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Tertullian: Against Marcion, Books I–V
ANF historical edition · Edition commentary
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. — Translator and historical edition notes
[The name of Bishop Jacobson was often introduced in our first volume, in notes to the Apostolic Fathers. He has recently “fallen asleep,” after a life of exemplary labour “with good report of all men and of the Truth itself.” His learning and piety were adorned by a profound humility, which gave a primitive cast to his character. At the Lambeth Conference, having the honour to sit at his side, I observed his extreme modesty. He rarely rose to speak, though he sometimes honoured me with words in a whisper, which the whole assembly would have rejoiced to hear. Like his great predecessor, Pearson, in many respects, the mere filings and clippings of his thoughts were gold-dust.]
[Dr. Holmes is described, in the Edinburgh Edition, as “Domestic Chaplain to the Rt. Hon. the Countess of Rothes.” He was B.A. (Oxon.) in 1840, and took orders that year. Was Head-Master of Plymouth Grammar School at one time, and among his very valuable and learned works should be mentioned, as very useful to the reader of this series, his Translation of Bull’s Defensio Fidei Nicænæ (two vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1851), and of the same great author’s Judicium Ecclesiæ Catholicæ , 8vo. Oxford, 1855.]
[This preface and the frequent annotations of our author relieve the American editor, save very sparingly, from adding notes of his own.]
Two works are worth mentioning in connection with this topic for their succinct and handy form, as well as satisfactory treatment of their argument: Mr. Perowne’s Norrisian prize essay, entitled The Essential Coherence of the Old and New Testaments (1858), and Sir William Page Wood’s recent work, The Continuity of Scripture , as declared by the Testimony of our Lord, and of the evangelists and apostles.
Bishop Kaye says of Tertullian (page 62): “He is indeed the harshest and most obscure of writers, and the least capable of being accurately represented in a translation;” and he quotes the learned Ruhnken’s sentence of our author: “Latinitatis certè pessimum auctorem esse aio et confirmo.” This is surely much too sweeping. To the careful student Tertullian’s style commends itself, by and by, as suited exactly to his subject—as the terse and vigorous expression of terse and vigorous thought. Bishop Butler has been often censured for an awkward style; whereas it is a fairer criticism to say, that the arguments of the Analogy and the Sermons of Human Nature have been delivered in the language best suited to their character. This adaptation of style to matter is probably in all great authors a real characteristic of genius. A more just and favourable view is taken of Tertullian’s Latin by Niebuhr, Hist. Rom . (Schmitz), vol. v. p. 271, and his Lectures on Ancient Hist . (Schmitz), vol. ii. p. 54.
He has also, as the reader will observe, endeavoured to distinguish, by the help of type, between the true God and Marcion’s god, printing the initials of the former, and of the pronouns referring to Him, in capitals, and those of the latter in small letters. To do this was not always an easy matter, for in many passages the argument amalgamates the two. Moreover, in the earlier portion of the work the translator fears that he may have occasionally neglected to make the distinction.
[Written A.D. 207. See Chapter xv. infra. In cap. xxix. is the token of Montanism which denotes his impending lapse.]
Retro.
Jam hinc viderit.
Ex vetere.
Fratris.
Stilus.
De.
[Euxine=hospitable. One recalls Shakespeare: —“Like to the Pontick Sea Whose icy current and compulsive force Ne’er feels retiring ebb.”— Othel .]
Cruda.
De jugo. See Strabo (Bohn’s trans.), vol. ii. p. 247.
Duritia.
Libens.
Exaggerantur.
Calet.
[ Iphigenia of Euripides.]
[See the Medea of Euripides.]
[ Prometheus of Æschylus.]
Hamaxobio. This Sarmatian clan received its name ῾Αμαξόβιοι from its gypsy kind of life.
[I fancy there is point in this singular, the sky of Pontus being always overcast. Cowper says: “There is but one cloud in the sky, But that doth the welkin invest,” etc.
Quidni.
Lancinatur.
Castrator carnis. See Pliny, N. H. viii. 47 (Bohn’s trans. vol. ii. p. 297).
Ipsius litteris.
Jam.
Hinc.
Retro.
He alludes to his book De Præscriptione Hæreticorum . [Was this work then already written? Dr. Allix thinks not. But see Kaye, p. 47.]
Interdum. [Can it be that when all this was written (speaking of ourselves ) our author had fully lapsed from Communion with the Catholic Church?]
Passus.
Instinctum.
St. Luke vi. 43 sq.
Languens.
Isa. xlv. 7 .
