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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 (part 9)
See above, book i. chap. xxiii. [Comp. i. cap. xix.]
This is here the force of viderit , our author’s very favourite idiom.
Apparere.
Sapit.
Impegerit.
Descendisse autem, dum fit, videtur et subit oculos. Probably this bit of characteristic Latinity had better be rendered thus: “The accomplishment of a descent, however, is, whilst happening, a visible process, and one that meets the eye.” Of the various readings, “dum sit,” “dum it,” “dum fit,” we take the last with Oehler, only understanding the clause as a parenthesis.
Suggestu.
Indignum.
Cui.
Ingressuro prædicationem.
This is the literal rendering of Tertullian’s version of the prophet’s words, which occur chap. ix. 1, 2. The first clause closely follows the LXX. (ed. Tisch.): Τοῦτο πρῶτον πίε, ταχύ ποίει . This curious passage is explained by Grotius (on Matt. iv. 14 ) as a mistake of ancient copyists; as if what the Seventy had originally rendered ταχὺ ποίει , from the hiphil of קלל , had been faultily written ταχὺ πίε , and the latter had crept into the text with the marginal note πρῶτον , instead of a repetition of ταχὺ . However this be, Tertullian’s old Latin Bible had the passage thus: “Hoc primum bibito, cito facito, regio Zabulon,” etc.
Si utique.
Agnoscere.
Matt. v. 17 .
Additum.
Matt. xv. 24 .
Matt. xv. 26 .
Præfert.
Tam repentinus.
Etsi passim adiretur.
Luke iv. 32 .
Eloquium.
Facilius.
That is, the Creator.
Luke iv. 33, 34 .
Si non Creatoris.
See above, in book iii. chap. xii., on the name Emmanuel ; in chap. xv., on the name Christ ; and in chap. xvi., on the name Jesus .
Quid tale ediderit.
Ps. xvi. 10, and probably Dan. ix. 24 .
Compare what was said above in book iii., chap. xvi. p. 335.
Exceperat.
Such is our author’s reading of Luke i. 35 .
Matt. i. 21 .
Sævi.
Optimi.
Præmisimus.
De candida salutis: see Luke x. 20 .
Aut cur.
Quidem.
Verisimiliorem statum.
Habebat.
Ipso nomine, or by His very name.
Nazaræos; or, Nazarites . [Christians were still so called by the Jews in the Third Century. Kaye, 446.]
Lam. iv. 7 .
Descendit apud, see Luke iv. 16–30 .
Emancipata.
Luke iv. 23 .
Luke iv. 29 .
Luke iv. 24 .
A rebuke of Marcion’s Docetic views of Christ.
Scilicet.
Per caliginem.
“For nothing can touch and be touched but a bodily substance.” This line from Lucretius, De Rerum Natura , i. 305, is again quoted by Tertullian in his De Anima , chap. v. (Oehler).
Luke iv. 40 .
See Isa. liii. 4 .
Interim.
Luke iv. 41 .
Proinde enim.
Illius erat.
Porro.
Propriæ non habebat.
Præ timore.
See above, book i. chap. vii. xxvi. and xxvii.
Materiæ.
Cedebant.
Aut nunquid.
Necessitatem.
In aliam notam.
Luke iv. 42 .
Sermonem. [ Nota Bene , Acts vii. 38 .]
Habitus loci.
The law was given in the wilderness of Sinai; see Ex. xix. 1 .
Isa. xxxv. 1 .
Luke iv. 42, 43 .
Argumentum processurum erat.
See Luke v. 1–11 .
Jer. xvi. 16 .
Attentius argumentatur.
Apud illum, i.e., the Creator.
Luke v. 12–14 .
1 Cor. v. 11 .
Per carnalia, by material things.
Hoc nomine.
Æmulus.
Another allusion to Marcion’s Docetic doctrine.
Materiam.
Unicum.
Ex., literally, “alone of.” So Luke iv. 27 .
Compare 2 Kings v. 9–14 with Luke iv. 27 .
Facilius—rather than of Israelites.
