I thought it would be interesting to do a bean counting in his Adversus Marcionem: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John: the canonical order.
Humour me and just jot down some numbers please: in percentages, what do you guess the division among these four is like? Who has the most, who the least, etc.
I cleansed out "0220 – Tertullianus – Adversus Marcionem The Five Books Against Marcion"
Mind you, this is a fairly biased translation but it is more than good enough for the purpose at hand
I put every verse on a line and removed all footnotes. And then I searched for our four friends. How often does their name appear in Tertullian AM?
Mark: 6
Matthew: 9
Mark and Matthew's rare occurrences are puzzling of course: aren't we talking the precious prizes of Churchianity here? Why haven't they been showcased more, why do they merely sulk in the background?
Luke: 42
Luke naturally gets the most mentions, as naturally he is the protagonist of this story, somewhat. But how often does John get named?
John: 77 (of which 58 belong to John the Baptist, and 19 to John the gospelwriter)
Go on then, mansplain that to me like I'm a 12-year old.
Why on earth (and perhaps in the heavens as well) does John get more mentions than Mark and Matthew combined?
Not only more, but 26% more as well. Here is the percentual division of gospelwriters in Tertullian's Against Marcion, and let's use the splendid canonical order shall we?
Matthew: 9/76 = 12%
Mark: 6/76 = 8%
Luke: 42/76 = 55%
John: 19/76 = 25%
[EDIT: I forgot that there are two Johns of course! Adjusted for that]
I'll provide my output file in the next post
Tertullian prefers John over Mark & Matthew combined
Tertullian prefers John over Mark & Matthew combined
Last edited by mlinssen on Mon Aug 22, 2022 9:57 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Re: Tertullian prefers John over all the others combined
Split in 2: 1/2
Mark, Matthew, Luke and John - and John the Baptist:
0220 – Tertullianus – Adversus MarcionemThe Five Books Against Marcionthis file has been downloaded from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.htmlThe Five Books Against Marcion.[Translated by Dr. Holmes.]
271II.The Five Books Against Marcion.
Book I.2320Wherein is described the god of Marcion. He is shown to be utterly wanting inall the attributes of the true God.————————————
Chapter I.—Preface. Reason for a New Work. Pontus Lends Its Rough Character to the HereticMarcion, a Native. His Heresy Characterized in a Brief Invective.W HATEVER in times past
Chapter II.—Marcion, Aided by Cerdon, Teaches a Duality of Gods; How He Constructed ThisHeresy of an Evil and a Good God.The heretic of Pontus introduces two Gods, like the twin Symplegades of his own shipwreck:One whom it was impossible to deny, i.e. our Creator; and one whom he will never be able to prove,i.e. his own god. The unhappy man gained
Chapter III.—The Unity of God. He is the Supreme Being, and There Cannot Be a Second Supreme.The principal, and indeed
Chapter IV.—Defence of the Divine Unity Against Objection. No Analogy Between Human Powersand God’s Sovereignty. The Objection Otherwise Untenable, for Why Stop at Two Gods?But some one may contend that two great Supremes may exist, distinct and separate in theirown departments; and may even adduce, as an example, the kingdoms of the world, which, thoughthey are so many in number, are yet supreme in their several regions. Such a man will suppose thathuman circumstances are always comparable with divine ones. Now, if this mode of reasoning beat all tolerable, what is to prevent our introducing, I will not say a third god or a fourth, but as manyas there are kings of the earth? Now it is God that is in question, whose main property it is to admitof no comparison with Himself. Nature itself, therefore, if not an Isaiah, or rather God speaking byIsaiah, will deprecatingly ask, “To whom will ye liken me?”
Chapter V.—The Dual Principle Falls to the Ground; Plurality of Gods, of Whatever Number, MoreConsistent. Absurdity and Injury to Piety Resulting from Marcion’s Duality.But on what principle did Marcion confine his supreme powers to two? I would first ask, Ifthere be two, why not more? Because if number be compatible with the substance of Deity, thericher you make it in number the better. Valentinus was more consistent and more liberal; for he,having once imagined two deities, Bythos and Sige,
Chapter VI.—Marcion Untrue to His Theory. He Pretends that His Gods are Equal, But He ReallyMakes Them Diverse. Then, Allowing Their Divinity, Denies This Diversity.Thus far our discussion seems to imply that Marcion makes his two gods equal. For while wehave been maintaining that God ought to be believed as the one only great Supreme Being, excludingfrom Him every possibility
Chapter VII.—Other Beings Besides God are in Scripture Called God. This Objection Frivolous,for It is Not a Question of Names. The Divine Essence is the Thing at Issue. Heresy, in ItsGeneral Terms, Thus Far Treated.But this argument you will try to shake with an objection from the name of God, by allegingthat that name is a vague
Chapter VIII.—Specific Points. The Novelty of Marcion’s God Fatal to His Pretensions. God isfrom Everlasting, He Cannot Be in Any Wise New.In the first place, how arrogantly do the Marcionites build up their stupid system,
Chapter IX.—Marcion’s Gnostic Pretensions Vain, for the True God is Neither Unknown NorUncertain. The Creator, Whom He Owns to Be God, Alone Supplies an Induction, by Whichto Judge of the True God.Now I know full well by what perceptive faculty they boast of their new god; even theirknowledge.
Chapter X.—The Creator Was Known as the True God from the First by His Creation.Acknowledged by the Soul and Conscience of Man Before He Was Revealed by Moses.For indeed, as the Creator of all things, He was from the beginning discovered equally withthem, they having been themselves manifested that He might become known as God. For althoughMoses, some long while afterwards, seems to have been the first to introduce the knowledge of
Chapter XI.—The Evidence for God External to Him; But the External Creation Which YieldsThis Evidence is Really Not Extraneous, for All Things are God’s. Marcion’s God, HavingNothing to Show for Himself, No God at All. Marcion’s Scheme Absurdly Defective, NotFurnishing Evidence for His New God’s Existence, Which Should at Least Be Able to Competewith the Full Evidence of the Creator.And justly so, they say. For who is there that is less well known by his own (inherent) qualitiesthan by strange
Chapter XII.—Impossibility of Acknowledging God Without This External Evidence
Chapter XIII.—The Marcionites Depreciate the Creation, Which, However, is a Worthy Witnessof God. This Worthiness Illustrated by References to the Heathen Philosophers, Who Were Aptto Invest the Several Parts of Creation with Divine Attributes.While we are expelling from this rank (of Deity) a god who has no evidence to show for himselfwhich is so proper and God-worthy as the testimony of the Creator, Marcion’s most shamelessfollowers with haughty impertinence fall upon the Creator’s works to destroy them. To be sure,say they, the world is a grand work, worthy of a God.
Chapter XIV.—All Portions of Creation Attest the Excellence of the Creator, Whom MarcionVilifies. His Inconsistency Herein Exposed. Marcion’s Own God Did Not Hesitate to Use theCreator’s Works in Instituting His Own Religion.Now, when you make merry with those minuter animals, which their glorious Maker haspurposely endued with a profusion of instincts and resources,
Chapter XV.—The Lateness of the Revelation of Marcion’s God. The Question of the PlaceOccupied by the Rival Deities. Instead of Two Gods, Marcion Really (Although, as It WouldSeem, Unconsciously) Had Nine Gods in His System.After all, or, if you like,
Chapter XVI.—Marcion Assumes the Existence of Two Gods from the Antithesis Between ThingsVisible and Things Invisible. This Antithetical Principle in Fact Characteristic of the Works ofthe Creator, the One God—Maker of All Things Visible and Invisible.
Chapter XVII.—Not Enough, as the Marcionites Pretend, that the Supreme God Should RescueMan; He Must Also Have Created Him. The Existence of God Proved by His Creation, a PriorConsideration to His Character.Pressed by these arguments, they exclaim: One work is sufficient for our god; he has deliveredman by his supreme and most excellent goodness, which is preferable to (the creation of) all thelocusts.
Chapter XVIII.—Notwithstanding Their Conceits, the God of the Marcionites Fails in the VouchersBoth of Created Evidence and of Adequate Revelation.Well, then,
Chapter XIX.—Jesus Christ, the Revealer of the Creator, Could Not Be the Same as Marcion’sGod, Who Was Only Made Known by the Heretic Some CXV. Years After Christ, and That,Too, on a Principle Utterly Unsuited to the Teaching of Jesus Christ, I.e., the Opposition Betweenthe Law and the Gospels.Well, but our god, say the Marcionites, although he did not manifest himself from the beginningand by means of the creation, has yet revealed himself in Christ Jesus. A book will be devoted
Chapter XX.—Marcion, Justifying His Antithesis Between the Law and the Gospel by the Contentionof St. Paul with St. Peter, Shown to Have Mistaken St. Paul’s Position and Argument. Marcion’sDoctrine Confuted Out of St. Paul’s Teaching, Which Agrees Wholly with the Creator’s Decrees.This most patent conclusion requires to be defended by us against the clamours of the oppositeside. For they allege that Marcion did not so much innovate on the rule (of faith) by his separationof the law and the gospel, as restore it after it had been previously adulterated. O Christ,
Chapter XXI.—St. Paul Preached No New God, When He Announced the Repeal of Some of God’sAncient Ordinances. Never Any Hesitation About Belief in the Creator, as the God WhomChrist Revealed, Until Marcion’s Heresy.Now if it was with the view of preaching a new god that he was eager to abrogate the law ofthe old God, how is it that he prescribes no rule about
Chapter XXII.—God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Natural; The God of Marcion FoundWanting Herein. It Came Not to Man’s Rescue When First Wanted.
Chapter XXIII.—God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Rational. Marcion’s God DefectiveHere Also; His Goodness Irrational and Misapplied.Here is another rule for him. All the properties of God ought to be as rational as they are natural.I require reason in His goodness, because nothing else can properly be accounted good than thatwhich is rationally good; much less can goodness itself be detected in any irrationality. More easilywill an evil thing which has something rational belonging to it be accounted good, than that a goodthing bereft of all reasonable quality should escape being regarded as evil. Now I deny that thegoodness of Marcion’s god is rational, on this account first, because it proceeded to the salvationof a human creature which was alien to him. I am aware of the plea which they will adduce, thatthat is rather
Chapter XXIV.—The Goodness of Marcion’s God Only Imperfectly Manifested; It Saves But Few,and the Souls Merely of These. Marcion’s Contempt of the Body Absurd.But as God is eternal and rational, so, I think, He is perfect in all things. “Be ye perfect, evenas your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Chapter XXV.—God is Not a Being of Simple Goodness; Other Attributes Belong to Him. MarcionShows Inconsistency in the Portraiture of His Simply Good and Emotionless God.As touching this question of goodness, we have in these outlines of our argument shown it tobe in no way compatible with Deity,—as being neither natural,
Chapter XXVI.—In the Attribute of Justice, Marcion’s God is Hopelessly Weak and Ungodlike.He Dislikes Evil, But Does Not Punish Its Perpetration.But it is here sufficient that the extreme perversity of their god is proved from the mere expositionof his lonely goodness, in which they refuse to ascribe to him such emotions of mind as they censurein the Creator. Now, if he is susceptible of no feeling of rivalry, or anger, or damage, or injury, asone who refrains from exercising judicial power, I cannot tell how any system of discipline—andthat, too, a plenary one—can be consistent in him. For how is it possible that he should issuecommands, if he does not mean to execute them; or forbid sins, if he intends not to punish them,
Chapter XXVII.—Dangerous Effects to Religion and Morality of the Doctrine of So Weak a God.Again, he plainly judges evil by not willing it, and condemns it by prohibiting it; while, on theother hand, he acquits it by not avenging it, and lets it go free by not punishing it. What a prevaricatorof truth is such a god! What a dissembler with his own decision! Afraid to condemn what he reallycondemns, afraid to hate what he does not love, permitting that to be done which he does not allow,choosing to indicate what he dislikes rather than deeply examine it! This will turn out an imaginarygoodness, a phantom of discipline, perfunctory in duty, careless in sin. Listen, ye sinners; and yewho have not yet come to this, hear, that you may attain to such a pass! A better god has beendiscovered, who never takes offence, is never angry, never inflicts punishment, who has preparedno fire in hell, no gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness! He is purely and simply good. He indeedforbids all delinquency, but only in word. He is in you, if you are willing to pay him homage,
Chapter XXVIII.—This Perverse Doctrine Deprives Baptism of All Its Grace. If Marcion Be Right,the Sacrament Would Confer No Remission of Sins, No Regeneration, No Gift of the Spirit.And what will happen to him after he is cast away? He will, they say, be thrown into the Creator’sfire. Then has no remedial provision been made (by their god) for the purpose of banishing thosethat sin against him, without resorting to the cruel measure of delivering them over to the Creator?And what will the Creator then do? I suppose He will prepare for them a hell doubly charged withbrimstone,
Chapter XXIX.—Marcion Forbids Marriage. Tertullian Eloquently Defends It as Holy, and CarefullyDiscriminates Between Marcion’s Doctrine and His Own Montanism.The flesh is not, according to Marcion, immersed in the water of the sacrament, unless it be
Book II.2692Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcioncalumniated, is the true and good God.————————————
Chapter I.—The Methods of Marcion’s Argument Incorrect and Absurd. The Proper Course ofthe Argument.T HE occasion of reproducing this little work, the fortunes of which we noticed in the prefaceof our first book, has furnished us with the opportunity of distinguishing, in our treatment of thesubject of two Gods in opposition to Marcion, each of them with a description and section of hisown, according to the division of the subject-matter, defining one of the gods to have no existenceat all, and maintaining of the Other that He is rightly
Chapter II.—The True Doctrine of God the Creator. The Heretics Pretended to a Knowledge of theDivine Being, Opposed to and Subversive of Revelation. God’s Nature and Ways Past HumanDiscovery. Adam’s Heresy.We have now, then, cleared our way to the contemplation of the Almighty God, the Lord andMaker of the universe. His greatness, as I think, is shown in this, that from the beginning He madeHimself known: He never hid Himself, but always shone out brightly, even before the time ofRomulus, to say nothing of that of Tiberius; with the exception indeed that the heretics, and theyalone, know Him not, although they take such pains about Him. They on this account suppose thatanother god must be assumed to exist, because they are more able to censure than deny Him whoseexistence is so evident, deriving all their thoughts about God from the deductions of sense; just asif some blind man, or a man of imperfect vision,
Chapter III.—God Known by His Works. His Goodness Shown in His Creative Energy; ButEverlasting in Its Nature; Inherent in God, Previous to All Exhibition of It. The First Stage ofThis Goodness Prior to Man.
Chapter IV.—The Next Stage Occurs in the Creation of Man by the Eternal Word. Spiritual asWell as Physical Gifts to Man. The Blessings of Man’s Free-Will.The goodness of God having, therefore, provided man for the pursuit of the knowledge ofHimself, added this to its original notification,
Chapter V.—Marcion’s Cavils Considered. His Objection Refuted, I.e., Man’s Fall Showed Failurein God. The Perfection of Man’s Being Lay in His Liberty, Which God Purposely Bestowedon Him. The Fall Imputable to Man’s Own Choice.Now then, ye dogs, whom the apostle puts outside,
Chapter VI.—This Liberty Vindicated in Respect of Its Original Creation; Suitable Also forExhibiting the Goodness and the Purpose of God. Reward and Punishment Impossible If ManWere Good or Evil Through Necessity and Not Choice.But although we shall be understood, from our argument, to be only so affirming man’sunshackled power over his will, that what happens to him should be laid to his own charge, andnot to God’s, yet that you may not object, even now, that he ought not to have been so constituted,since his liberty and power of will might turn out to be injurious, I will first of all maintain that hewas rightly so constituted, that I may with the greater confidence commend both his actualconstitution, and the additional fact of its being worthy of the Divine Being; the cause which ledto man’s being created with such a constitution being shown to be the better one. Moreover, manthus constituted will be protected by both the goodness of God and by His purpose,
Chapter VII.—If God Had Anyhow Checked Man’s Liberty, Marcion Would Have Been Readywith Another and Opposite Cavil. Man’s Fall Foreseen by God. Provision Made for It Remediallyand Consistently with His Truth and Goodness.By such a conclusion all is reserved
Chapter VIII.—Man, Endued with Liberty, Superior to the Angels, Overcomes Even the AngelWhich Lured Him to His Fall, When Repentant and Resuming Obedience to God.For it was not merely that he might live the natural life that God had produced man, but
Chapter IX.—Another Cavil Answered, I.e., the Fall Imputable to God, Because Man’s Soul is aPortion of the Spiritual Essence of the Creator. The Divine Afflatus Not in Fault in the Sin ofMan, But the Human Will Which Was Additional to It.But, you say, in what way soever the substance of the Creator is found to be susceptible of fault,when the afflatus of God, that is to say, the soul,
Chapter X.—Another Cavil Met, I.e., the Devil Who Instigated Man to Sin Himself the Creatureof God. Nay, the Primeval Cherub Only Was God’s Work. The Devilish Nature Superaddedby Wilfulness. In Man’s Recovery the Devil is Vanquished in a Conflict on His Own Ground.If, however, you choose to transfer the account
Chapter XI.—If, After Man’s Sin, God Exercised His Attribute of Justice and Judgment, This WasCompatible with His Goodness, and Enhances the True Idea of the Perfection of God’s Character.Up to the fall of man, therefore, from the beginning God was simply good; after that He becamea judge both severe and, as the Marcionites will have it, cruel. Woman is at once condemned tobring forth in sorrow, and to serve her husband,
Chapter XII.—The Attributes of Goodness and Justice Should Not Be Separated. They areCompatible in the True God. The Function of Justice in the Divine Being Described.Since, therefore, there is this union and agreement between goodness and justice, you cannotprescribe
Chapter XIII.—Further Description of the Divine Justice; Since the Fall of Man It Has Regulatedthe Divine Goodness. God’s Claims on Our Love and Our Fear Reconciled.But yet, when evil afterwards broke out, and the goodness of God began now to have anadversary to contend against, God’s justice also acquired another function, even that of directingHis goodness according to men’s application for it.
