Tertullian: Against Marcion, Books I–V

Luke xxii. 15–20 and 1 Cor. xi. 23–29 .

1 Cor. xii. 1 .

Flos: Sept. ἂνθος .

Religionis: Sept. εὐσεβείας .

Timor Dei: Sept. φόβος Θεοῦ .

Isa. xi. 1–3 .

We have more than once shown that by Tertullian and other ancient fathers, the divine nature of Christ was frequently designated “Spirit.”

Floruisset in carne.

See Isa. iii. 2, 3 .

Luke xvi. 16 .

1 Cor. xii. 4–11; Eph. iv. 8, and Ps. lxviii. 18 .

He argues from his own reading, filiis hominum .

1 Cor. iv. 15 .

Gal. iv. 19 .

Joel ii. 28, 29 , applied by St. Peter, Acts ii. 17, 18 .

Gal. iv. 4 .

1 Cor. vii. 29 . [The verse filled out by the translator.]

Comp. 1 Cor. xii. 8–11 and Isa. xi. 1–3 .

1 Cor. xii. 12–30, compared with Eph. iv. 16 .

This seems to be the force of the subjunctive verb noluerit .

Noluerit.

Meritum.

They are spiritual gifts, not endowments of body.

De dilectione præferenda.

Compare 1 Cor. xii. 31; xiii. 1, 13 .

Totis præcordiis.

Luke x. 27 .

“Here, as in John x. 34; xii. 34; xv. 25 , ‘ the law ’ is used for the Old Testament generally, instead of being, as usual, confined to the Pentateuch. The passage is from Isa. xxviii. 11 .” (Dean Stanley, On the Corinthians, in loc .).

1 Cor. xiv. 21 .

Æque.

Duntaxat gratia.

1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35 .

1 Cor. xi. 5, 6 . [See Kaye, p. 228.]

1 Cor. xiv. 34, where Gen. iii. 16 is referred to.

Et si: These words introduce the Marcionite theory.

Traduxerint.

1 Cor. xiv. 25 .

1 Cor. xiv. 26 .

Duntaxat spiritalem: These words refer to the previous ones, “not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God.” [Of course here is a touch of his fanaticism ; but, he bases it on ( 1 Cor. xiv .) a mere question of fact: had these charismata ceased?]

Amentia.

Magnidicam.

Erit.

He here argues, as it will be readily observed, from the Marcionite theory alluded to, near the end of the last chapter.

1 Cor. xv. 12 .

See his treatise, De Resur. Carnis , chap. i. (Oehler).

An allusion to the deaths of martyrs.

Compendio.

Defendi.

Animam.

The reader will readily see how the English fails to complete the illustration with the ease of the Latin, “ surgere ,” “ iterum surgere ,” “ resurgere .”

Gen. iii. 19 . [“Was not said unto the Soul”—says our own Longfellow, in corresponding words.]

1 Cor. xv. 21 .

Vivificatio.

Mortificatio.

Adhuc.

Interposuit aliquid.

1 Cor. xv. 25, 27 .

Jam quidem.

Ps. cx. 1, 2, and viii. 6 .

Ps. cx .

In Ezechiam cecinisse.

2 Kings xix. 14 ; but the words are, “quia is sederit ad dexteram templi,” a sentence which occurs neither in the LXX. nor the original.

Tertullian, as usual, argues from the Septuagint, which in the latter clause of Ps. cx. 3 has ἐκ γαστρὸς πρὸ ἑωσφόρου ἐγέννησά σε ; and so the Vulgate version has it. This Psalm has been variously applied by the Jews. Raschi (or Rabbi Sol. Jarchi) thinks it is most suitable to Abraham , and possibly to David , in which latter view D. Kimchi agrees with him. Others find in Solomon the best application; but more frequently is Hezekiah thought to be the subject of the Psalm, as Tertullian observes. Justin Martyr (in Dial. cum Tryph. ) also notices this application of the Psalm. But Tertullian in the next sentence appears to recognize the sounder opinion of the older Jews, who saw in this Ps. cx . a prediction of Messiah . This opinion occurs in the Jerusalem Talmud, in the tract Berachoth , 5. Amongst the more recent Jews who also hold the sounder view, may be mentioned Rabbi Saadias Gaon, on Dan. vii. 13 , and R. Moses Hadarsan [singularly enough quoted by Raschi in another part of his commentary ( Gen. xxxv. 8 )], with others who are mentioned by Wetstein, On the New Testament , Matt. xxii. 44 . Modern Jews, such as Moses Mendelsohn, reject the Messianic sense; and they are followed by the commentators of the Rationalist school amongst ourselves and in Germany. J. Olshausen, after Hitzig, comes down in his interpretation of the Psalm as late as the Maccabees, and sees a suitable accomplishment of its words in the honours heaped upon Jonathan by Alexander son of Antiochus Epiphanes (see 1 Macc. x. 20 ). For the refutation of so inadequate a commentary, the reader is referred to Delitzch on Ps. cx. The variations of opinion, however, in this school, are as remarkable as the fluctuations of the Jewish writers. The latest work on the Psalms which has appeared amongst us ( Psalms, chronologically arranged , by four Friends), after Ewald, places the accomplishment of Ps. cx . in what may be allowed to have been its occasion —David’s victories over the neighboring heathen.