Per Nationes. [Bishop Andrewes thus classifies the “Sins of the Nations,” as Tertullian’s idea seems to have suggested: (1) Pride , Amorite; (2) Envy , Hittite; (3) Wrath , Perizzite; (4) Gluttony , Girgashite; (5) Lechery , Hivite; (6) Covetousness , Canaanite; (7) Sloth , Jebusite.]
Compare, in Simeon’s song, Luke ii. 32 , the designation, “A light to lighten the Gentiles.”
[See Elucidation I.]
Such seems to be the meaning of the obscure passage in the original, “Syro facilius emundato significato per nationes emundationis in Christo lumine earum quæ septem maculis, capitalium delictorum inhorrerent, idoatria,” etc. We have treated significato as one member of an ablative absolute clause, from significatum , a noun occuring in Gloss. Lat. Gr. synonymous with δήλωσις . Rigault, in a note on the passage, imputes the obscurity to Tertullian’s arguing on the Marcionite hypothesis. “Marcion,” says he, “held that the prophets, like Elisha, belonged to the Creator, and Christ to the good God. To magnify Christ’s beneficence, he prominently dwells on the alleged fact, that Christ, although a stranger to the Creator’s world, yet vouchsafed to do good in it. This vain conceit Tertullian refutes from the Marcionite hypothesis itself. God the Creator, said they, had found Himself incapable of cleansing this Israelite; but He had more easily cleansed the Syrian. Christ, however, cleansed the Israelite, and so showed himself the superior power. Tertullian denies both positions.”
Quasi per singulos titulos.
There was a mystic completeness in the number seven .
Dicabatur.
Sicut sermonem compendiatum, ita et lavacrum. In chap. i. of this book, the N.T. is called the compendiatum . This illustrates the present phrase.
Et hoc opponit.
Repræsentavit.
Quasi non audeam.
Vindicare in.
Plane. An ironical cavil from the Marcionite view.
Si tamen major.
Luke v. 14 .
Utpote prophetatæ.
Emaculatum.
[i.e., the Great High Priest whose sacrifice is accepted of the Father, for the sins of the whole world.]
Suscepturus: to carry or take away .
Legis indultor.
Advenit.
Atquin.
Formam.
Ab ea avertendos.
Aliquatenus.
Jam.
Supervacuus.
Gradu.
Ecce.
Sententiam.
Matt. v. 17 .
Quod salvum est.
That is, you retain the passage in St. Luke, which relates the act of honouring the law; but you reject that in St. Matthew, which contains Christ’s profession of honouring the law.
Nostros: or, perhaps, “our people,”—that is, the Catholics.
Luke v. 16–26 .
Isa. xxxv. 2 .
Isa. xxxv. 3 in an altered form.
Isa. xxxv. 4 .
Animi vigorem.
This seems to be Isa. liii. 12 , last clause.
Isa. i. 18 .
Mic. vii. 18, 19 .
Jonah iii. 10 .
Circumduxit.
2 Sam. xii. 13 .
1 Kings xxi. 29 .
Resignati jejunii. See 1 Sam. xiv. 43–45 .
Ezek. xxxiii. 11 .
Consequens est ut ostendas.
Istam.
Parem.
See book i. chap. xxvi.–xxviii.
Admonere.
Retractare: give a set treatise about them.
Præscriptio.
To secure terseness in the premisses, we are obliged to lengthen out the brief terms of the conclusion, virgo est .
Si forte.
Isa. vii. 14 .
Si et Dei.
Si neque patris.
On Marcion’s principles, it must be remembered.
Compare T.’s treatise, Adversus Valentinianos , chap. xii.
Censentur.
Si forte.
Nominum communio simplex.
Defendimus. See above, book iii. chap. xv. xvi.
Ex accidenti obvenit.
Super.
Proprio.
Non convenit.
Causam.
The context explains the difference between nomen and appellatio . The former refers to the name Jesus or Christ , the latter to the designation Son of man .
Dan. iii. 25 .
Dan. vii. 13 .
Secundum intentionem eorum.
Eum: that is, man .
Repercutere.
Scandalo isto.
Denique.
Dispice.
Interpellandi.
Corpus ex corpore.
Plane: introducing the sharp irony.
This is perhaps the best sense of T.’s sarcasm: “Atque adeo ( thus far ) inspice cor Pontici aut ( or else ) cerebrum.”