Chapter XIV.—Evil of Two Kinds, Penal and Criminal. It is Not of the Latter Sort that God is theAuthor, But Only of the Former, Which are Penal, and Included in His Justice.On all occasions does God meet you: it is He who smites, but also heals; who kills, but alsomakes alive; who humbles, and yet exalts; who “creates
Chapter XV.—The Severity of God Compatible with Reason and Justice. When Inflicted, NotMeant to Be Arbitrary, But Remedial.Consider well,
Chapter XVI.—To the Severity of God There Belong Accessory Qualities, Compatible with Justice.If Human Passions are Predicated of God, They Must Not Be Measured on the Scale of HumanImperfection.Even His severity then is good, because just: when the judge is good, that is just. Other qualitieslikewise are good, by means of which the good work of a good severity runs out its course, whetherwrath, or jealousy,
Chapter XVII.—Trace God’s Government in History and in His Precepts, and You Will Find ItFull of His Goodness.These considerations show that the entire order of God as Judge is an operative one, and (thatI may express myself in worthier words) protective of His Catholic
Chapter XVIII.—Some of God’s Laws Defended as Good, Which the Marcionites Impeached,Such as the Lex Talionis. Useful Purposes in a Social and Moral Point of View of This, andSundry Other Enactments.But what parts of the law can I defend as good with a greater confidence than those whichheresy has shown such a longing for?—as the statute of retaliation, requiring eye for eye, tooth fortooth, and stripe for stripe.
Chapter XIX.—The Minute Prescriptions of the Law Meant to Keep the People Dependent on God.The Prophets Sent by God in Pursuance of His Goodness. Many Beautiful Passages from ThemQuoted in Illustration of This Attribute.But even in the common transactions of life, and of human intercourse at home and in public,even to the care of the smallest vessels, He in every possible manner made distinct arrangement;in order that, when they everywhere encountered these legal instructions, they might not be at anymoment out of the sight of God. For what could better tend to make a man happy, than having “hisdelight in the law of the Lord?” “In that law would he meditate day and night.”
Chapter XX.—The Marcionites Charged God with Having Instigated the Hebrews to Spoil theEgyptians. Defence of the Divine Dispensation in that Matter.
Chapter XXI.—The Law of the Sabbath-Day Explained. The Eight Days’ Procession AroundJericho. The Gathering of Sticks a Violation.Similarly on other points also, you reproach Him with fickleness and instability for contradictionsin His commandments, such as that He forbade work to be done on Sabbath-days, and yet at thesiege of Jericho ordered the ark to be carried round the walls during eight days; in other words, ofcourse, actually on a Sabbath. You do not, however, consider the law of the Sabbath: they are
Chapter XXII.—The Brazen Serpent and the Golden Cherubim Were Not Violations of the SecondCommandment. Their Meaning.Likewise, when forbidding the similitude to be made of all things which are in heaven, and inearth, and in the waters, He declared also the reasons, as being prohibitory of all materialexhibition
Chapter XXIII.—God’s Purposes in Election and Rejection of the Same Men, Such as King Saul,Explained, in Answer to the Marcionite Cavil.Now, although you will have it that He is inconstant
Chapter XXIV.—Instances of God’s Repentance, and Notably in the Case of the Ninevites,Accounted for and Vindicated.Furthermore, with respect to the repentance which occurs in His conduct,
Chapter XXV.—God’s Dealings with Adam at the Fall, and with Cain After His Crime, AdmirablyExplained and Defended.It is now high time that I should, in order to meet all
Chapter XXVI.—The Oath of God: Its Meaning. Moses, When Deprecating God’s Wrath AgainstIsrael, a Type of Christ.But God also swears. Well, is it, I wonder, by the God of Marcion? No, no, he says; a muchvainer oath—by Himself!
Chapter XXVII.—Other Objections Considered. God’s Condescension in the Incarnation. NothingDerogatory to the Divine Being in This Economy. The Divine Majesty Worthily Sustained bythe Almighty Father, Never Visible to Man. Perverseness of the Marcionite Cavils.And now, that I may briefly pass in review
Chapter XXVIII.—The Tables Turned Upon Marcion, by Contrasts, in Favour of the True God.Now, touching the weaknesses and malignities, and the other (alleged), notes (of the Creator),I too shall advance antitheses in rivalry to Marcion’s. If my God knew not of any other superior toHimself, your god also was utterly unaware that there was any beneath himself. It is just whatHeraclitus “the obscure”
Chapter XXIX.—Marcion’s Own Antitheses, If Only the Title and Object of the Work Be Excepted,Afford Proofs of the Consistent Attributes of the True God.But I would have attacked Marcion’s own Antitheses in closer and fuller combat, if a moreelaborate demolition of them were required in maintaining for the Creator the character of a goodGod and a Judge, after
Book III.Wherein Christ is shown to be the Son of God, Who created the world; to havebeen predicted by the prophets; to have taken human flesh like our own, by a realincarnation.————————————
Chapter I.—Introductory; A Brief Statement of the Preceding Argument in Connection with theSubject of This Book.F OLLOWING the track of my original treatise, the loss of which we are steadily proceeding
Chapter II.—Why Christ’s Coming Should Be Previously Announced.Coming then at once to the point,
Chapter III.—Miracles Alone, Without Prophecy, an Insufficient Evidence of Christ’s Mission.A procedure
Chapter IV.—Marcion’s Christ Not the Subject of Prophecy. The Absurd Consequences of ThisTheory of the Heretic.He
Chapter V.—Sundry Features of the Prophetic Style: Principles of Its Interpretation.These preliminary remarks I have ventured to make
Chapter VI.—Community in Certain Points of Marcionite and Jewish Error. Prophecies of Christ’sRejection Examined.Since, therefore, there clearly exist these two characteristics in the Jewish prophetic literature,let the reader remember,
Chapter VII.—Prophecy Sets Forth Two Different Conditions of Christ, One Lowly, the OtherMajestic. This Fact Points to Two Advents of Christ.Our heretic will now have the fullest opportunity of learning the clue
Chapter VIII.—Absurdity of Marcion’s Docetic Opinions; Reality of Christ’s Incarnation.Our heretic must now cease to borrow poison from the Jew—“the asp,” as the adage runs, “fromthe viper”
3208 —and henceforth vomit forth the virulence of his own disposition, as when he allegesChrist to be a phantom. Except, indeed, that this opinion of his will be sure to have others to maintainit in his precocious and somewhat abortive Marcionites, whom the Apostle John designated asantichrists, when they denied that Christ was come in the flesh; not that they did this with the viewof establishing the right of the other god (for on this point also they had been branded by the sameapostle), but because they had started with assuming the incredibility of an incarnate God. Now,the more firmly the antichrist Marcion had seized this assumption, the more prepared was he, of
Chapter IX.—Refutation of Marcion’s Objections Derived from the Cases of the Angels, and thePre-Incarnate Manifestations of the Son of God.Now, in this discussion of yours,
Chapter X.—The Truly Incarnate State More Worthy of God Than Marcion’s Fantastic Flesh.Therefore, since you are not permitted to resort to any instances of the Creator, as alien fromthe subject, and possessing special causes of their own, I should like you to state yourself the designof your god, in exhibiting his Christ not in the reality of flesh. If he despised it as earthly, and (as
Chapter XI.—Christ Was Truly Born; Marcion’s Absurd Cavil in Defence of a Putative Nativity.
Chapter XII.—Isaiah’s Prophecy of Emmanuel. Christ Entitled to that Name.
Chapter XIII.—Isaiah’s Prophecies Considered. The Virginity of Christ’s Mother a Sign. OtherProphecies Also Signs. Metaphorical Sense of Proper Names in Sundry Passages of the Prophets.You are equally led away by the sound of names,
Chapter XIV.—Figurative Style of Certain Messianic Prophecies in the Psalms. Military MetaphorsApplied to Christ.This interpretation of ours will derive confirmation, when, on your supposing that Christ is inany passage called a warrior, from the mention of certain arms and expressions of that sort, youweigh well the analogy of their other meanings, and draw your conclusions accordingly. “Gird onThy sword,” says David, “upon Thy thigh.”
3289 But who shall producethese results with the sword, and not their opposites rather—deceit, and harshness, andinjury—which, it must be confessed, are the proper business of battles? Let us see, therefore,whether that is not some other sword, which has so different an action. Now the Apostle John, inthe Apocalypse, describes a sword which proceeded from the mouth of God as “a doubly sharp,two-edged one.”
550against the spiritual enemies of all wickedness and concupiscence, and cutting us off from thedearest objects for the sake of God’s holy name. If, however, you will not acknowledge John, youhave our common master Paul, who “girds our loins about with truth, and puts on us the breastplateof righteousness, and shoes us with the preparation of the gospel of peace, not of war; who bids ustake the shield of faith, wherewith we may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil, and thehelmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which (he says) is the word of God.”
Chapter XV.—The Title Christ Suitable as a Name of the Creator’s Son, But Unsuited to Marcion’sChrist.Touching then the discussion of His flesh, and (through that) of His nativity, and incidentally
Chapter XVI.—The Sacred Name Jesus Most Suited to the Christ of the Creator. Joshua a Typeof Him.Now if he caught at the name Christ, just as the pickpocket clutches the dole-basket, why didhe wish to be called Jesus too, by a name which was not so much looked for by the Jews? Foralthough we, who have by God’s grace attained to the understanding of His mysteries, acknowledgethat this name also was destined for Christ, yet, for all that, the fact was not known to the Jews,from whom wisdom was taken away. To this day, in short, it is Christ that they are looking for, notJesus; and they interpret Elias to be Christ rather than Jesus. He, therefore, who came also in aname in which Christ was not expected, might have come only in that name which was solelyanticipated for Him.
Chapter XVII.—Prophecies in Isaiah and the Psalms Respecting Christ’s Humiliation.Let us compare with Scripture the rest of His dispensation. Whatever that poor despised body
Chapter XVIII.
Chapter XIX.—Prophecies of the Death of Christ.Come now, when you read in the words of David, how that “the Lord reigneth from the tree,”
Chapter XX.
Chapter XXI.—The Call of the Gentiles Under the Influence of the Gospel Foretold.So you cannot get out of this notion of yours a basis for your difference between the two Christs,as if the Jewish Christ were ordained by the Creator for the restoration of the people alone
Chapter XXII.—The Success of the Apostles, and Their Sufferings in the Cause of the Gospel,Foretold.You have the work of the apostles also predicted: “How beautiful are the feet of them whichpreach the gospel of peace, which bring good tidings of good,”
Chapter XXIII.—The Dispersion of the Jews, and Their Desolate Condition for Rejecting Christ,Foretold.Now, since you join the Jews in denying that their Christ has come, recollect also what is thatend which they were predicted as about to bring on themselves after the time of Christ, for theimpiety wherewith they both rejected and slew Him. For it began to come to pass from that day,when, according to Isaiah, “a man threw away his idols of gold and of silver, which they made intouseless and hurtful objects of worship;”
3418 And so in this mannerthe law and the prophets were until John, but the dews of divine grace were withdrawn from thenation. After his time their madness still continued, and the name of the Lord was blasphemed bythem, as saith the Scripture: “Because of you my name is continually blasphemed amongst thenations”
Chapter XXV.—Christ’s Millennial and Heavenly Glory in Company with His Saints.Yes, certainly,
3450 and the Apostle John beheld.
Book IV. 3480In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. HeDerives His Proofs from St. Luke’s Gospel; That Being the Only HistoricalPortion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book MayAlso Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proofof Tertullian’s Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is NotContrary to the New.” It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of ScripturalPassages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with theNature of Man.————————————
Chapter I.—Examination of the Antitheses of Marcion, Bringing Them to the Test of Marcion’sOwn Gospel. Certain True Antitheses in the Dispensations of the Old and the New Testaments.These Variations Quite Compatible with One and the Same God, Who Ordered Them.E VERY opinion and the whole scheme
Chapter II.—St. Luke’s Gospel, Selected by Marcion as His Authority, and Mutilated by Him.The Other Gospels Equally Authoritative. Marcion’s Terms of Discussion, However, Accepted,and Grappled with on the Footing of St. Luke’s Gospel Alone.
3525 for it was that which made theapostles their masters. Of the apostles, therefore, John and Matthew first instil
3526 faith into us;whilst of apostolic men, Luke and Mark renew it afterwards.
3523 He means, of course, St. Mark and St. Luke.
3536 Now, of the authors whomwe possess, Marcion seems to have singled out Luke
3538 Luke, however,was not an apostle, but only an apostolic man; not a master, but a disciple, and so inferior to amaster—at least as far subsequent to
3542 in other words, thatthe faith which he had learned, and the gospel which he was preaching, might be in accordancewith theirs. Then, at last, having conferred with the (primitive) authors, and having agreed withthem touching the rule of faith, they joined their hands in fellowship, and divided their laboursthenceforth in the office of preaching the gospel, so that they were to go to the Jews, and St. Paulto the Jews and the Gentiles. Inasmuch, therefore, as the enlightener of St. Luke himself desiredthe authority of his predecessors for both his own faith and preaching, how much more may not Irequire for Luke’s Gospel that which was necessary for the Gospel of his master.
Chapter III.
3546 of the Christian religion beginsfrom the discipleship of Luke. Since, however, it was on its course previous to that point, it musthave had
3548 by means of which it found its own way down to St.Luke; and by the assistance of the testimony which it bore, Luke himself becomes admissible. Well,but
3553 and under the name of apostles, in order, forsooth, tosecure for his own Gospel the credit which he takes away from them. But then, even if he censuresPeter and John and James, who were thought to be pillars, it is for a manifest reason. They seemedto be changing their company
3558of the apostle’s writings be found which has not suffered adulteration? Which was it that enlightenedPaul, and through him Luke? It is either completely blotted out, as if by some deluge—beingobliterated by the inundation of falsifiers—in which case even Marcion does not possess the trueGospel; or else, is that very edition which Marcion alone possesses the true one, that is, of theapostles? How, then, does that agree with ours, which is said not to be (the work) of apostles, butof Luke? Or else, again, if that which Marcion uses is not to be attributed to Luke simply becauseit does agree with ours (which, of course,
Chapter IV.—Each Side Claims to Possess the True Gospel. Antiquity the Criterion of Truth inSuch a Matter. Marcion’s Pretensions as an Amender of the Gospel.
3570 question, of Luke’s Gospel (so far as its being thecommon property
3575 of them. Proof out of these is enough for me. Forif the Gospel, said to be Luke’s which is current amongst us
Chapter V.—By the Rule of Antiquity, the Catholic Gospels are Found to Be True, Including theReal St. Luke’s. Marcion’s Only a Mutilated Edition. The Heretic’s Weakness and Inconsistencyin Ignoring the Other Gospels.
3588 bequeathed the gospel even sealed with theirown blood. We have also St. John’s foster churches.
3590 of the bishops (thereof), when traced up to their origin, will yet rest on John as theirauthor. In the same manner is recognised the excellent source
3592 ) that Gospelof Luke which we are defending with all our might has stood its ground from its very firstpublication; whereas Marcion’s Gospel is not known to most people, and to none whatever is itknown without being at the same time
3599 and according to their usage—I mean theGospels of John and Matthew—whilst that which Mark published may be affirmed to be Peter’s
3600whose interpreter Mark was. For even Luke’s form
3605 on Luke; as if they, too, had not had free course in thechurches, as well as Luke’s Gospel, from the beginning. Nay, it is even more credible that they
3590 [Not the Order of bishops (as we now speak) but of their succession from St. John. Kaye, p.
3606 The Gospels of the apostles John and Matthew, and perhaps Mark’s also, as being St. Peter’s.
3611 have come down to us in their integrity, whilstLuke’s, which is received amongst us,
3612 so far accords with their rule as to be on a par with themin permanency of reception in the churches, it clearly follows that Luke’s Gospel also has comedown to us in like integrity until the sacrilegious treatment of Marcion. In short, when Marcionlaid hands on it, it then became diverse and hostile to the Gospels of the apostles. I will thereforeadvise his followers, that they either change these Gospels, however late to do so, into a conformitywith their own, whereby they may seem to be in agreement with the apostolic writings (for theyare daily retouching their work, as daily they are convicted by us); or else that they blush for theirmaster, who stands self-condemned
3612 That is, the canonical Gospel of St. Luke, as distinct from Marcion’s corruption of it. [N.B. “Us” = Catholics.]
Chapter VI.—Marcion’s Object in Adulterating the Gospel. No Difference Between the Christ ofthe Creator and the Christ of the Gospel. No Rival Christ Admissible. The Connection of theTrue Christ with the Dispensation of the Old Testament Asserted.But we now advance a step further on, and challenge (as we promised to do) the very Gospelof Marcion, with the intention of thus proving that it has been adulterated. For it is certain
3619 [Mark the authority of churches. He uses the plural—quod ab omnibus.]
