Tertullian: Against Marcion, Books I–V

The word “ res ” is throughout this argument used strictly by Tertullian; it refers to “ the thing ” made by God—that product of His creative energy which affords to us evidence of His existence. We have translated it “ proof ” for want of a better word.

The “tanquam sit,” in its subjunctive form, seems to refer to the concession indicated at the outset of the chapter.

Omnino sine causa.

Illum, i.e., Marcion’s god.

Captare.

Deum ex operum auctoritate formatum.

Non statim ratione, on a priori grounds.

i.e., Marcion’s god.

Compare Rom. i. 20 , a passage which is quite subversive of Marcion’s theory.

This is an ironical concession from the Marcionite side.

Another concession.

Tertullian’s rejoinder.

De isto.

They called it κόσμος .

By sapientiæ professores he means the heathen philosophers; see De Præscript. Hæret . c. 7.

In his book adv. Hermogenem , c. 8, Tertullian calls the philosophers “hæreticorum patriarchæ.”

Formidaverint.

Substantiæ.

Dei.

The Greek name of Jupiter, Ζεύς , is here derived from ζέω , ferveo, I glow . Juno’s name, ῞Ηρα , Tertullian connects with ἀήρ , the air; παρὰ τὸ ἀὴρ καθ᾽ ὑπέρθεσιν ῞Ηρα . These names of the two great deities suggest a connection with fire and air.

i.e., Cybele.

The earth’s irrigations, and the washings of the image of Cybele every year in the river Almo by her priests, are here confusedly alluded to. For references to the pagan custom, see White and Riddle’s large Lat. Dict. s. v. Almo .

Mithras, the Persian sun-god, was symbolized by the image of a lion. The sun entering the zodiacal sign Leo amidst summer heat may be glanced at.

Deficiam ad.

Sordidum. [Well and nobly said.]

De industria ingeniis aut viribus ampliavit.

2 Cor. xii. 5 .

Tertullian, it should be remembered, lived in Africa.

Cantharidis.

Adamavit.

Laboravit.

Paupertina. This and all such passages are, of course, in imitation of Marcion’s contemptuous view of the Creator’s work.

Cellula.

Infantat.

Mendicitatibus.

Matricem.

Medullas.

[The use of fish for fasting-days has no better warrant than Marcion’s example.]

Uteris.

Vel.

Conditionem.

Adv. Marcionem , v. 12.

For Marcion’s exclusive use, and consequent abuse, of St. Paul , see Neander’s Antignostikus (Bohn), vol. ii. pp. 491, 505, 506.

[This date not merely settles the time of our author’s work against Marcion, but supplies us with evidence that his total lapse must have been very late in life. For the five books, written at intervals and marked by progressive tokens of his spiritual decline, are as a whole, only slightly offensive to Orthodoxy. This should be borne in mind.]

Frivolis. Again in reference to Marcion undervaluing the creation as the work of the Demiurge.

Et ideo.

In this and the following sentences, the reader will observe the distinction which is drawn between the Supreme and good God of Marcion and his “Creator,” or Demiurge.

Subsiciva.

Stipare se.

Molitus est.

Sentire.

Subicit.

The Supreme and good God. Tertullian here gives it as one of Marcion’s tenets, that the Demiurge created the World out of pre-existent matter.

Interim.

Proinde et.

Assignet.

Namely, (1) the supreme and good God; (2) His Christ; (3) the space in which He dwells; (4) the matter of His creation; (5) the Demiurge (or Marcion’s “Creator”); (6) his promised Christ; (7) the space which contains him; (8) this world, his creation; (9) evil, inherent in it.

Consequens est ut.

Defendant.

Col. i. 16 .

Nunc enim. The elliptical νῦν γάρ of Greek argumentation.

Modulata.

“I make peace, and create evil,” Isa. xlv. 7 .

To depreciate the Creator’s work the more, Marcion (and Valentinus too) used to attribute to Him the formation of all the lower creatures—worms, locusts, etc.—reserving the mightier things to the good and supreme God. See St. Jerome’s Proem. in Epist. ad Philem. [See, Stier, Words of Jesus , Vol. vi. p. 81.]

Dinoscetur.

Quo necessarior.

Locum.

In chap. xxii.

Age.