Nos.

Debemus.

Istos: that is, the Jews (Rigalt.).

Utique jam in tanto opere.

Natum esse quum maxime.

Generavi: Sept. ἐγέννησα .

Isa. i. 2 .

Curiosius.

Deputans carni: a note against Docetism .

Ps. cx. 4 .

Ps. lxxii. 1 .

Super vellus: so Sept. ἐπὶ πόκον .

Ps. lxxii. 6 .

Similarly the Rabbis Saadias Gaon and Hadarsan, above mentioned in our note, beautifully applied to Messiah’s placid birth, “without a human father,” the figures of Ps. cx. 3 , “womb of the morning,” “dew of thy birth.”

Simpliciora.

Ps. lxx. 8 .

Ps. lxx. 11 .

Ps. lxx. 17 .

Ps. lxx. 17 .

Ps. lxx. 18 .

Ps. lxx. 19 .

Ps. lxx. 9 .

1 Cor. xv. 25, 27 .

Consecuturus.

He refers to his De Resurrect. Carnis. See chap. xlviii.

1 Cor. xv. 29 .

Viderit.

Kalendæ Februariæ. The great expiation or lustration, celebrated at Rome in the month which received its name from the festival, is described by Ovid, Fasti , book ii., lines 19–28, and 267–452, in which latter passage the same feast is called Lupercalia . Of course as the rites were held on the 15th of the month, the word kalendæ here has not its more usual meaning (Paley’s edition of the Fasti , pp. 52–76). Oehler refers also to Macrobius, Saturn. i. 13; Cicero, De Legibus , ii. 21; Plutarch, Numa , p. 132. He well remarks (note in loc. ), that Tertullian, by intimating that the heathen rites of the Februa will afford quite as satisfactory an answer to the apostle’s question, as the Christian superstition alluded to, not only means no authorization of the said superstition for himself, but expresses his belief that St. Paul’s only object was to gather some evidence for the great doctrine of the resurrection from the faith which underlay the practice alluded to. In this respect, however, the heathen festival would afford a much less pointed illustration; for though it was indeed a lustration for the dead, περὶ νεκρῶν , and had for its object their happiness and welfare, it went no further than a vague notion of an indefinite immortality, and it touched not the recovery of the body. There is therefore force in Tertullian’s si forte .

Si forte.

τῷ εὔχεσθαι ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν (Rigalt.).

Eph. iv. 5 .

Pro corporibus.

Eph. iv. 5 .

Corpora.

Ut, with the subjunctive verb induxerit .

1 Cor. xv. 35 .

Consequens erat.

Porro.

1 Cor. xv. 37, 38 .

1 Cor. xv. 38 .

Ut.

1 Cor. xv. 39–41 .

Portendit.

1 Cor. xv. 42 .

1 Cor. xv. 42, 43 .

1 Cor. xv. 44 .

Anima: we will call it soul in the context.

Possit videri.

Animam.

Non ideo.

Animam.

Animale. The terseness of his argument, by his use of the same radical terms Anima and Animale , is lost in the English. [See Cap. 15 infra . Also, Kaye p. 180. St. Augustine seems to tolerate our author’s views of a corporal spirit in his treatise de Hæresibus .]

1 Cor. xv. 46 .

1 Cor. xv. 45 .

ὁ ἔσχατος ᾽Αδάμ into ὁ ἔσχατος Κύριος .

Vel auctoris.

Par.

1 Cor. xv. 47 .

Marcion seems to have changed man into Lord , or rather to have omitted the ἄνθρωπος of the second clause, letting the verse run thus: ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἐκ γῆς χοϊκὁς, ὁ δεύτερος Κύριος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ . Anything to cut off all connection with the Creator.

The οἱ ἐπουράνιοι , the “ de cœlo homines ,” of this ver. 48 are Christ’s risen people; comp. Phil. iii. 20, 21 (Alford).

Secundum exitum.

1 Cor. xv. 49 . T. argues from the reading φορέσωμεν (instead of φορέσομεν ), which indeed was read by many of the fathers, and (what is still more important) is found in the Codex Sinaiticus . We add the critical note of Dean Alford on this reading: “ACDFKL rel latt copt goth, Theodotus, Basil, Cæsarius, Cyril, Macarius, Methodius (who prefixes ἕνα ), Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Ps. Athanasius, Damascene, Irenæus (int), Tertullian, Cyprian, Hilary, Jerome.” Alford retains the usual φορέσομεν , on the strength chiefly of the Codex Vaticanus .

1 Cor. xv. 50 .

Gal. v. 19–21 .

Rom. viii. 8 .

Merebitur.

1 Cor. xv. 52 .

1 Cor. xv. 53 .

Matt. xxii. 30 and Luke xx. 36 .

Sed resuscitatæ.

Aut si.

1 Cor. xv. 50 .