Chapter VII.—Marcion Rejected the Preceding Portion of St. Luke’s Gospel. Therefore This ReviewOpens with an Examination of the Case of the Evil Spirit in the Synagogue of Capernaum. HeWhom the Demon Acknowledged Was the Creator’s Christ.In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
3656 the synagogue (like other Jews), yet the function of giving instructionwas allowed only to a man who was extremely well known, and examined and tried, and for sometime invested with the privilege after experience duly attested elsewhere. But “they were allastonished at His doctrine.” Of course they were; “for, says (St. Luke), “His word was withChapter VIII.—Other Proofs from the Same
Mark, Matthew, Luke and John - and John the Baptist:
0220 – Tertullianus – Adversus MarcionemThe Five Books Against Marcionthis file has been downloaded from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.htmlThe Five Books Against Marcion.[Translated by Dr. Holmes.]
271II.The Five Books Against Marcion.
Book I.2320Wherein is described the god of Marcion. He is shown to be utterly wanting inall the attributes of the true God.————————————
Chapter I.—Preface. Reason for a New Work. Pontus Lends Its Rough Character to the HereticMarcion, a Native. His Heresy Characterized in a Brief Invective.W HATEVER in times past
Chapter II.—Marcion, Aided by Cerdon, Teaches a Duality of Gods; How He Constructed ThisHeresy of an Evil and a Good God.The heretic of Pontus introduces two Gods, like the twin Symplegades of his own shipwreck:One whom it was impossible to deny, i.e. our Creator; and one whom he will never be able to prove,i.e. his own god. The unhappy man gained
Chapter III.—The Unity of God. He is the Supreme Being, and There Cannot Be a Second Supreme.The principal, and indeed
Chapter IV.—Defence of the Divine Unity Against Objection. No Analogy Between Human Powersand God’s Sovereignty. The Objection Otherwise Untenable, for Why Stop at Two Gods?But some one may contend that two great Supremes may exist, distinct and separate in theirown departments; and may even adduce, as an example, the kingdoms of the world, which, thoughthey are so many in number, are yet supreme in their several regions. Such a man will suppose thathuman circumstances are always comparable with divine ones. Now, if this mode of reasoning beat all tolerable, what is to prevent our introducing, I will not say a third god or a fourth, but as manyas there are kings of the earth? Now it is God that is in question, whose main property it is to admitof no comparison with Himself. Nature itself, therefore, if not an Isaiah, or rather God speaking byIsaiah, will deprecatingly ask, “To whom will ye liken me?”
Chapter V.—The Dual Principle Falls to the Ground; Plurality of Gods, of Whatever Number, MoreConsistent. Absurdity and Injury to Piety Resulting from Marcion’s Duality.But on what principle did Marcion confine his supreme powers to two? I would first ask, Ifthere be two, why not more? Because if number be compatible with the substance of Deity, thericher you make it in number the better. Valentinus was more consistent and more liberal; for he,having once imagined two deities, Bythos and Sige,
Chapter VI.—Marcion Untrue to His Theory. He Pretends that His Gods are Equal, But He ReallyMakes Them Diverse. Then, Allowing Their Divinity, Denies This Diversity.Thus far our discussion seems to imply that Marcion makes his two gods equal. For while wehave been maintaining that God ought to be believed as the one only great Supreme Being, excludingfrom Him every possibility
Chapter VII.—Other Beings Besides God are in Scripture Called God. This Objection Frivolous,for It is Not a Question of Names. The Divine Essence is the Thing at Issue. Heresy, in ItsGeneral Terms, Thus Far Treated.But this argument you will try to shake with an objection from the name of God, by allegingthat that name is a vague
Chapter VIII.—Specific Points. The Novelty of Marcion’s God Fatal to His Pretensions. God isfrom Everlasting, He Cannot Be in Any Wise New.In the first place, how arrogantly do the Marcionites build up their stupid system,
Chapter IX.—Marcion’s Gnostic Pretensions Vain, for the True God is Neither Unknown NorUncertain. The Creator, Whom He Owns to Be God, Alone Supplies an Induction, by Whichto Judge of the True God.Now I know full well by what perceptive faculty they boast of their new god; even theirknowledge.
Chapter X.—The Creator Was Known as the True God from the First by His Creation.Acknowledged by the Soul and Conscience of Man Before He Was Revealed by Moses.For indeed, as the Creator of all things, He was from the beginning discovered equally withthem, they having been themselves manifested that He might become known as God. For althoughMoses, some long while afterwards, seems to have been the first to introduce the knowledge of
Chapter XI.—The Evidence for God External to Him; But the External Creation Which YieldsThis Evidence is Really Not Extraneous, for All Things are God’s. Marcion’s God, HavingNothing to Show for Himself, No God at All. Marcion’s Scheme Absurdly Defective, NotFurnishing Evidence for His New God’s Existence, Which Should at Least Be Able to Competewith the Full Evidence of the Creator.And justly so, they say. For who is there that is less well known by his own (inherent) qualitiesthan by strange
Chapter XII.—Impossibility of Acknowledging God Without This External Evidence
Chapter XIII.—The Marcionites Depreciate the Creation, Which, However, is a Worthy Witnessof God. This Worthiness Illustrated by References to the Heathen Philosophers, Who Were Aptto Invest the Several Parts of Creation with Divine Attributes.While we are expelling from this rank (of Deity) a god who has no evidence to show for himselfwhich is so proper and God-worthy as the testimony of the Creator, Marcion’s most shamelessfollowers with haughty impertinence fall upon the Creator’s works to destroy them. To be sure,say they, the world is a grand work, worthy of a God.
Chapter XIV.—All Portions of Creation Attest the Excellence of the Creator, Whom MarcionVilifies. His Inconsistency Herein Exposed. Marcion’s Own God Did Not Hesitate to Use theCreator’s Works in Instituting His Own Religion.Now, when you make merry with those minuter animals, which their glorious Maker haspurposely endued with a profusion of instincts and resources,
Chapter XV.—The Lateness of the Revelation of Marcion’s God. The Question of the PlaceOccupied by the Rival Deities. Instead of Two Gods, Marcion Really (Although, as It WouldSeem, Unconsciously) Had Nine Gods in His System.After all, or, if you like,
Chapter XVI.—Marcion Assumes the Existence of Two Gods from the Antithesis Between ThingsVisible and Things Invisible. This Antithetical Principle in Fact Characteristic of the Works ofthe Creator, the One God—Maker of All Things Visible and Invisible.
Chapter XVII.—Not Enough, as the Marcionites Pretend, that the Supreme God Should RescueMan; He Must Also Have Created Him. The Existence of God Proved by His Creation, a PriorConsideration to His Character.Pressed by these arguments, they exclaim: One work is sufficient for our god; he has deliveredman by his supreme and most excellent goodness, which is preferable to (the creation of) all thelocusts.
Chapter XVIII.—Notwithstanding Their Conceits, the God of the Marcionites Fails in the VouchersBoth of Created Evidence and of Adequate Revelation.Well, then,
Chapter XIX.—Jesus Christ, the Revealer of the Creator, Could Not Be the Same as Marcion’sGod, Who Was Only Made Known by the Heretic Some CXV. Years After Christ, and That,Too, on a Principle Utterly Unsuited to the Teaching of Jesus Christ, I.e., the Opposition Betweenthe Law and the Gospels.Well, but our god, say the Marcionites, although he did not manifest himself from the beginningand by means of the creation, has yet revealed himself in Christ Jesus. A book will be devoted
Chapter XX.—Marcion, Justifying His Antithesis Between the Law and the Gospel by the Contentionof St. Paul with St. Peter, Shown to Have Mistaken St. Paul’s Position and Argument. Marcion’sDoctrine Confuted Out of St. Paul’s Teaching, Which Agrees Wholly with the Creator’s Decrees.This most patent conclusion requires to be defended by us against the clamours of the oppositeside. For they allege that Marcion did not so much innovate on the rule (of faith) by his separationof the law and the gospel, as restore it after it had been previously adulterated. O Christ,
Chapter XXI.—St. Paul Preached No New God, When He Announced the Repeal of Some of God’sAncient Ordinances. Never Any Hesitation About Belief in the Creator, as the God WhomChrist Revealed, Until Marcion’s Heresy.Now if it was with the view of preaching a new god that he was eager to abrogate the law ofthe old God, how is it that he prescribes no rule about
Chapter XXII.—God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Natural; The God of Marcion FoundWanting Herein. It Came Not to Man’s Rescue When First Wanted.
Chapter XXIII.—God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Rational. Marcion’s God DefectiveHere Also; His Goodness Irrational and Misapplied.Here is another rule for him. All the properties of God ought to be as rational as they are natural.I require reason in His goodness, because nothing else can properly be accounted good than thatwhich is rationally good; much less can goodness itself be detected in any irrationality. More easilywill an evil thing which has something rational belonging to it be accounted good, than that a goodthing bereft of all reasonable quality should escape being regarded as evil. Now I deny that thegoodness of Marcion’s god is rational, on this account first, because it proceeded to the salvationof a human creature which was alien to him. I am aware of the plea which they will adduce, thatthat is rather
Chapter XXIV.—The Goodness of Marcion’s God Only Imperfectly Manifested; It Saves But Few,and the Souls Merely of These. Marcion’s Contempt of the Body Absurd.But as God is eternal and rational, so, I think, He is perfect in all things. “Be ye perfect, evenas your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Chapter XXV.—God is Not a Being of Simple Goodness; Other Attributes Belong to Him. MarcionShows Inconsistency in the Portraiture of His Simply Good and Emotionless God.As touching this question of goodness, we have in these outlines of our argument shown it tobe in no way compatible with Deity,—as being neither natural,
Chapter XXVI.—In the Attribute of Justice, Marcion’s God is Hopelessly Weak and Ungodlike.He Dislikes Evil, But Does Not Punish Its Perpetration.But it is here sufficient that the extreme perversity of their god is proved from the mere expositionof his lonely goodness, in which they refuse to ascribe to him such emotions of mind as they censurein the Creator. Now, if he is susceptible of no feeling of rivalry, or anger, or damage, or injury, asone who refrains from exercising judicial power, I cannot tell how any system of discipline—andthat, too, a plenary one—can be consistent in him. For how is it possible that he should issuecommands, if he does not mean to execute them; or forbid sins, if he intends not to punish them,
Chapter XXVII.—Dangerous Effects to Religion and Morality of the Doctrine of So Weak a God.Again, he plainly judges evil by not willing it, and condemns it by prohibiting it; while, on theother hand, he acquits it by not avenging it, and lets it go free by not punishing it. What a prevaricatorof truth is such a god! What a dissembler with his own decision! Afraid to condemn what he reallycondemns, afraid to hate what he does not love, permitting that to be done which he does not allow,choosing to indicate what he dislikes rather than deeply examine it! This will turn out an imaginarygoodness, a phantom of discipline, perfunctory in duty, careless in sin. Listen, ye sinners; and yewho have not yet come to this, hear, that you may attain to such a pass! A better god has beendiscovered, who never takes offence, is never angry, never inflicts punishment, who has preparedno fire in hell, no gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness! He is purely and simply good. He indeedforbids all delinquency, but only in word. He is in you, if you are willing to pay him homage,
Chapter XXVIII.—This Perverse Doctrine Deprives Baptism of All Its Grace. If Marcion Be Right,the Sacrament Would Confer No Remission of Sins, No Regeneration, No Gift of the Spirit.And what will happen to him after he is cast away? He will, they say, be thrown into the Creator’sfire. Then has no remedial provision been made (by their god) for the purpose of banishing thosethat sin against him, without resorting to the cruel measure of delivering them over to the Creator?And what will the Creator then do? I suppose He will prepare for them a hell doubly charged withbrimstone,
Chapter XXIX.—Marcion Forbids Marriage. Tertullian Eloquently Defends It as Holy, and CarefullyDiscriminates Between Marcion’s Doctrine and His Own Montanism.The flesh is not, according to Marcion, immersed in the water of the sacrament, unless it be
Book II.2692Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcioncalumniated, is the true and good God.————————————
Chapter I.—The Methods of Marcion’s Argument Incorrect and Absurd. The Proper Course ofthe Argument.T HE occasion of reproducing this little work, the fortunes of which we noticed in the prefaceof our first book, has furnished us with the opportunity of distinguishing, in our treatment of thesubject of two Gods in opposition to Marcion, each of them with a description and section of hisown, according to the division of the subject-matter, defining one of the gods to have no existenceat all, and maintaining of the Other that He is rightly
Chapter II.—The True Doctrine of God the Creator. The Heretics Pretended to a Knowledge of theDivine Being, Opposed to and Subversive of Revelation. God’s Nature and Ways Past HumanDiscovery. Adam’s Heresy.We have now, then, cleared our way to the contemplation of the Almighty God, the Lord andMaker of the universe. His greatness, as I think, is shown in this, that from the beginning He madeHimself known: He never hid Himself, but always shone out brightly, even before the time ofRomulus, to say nothing of that of Tiberius; with the exception indeed that the heretics, and theyalone, know Him not, although they take such pains about Him. They on this account suppose thatanother god must be assumed to exist, because they are more able to censure than deny Him whoseexistence is so evident, deriving all their thoughts about God from the deductions of sense; just asif some blind man, or a man of imperfect vision,
Chapter III.—God Known by His Works. His Goodness Shown in His Creative Energy; ButEverlasting in Its Nature; Inherent in God, Previous to All Exhibition of It. The First Stage ofThis Goodness Prior to Man.
Chapter IV.—The Next Stage Occurs in the Creation of Man by the Eternal Word. Spiritual asWell as Physical Gifts to Man. The Blessings of Man’s Free-Will.The goodness of God having, therefore, provided man for the pursuit of the knowledge ofHimself, added this to its original notification,
Chapter V.—Marcion’s Cavils Considered. His Objection Refuted, I.e., Man’s Fall Showed Failurein God. The Perfection of Man’s Being Lay in His Liberty, Which God Purposely Bestowedon Him. The Fall Imputable to Man’s Own Choice.Now then, ye dogs, whom the apostle puts outside,
Chapter VI.—This Liberty Vindicated in Respect of Its Original Creation; Suitable Also forExhibiting the Goodness and the Purpose of God. Reward and Punishment Impossible If ManWere Good or Evil Through Necessity and Not Choice.But although we shall be understood, from our argument, to be only so affirming man’sunshackled power over his will, that what happens to him should be laid to his own charge, andnot to God’s, yet that you may not object, even now, that he ought not to have been so constituted,since his liberty and power of will might turn out to be injurious, I will first of all maintain that hewas rightly so constituted, that I may with the greater confidence commend both his actualconstitution, and the additional fact of its being worthy of the Divine Being; the cause which ledto man’s being created with such a constitution being shown to be the better one. Moreover, manthus constituted will be protected by both the goodness of God and by His purpose,
Chapter VII.—If God Had Anyhow Checked Man’s Liberty, Marcion Would Have Been Readywith Another and Opposite Cavil. Man’s Fall Foreseen by God. Provision Made for It Remediallyand Consistently with His Truth and Goodness.By such a conclusion all is reserved
Chapter VIII.—Man, Endued with Liberty, Superior to the Angels, Overcomes Even the AngelWhich Lured Him to His Fall, When Repentant and Resuming Obedience to God.For it was not merely that he might live the natural life that God had produced man, but
Chapter IX.—Another Cavil Answered, I.e., the Fall Imputable to God, Because Man’s Soul is aPortion of the Spiritual Essence of the Creator. The Divine Afflatus Not in Fault in the Sin ofMan, But the Human Will Which Was Additional to It.But, you say, in what way soever the substance of the Creator is found to be susceptible of fault,when the afflatus of God, that is to say, the soul,
Chapter X.—Another Cavil Met, I.e., the Devil Who Instigated Man to Sin Himself the Creatureof God. Nay, the Primeval Cherub Only Was God’s Work. The Devilish Nature Superaddedby Wilfulness. In Man’s Recovery the Devil is Vanquished in a Conflict on His Own Ground.If, however, you choose to transfer the account
Chapter XI.—If, After Man’s Sin, God Exercised His Attribute of Justice and Judgment, This WasCompatible with His Goodness, and Enhances the True Idea of the Perfection of God’s Character.Up to the fall of man, therefore, from the beginning God was simply good; after that He becamea judge both severe and, as the Marcionites will have it, cruel. Woman is at once condemned tobring forth in sorrow, and to serve her husband,
Chapter XII.—The Attributes of Goodness and Justice Should Not Be Separated. They areCompatible in the True God. The Function of Justice in the Divine Being Described.Since, therefore, there is this union and agreement between goodness and justice, you cannotprescribe
Chapter XIII.—Further Description of the Divine Justice; Since the Fall of Man It Has Regulatedthe Divine Goodness. God’s Claims on Our Love and Our Fear Reconciled.But yet, when evil afterwards broke out, and the goodness of God began now to have anadversary to contend against, God’s justice also acquired another function, even that of directingHis goodness according to men’s application for it.
Chapter XIV.—Evil of Two Kinds, Penal and Criminal. It is Not of the Latter Sort that God is theAuthor, But Only of the Former, Which are Penal, and Included in His Justice.On all occasions does God meet you: it is He who smites, but also heals; who kills, but alsomakes alive; who humbles, and yet exalts; who “creates
Chapter XV.—The Severity of God Compatible with Reason and Justice. When Inflicted, NotMeant to Be Arbitrary, But Remedial.Consider well,
Chapter XVI.—To the Severity of God There Belong Accessory Qualities, Compatible with Justice.If Human Passions are Predicated of God, They Must Not Be Measured on the Scale of HumanImperfection.Even His severity then is good, because just: when the judge is good, that is just. Other qualitieslikewise are good, by means of which the good work of a good severity runs out its course, whetherwrath, or jealousy,
Chapter XVII.—Trace God’s Government in History and in His Precepts, and You Will Find ItFull of His Goodness.These considerations show that the entire order of God as Judge is an operative one, and (thatI may express myself in worthier words) protective of His Catholic
Chapter XVIII.—Some of God’s Laws Defended as Good, Which the Marcionites Impeached,Such as the Lex Talionis. Useful Purposes in a Social and Moral Point of View of This, andSundry Other Enactments.But what parts of the law can I defend as good with a greater confidence than those whichheresy has shown such a longing for?—as the statute of retaliation, requiring eye for eye, tooth fortooth, and stripe for stripe.
