFFERENT CHARACTERS CON FRONTED AND INSTRUCTED BY CHRIST 1> SAMARIA.
I take on myself the character" of Israel. Let Marcion's Christ stand forth, and ex claim, "■' O faithless generation! " how lon^ shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? " '3 He will immediately have to submit to this remonstrance from me: "Whoever you are, O stranger,'* first tell us who you are, from whom you come, and what right you have over us. Thus far, all you possess '^ be- longs to the Creator. Of course, if you come from Him, and are acting for Him, we will bear your reproof. But if you come from some other god, I should wish you to tell us what you have ever committed to us belong- ing to yourself,'^ which it was our duty to be- lieve, seeing that you are upbraiding us with 'faithlessness,' who have never yet revealed to us your own self. How long ago '^ did you begin to treat with us, that you should be complaining of the delay? On what points have you borne with us, that you should ad- duce'^ your patience? Like yEsop's ass, you are just come from the well,'' and are filling every place with your braying." I assume, besides,^ the person of the disciples, against whom he has inveighed:=' "O per- verse nation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? " This outburst of his I might, of course, retort upon him most justly in such words as these: "Who- ever you are, O stranger, first tell us who you are, from whom you come, what right you have over us. Thus far, I suppose, you be- long to the Creator, and so we have followed you, recognising in you all things which are His. Now, if you come from Him, we will bear your reproof. If, however, you are act- ing for another, prythee tell us what you have ever conferred upon us that is simply your own, which it had become our duty to be- lieve, seeing that you reproach us with ' faith- lessness,' although up to this moment you show us no credentials. How long since did you begin to plead with us, that you are " Personam: " I personate Israel."
'= Genitura.
^Ai-ntpxoit-ivf. The true Christ is 6 fpx6it.ivoi, ■5 Totum apud te.
'6 De tuo commisisti.
>7 Quam olim.
«8 Imputes.
19 This fable is not extant (Oehler).
29 Adhuc.
21 InsiHit.
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book IV.
charging us with delay? Wherein have you borne with us, that you should even boast of your patience? The ass has only just arrived from ^sop's well, and he is already braying." Now who would not thus have rebutted the unfairness of the rebuke, if he had supposed its author to belong to him who had had no right as yet to complain? Except that not even He' would have inveighed against them, if He had not dwelt among them of old in the law and by the prophets, and with mighty deeds and many mercies, and had always ex- perienced them to be " faithless." But, be- hold, Christ takes ^ infants, and teaches how all ought to be like them, if they ever wish to be greater. 3 The Creator, on the contrary,'' let loose bears against children, in order to avenge His prophet Elisha,. who had been mocked by them.s This antithesis is impu- dent enough, since it throws together* things so different as infants ' and children,^ — an age still innocent, and one already capable of dis- cretion— able to mock, if not to blaspheme. As therefore God is a just God, He spared not impious children, exacting as He does honour for every time of life, and especially, of course, from youth. And as God is good, He so loves infants as to have blessed the midwives in Egypt,, when they protected the