Anabibazon. The ἀναβιβάζων was the most critical point in the ecliptic, in the old astrology, for the calculation of stellar influences.

Quadratus.

Trigonus. Saturn and Mars were supposed to be malignant planets. See Smith, Greek and Rom. Ant. p. 144, c. 2.

Qualitate.

Definimus.

Cognoscendum.

Recognoscendum.

Doctrina.

Ex prædicationibus.

Operari.

Vix impleverat.

Alioquin.

He means the Emperor Hadrian; comp. Apolog . c. 13.

The third of these books against Marcion.

Circumlatorem.

The author says this, not as his own, but as Marcion’s opinion; as is clear from his own words in his fourth book against Marcion, c. 7, (Pamelius).

Spiritus salutaris.

Aura canicularis.

Primum processit.

Utriusque instrumenti.

Innotuit.

Tertullian’s indignant reply.

Passivum scilicet convictum.

Prædicationis. [Largely ad hominem , this argument.]

Et alibi.

1 Cor. xv. 11 .

See Gal. i. 6, 7, and ii. 4 .

Isa. xliii. 19 .

This quotation, however, is from Jer. xxxi. 32 .

Jer. iv. 4 .

Hos. ii. 11 .

Slightly altered from Isa. i. 13, 14 .

Nihil præscribit de.

i.e., “the old God,” as he has just called Him.

Concessare debebat.

Ps. ii. 3, 1, 2 .

Æmulum.

Derogaretur.

Nutabat.

Census.

In Creatore christianizet.

Obduxeris. For this sense of the word, see Apol. 1. sub init. “sed obducimur,” etc.

Sacramenti.

Definito.

That is, “inspired.”

Nihil retractare oportebat.

[Kaye, p. 274.]

In his book, De Præscrip. Hæret ., [cap. xv.] Tertullian had enjoined that heretics ought not to be argued with, but to be met with the authoritative rule of the faith. He here proposes to forego that course.

Marcion’s Docetic doctrine of Christ as having only appeared in human shape, without an actual incarnation, is indignantly confuted by Tertullian in his De Carne Christi , c.v.

That is, the principle in question—the bonitas Dei.

Exinde agens.

Obvenientia.

Jugis.

Susciperet.

Despiceret.

Destitueret.

That is, Marcion’s god’s.

Censetur.

Quandoque.

Aliquando.

Cruciare.

Rescribetur.

Sævitias.

Arbusculæ.

Si ut?

Accessione.

Ingenio.

Nunc. [Comp. chapter xv. supra , p. 282.]

Atquin.

Familiaritatis.

This is the sense of the passage as read by Oehler: “Antecedit autem debita indebitam, ut principalis, ut dignior ministra et comite sua, id est indebita.” Fr. Junius, however, added the word “prior” which begins the next sentence to these words, making the last clause run thus: “ut dignior ministra, et comite sua, id est indebita, prior”—“as being more worthy of an attendant, and as being prior to its companion, that is, the undue benevolence.” It is difficult to find any good use of the “prior” in the next sentence, “Prior igitur cum prima bonitatis ratio sit,” etc., as Oehler and others point it.

In rem suam.

Redundavit.

Ratio ipsa, i.e., rationality, or the character of reasonableness, which he is now vindicating.

Alio modo destructus.

Cujus est res.

Justitia, right as opposed to the wrong (injuria) of the preceding sentence.

Pro domestico, opposed to the pro extraneo , the alien or stranger of the preceding and succeeding context.

Assertor.

Nedum.

Plagiator.

i.e., the Creator.

Oro te.

Alii Deo. The strength of this phrase is remarkable by the side of the oft-repeated aliena.

Therefore Christians used to lift their hands and arms towards heaven in prayer. Compare The Apology , chap. 30, (where the manibus expansis betokens the open hand, not merely as the heathen tendens ad sidera palmas). See also De Orat . c. 13, and other passages from different writers referred to in the “Tertullian” of the Oxford Library of the Fathers , p. 70. [See the figures in the Catacombs as represented by Parker, Marriott and others.]

To the same effect Irenæus had said: “How will it be consistent in them to hold that the bread on which thanks are given is the body of their Lord, and that the cup is His blood, if they do not acknowledge that He is the Son of the Creator of the world, that is, the Word of God?” (Rigalt.) [The consecrated bread is still bread , in Patristic theology.]