Chapter XIX.—The Minute Prescriptions of the Law Meant to Keep the People Dependent on God.The Prophets Sent by God in Pursuance of His Goodness. Many Beautiful Passages from ThemQuoted in Illustration of This Attribute.But even in the common transactions of life, and of human intercourse at home and in public,even to the care of the smallest vessels, He in every possible manner made distinct arrangement;in order that, when they everywhere encountered these legal instructions, they might not be at anymoment out of the sight of God. For what could better tend to make a man happy, than having “hisdelight in the law of the Lord?” “In that law would he meditate day and night.”
Chapter XX.—The Marcionites Charged God with Having Instigated the Hebrews to Spoil theEgyptians. Defence of the Divine Dispensation in that Matter.
Chapter XXI.—The Law of the Sabbath-Day Explained. The Eight Days’ Procession AroundJericho. The Gathering of Sticks a Violation.Similarly on other points also, you reproach Him with fickleness and instability for contradictionsin His commandments, such as that He forbade work to be done on Sabbath-days, and yet at thesiege of Jericho ordered the ark to be carried round the walls during eight days; in other words, ofcourse, actually on a Sabbath. You do not, however, consider the law of the Sabbath: they are
Chapter XXII.—The Brazen Serpent and the Golden Cherubim Were Not Violations of the SecondCommandment. Their Meaning.Likewise, when forbidding the similitude to be made of all things which are in heaven, and inearth, and in the waters, He declared also the reasons, as being prohibitory of all materialexhibition
Chapter XXIII.—God’s Purposes in Election and Rejection of the Same Men, Such as King Saul,Explained, in Answer to the Marcionite Cavil.Now, although you will have it that He is inconstant
Chapter XXIV.—Instances of God’s Repentance, and Notably in the Case of the Ninevites,Accounted for and Vindicated.Furthermore, with respect to the repentance which occurs in His conduct,
Chapter XXV.—God’s Dealings with Adam at the Fall, and with Cain After His Crime, AdmirablyExplained and Defended.It is now high time that I should, in order to meet all
Chapter XXVI.—The Oath of God: Its Meaning. Moses, When Deprecating God’s Wrath AgainstIsrael, a Type of Christ.But God also swears. Well, is it, I wonder, by the God of Marcion? No, no, he says; a muchvainer oath—by Himself!
Chapter XXVII.—Other Objections Considered. God’s Condescension in the Incarnation. NothingDerogatory to the Divine Being in This Economy. The Divine Majesty Worthily Sustained bythe Almighty Father, Never Visible to Man. Perverseness of the Marcionite Cavils.And now, that I may briefly pass in review
Chapter XXVIII.—The Tables Turned Upon Marcion, by Contrasts, in Favour of the True God.Now, touching the weaknesses and malignities, and the other (alleged), notes (of the Creator),I too shall advance antitheses in rivalry to Marcion’s. If my God knew not of any other superior toHimself, your god also was utterly unaware that there was any beneath himself. It is just whatHeraclitus “the obscure”
Chapter XXIX.—Marcion’s Own Antitheses, If Only the Title and Object of the Work Be Excepted,Afford Proofs of the Consistent Attributes of the True God.But I would have attacked Marcion’s own Antitheses in closer and fuller combat, if a moreelaborate demolition of them were required in maintaining for the Creator the character of a goodGod and a Judge, after
Book III.Wherein Christ is shown to be the Son of God, Who created the world; to havebeen predicted by the prophets; to have taken human flesh like our own, by a realincarnation.————————————
Chapter I.—Introductory; A Brief Statement of the Preceding Argument in Connection with theSubject of This Book.F OLLOWING the track of my original treatise, the loss of which we are steadily proceeding
Chapter II.—Why Christ’s Coming Should Be Previously Announced.Coming then at once to the point,
Chapter III.—Miracles Alone, Without Prophecy, an Insufficient Evidence of Christ’s Mission.A procedure
Chapter IV.—Marcion’s Christ Not the Subject of Prophecy. The Absurd Consequences of ThisTheory of the Heretic.He
Chapter V.—Sundry Features of the Prophetic Style: Principles of Its Interpretation.These preliminary remarks I have ventured to make
Chapter VI.—Community in Certain Points of Marcionite and Jewish Error. Prophecies of Christ’sRejection Examined.Since, therefore, there clearly exist these two characteristics in the Jewish prophetic literature,let the reader remember,
Chapter VII.—Prophecy Sets Forth Two Different Conditions of Christ, One Lowly, the OtherMajestic. This Fact Points to Two Advents of Christ.Our heretic will now have the fullest opportunity of learning the clue
Chapter VIII.—Absurdity of Marcion’s Docetic Opinions; Reality of Christ’s Incarnation.Our heretic must now cease to borrow poison from the Jew—“the asp,” as the adage runs, “fromthe viper”
3208 —and henceforth vomit forth the virulence of his own disposition, as when he allegesChrist to be a phantom. Except, indeed, that this opinion of his will be sure to have others to maintainit in his precocious and somewhat abortive Marcionites, whom the Apostle John designated asantichrists, when they denied that Christ was come in the flesh; not that they did this with the viewof establishing the right of the other god (for on this point also they had been branded by the sameapostle), but because they had started with assuming the incredibility of an incarnate God. Now,the more firmly the antichrist Marcion had seized this assumption, the more prepared was he, of
Chapter IX.—Refutation of Marcion’s Objections Derived from the Cases of the Angels, and thePre-Incarnate Manifestations of the Son of God.Now, in this discussion of yours,
Chapter X.—The Truly Incarnate State More Worthy of God Than Marcion’s Fantastic Flesh.Therefore, since you are not permitted to resort to any instances of the Creator, as alien fromthe subject, and possessing special causes of their own, I should like you to state yourself the designof your god, in exhibiting his Christ not in the reality of flesh. If he despised it as earthly, and (as
Chapter XI.—Christ Was Truly Born; Marcion’s Absurd Cavil in Defence of a Putative Nativity.
Chapter XII.—Isaiah’s Prophecy of Emmanuel. Christ Entitled to that Name.
Chapter XIII.—Isaiah’s Prophecies Considered. The Virginity of Christ’s Mother a Sign. OtherProphecies Also Signs. Metaphorical Sense of Proper Names in Sundry Passages of the Prophets.You are equally led away by the sound of names,
Chapter XIV.—Figurative Style of Certain Messianic Prophecies in the Psalms. Military MetaphorsApplied to Christ.This interpretation of ours will derive confirmation, when, on your supposing that Christ is inany passage called a warrior, from the mention of certain arms and expressions of that sort, youweigh well the analogy of their other meanings, and draw your conclusions accordingly. “Gird onThy sword,” says David, “upon Thy thigh.”
3289 But who shall producethese results with the sword, and not their opposites rather—deceit, and harshness, andinjury—which, it must be confessed, are the proper business of battles? Let us see, therefore,whether that is not some other sword, which has so different an action. Now the Apostle John, inthe Apocalypse, describes a sword which proceeded from the mouth of God as “a doubly sharp,two-edged one.”
550against the spiritual enemies of all wickedness and concupiscence, and cutting us off from thedearest objects for the sake of God’s holy name. If, however, you will not acknowledge John, youhave our common master Paul, who “girds our loins about with truth, and puts on us the breastplateof righteousness, and shoes us with the preparation of the gospel of peace, not of war; who bids ustake the shield of faith, wherewith we may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil, and thehelmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which (he says) is the word of God.”
Chapter XV.—The Title Christ Suitable as a Name of the Creator’s Son, But Unsuited to Marcion’sChrist.Touching then the discussion of His flesh, and (through that) of His nativity, and incidentally
Chapter XVI.—The Sacred Name Jesus Most Suited to the Christ of the Creator. Joshua a Typeof Him.Now if he caught at the name Christ, just as the pickpocket clutches the dole-basket, why didhe wish to be called Jesus too, by a name which was not so much looked for by the Jews? Foralthough we, who have by God’s grace attained to the understanding of His mysteries, acknowledgethat this name also was destined for Christ, yet, for all that, the fact was not known to the Jews,from whom wisdom was taken away. To this day, in short, it is Christ that they are looking for, notJesus; and they interpret Elias to be Christ rather than Jesus. He, therefore, who came also in aname in which Christ was not expected, might have come only in that name which was solelyanticipated for Him.
Chapter XVII.—Prophecies in Isaiah and the Psalms Respecting Christ’s Humiliation.Let us compare with Scripture the rest of His dispensation. Whatever that poor despised body
Chapter XVIII.
Chapter XIX.—Prophecies of the Death of Christ.Come now, when you read in the words of David, how that “the Lord reigneth from the tree,”
Chapter XX.
Chapter XXI.—The Call of the Gentiles Under the Influence of the Gospel Foretold.So you cannot get out of this notion of yours a basis for your difference between the two Christs,as if the Jewish Christ were ordained by the Creator for the restoration of the people alone
Chapter XXII.—The Success of the Apostles, and Their Sufferings in the Cause of the Gospel,Foretold.You have the work of the apostles also predicted: “How beautiful are the feet of them whichpreach the gospel of peace, which bring good tidings of good,”
Chapter XXIII.—The Dispersion of the Jews, and Their Desolate Condition for Rejecting Christ,Foretold.Now, since you join the Jews in denying that their Christ has come, recollect also what is thatend which they were predicted as about to bring on themselves after the time of Christ, for theimpiety wherewith they both rejected and slew Him. For it began to come to pass from that day,when, according to Isaiah, “a man threw away his idols of gold and of silver, which they made intouseless and hurtful objects of worship;”
3418 And so in this mannerthe law and the prophets were until John, but the dews of divine grace were withdrawn from thenation. After his time their madness still continued, and the name of the Lord was blasphemed bythem, as saith the Scripture: “Because of you my name is continually blasphemed amongst thenations”
Chapter XXV.—Christ’s Millennial and Heavenly Glory in Company with His Saints.Yes, certainly,
3450 and the Apostle John beheld.
Book IV. 3480In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. HeDerives His Proofs from St. Luke’s Gospel; That Being the Only HistoricalPortion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book MayAlso Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proofof Tertullian’s Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is NotContrary to the New.” It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of ScripturalPassages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with theNature of Man.————————————
Chapter I.—Examination of the Antitheses of Marcion, Bringing Them to the Test of Marcion’sOwn Gospel. Certain True Antitheses in the Dispensations of the Old and the New Testaments.These Variations Quite Compatible with One and the Same God, Who Ordered Them.E VERY opinion and the whole scheme
Chapter II.—St. Luke’s Gospel, Selected by Marcion as His Authority, and Mutilated by Him.The Other Gospels Equally Authoritative. Marcion’s Terms of Discussion, However, Accepted,and Grappled with on the Footing of St. Luke’s Gospel Alone.
3525 for it was that which made theapostles their masters. Of the apostles, therefore, John and Matthew first instil
3526 faith into us;whilst of apostolic men, Luke and Mark renew it afterwards.
3523 He means, of course, St. Mark and St. Luke.
3536 Now, of the authors whomwe possess, Marcion seems to have singled out Luke
3538 Luke, however,was not an apostle, but only an apostolic man; not a master, but a disciple, and so inferior to amaster—at least as far subsequent to
3542 in other words, thatthe faith which he had learned, and the gospel which he was preaching, might be in accordancewith theirs. Then, at last, having conferred with the (primitive) authors, and having agreed withthem touching the rule of faith, they joined their hands in fellowship, and divided their laboursthenceforth in the office of preaching the gospel, so that they were to go to the Jews, and St. Paulto the Jews and the Gentiles. Inasmuch, therefore, as the enlightener of St. Luke himself desiredthe authority of his predecessors for both his own faith and preaching, how much more may not Irequire for Luke’s Gospel that which was necessary for the Gospel of his master.
Chapter III.
3546 of the Christian religion beginsfrom the discipleship of Luke. Since, however, it was on its course previous to that point, it musthave had
3548 by means of which it found its own way down to St.Luke; and by the assistance of the testimony which it bore, Luke himself becomes admissible. Well,but
3553 and under the name of apostles, in order, forsooth, tosecure for his own Gospel the credit which he takes away from them. But then, even if he censuresPeter and John and James, who were thought to be pillars, it is for a manifest reason. They seemedto be changing their company
3558of the apostle’s writings be found which has not suffered adulteration? Which was it that enlightenedPaul, and through him Luke? It is either completely blotted out, as if by some deluge—beingobliterated by the inundation of falsifiers—in which case even Marcion does not possess the trueGospel; or else, is that very edition which Marcion alone possesses the true one, that is, of theapostles? How, then, does that agree with ours, which is said not to be (the work) of apostles, butof Luke? Or else, again, if that which Marcion uses is not to be attributed to Luke simply becauseit does agree with ours (which, of course,
Chapter IV.—Each Side Claims to Possess the True Gospel. Antiquity the Criterion of Truth inSuch a Matter. Marcion’s Pretensions as an Amender of the Gospel.
3570 question, of Luke’s Gospel (so far as its being thecommon property
3575 of them. Proof out of these is enough for me. Forif the Gospel, said to be Luke’s which is current amongst us
Chapter V.—By the Rule of Antiquity, the Catholic Gospels are Found to Be True, Including theReal St. Luke’s. Marcion’s Only a Mutilated Edition. The Heretic’s Weakness and Inconsistencyin Ignoring the Other Gospels.
3588 bequeathed the gospel even sealed with theirown blood. We have also St. John’s foster churches.
3590 of the bishops (thereof), when traced up to their origin, will yet rest on John as theirauthor. In the same manner is recognised the excellent source
3592 ) that Gospelof Luke which we are defending with all our might has stood its ground from its very firstpublication; whereas Marcion’s Gospel is not known to most people, and to none whatever is itknown without being at the same time
3599 and according to their usage—I mean theGospels of John and Matthew—whilst that which Mark published may be affirmed to be Peter’s
3600whose interpreter Mark was. For even Luke’s form
3605 on Luke; as if they, too, had not had free course in thechurches, as well as Luke’s Gospel, from the beginning. Nay, it is even more credible that they
3590 [Not the Order of bishops (as we now speak) but of their succession from St. John. Kaye, p.
3606 The Gospels of the apostles John and Matthew, and perhaps Mark’s also, as being St. Peter’s.
3611 have come down to us in their integrity, whilstLuke’s, which is received amongst us,
3612 so far accords with their rule as to be on a par with themin permanency of reception in the churches, it clearly follows that Luke’s Gospel also has comedown to us in like integrity until the sacrilegious treatment of Marcion. In short, when Marcionlaid hands on it, it then became diverse and hostile to the Gospels of the apostles. I will thereforeadvise his followers, that they either change these Gospels, however late to do so, into a conformitywith their own, whereby they may seem to be in agreement with the apostolic writings (for theyare daily retouching their work, as daily they are convicted by us); or else that they blush for theirmaster, who stands self-condemned
3612 That is, the canonical Gospel of St. Luke, as distinct from Marcion’s corruption of it. [N.B. “Us” = Catholics.]
Chapter VI.—Marcion’s Object in Adulterating the Gospel. No Difference Between the Christ ofthe Creator and the Christ of the Gospel. No Rival Christ Admissible. The Connection of theTrue Christ with the Dispensation of the Old Testament Asserted.But we now advance a step further on, and challenge (as we promised to do) the very Gospelof Marcion, with the intention of thus proving that it has been adulterated. For it is certain
3619 [Mark the authority of churches. He uses the plural—quod ab omnibus.]
Chapter VII.—Marcion Rejected the Preceding Portion of St. Luke’s Gospel. Therefore This ReviewOpens with an Examination of the Case of the Evil Spirit in the Synagogue of Capernaum. HeWhom the Demon Acknowledged Was the Creator’s Christ.In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
3656 the synagogue (like other Jews), yet the function of giving instructionwas allowed only to a man who was extremely well known, and examined and tried, and for sometime invested with the privilege after experience duly attested elsewhere. But “they were allastonished at His doctrine.” Of course they were; “for, says (St. Luke), “His word was withChapter VIII.—Other Proofs from the Same
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Re: Tertullian prefers John over all the others combined
Split in 2: 2/2
Mark, Matthew, Luke and John - and John the Baptist:
Chapter, that Jesus, Who Preached at Nazareth, andWas Acknowledged by Certain Demons as Christ the Son of God, Was the Creator’s Christ.As Occasion Offers, the Docetic Errors of Marcion are Exposed.
Chapter IX.—Out of St. Luke’s Fifth
Chapter are Found Proofs of Christ’s Belonging to the Creator,E.g. In the Call of Fishermen to the Apostolic Office, and in the Cleansing of the Leper. ChristCompared with the Prophet Elisha.Out of so many kinds of occupations, why indeed had He such respect for that of fishermen,as to select from it for apostles Simon and the sons of Zebedee (for it cannot seem to be the merefact itself for which the narrative was meant to be drawn out
Chapter X.—Further Proofs of the Same Truth in the Same
Chapter, from the Healing of theParalytic, and from the Designation Son of Man Which Jesus Gives Himself. Tertullian SustainsHis Argument by Several Quotations from the Prophets.The sick of the palsy is healed,
3759 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.