Mala.
[This purely good or goodish divinity is an idea of the Stoics. De Præscript . chap. 7.]
Hospitam.
Quendam. [See Irenæus, Vol. I. p. 352, this Series.]
Integre.
Præstruendo.
Or sections.
Et exinde.
Si Forte.
Jam.
Of eternity.
We subjoin the original of this difficult passage: Hunc enim statum æternitati censendum, quæ summum magnum deum efficiat, dum hoc est in deo ipsa, atque ita et cetera, ut sit deus summum magnum et forma et ratione et vi et potestate.
Quid.
Unicus. [Alone of his kind.]
As its first principle.
Porro.
Forma.
Isa. xl. 18, 25 .
Denique.
Excidet.
Amittitur. “Tertullian” (who thinks lightly of the analogy of earthly monarchs) “ought rather to have contended that the illustration strengthened his argument. In each kingdom there is only one supreme power; but the universe is God’s kingdom: there is therefore only one supreme power in the universe.”— Bp. Kaye , On the Writings of Tertullian , Third edition, p. 453, note 2.
Scilicet.
Graduum.
Culmen.
Minutalibus regnis.
Undique.
Substantiis.
Eliquetur.
Depth and silence.
See Virgil, Æneid , viii. 43, etc.
Ipso termino.
Paria.
Jam.
Numeri sui.
Ecce.
Parilitatem.
Formam.
Alioquin.
Certi (sumus).
Tantummodo.
Vindicet.
Injecta manu detinens.
Præscribo.
Ex æquo deos confessus.
De statu suo.
Nega.
Nega.
Passivo.
כְּעַרִַח־אֵל . Tertullian’s version is: In ecclesia deorum. The Vulgate: In synagoga deorum.
Ps. lxxxii. 1, 6 .
The now less obvious nicknames of “Alex. Darius and Olofernes,” are in the text.
Substantiæ.
Vocari obtinuit.
Statum.
Ex pari.
Integritas.
Hæsisti.
Stuporem suum.
[Cap. xix. infra. ]
The original of this obscure passage is: “Novum igitur audiens deum, in vetere mundo et in vetere ævo et sub vetere deo inauditum quem tantis retro seculis neminem, et ipsa ignorantia antiquum, quidam Jesus Christus, et ille in veteribus nominibus novus, revelaverit, nec alius antehac.” The harsh expression, “quidam Jesus Christus,” bears, of course, a sarcastic reference to the capricious and inconsistent novelty which Marcion broached in his heresy about Christ. [By some slight chance in punctuation and arrangement, I have endeavoured to make it a little clearer.]
Gloriæ. [ Qu . boast?]
Hæc erit novitas quæ.
Novo semper ac novo titulo.
Consecravit.
Germana.
Censetur. A frequent meaning in Tertullian. See Apol. 7 and 12.
We cannot preserve the terseness of the Latin: Deus, si est vetus, non erit; si est novus, non fuit.
Agnitione. The distinctive term of the Gnostic pretension was the Greek equivalent Γνῶσις .
Agnitione.
Plane.
Non evagabor, ut dicam.
Provocari.
Debebo.
Ratione.
Constantius.
Quale est ut.
Agnoscis.
Vacat.
Argumenta ="proofs.”
Sin.
Plane.
Regulæ partibus.
Fortasse an.
Status principalis.
Viderit.
In diversitate.
Nec admittentur.
Sub eo.
Formam.
Dirigam.
Dedicasse.
Instituat.
Denique.
See also De test, anim. 2, and De anima , 41. [Bp. Kaye refers (p. 166) to Profr. Andrews Norton of Harvard, with great respect: specially to a Note on this usage of the Heathen, in his Evidences , etc. Vol. III.]
Prophetia, inspired Scripture.
Extraneous.
Extraneum.
Alius.
Plane falsæ vacabit.
Forma.
Proprii sui mundi, et hominis et sæculi.
[Kaye, p. 206.]
Cicerculam.
[—“uncique puer monstrator aratri,” Virg. Georg. i. 19, and see Heyne’s note.]
Præscriptio.
Tertium cessat.
Falsæ. An allusion to the Docetism of Marcion.
Apud quem.
The word cause throughout this chapter is used in the popular, inaccurate sense, which almost confounds it with effect , the “causa cognoscendi,” as distinguished from the “causa essendi,” the strict cause .
The word cause throughout this chapter is used in the popular, inaccurate sense, which almost confounds it with effect , the “causa cognoscendi,” as distinguished from the “causa essendi,” the strict cause .