Chapter XI.—The Call of Levi the Publican. Christ in Relation to the Baptist. Christ as theBridegroom. The Parable of the Old Wine and the New. Arguments Connecting Christ withthe Creator.
3816 having to himself both a creator and preserver,and a specially good physician, in his Christ. This much the comparison predetermines, that aphysician is more usually furnished by him to whom the sick people belong. Whence, too, doesJohn come upon the scene? Christ, suddenly; and just as suddenly, John!
3818 in the Creator’sdispensation. Of John, however, what else I have to say will be found in another passage.
602disciples of Christ, as they ate and drank, to a comparison with the disciples of John, who wereconstantly fasting and praying; because, if there existed any diversity
3822 between Christ and John,and their followers respectively, no exact comparison would be possible, nor would there be asingle point where it could be challenged. For nobody would feel surprise, and nobody would beperplexed, although there should arise rival predictions of a diverse deity, which should also mutuallydiffer about modes of conduct,
3824 upon whichthey were based. Therefore Christ belonged to John, and John to Christ; while both belonged tothe Creator, and both were of the law and the prophets, preachers and masters. Else Christ wouldhave rejected the discipline of John, as of the rival god, and would also have defended the disciples,as very properly pursuing a different walk, because consecrated to the service of another and contrarydeity. But as it is, while modestly
3826 He neither defended thedisciples, (but rather excused them, as if they had not been blamed without some reason), norrejected the discipline of John, but rather allowed
3827 it, referring it to the time of John, althoughdestining it for His own time. Otherwise His purpose would have been to reject it,
3822 Marcion’s diversitas implied an utter incompatibility between John and Christ; for it assigned John to the Creator, fromwhom it took Christ away.
Chapter XII.—Christ’s Authority Over the Sabbath. As Its Lord He Recalled It from PharisaicNeglect to the Original Purpose of Its Institution by the Creator the Case of the Disciples WhoPlucked the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath. The Withered Hand Healed on the Sabbath.Concerning the Sabbath also I have this to premise, that this question could not have arisen, ifChrist did not publicly proclaim
3859annulled the Sabbath, by the Creator’s command—according to the opinion of those who think thisof Christ in this passage of St. Luke, in their ignorance that neither Christ nor the Creator violatedthe Sabbath, as we shall by and by show. And yet the Sabbath was actually then broken
Chapter XIII.—Christ’s Connection with the Creator Shown. Many Quotations Out of the OldTestament Prophetically Bear on Certain Events of the Life of Jesus—Such as His Ascent toPraying on the Mountain; His Selection of Twelve Apostles; His Changing Simon’s Name toPeter, and Gentiles from Tyre and Sidon Resorting to Him.Surely to Sion He brings good tidings, and to Jerusalem peace and all blessings; He goes upinto a mountain, and there spends a night in prayer,
Chapter XIV.—Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. In Manner and Contents It So Resembles theCreator’s Dispensational Words and Deeds. It Suggests Therefore the Conclusion that Jesus isthe Creator’s Christ. The Beatitudes.I now come to those ordinary precepts of His, by means of which He adapts the peculiarity
Chapter XV.—Sermon on the Mount Continued. Its Woes in Strict Agreement with the Creator’sDisposition. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament in Proof of This.“In the like manner,” says He,
Chapter XVI.—The Precept of Loving One’s Enemies. It is as Much Taught in the Creator’sScriptures of the Old Testament as in Christ’s Sermon. The Lex Talionis of Moses AdmirablyExplained in Consistency with the Kindness and Love Which Jesus Christ Came to Proclaimand Enforce in Behalf of the Creator. Sundry Precepts of Charity Explained.“But I say unto you which hear” (displaying here that old injunction, of the Creator: “Speak tothe ears of those who lend them to you”
Chapter XVII.—Concerning Loans. Prohibition of Usury and the Usurious Spirit. The LawPreparatory to the Gospel in Its Provisions; So in the Present Instance. On Reprisals. Christ’sTeaching Throughout Proves Him to Be Sent by the Creator.And now, on the subject of a loan, when He asks, “And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope toreceive, what thank have ye?”
Chapter XVIII.—Concerning the Centurion’s Faith. The Raising of the Widow’s Son. John Baptist,and His Message to Christ; And the Woman Who Was a Sinner. Proofs Extracted from All ofthe Relation of Christ to the Creator.Likewise, when extolling the centurion’s faith, how incredible a thing it is, that He shouldconfess that He had “found so great a faith not even in Israel,”
4154 had been through John preparing the ways of the Lord, should nowdepart from John,
4156Therefore John, being now an ordinary person, and only one of the many,
4158 Nobody will entertain doubts about any onewhom (since he knows him not to exist) he has no expectation or thought of. Now John was quitesure that there was no other God but the Creator, even as a Jew, especially as a prophet.
4161 whom he knew indeed to exist butknew not whether He were the very Christ. With this fear, therefore, even John asks the question,“Art thou He that should come, or look we for another?”
4165 And there lay John’s difficulty.
4166 He was in doubt whether He was actually comewhom all men were looking for; whom, moreover, they ought to have recognised by His predictedworks, even as the Lord sent word to John, that it was by means of these very works that He was
376we have proved in the examination of each of them—it was perverse enough, if he gave himselfout to be not the Christ of the Creator, and rested the proof of his statement on those very evidenceswhereby he was urging his claims to be received as the Creator’s Christ. Far greater still is hisperverseness when, not being the Christ of John,
4168 he yet bestows on John his testimony, affirminghim to be a prophet, nay more, his messenger,
4171adduced the prophecy in the superior sense of the alternative mentioned by the perplexed John, inorder that, by affirming that His own precursor was already come in the person of John, He mightquench the doubt
4175 as if the kingdom in which the leastperson was greater than John belonged to one God, while John, who was greater than all of womenborn, belonged himself to another God. For whether He speaks of any “least person” by reason ofhis humble position, or of Himself, as being thought to be less than John—since all were runninginto the wilderness after John rather than after Christ (“What went ye out into the wilderness to
4168 That is, not the Creator’s Christ—whose prophet John was—therefore a different Christ from Him whom John announced.This is said, of course, on the Marcionite hypothesis (Oehler).
4175 Comp. the Refutation of Epiphanius (Hæres. xlii. Refut. 8): “Whether with reference to John or to the Saviour, Hepronounces a blessing on such as should not be offended in Himself or in John. Nor should they devise for themselves whatsoeverthings they heard not from him. He also has a greater object in view, on account of which the Saviour said this; even that no oneshould think that John (who was pronounced to be greater than any born of women) was greater than the Saviour Himself,because even He was born of a woman. He guards against this mistake, and says, ‘Blessed is he who shall not be offended inme.’ He then adds, ‘He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.’ Now, in respect of His birth in the flesh, theSaviour was less than he by the space of six months. But in the kingdom He was greater, being even his God. For the Only-begottencame not to say aught in secret, or to utter a falsehood in His preaching, as He says Himself, ‘In secret have I said nothing, butin public,’ etc. (Κἄν τε πρὸς ᾽Ιωάννην ἔχοι…ἀλλὰ μετὰ παῤῥησίας).”— O EHLER .
4178 because he would not have been offended at Christ, an infirmitywhich then lessened the greatness of John. We have already spoken of the forgiveness
Chapter XIX.—The Rich Women of Piety Who Followed Jesus Christ’s Teaching by Parables.The Marcionite Cavil Derived from Christ’s Remark, When Told of His Mother and HisBrethren. Explanation of Christ’s Apparent Rejection Them.The fact that certain rich women clave to Christ, “which ministered unto Him of their substance,”amongst whom was the wife of the king’s steward, is a subject of prophecy. By Isaiah the Lordcalled these wealthy ladies—“Rise up, ye women that are at ease, and hear my voice”
Chapter XX.—Comparison of Christ’s Power Over Winds and Waves with Moses’ Command ofthe Waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Christ’s Power Over Unclean Spirits. The Case ofthe Legion. The Cure of the Issue of Blood. The Mosaic Uncleanness on This Point Explained.But “what manner of man is this? for He commandeth even the winds and water!”
Chapter XXI.—Christ’s Connection with the Creator Shown from Several Incidents in the OldTestament, Compared with St. Luke’s Narrative of the Mission of the Disciples. The Feedingof the Multitude. The Confession of St. Peter. Being Ashamed of Christ. This Shame is OnlyPossible of the True Christ. Marcionite Pretensions Absurd.He sends forth His disciples to preach the kingdom of God.
4262by Christ, was clearly attested by the opinion of all men, because some maintained to Herod thatJesus was the Christ; others, that He was John; some, that He was Elias; and others, that He wasone of the old prophets.
Chapter XXII.—The Same Conclusion Supported by the Transfiguration. Marcion Inconsistent inAssociating with Christ in Glory Two Such Eminent Servants of the Creator as Moses andElijah. St. Peter’s Ignorance Accounted for on Montanist Principle.
Chapter XXIII.—Impossible that Marcion’s Christ Should Reprove the Faithless Generation. SuchLoving Consideration for Infants as the True Christ Was Apt to Shew, Also Impossible for theOther. On the Three Different Characters Confronted and Instructed by Christ in Samaria.I take on myself the character
Chapter XXIV.—On the Mission of the Seventy Disciples, and Christ’s Charge to Them. PrecedentsDrawn from the Old Testament. Absurdity of Supposing that Marcion’s Christ Could HaveGiven the Power of Treading on Serpents and Scorpions.He chose also seventy other missionaries
Chapter XXV.—Christ Thanks the Father for Revealing to Babes What He Had Concealed fromthe Wise. This Concealment Judiciously Effected by the Creator. Other Points in St. Luke’sChap. X. Shown to Be Only Possible to the Creator’s Christ.Who shall be invoked as the Lord of heaven, that does not first show Himself
Chapter XXVI.—From St. Luke’s Eleventh
Chapter Other Evidence that Christ Comes from theCreator. The Lord’s Prayer and Other Words of Christ. The Dumb Spirit and Christ’s Discourseon Occasion of the Expulsion. The Exclamation of the Woman in the Crowd.When in a certain place he had been praying to that Father above,
4529 at Jerusalem—one of his disciples came to him and said, “Master, teach usto pray, as John also taught his disciples.” This he said, forsooth, because he thought that differentprayers were required for different gods! Now, he who had advanced such a conjecture as thisshould first show that another god had been proclaimed by Christ. For nobody would have wantedto know how to pray, before he had learned whom he was to pray to. If, however, he had alreadylearned this, prove it. If you find nowhere any proof, let me tell you
392that he asked for instruction in prayer, to whom John’s disciples also used to pray. But, inasmuchas John had introduced some new order of prayer, this disciple had not improperly presumed tothink that he ought also to ask of Christ whether they too must not (according to some special ruleof their Master) pray, not indeed to another god, but in another manner. Christ accordingly
Chapter XXVII.—Christ’s Reprehension of the Pharisees Seeking a Sign. His Censure of TheirLove of Outward Show Rather Than Inward Holiness. Scripture Abounds with Admonitionsof a Similar Purport. Proofs of His Mission from the Creator.
Chapter XXVIII.—Examples from the Old Testament, Balaam, Moses, and Hezekiah, to ShowHow Completely the Instruction and Conduct of Christ
Chapter XXIX.—Parallels from the Prophets to Illustrate Christ’s Teaching in the Rest of This
Chapter of St. Luke. The Sterner Attributes of Christ, in His Judicial Capacity, Show Him toHave Come from the Creator. Incidental Rebukes of Marcion’s Doctrine of Celibacy, and ofHis Altering of the Text of the Gospel.Who would be unwilling that we should distress ourselves
Chapter XXX.—Parables of the Mustard-Seed, and of the Leaven. Transition to the SolemnExclusion Which Will Ensue When the Master of the House Has Shut the Door. This JudicialExclusion Will Be Administered by Christ, Who is Shown Thereby to Possess the Attribute ofthe Creator.When the question was again raised concerning a cure performed on the Sabbath-day, how didHe discuss it: “Doth not each of you on the Sabbath loose his ass or his ox from the stall, and leadhim away to watering?”
Chapter XXXI.—Christ’s Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of theGreat Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator’s Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. TheRejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old Testament. Marcion’s Christ
Chapter XXXII.—A Sort of Sorites, as the Logicians Call It, to Show that the Parables of the LostSheep and the Lost Drachma Have No Suitable Application to the Christ of Marcion.Who sought after the lost sheep and the lost piece of silver?
Chapter XXXIII.—The Marcionite Interpretation of God and Mammon Refuted. The ProphetsJustify Christ’s Admonition Against Covetousness and Pride. John Baptist the Link Betweenthe Old and the New Dispensations of the Creator. So Said Christ—But So Also Had IsaiahSaid Long Before. One Only God, the Creator, by His Own Will Changed the Dispensations.No New God Had a Hand in the Change.What the two masters are who, He says, cannot be served,
4795 I can now make out why Marcion’s god was for so long anage concealed. He was, I suppose, waiting until he had learnt all these things from the Creator. Hecontinued his pupillage up to the time of John, and then proceeded forthwith to announce thekingdom of God, saying: “The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom
4796 Just as if we also did not recognise in John a certain limit placed betweenthe old dispensation and the new, at which Judaism ceased and Christianity began—without,however, supposing that it was by the power of another god that there came about a cessation
4798 than from the conceit that the law and the prophets endedin John, and a new state of things began after him. “More easily, therefore, may heaven and earthpass away—as also the law and the prophets—than that one tittle of the Lord’s words should fail.”
4801 of the Creator, who prophetically described John as “the voiceof one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord,”
4802 and as about to come for thepurpose of terminating thenceforth the course of the law and the prophets; by their fulfilment andnot their extinction, and in order that the kingdom of God might be announced by Christ, Hetherefore purposely added the assurance that the elements would more easily pass away than Hiswords fail; affirming, as He did, the further fact, that what He had said concerning John had notfallen to the ground.
Chapter XXXIV.—Moses, Allowing Divorce, and Christ Prohibiting It, Explained. John Baptistand Herod. Marcion’s Attempt to Discover an Antithesis in the Parable of the Rich Man andthe Poor Man in Hades Confuted. The Creator’s Appointment Manifested in Both States.
4807 St. Matthew’s Gospel.
4825 haseven in Christ a defender. So that Moses for the future must be considered as being confirmed byHim, since he prohibits divorce in the same sense as Christ does, if any unchastity should occur inthe wife. For in the Gospel of Matthew he says, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving forthe cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery.”
4831 by any suddenly devised proposal of divorce; becauseit was not suddenly proposed, but had its root in the previously mentioned John. For John reprovedHerod, because he had illegally married the wife of his deceased brother, who had a daughter byher (a union which the law permitted only on the one occasion of the brother dying childless,
4834 and was in consequence cast into prison, andfinally, by the same Herod, was even put to death. The Lord having therefore made mention ofJohn, and of course of the occurrence of his death, hurled His censure
4839 fits in with the mention of John wickedly slain, andof Herod, who had been condemned by him for his impious marriage.
4841 the end of both of them, the “torments” of Herod and the “comfort” of John, that evennow Herod might hear that warning: “They have there Moses and the prophets, let them hearthem.”
Chapter XXXV.—The Judicial Severity of Christ and the Tenderness of the Creator, Asserted inContradiction to Marcion. The Cure of the Ten Lepers. Old Testament Analogies. The Kingdomof God Within You; This Teaching Similar to that of Moses. Christ, the Stone Rejected by theBuilders. Indications of Severity in the Coming of Christ. Proofs that He is Not the ImpassibleBeing Marcion Imagined.Then, turning to His disciples, He says: “Woe unto him through whom offences come! It werebetter for him if he had not been born, or if a millstone were hanged about his neck and he werecast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones,”
4888 Jeroboam settled in Samaria. Besides, the Samaritans werealways pleased with the mountains and the wells of their ancestors. Thus, in the Gospel of John,the woman of Samaria, when conversing with the Lord at the well, says, “No doubt
Chapter XXXVI.—The Parables of the Importunate Widow, and of the Pharisee and the Publican.Christ’s Answer to the Rich Ruler, the Cure of the Blind Man. His Salutation—Son of David.All Proofs of Christ’s Relation to the Creator, Marcion’s Antithesis Between David and ChristConfuted.When He recommends perseverance and earnestness in prayer, He sets before us the parableof the judge who was compelled to listen to the widow, owing to the earnestness and importunityof her requests.
Chapter XXXVII.—Christ and Zacchæus. The Salvation of the Body as Denied by Marcion. TheParable of the Ten Servants Entrusted with Ten Pounds. Christ a Judge, Who is to Administerthe Will of the Austere Man, I.e. The Creator.
Chapter XXXVIII.—Christ’s Refutations of the Pharisees. Rendering Dues to Cæsar and to God.Next of the Sadducees, Respecting Marriage in the Resurrection. These Prove Him Not to BeMarcion’s But the Creator’s Christ. Marcion’s Tamperings in Order to Make Room for HisSecond God, Exposed and Confuted.
705Christ knew “the baptism of John, whence it was.”
4981 Then why did He ask them, as if He knewnot? He knew that the Pharisees would not give Him an answer; then why did He ask in vain? Wasit that He might judge them out of their own mouth, or their own heart? Suppose you refer thesepoints to an excuse of the Creator, or to His comparison with Christ; then consider what wouldhave happened if the Pharisees had replied to His question. Suppose their answer to have been,that John’s baptism was “of men,” they would have been immediately stoned to death.
4985 But John’s baptism was “from heaven.” “Why, therefore,” asks Christ, “didye not believe him?”
4986 He therefore who had wished men to believe John, purposing to censure
4987them because they had not believed him, belonged to Him whose sacrament John was administering.But, at any rate,
Chapter XXXIX.—Concerning Those Who Come in the Name of Christ. The Terrible Signs ofHis Coming. He Whose Coming is So Grandly Described Both in the Old Testament and theNew Testament, is None Other Than the Christ of the Creator. This Proof Enhanced by theParable of the Fig-Tree and All the Trees. Parallel Passages of Prophecy.As touching the propriety of His names, it has already been seen
Chapter XL.—How the Steps in the Passion of the Saviour Were Predetermined in Prophecy. ThePassover. The Treachery of Judas. The Institution of the Lord’s Supper. The Docetic Error ofMarcion Confuted by the Body and the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.In like manner does He also know the very time it behoved Him to suffer, since the law prefiguresHis passion. Accordingly, of all the festal days of the Jews He chose the passover.
5080 and appropriated to thepurchase of a potter’s field, as narrated in the Gospel of Matthew, were clearly foretold byJeremiah:
Chapter XLI.—The Woe Pronounced on the Traitor a Judicial Act, Which Disproves Christ to BeSuch as Marcion Would Have Him to Be. Christ’s Conduct Before the Council Explained.Christ Even Then Directs the Minds of His Judges to the Prophetic Evidences of His OwnMission. The Moral Responsibility of These Men Asserted.
Chapter XLII.—Other Incidents of the Passion Minutely Compared with Prophecy. Pilate andHerod. Barabbas Preferred to Jesus. Details of the Crucifixion. The Earthquake and the Mid-DayDarkness. All Wonderfully Foretold in the Scriptures of the Creator. Christ’s Giving Up theGhost No Evidence of Marcion’s Docetic Opinions. In His Sepulture There is a RefutationThereof.For when He was brought before Pilate, they proceeded to urge Him with the serious charge
5157 so the spirit breathed its own self out,and departed as it did so), no doubt the phantom departed, when the spirit which was the phantompoints of agreement between this wonderful Psalm and St. Luke’s history of the crucifixion (not expunged, as it would seem,by the heretic), that they quite compensate for the loss of this passage about the garments (Oehler).
Chapter XLIII.—Conclusions. Jesus as the Christ of the Creator Proved from the Events of the Last
Chapter of St. Luke. The Pious Women at the Sepulchre. The Angels at the Resurrection. TheManifold Appearances of Christ After the Resurrection. His Mission of the Apostles AmongstAll Nations. All Shown to Be in Accordance with the Wisdom of the Almighty Father, asIndicated in Prophecy. The Body of Christ After Death No Mere Phantom. Marcion’sManipulation of the Gospel on This Point.It was very meet that the man who buried the Lord should thus be noticed in prophecy, andthenceforth be “blessed;”
5189 Marcion,I pity you; your labour has been in vain. For the Jesus Christ who appears in your Gospel is mine.
425nothing but various readings; but others, again, are undoubtedly designed perversions. There were,however, passages enough left unaltered and unexpunged by the Marcionites, to establish the realityof the flesh and blood of Christ, and to prove that the God of the Jews was the Father of Christ,and of perfect goodness as well as justice. Tertullian, indeed, observes (chap. xliii.) that “Marcionpurposely avoided erasing all the passages which made against him, that he might with the greaterconfidence deny having erased any at all, or at least that what he had omitted was for very goodreasons.”6. To show the unauthorized and unwarrantable character of these alterations, omissions,additions, and corruptions, the Catholic Christians asserted that their copies of St. Luke’s Gospelwere more ancient than Marcion’s (so Tertullian in chap. iii. and iv. of this Book iv.); and theymaintained also the genuineness and integrity of the unadulterated Gospel, in opposition to thatwhich had been curtailed and altered by him (chap. v.).Elucidations.————————————I.(Deadly Sins, cap. ix., p.
356.To maintain a modern and wholly uncatholic system of Penitence, the schoolmen invented atechnical scheme of sins mortal and sins venial, which must not be read into the Fathers, who hadno such technicalities in mind. By “deadly sins” they meant all such as St. John recognizes (1 Johnv. 16–17) and none other; that is to say sins of surprise and infirmity, sins having in them no maliceor wilful disobedience, such as an impatient word, or a momentary neglect of duty. Should a dyingman commit a deliberate sin and then expire, even after a life of love and obedience, who couldfail to recognize the fearful nature of such an end? But, should his last word be one of infirmityand weakness, censurable but not involving wilful disobedience, surely we may consider it as
Book V.Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul’s epistles, what he had provedin 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 thereforetestified 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 profoundreasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture.————————————
Chapter I.—Introductory. The Apostle Paul Himself Not the Preacher of a New God. Called byJesus Christ, Although After the Other Apostles, His Mission Was from the Creator. StatesHow. The Argument, as in the Case of the Gospel, Confining Proofs to Such Portions of St.Paul’s Writings as Marcion Allowed.T HERE is nothing without a beginning but God alone. Now, inasmuch as the beginning occupiesthe first place in the condition of all things, so it must necessarily take precedence in the treatmentof them, if a clear knowledge is to be arrived at concerning their condition; for you could not findthe means of examining even the quality of anything, unless you were certain of its existence, andthat after discovering its origin.
5194 We have already more than once referred to Marcion’s preference for St. Paul. “The reason of the preference thus givento that apostle was his constant and strenuous opposition to the Judaizing Christians, who wished to reimpose the yoke of theJewish ceremonies on the necks of their brethren. This opposition the Marcionites wished to construe into a direct denial of theauthority of the Mosaic law. They contended also from St. Paul’s assertion, that he received his appointment to the apostolicoffice not from man, but from Christ, that he alone delivered the genuine doctrines of the gospel. This deference for St. Paulaccounts also for Marcion’s accepting St. Luke’s Gospel as the only authentic one, as we saw in the last book of this treatise; itwas because that evangelist had been the companion of St. Paul” (Bp. Kaye, On the Writings of Tertullian, 3d edition, pp.
5222 Although St. Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles, Marcion does not seem to have admitted this book into his NewTestament. “It is clearly excluded from his catalogue, as given by Epiphanius. The same thing appears from the more ancientauthority of Tertullian, who begins his Book v. against Marcion with showing the absurdity of his conduct in rejecting the historyand acts of the apostles, and yet receiving St. Paul as the chief of the apostles, whose name is never mentioned in the Gospelwith the other apostles, especially since the account given by Paul himself in Gal. i.–ii. confirms the account which we have inthe Acts. But the reason why he rejected this book is (as Tertullian says) very evident, since from it we can plainly show thatthe God of the Christians and the God of the Jews, or the Creator, was the same being and that Christ was sent by Him, and byno other” (Lardner’s Works, Hist. of Heretics, chap. x. sec. 41).
Chapter II.—On the Epistle to the Galatians. The Abolition of the Ordinances of the Mosaic LawNo Proof of Another God. The Divine Lawgiver, the Creator Himself, Was the Abrogator. TheApostle’s Doctrine in the First
Chapter Shown to Accord with the Teaching of the Old Testament.The Acts of the Apostles Shown to Be Genuine Against Marcion. This Book Agrees with thePauline Epistles.The epistle which we also allow to be the most decisive
5238 to be superseded by a new course of things which should arise, whilst Christ marks theperiod of the separation when He says, “The law and the prophets were until John”
5239 —thus makingthe Baptist the limit between the two dispensations of the old things then terminating—and the newthings then beginning, the apostle cannot of course do otherwise, (coming as he does) in Christ,who was revealed after John, than invalidate “the old things” and confirm “the new,” and yetpromote thereby the faith of no other god than the Creator, at whose instance
5253We have here an instance of the high authority of the Septuagint version. It comes from the Seventy: Καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνοματιαὐτοῦ ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσιν (Isa. xlii. 4.) From this Tertullian, as usual, quoted it. But what is much more important, St. Matthew hasadopted it; see chap. xii, ver. 21. This beautiful promise of the Creator does not occur in its well-known form in the Hebreworiginal.
Chapter III.—St. Paul Quite in Accordance with St. Peter and Other Apostles of the Circumcision.His Censure of St. Peter Explained, and Rescued from Marcion’s Misapplication. The StrongProtests of This Epistle Against Judaizers. Yet Its Teaching is Shown to Be in Keeping withthe Law and the Prophets. Marcion’s Tampering with St. Paul’s Writings Censured.
742a new god. Rightly, then, did Peter and James and John give their right hand of fellowship to Paul,and agree on such a division of their work, as that Paul should go to the heathen, and themselvesto the circumcision.
5298 The law, indeed, had to be overthrown, from the moment when John “cried in thewilderness, Prepare ye the ways of the Lord,” that valleys
Chapter IV.—Another Instance of Marcion’s Tampering with St. Paul’s Text. The Fulness of Time,Announced by the Apostle, Foretold by the Prophets. Mosaic Rites Abrogated by the CreatorHimself. Marcion’s Tricks About Abraham’s Name. The Creator, by His Christ, the Fountainof the Grace and the Liberty Which St. Paul Announced. Marcion’s Docetism Refuted.“But,” says he, “I speak after the manner of men: when we were children, we were placed inbondage under the elements of the world.”
Chapter V.—The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The Pauline Salutation of Grace and Peace Shownto Be Anti-Marcionite. The Cross of Christ Purposed by the Creator. Marcion Only Perpetuatesthe Offence and Foolishness of Christ’s Cross by His Impious Severance of the Gospel fromthe Creator. Analogies Between the Law and the Gospel in the Matter of Weak Things, andFoolish Things and Base Things.My preliminary remarks
5415 “Etiam Marcion servat.” These words cannot mean, as they have been translated, that “Marcion even retains these words”of prophecy; for whenever Marcion fell in with any traces of this prophecy of Christ, he seems to have expunged them. In Lukeii. 34 holy Simeon referred to it, but Marcion rejected this chapter of the evangelist; and although he admitted much of chap.xx., it is remarkable that he erased the ten verses thereof from the end of the eighth to the end of the eighteenth. Now in vers.17, 18, Marcion found the prophecy again referred to. See Epiphanius, Adv. Hæres. xlii. Schol. 55.
Chapter VI.—The Divine Way of Wisdom, and Greatness, and Might. God’s Hiding of Himself,and Subsequent Revelation. To Marcion’s God Such a Concealment and ManifestationImpossible. God’s Predestination. No Such Prior System of Intention Possible to a GodPreviously Unknown as Was Marcion’s. The Powers of the World Which Crucified Christ. St.Paul, as a Wise Master-Builder, Associated with Prophecy. Sundry Injunctions of the ApostleParallel with the Teaching of the Old Testament.By all these statements, therefore, does he show us what God he means, when he says, “Wespeak the wisdom of God among them that are perfect.”
Chapter VII.—St. Paul’s Phraseology Often Suggested by the Jewish Scriptures. Christ OurPassover—A Phrase Which Introduces Us to the Very Heart of the Ancient Dispensation.Christ’s True Corporeity. Married and Unmarried States. Meaning of the Time is Short. In HisExhortations and Doctrine, the Apostle Wholly Teaches According to the Mind and Purposesof the God of the Old Testament. Prohibition of Meats and Drinks Withdrawn by the Creator.“And the hidden things of darkness He will Himself bring to light,”
Chapter VIII.—Man the Image of the Creator, and Christ the Head of the Man. Spiritual Gifts.The Sevenfold Spirit Described by Isaiah. The Apostle and the Prophet Compared. MarcionChallenged to Produce Anything Like These Gifts of the Spirit Foretold in Prophecy in HisGod.“The head of every man is Christ.”
5547 that so it might prove true that “the law and the prophets were untilJohn.”
Chapter IX.—The Doctrine of the Resurrection. The Body Will Rise Again. Christ’s JudicialCharacter. Jewish Perversions of Prophecy Exposed and Confuted. Messianic Psalms Vindicated.Jewish and Rationalistic Interpretations on This Point Similar. Jesus—Not Hezekiah orSolomon—The Subject of These Prophecies in the Psalms. None But He is the Christ of theOld and the New Testaments.Meanwhile the Marcionite will exhibit nothing of this kind; he is by this time afraid to saywhich side has the better right to a Christ who is not yet revealed. Just as my Christ is to beexpected,
Chapter X.—Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body, Continued. How are the Dead Raised? andwith What Body Do They Come? These Questions Answered in Such a Sense as to Maintainthe Truth of the Raised Body, Against Marcion. Christ as the Second Adam Connected withthe Creator of the First Man. Let Us Bear the Image of the Heavenly. The Triumph Over Deathin Accordance with the Prophets. Hosea and St. Paul Compared.Let us now return to the resurrection, to the defence of which against heretics of all sorts wehave given indeed sufficient attention in another work of ours.
Chapter XI.—The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. The Creator the Father of Mercies. Shown toBe Such in the Old Testament, and Also in Christ. The Newness of the New Testament. TheVeil of Obdurate Blindness Upon Israel, Not Reprehensible on Marcion’s Principles. The JewsGuilty in Rejecting the Christ of the Creator. Satan, the God of This World. The Treasure inEarthen Vessels Explained Against Marcion. The Creator’s Relation to These Vessels, I.e. OurBodies.If, owing to the fault of human error, the word God has become a common name (since in theworld there are said and believed to be “gods many”
Chapter XII.—The Eternal Home in Heaven. Beautiful Exposition by Tertullian of the Apostle’sConsolatory Teaching Against the Fear of Death, So Apt to Arise Under Anti-ChristianOppression. The Judgment-Seat of Christ—The Idea, Anti-Marcionite. Paradise. JudicialCharacteristics of Christ Which are Inconsistent with the Heretical Views About Him; TheApostle’s Sharpness, or Severity, Shows Him to Be a Fit Preacher of the Creator’s Christ.As to the house of this our earthly dwelling-place, when he says that “we have an eternal homein heaven, not made with hands,”
Chapter XIII.—The Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul Cannot Help Using Phrases Which Bespeakthe Justice of God, Even When He is Eulogizing the Mercies of the Gospel. Marcion ParticularlyHard in Mutilation of This Epistle. Yet Our Author Argues on Common Ground. The Judgmentat Last Will Be in Accordance with the Gospel. The Justified by Faith Exhorted to Have Peacewith God. The Administration of the Old and the New Dispensations in One and the SameHand.
Chapter XIV.—The Divine Power Shown in Christ’s Incarnation. Meaning of St. Paul’s Phrase.Likeness of Sinful Flesh. No Docetism in It. Resurrection of Our Real Bodies. A Wide ChasmMade in the Epistle by Marcion’s Erasure. When the Jews are Upbraided by the Apostle forTheir Misconduct to God; Inasmuch as that God Was the Creator, a Proof is in Fact Given thatSt. Paul’s God Was the Creator. The Precepts at the End of the Epistle, Which Marcion Allowed,Shown to Be in Exact Accordance with the Creator’s Scriptures.If the Father “sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,”
Chapter XV.—The First Epistle to the Thessalonians. The Shorter Epistles Pungent in Sense andVery Valuable. St. Paul Upbraids the Jews for the Death First of Their Prophets and Then ofChrist. This a Presumption that Both Christ and the Prophets Pertained to the Same God. TheLaw of Nature, Which is in Fact the Creator’s Discipline, and the Gospel of Christ Both EnjoinChastity. The Resurrection Provided for in the Old Testament by Christ. Man’s CompoundNature.I shall not be sorry to bestow attention on the shorter epistles also. Even in brief works thereis much pungency.
5889 For although he rejected St. Matthew’s Gospel, which contains the statement, he retained St. Paul’s epistle, from whichthe statement is clearly proved.
Chapter XVI.—The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. An Absurd Erasure of Marcion; Its ObjectTransparent. The Final Judgment on the Heathen as Well as the Jews Could Not Be Administeredby Marcion’s Christ. The Man of Sin—What? Inconsistency of Marcion’s View. The Antichrist.The Great Events of the Last Apostasy Within the Providence and Intention of the Creator,Whose are All Things from the Beginning. Similarity of the Pauline Precepts with Those of theCreator.We are obliged from time to time to recur to certain topics in order to affirm truths which areconnected with them. We repeat then here, that as the Lord is by the apostle proclaimed
5930and especially by the Apostle John, who says that “already many false prophets are gone out into
Chapter XVII.—The Epistle to the Laodiceans. The Proper Designation is to the Ephesians.Recapitulation of All Things in Christ from the Beginning of the Creation. No Room forMarcion’s Christ Here. Numerous Parallels Between This Epistle and Passages in the OldTestament. The Prince of the Power of the Air, and the God of This World—Who? Creationand Regeneration the Work of One God. How Christ Has Made the Law Obsolete. A VainErasure of Marcion’s. The Apostles as Well as the Prophets from the Creator.
Chapter XVIII.—Another Foolish Erasure of Marcion’s Exposed. Certain Figurative Expressionsof the Apostle, Suggested by the Language of the Old Testament. Collation of Many Passagesof This Epistle, with Precepts and Statements in the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Prophets.All Alike Teach Us the Will and Purpose of the Creator.
Chapter XIX.—The Epistle to the Colossians. Time the Criterion of Truth and Heresy. Applicationof the Canon. The Image of the Invisible God Explained. Pre-Existence of Our Christ in theCreator’s Ancient Dispensations. What is Included in the Fulness of Christ. The EpicureanCharacter of Marcion’s God. The Catholic Truth in Opposition Thereto. The Law is to ChristWhat the Shadow is to the Substance.
Chapter XX.—The Epistle to the Philippians. The Variances Amongst the Preachers of Christ NoArgument that There Was More Than One Only Christ. St. Paul’s Phrases—Form of a Servant,Likeness, and Fashion of a Man—No Sanction of Docetism. No Antithesis (Such as MarcionAlleged) in the God of Judaism and the God of the Gospel Deducible from Certain ContrastsMentioned in This Epistle. A Parallel with a Passage in Genesis. The Resurrection of the Body,and the Change Thereof.
Chapter XXI.—The Epistle to Philemon. This Epistle Not Mutilated. Marcion’s Inconsistency inAccepting This, and Rejecting Three Other Epistles Addressed to Individuals. Conclusions.Tertullian Vindicates the Symmetry and Deliberate Purpose of His Work Against Marcion.To this epistle alone did its brevity avail to protect it against the falsifying hands of Marcion.I wonder, however, when he received (into his Apostolicon) this letter which was written but toone man, that he rejected the two epistles to Timothy and the one to Titus, which all treat ofecclesiastical discipline. His aim, was, I suppose, to carry out his interpolating process even to the
Chapter I.—The Opinions of Hermogenes, by the Prescriptive Rule of Antiquity Shown to BeHeretical. Not Derived from Christianity, But from Heathen Philosophy. Some of the TenetsMentioned.W E are accustomed, for the purpose of shortening argument,
Mark, Matthew, Luke and John - and John the Baptist:
Chapter, that Jesus, Who Preached at Nazareth, andWas Acknowledged by Certain Demons as Christ the Son of God, Was the Creator’s Christ.As Occasion Offers, the Docetic Errors of Marcion are Exposed.
Chapter IX.—Out of St. Luke’s Fifth
Chapter are Found Proofs of Christ’s Belonging to the Creator,E.g. In the Call of Fishermen to the Apostolic Office, and in the Cleansing of the Leper. ChristCompared with the Prophet Elisha.Out of so many kinds of occupations, why indeed had He such respect for that of fishermen,as to select from it for apostles Simon and the sons of Zebedee (for it cannot seem to be the merefact itself for which the narrative was meant to be drawn out
Chapter X.—Further Proofs of the Same Truth in the Same
Chapter, from the Healing of theParalytic, and from the Designation Son of Man Which Jesus Gives Himself. Tertullian SustainsHis Argument by Several Quotations from the Prophets.The sick of the palsy is healed,
3759 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.
Chapter XI.—The Call of Levi the Publican. Christ in Relation to the Baptist. Christ as theBridegroom. The Parable of the Old Wine and the New. Arguments Connecting Christ withthe Creator.
3816 having to himself both a creator and preserver,and a specially good physician, in his Christ. This much the comparison predetermines, that aphysician is more usually furnished by him to whom the sick people belong. Whence, too, doesJohn come upon the scene? Christ, suddenly; and just as suddenly, John!
3818 in the Creator’sdispensation. Of John, however, what else I have to say will be found in another passage.
602disciples of Christ, as they ate and drank, to a comparison with the disciples of John, who wereconstantly fasting and praying; because, if there existed any diversity
3822 between Christ and John,and their followers respectively, no exact comparison would be possible, nor would there be asingle point where it could be challenged. For nobody would feel surprise, and nobody would beperplexed, although there should arise rival predictions of a diverse deity, which should also mutuallydiffer about modes of conduct,
3824 upon whichthey were based. Therefore Christ belonged to John, and John to Christ; while both belonged tothe Creator, and both were of the law and the prophets, preachers and masters. Else Christ wouldhave rejected the discipline of John, as of the rival god, and would also have defended the disciples,as very properly pursuing a different walk, because consecrated to the service of another and contrarydeity. But as it is, while modestly
3826 He neither defended thedisciples, (but rather excused them, as if they had not been blamed without some reason), norrejected the discipline of John, but rather allowed
3827 it, referring it to the time of John, althoughdestining it for His own time. Otherwise His purpose would have been to reject it,
3822 Marcion’s diversitas implied an utter incompatibility between John and Christ; for it assigned John to the Creator, fromwhom it took Christ away.
Chapter XII.—Christ’s Authority Over the Sabbath. As Its Lord He Recalled It from PharisaicNeglect to the Original Purpose of Its Institution by the Creator the Case of the Disciples WhoPlucked the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath. The Withered Hand Healed on the Sabbath.Concerning the Sabbath also I have this to premise, that this question could not have arisen, ifChrist did not publicly proclaim
3859annulled the Sabbath, by the Creator’s command—according to the opinion of those who think thisof Christ in this passage of St. Luke, in their ignorance that neither Christ nor the Creator violatedthe Sabbath, as we shall by and by show. And yet the Sabbath was actually then broken
Chapter XIII.—Christ’s Connection with the Creator Shown. Many Quotations Out of the OldTestament Prophetically Bear on Certain Events of the Life of Jesus—Such as His Ascent toPraying on the Mountain; His Selection of Twelve Apostles; His Changing Simon’s Name toPeter, and Gentiles from Tyre and Sidon Resorting to Him.Surely to Sion He brings good tidings, and to Jerusalem peace and all blessings; He goes upinto a mountain, and there spends a night in prayer,
Chapter XIV.—Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. In Manner and Contents It So Resembles theCreator’s Dispensational Words and Deeds. It Suggests Therefore the Conclusion that Jesus isthe Creator’s Christ. The Beatitudes.I now come to those ordinary precepts of His, by means of which He adapts the peculiarity
Chapter XV.—Sermon on the Mount Continued. Its Woes in Strict Agreement with the Creator’sDisposition. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament in Proof of This.“In the like manner,” says He,
Chapter XVI.—The Precept of Loving One’s Enemies. It is as Much Taught in the Creator’sScriptures of the Old Testament as in Christ’s Sermon. The Lex Talionis of Moses AdmirablyExplained in Consistency with the Kindness and Love Which Jesus Christ Came to Proclaimand Enforce in Behalf of the Creator. Sundry Precepts of Charity Explained.“But I say unto you which hear” (displaying here that old injunction, of the Creator: “Speak tothe ears of those who lend them to you”
Chapter XVII.—Concerning Loans. Prohibition of Usury and the Usurious Spirit. The LawPreparatory to the Gospel in Its Provisions; So in the Present Instance. On Reprisals. Christ’sTeaching Throughout Proves Him to Be Sent by the Creator.And now, on the subject of a loan, when He asks, “And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope toreceive, what thank have ye?”
Chapter XVIII.—Concerning the Centurion’s Faith. The Raising of the Widow’s Son. John Baptist,and His Message to Christ; And the Woman Who Was a Sinner. Proofs Extracted from All ofthe Relation of Christ to the Creator.Likewise, when extolling the centurion’s faith, how incredible a thing it is, that He shouldconfess that He had “found so great a faith not even in Israel,”
4154 had been through John preparing the ways of the Lord, should nowdepart from John,
4156Therefore John, being now an ordinary person, and only one of the many,
4158 Nobody will entertain doubts about any onewhom (since he knows him not to exist) he has no expectation or thought of. Now John was quitesure that there was no other God but the Creator, even as a Jew, especially as a prophet.
4161 whom he knew indeed to exist butknew not whether He were the very Christ. With this fear, therefore, even John asks the question,“Art thou He that should come, or look we for another?”
4165 And there lay John’s difficulty.
4166 He was in doubt whether He was actually comewhom all men were looking for; whom, moreover, they ought to have recognised by His predictedworks, even as the Lord sent word to John, that it was by means of these very works that He was
376we have proved in the examination of each of them—it was perverse enough, if he gave himselfout to be not the Christ of the Creator, and rested the proof of his statement on those very evidenceswhereby he was urging his claims to be received as the Creator’s Christ. Far greater still is hisperverseness when, not being the Christ of John,
4168 he yet bestows on John his testimony, affirminghim to be a prophet, nay more, his messenger,
4171adduced the prophecy in the superior sense of the alternative mentioned by the perplexed John, inorder that, by affirming that His own precursor was already come in the person of John, He mightquench the doubt
4175 as if the kingdom in which the leastperson was greater than John belonged to one God, while John, who was greater than all of womenborn, belonged himself to another God. For whether He speaks of any “least person” by reason ofhis humble position, or of Himself, as being thought to be less than John—since all were runninginto the wilderness after John rather than after Christ (“What went ye out into the wilderness to
4168 That is, not the Creator’s Christ—whose prophet John was—therefore a different Christ from Him whom John announced.This is said, of course, on the Marcionite hypothesis (Oehler).
4175 Comp. the Refutation of Epiphanius (Hæres. xlii. Refut. 8): “Whether with reference to John or to the Saviour, Hepronounces a blessing on such as should not be offended in Himself or in John. Nor should they devise for themselves whatsoeverthings they heard not from him. He also has a greater object in view, on account of which the Saviour said this; even that no oneshould think that John (who was pronounced to be greater than any born of women) was greater than the Saviour Himself,because even He was born of a woman. He guards against this mistake, and says, ‘Blessed is he who shall not be offended inme.’ He then adds, ‘He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.’ Now, in respect of His birth in the flesh, theSaviour was less than he by the space of six months. But in the kingdom He was greater, being even his God. For the Only-begottencame not to say aught in secret, or to utter a falsehood in His preaching, as He says Himself, ‘In secret have I said nothing, butin public,’ etc. (Κἄν τε πρὸς ᾽Ιωάννην ἔχοι…ἀλλὰ μετὰ παῤῥησίας).”— O EHLER .
4178 because he would not have been offended at Christ, an infirmitywhich then lessened the greatness of John. We have already spoken of the forgiveness
Chapter XIX.—The Rich Women of Piety Who Followed Jesus Christ’s Teaching by Parables.The Marcionite Cavil Derived from Christ’s Remark, When Told of His Mother and HisBrethren. Explanation of Christ’s Apparent Rejection Them.The fact that certain rich women clave to Christ, “which ministered unto Him of their substance,”amongst whom was the wife of the king’s steward, is a subject of prophecy. By Isaiah the Lordcalled these wealthy ladies—“Rise up, ye women that are at ease, and hear my voice”
Chapter XX.—Comparison of Christ’s Power Over Winds and Waves with Moses’ Command ofthe Waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Christ’s Power Over Unclean Spirits. The Case ofthe Legion. The Cure of the Issue of Blood. The Mosaic Uncleanness on This Point Explained.But “what manner of man is this? for He commandeth even the winds and water!”
Chapter XXI.—Christ’s Connection with the Creator Shown from Several Incidents in the OldTestament, Compared with St. Luke’s Narrative of the Mission of the Disciples. The Feedingof the Multitude. The Confession of St. Peter. Being Ashamed of Christ. This Shame is OnlyPossible of the True Christ. Marcionite Pretensions Absurd.He sends forth His disciples to preach the kingdom of God.
4262by Christ, was clearly attested by the opinion of all men, because some maintained to Herod thatJesus was the Christ; others, that He was John; some, that He was Elias; and others, that He wasone of the old prophets.
Chapter XXII.—The Same Conclusion Supported by the Transfiguration. Marcion Inconsistent inAssociating with Christ in Glory Two Such Eminent Servants of the Creator as Moses andElijah. St. Peter’s Ignorance Accounted for on Montanist Principle.
Chapter XXIII.—Impossible that Marcion’s Christ Should Reprove the Faithless Generation. SuchLoving Consideration for Infants as the True Christ Was Apt to Shew, Also Impossible for theOther. On the Three Different Characters Confronted and Instructed by Christ in Samaria.I take on myself the character
Chapter XXIV.—On the Mission of the Seventy Disciples, and Christ’s Charge to Them. PrecedentsDrawn from the Old Testament. Absurdity of Supposing that Marcion’s Christ Could HaveGiven the Power of Treading on Serpents and Scorpions.He chose also seventy other missionaries
Chapter XXV.—Christ Thanks the Father for Revealing to Babes What He Had Concealed fromthe Wise. This Concealment Judiciously Effected by the Creator. Other Points in St. Luke’sChap. X. Shown to Be Only Possible to the Creator’s Christ.Who shall be invoked as the Lord of heaven, that does not first show Himself
Chapter XXVI.—From St. Luke’s Eleventh
Chapter Other Evidence that Christ Comes from theCreator. The Lord’s Prayer and Other Words of Christ. The Dumb Spirit and Christ’s Discourseon Occasion of the Expulsion. The Exclamation of the Woman in the Crowd.When in a certain place he had been praying to that Father above,
4529 at Jerusalem—one of his disciples came to him and said, “Master, teach usto pray, as John also taught his disciples.” This he said, forsooth, because he thought that differentprayers were required for different gods! Now, he who had advanced such a conjecture as thisshould first show that another god had been proclaimed by Christ. For nobody would have wantedto know how to pray, before he had learned whom he was to pray to. If, however, he had alreadylearned this, prove it. If you find nowhere any proof, let me tell you
392that he asked for instruction in prayer, to whom John’s disciples also used to pray. But, inasmuchas John had introduced some new order of prayer, this disciple had not improperly presumed tothink that he ought also to ask of Christ whether they too must not (according to some special ruleof their Master) pray, not indeed to another god, but in another manner. Christ accordingly
Chapter XXVII.—Christ’s Reprehension of the Pharisees Seeking a Sign. His Censure of TheirLove of Outward Show Rather Than Inward Holiness. Scripture Abounds with Admonitionsof a Similar Purport. Proofs of His Mission from the Creator.
Chapter XXVIII.—Examples from the Old Testament, Balaam, Moses, and Hezekiah, to ShowHow Completely the Instruction and Conduct of Christ
Chapter XXIX.—Parallels from the Prophets to Illustrate Christ’s Teaching in the Rest of This
Chapter of St. Luke. The Sterner Attributes of Christ, in His Judicial Capacity, Show Him toHave Come from the Creator. Incidental Rebukes of Marcion’s Doctrine of Celibacy, and ofHis Altering of the Text of the Gospel.Who would be unwilling that we should distress ourselves
Chapter XXX.—Parables of the Mustard-Seed, and of the Leaven. Transition to the SolemnExclusion Which Will Ensue When the Master of the House Has Shut the Door. This JudicialExclusion Will Be Administered by Christ, Who is Shown Thereby to Possess the Attribute ofthe Creator.When the question was again raised concerning a cure performed on the Sabbath-day, how didHe discuss it: “Doth not each of you on the Sabbath loose his ass or his ox from the stall, and leadhim away to watering?”
Chapter XXXI.—Christ’s Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of theGreat Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator’s Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. TheRejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old Testament. Marcion’s Christ
Chapter XXXII.—A Sort of Sorites, as the Logicians Call It, to Show that the Parables of the LostSheep and the Lost Drachma Have No Suitable Application to the Christ of Marcion.Who sought after the lost sheep and the lost piece of silver?
Chapter XXXIII.—The Marcionite Interpretation of God and Mammon Refuted. The ProphetsJustify Christ’s Admonition Against Covetousness and Pride. John Baptist the Link Betweenthe Old and the New Dispensations of the Creator. So Said Christ—But So Also Had IsaiahSaid Long Before. One Only God, the Creator, by His Own Will Changed the Dispensations.No New God Had a Hand in the Change.What the two masters are who, He says, cannot be served,
4795 I can now make out why Marcion’s god was for so long anage concealed. He was, I suppose, waiting until he had learnt all these things from the Creator. Hecontinued his pupillage up to the time of John, and then proceeded forthwith to announce thekingdom of God, saying: “The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom
4796 Just as if we also did not recognise in John a certain limit placed betweenthe old dispensation and the new, at which Judaism ceased and Christianity began—without,however, supposing that it was by the power of another god that there came about a cessation
4798 than from the conceit that the law and the prophets endedin John, and a new state of things began after him. “More easily, therefore, may heaven and earthpass away—as also the law and the prophets—than that one tittle of the Lord’s words should fail.”
4801 of the Creator, who prophetically described John as “the voiceof one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord,”
4802 and as about to come for thepurpose of terminating thenceforth the course of the law and the prophets; by their fulfilment andnot their extinction, and in order that the kingdom of God might be announced by Christ, Hetherefore purposely added the assurance that the elements would more easily pass away than Hiswords fail; affirming, as He did, the further fact, that what He had said concerning John had notfallen to the ground.
Chapter XXXIV.—Moses, Allowing Divorce, and Christ Prohibiting It, Explained. John Baptistand Herod. Marcion’s Attempt to Discover an Antithesis in the Parable of the Rich Man andthe Poor Man in Hades Confuted. The Creator’s Appointment Manifested in Both States.
4807 St. Matthew’s Gospel.
4825 haseven in Christ a defender. So that Moses for the future must be considered as being confirmed byHim, since he prohibits divorce in the same sense as Christ does, if any unchastity should occur inthe wife. For in the Gospel of Matthew he says, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving forthe cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery.”
4831 by any suddenly devised proposal of divorce; becauseit was not suddenly proposed, but had its root in the previously mentioned John. For John reprovedHerod, because he had illegally married the wife of his deceased brother, who had a daughter byher (a union which the law permitted only on the one occasion of the brother dying childless,
4834 and was in consequence cast into prison, andfinally, by the same Herod, was even put to death. The Lord having therefore made mention ofJohn, and of course of the occurrence of his death, hurled His censure
4839 fits in with the mention of John wickedly slain, andof Herod, who had been condemned by him for his impious marriage.
4841 the end of both of them, the “torments” of Herod and the “comfort” of John, that evennow Herod might hear that warning: “They have there Moses and the prophets, let them hearthem.”
Chapter XXXV.—The Judicial Severity of Christ and the Tenderness of the Creator, Asserted inContradiction to Marcion. The Cure of the Ten Lepers. Old Testament Analogies. The Kingdomof God Within You; This Teaching Similar to that of Moses. Christ, the Stone Rejected by theBuilders. Indications of Severity in the Coming of Christ. Proofs that He is Not the ImpassibleBeing Marcion Imagined.Then, turning to His disciples, He says: “Woe unto him through whom offences come! It werebetter for him if he had not been born, or if a millstone were hanged about his neck and he werecast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones,”
4888 Jeroboam settled in Samaria. Besides, the Samaritans werealways pleased with the mountains and the wells of their ancestors. Thus, in the Gospel of John,the woman of Samaria, when conversing with the Lord at the well, says, “No doubt
Chapter XXXVI.—The Parables of the Importunate Widow, and of the Pharisee and the Publican.Christ’s Answer to the Rich Ruler, the Cure of the Blind Man. His Salutation—Son of David.All Proofs of Christ’s Relation to the Creator, Marcion’s Antithesis Between David and ChristConfuted.When He recommends perseverance and earnestness in prayer, He sets before us the parableof the judge who was compelled to listen to the widow, owing to the earnestness and importunityof her requests.
Chapter XXXVII.—Christ and Zacchæus. The Salvation of the Body as Denied by Marcion. TheParable of the Ten Servants Entrusted with Ten Pounds. Christ a Judge, Who is to Administerthe Will of the Austere Man, I.e. The Creator.
Chapter XXXVIII.—Christ’s Refutations of the Pharisees. Rendering Dues to Cæsar and to God.Next of the Sadducees, Respecting Marriage in the Resurrection. These Prove Him Not to BeMarcion’s But the Creator’s Christ. Marcion’s Tamperings in Order to Make Room for HisSecond God, Exposed and Confuted.
705Christ knew “the baptism of John, whence it was.”
4981 Then why did He ask them, as if He knewnot? He knew that the Pharisees would not give Him an answer; then why did He ask in vain? Wasit that He might judge them out of their own mouth, or their own heart? Suppose you refer thesepoints to an excuse of the Creator, or to His comparison with Christ; then consider what wouldhave happened if the Pharisees had replied to His question. Suppose their answer to have been,that John’s baptism was “of men,” they would have been immediately stoned to death.
4985 But John’s baptism was “from heaven.” “Why, therefore,” asks Christ, “didye not believe him?”
4986 He therefore who had wished men to believe John, purposing to censure
4987them because they had not believed him, belonged to Him whose sacrament John was administering.But, at any rate,
Chapter XXXIX.—Concerning Those Who Come in the Name of Christ. The Terrible Signs ofHis Coming. He Whose Coming is So Grandly Described Both in the Old Testament and theNew Testament, is None Other Than the Christ of the Creator. This Proof Enhanced by theParable of the Fig-Tree and All the Trees. Parallel Passages of Prophecy.As touching the propriety of His names, it has already been seen
Chapter XL.—How the Steps in the Passion of the Saviour Were Predetermined in Prophecy. ThePassover. The Treachery of Judas. The Institution of the Lord’s Supper. The Docetic Error ofMarcion Confuted by the Body and the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.In like manner does He also know the very time it behoved Him to suffer, since the law prefiguresHis passion. Accordingly, of all the festal days of the Jews He chose the passover.
5080 and appropriated to thepurchase of a potter’s field, as narrated in the Gospel of Matthew, were clearly foretold byJeremiah:
Chapter XLI.—The Woe Pronounced on the Traitor a Judicial Act, Which Disproves Christ to BeSuch as Marcion Would Have Him to Be. Christ’s Conduct Before the Council Explained.Christ Even Then Directs the Minds of His Judges to the Prophetic Evidences of His OwnMission. The Moral Responsibility of These Men Asserted.
Chapter XLII.—Other Incidents of the Passion Minutely Compared with Prophecy. Pilate andHerod. Barabbas Preferred to Jesus. Details of the Crucifixion. The Earthquake and the Mid-DayDarkness. All Wonderfully Foretold in the Scriptures of the Creator. Christ’s Giving Up theGhost No Evidence of Marcion’s Docetic Opinions. In His Sepulture There is a RefutationThereof.For when He was brought before Pilate, they proceeded to urge Him with the serious charge
5157 so the spirit breathed its own self out,and departed as it did so), no doubt the phantom departed, when the spirit which was the phantompoints of agreement between this wonderful Psalm and St. Luke’s history of the crucifixion (not expunged, as it would seem,by the heretic), that they quite compensate for the loss of this passage about the garments (Oehler).
Chapter XLIII.—Conclusions. Jesus as the Christ of the Creator Proved from the Events of the Last
Chapter of St. Luke. The Pious Women at the Sepulchre. The Angels at the Resurrection. TheManifold Appearances of Christ After the Resurrection. His Mission of the Apostles AmongstAll Nations. All Shown to Be in Accordance with the Wisdom of the Almighty Father, asIndicated in Prophecy. The Body of Christ After Death No Mere Phantom. Marcion’sManipulation of the Gospel on This Point.It was very meet that the man who buried the Lord should thus be noticed in prophecy, andthenceforth be “blessed;”
5189 Marcion,I pity you; your labour has been in vain. For the Jesus Christ who appears in your Gospel is mine.
425nothing but various readings; but others, again, are undoubtedly designed perversions. There were,however, passages enough left unaltered and unexpunged by the Marcionites, to establish the realityof the flesh and blood of Christ, and to prove that the God of the Jews was the Father of Christ,and of perfect goodness as well as justice. Tertullian, indeed, observes (chap. xliii.) that “Marcionpurposely avoided erasing all the passages which made against him, that he might with the greaterconfidence deny having erased any at all, or at least that what he had omitted was for very goodreasons.”6. To show the unauthorized and unwarrantable character of these alterations, omissions,additions, and corruptions, the Catholic Christians asserted that their copies of St. Luke’s Gospelwere more ancient than Marcion’s (so Tertullian in chap. iii. and iv. of this Book iv.); and theymaintained also the genuineness and integrity of the unadulterated Gospel, in opposition to thatwhich had been curtailed and altered by him (chap. v.).Elucidations.————————————I.(Deadly Sins, cap. ix., p.
356.To maintain a modern and wholly uncatholic system of Penitence, the schoolmen invented atechnical scheme of sins mortal and sins venial, which must not be read into the Fathers, who hadno such technicalities in mind. By “deadly sins” they meant all such as St. John recognizes (1 Johnv. 16–17) and none other; that is to say sins of surprise and infirmity, sins having in them no maliceor wilful disobedience, such as an impatient word, or a momentary neglect of duty. Should a dyingman commit a deliberate sin and then expire, even after a life of love and obedience, who couldfail to recognize the fearful nature of such an end? But, should his last word be one of infirmityand weakness, censurable but not involving wilful disobedience, surely we may consider it as
Book V.Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul’s epistles, what he had provedin 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 thereforetestified 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 profoundreasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture.————————————
Chapter I.—Introductory. The Apostle Paul Himself Not the Preacher of a New God. Called byJesus Christ, Although After the Other Apostles, His Mission Was from the Creator. StatesHow. The Argument, as in the Case of the Gospel, Confining Proofs to Such Portions of St.Paul’s Writings as Marcion Allowed.T HERE is nothing without a beginning but God alone. Now, inasmuch as the beginning occupiesthe first place in the condition of all things, so it must necessarily take precedence in the treatmentof them, if a clear knowledge is to be arrived at concerning their condition; for you could not findthe means of examining even the quality of anything, unless you were certain of its existence, andthat after discovering its origin.
5194 We have already more than once referred to Marcion’s preference for St. Paul. “The reason of the preference thus givento that apostle was his constant and strenuous opposition to the Judaizing Christians, who wished to reimpose the yoke of theJewish ceremonies on the necks of their brethren. This opposition the Marcionites wished to construe into a direct denial of theauthority of the Mosaic law. They contended also from St. Paul’s assertion, that he received his appointment to the apostolicoffice not from man, but from Christ, that he alone delivered the genuine doctrines of the gospel. This deference for St. Paulaccounts also for Marcion’s accepting St. Luke’s Gospel as the only authentic one, as we saw in the last book of this treatise; itwas because that evangelist had been the companion of St. Paul” (Bp. Kaye, On the Writings of Tertullian, 3d edition, pp.
5222 Although St. Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles, Marcion does not seem to have admitted this book into his NewTestament. “It is clearly excluded from his catalogue, as given by Epiphanius. The same thing appears from the more ancientauthority of Tertullian, who begins his Book v. against Marcion with showing the absurdity of his conduct in rejecting the historyand acts of the apostles, and yet receiving St. Paul as the chief of the apostles, whose name is never mentioned in the Gospelwith the other apostles, especially since the account given by Paul himself in Gal. i.–ii. confirms the account which we have inthe Acts. But the reason why he rejected this book is (as Tertullian says) very evident, since from it we can plainly show thatthe God of the Christians and the God of the Jews, or the Creator, was the same being and that Christ was sent by Him, and byno other” (Lardner’s Works, Hist. of Heretics, chap. x. sec. 41).
Chapter II.—On the Epistle to the Galatians. The Abolition of the Ordinances of the Mosaic LawNo Proof of Another God. The Divine Lawgiver, the Creator Himself, Was the Abrogator. TheApostle’s Doctrine in the First
Chapter Shown to Accord with the Teaching of the Old Testament.The Acts of the Apostles Shown to Be Genuine Against Marcion. This Book Agrees with thePauline Epistles.The epistle which we also allow to be the most decisive
5238 to be superseded by a new course of things which should arise, whilst Christ marks theperiod of the separation when He says, “The law and the prophets were until John”
5239 —thus makingthe Baptist the limit between the two dispensations of the old things then terminating—and the newthings then beginning, the apostle cannot of course do otherwise, (coming as he does) in Christ,who was revealed after John, than invalidate “the old things” and confirm “the new,” and yetpromote thereby the faith of no other god than the Creator, at whose instance
5253We have here an instance of the high authority of the Septuagint version. It comes from the Seventy: Καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνοματιαὐτοῦ ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσιν (Isa. xlii. 4.) From this Tertullian, as usual, quoted it. But what is much more important, St. Matthew hasadopted it; see chap. xii, ver. 21. This beautiful promise of the Creator does not occur in its well-known form in the Hebreworiginal.
Chapter III.—St. Paul Quite in Accordance with St. Peter and Other Apostles of the Circumcision.His Censure of St. Peter Explained, and Rescued from Marcion’s Misapplication. The StrongProtests of This Epistle Against Judaizers. Yet Its Teaching is Shown to Be in Keeping withthe Law and the Prophets. Marcion’s Tampering with St. Paul’s Writings Censured.
742a new god. Rightly, then, did Peter and James and John give their right hand of fellowship to Paul,and agree on such a division of their work, as that Paul should go to the heathen, and themselvesto the circumcision.
5298 The law, indeed, had to be overthrown, from the moment when John “cried in thewilderness, Prepare ye the ways of the Lord,” that valleys
Chapter IV.—Another Instance of Marcion’s Tampering with St. Paul’s Text. The Fulness of Time,Announced by the Apostle, Foretold by the Prophets. Mosaic Rites Abrogated by the CreatorHimself. Marcion’s Tricks About Abraham’s Name. The Creator, by His Christ, the Fountainof the Grace and the Liberty Which St. Paul Announced. Marcion’s Docetism Refuted.“But,” says he, “I speak after the manner of men: when we were children, we were placed inbondage under the elements of the world.”
Chapter V.—The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The Pauline Salutation of Grace and Peace Shownto Be Anti-Marcionite. The Cross of Christ Purposed by the Creator. Marcion Only Perpetuatesthe Offence and Foolishness of Christ’s Cross by His Impious Severance of the Gospel fromthe Creator. Analogies Between the Law and the Gospel in the Matter of Weak Things, andFoolish Things and Base Things.My preliminary remarks
5415 “Etiam Marcion servat.” These words cannot mean, as they have been translated, that “Marcion even retains these words”of prophecy; for whenever Marcion fell in with any traces of this prophecy of Christ, he seems to have expunged them. In Lukeii. 34 holy Simeon referred to it, but Marcion rejected this chapter of the evangelist; and although he admitted much of chap.xx., it is remarkable that he erased the ten verses thereof from the end of the eighth to the end of the eighteenth. Now in vers.17, 18, Marcion found the prophecy again referred to. See Epiphanius, Adv. Hæres. xlii. Schol. 55.
Chapter VI.—The Divine Way of Wisdom, and Greatness, and Might. God’s Hiding of Himself,and Subsequent Revelation. To Marcion’s God Such a Concealment and ManifestationImpossible. God’s Predestination. No Such Prior System of Intention Possible to a GodPreviously Unknown as Was Marcion’s. The Powers of the World Which Crucified Christ. St.Paul, as a Wise Master-Builder, Associated with Prophecy. Sundry Injunctions of the ApostleParallel with the Teaching of the Old Testament.By all these statements, therefore, does he show us what God he means, when he says, “Wespeak the wisdom of God among them that are perfect.”
Chapter VII.—St. Paul’s Phraseology Often Suggested by the Jewish Scriptures. Christ OurPassover—A Phrase Which Introduces Us to the Very Heart of the Ancient Dispensation.Christ’s True Corporeity. Married and Unmarried States. Meaning of the Time is Short. In HisExhortations and Doctrine, the Apostle Wholly Teaches According to the Mind and Purposesof the God of the Old Testament. Prohibition of Meats and Drinks Withdrawn by the Creator.“And the hidden things of darkness He will Himself bring to light,”
Chapter VIII.—Man the Image of the Creator, and Christ the Head of the Man. Spiritual Gifts.The Sevenfold Spirit Described by Isaiah. The Apostle and the Prophet Compared. MarcionChallenged to Produce Anything Like These Gifts of the Spirit Foretold in Prophecy in HisGod.“The head of every man is Christ.”
5547 that so it might prove true that “the law and the prophets were untilJohn.”
Chapter IX.—The Doctrine of the Resurrection. The Body Will Rise Again. Christ’s JudicialCharacter. Jewish Perversions of Prophecy Exposed and Confuted. Messianic Psalms Vindicated.Jewish and Rationalistic Interpretations on This Point Similar. Jesus—Not Hezekiah orSolomon—The Subject of These Prophecies in the Psalms. None But He is the Christ of theOld and the New Testaments.Meanwhile the Marcionite will exhibit nothing of this kind; he is by this time afraid to saywhich side has the better right to a Christ who is not yet revealed. Just as my Christ is to beexpected,
Chapter X.—Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body, Continued. How are the Dead Raised? andwith What Body Do They Come? These Questions Answered in Such a Sense as to Maintainthe Truth of the Raised Body, Against Marcion. Christ as the Second Adam Connected withthe Creator of the First Man. Let Us Bear the Image of the Heavenly. The Triumph Over Deathin Accordance with the Prophets. Hosea and St. Paul Compared.Let us now return to the resurrection, to the defence of which against heretics of all sorts wehave given indeed sufficient attention in another work of ours.
Chapter XI.—The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. The Creator the Father of Mercies. Shown toBe Such in the Old Testament, and Also in Christ. The Newness of the New Testament. TheVeil of Obdurate Blindness Upon Israel, Not Reprehensible on Marcion’s Principles. The JewsGuilty in Rejecting the Christ of the Creator. Satan, the God of This World. The Treasure inEarthen Vessels Explained Against Marcion. The Creator’s Relation to These Vessels, I.e. OurBodies.If, owing to the fault of human error, the word God has become a common name (since in theworld there are said and believed to be “gods many”
Chapter XII.—The Eternal Home in Heaven. Beautiful Exposition by Tertullian of the Apostle’sConsolatory Teaching Against the Fear of Death, So Apt to Arise Under Anti-ChristianOppression. The Judgment-Seat of Christ—The Idea, Anti-Marcionite. Paradise. JudicialCharacteristics of Christ Which are Inconsistent with the Heretical Views About Him; TheApostle’s Sharpness, or Severity, Shows Him to Be a Fit Preacher of the Creator’s Christ.As to the house of this our earthly dwelling-place, when he says that “we have an eternal homein heaven, not made with hands,”
Chapter XIII.—The Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul Cannot Help Using Phrases Which Bespeakthe Justice of God, Even When He is Eulogizing the Mercies of the Gospel. Marcion ParticularlyHard in Mutilation of This Epistle. Yet Our Author Argues on Common Ground. The Judgmentat Last Will Be in Accordance with the Gospel. The Justified by Faith Exhorted to Have Peacewith God. The Administration of the Old and the New Dispensations in One and the SameHand.
Chapter XIV.—The Divine Power Shown in Christ’s Incarnation. Meaning of St. Paul’s Phrase.Likeness of Sinful Flesh. No Docetism in It. Resurrection of Our Real Bodies. A Wide ChasmMade in the Epistle by Marcion’s Erasure. When the Jews are Upbraided by the Apostle forTheir Misconduct to God; Inasmuch as that God Was the Creator, a Proof is in Fact Given thatSt. Paul’s God Was the Creator. The Precepts at the End of the Epistle, Which Marcion Allowed,Shown to Be in Exact Accordance with the Creator’s Scriptures.If the Father “sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,”
Chapter XV.—The First Epistle to the Thessalonians. The Shorter Epistles Pungent in Sense andVery Valuable. St. Paul Upbraids the Jews for the Death First of Their Prophets and Then ofChrist. This a Presumption that Both Christ and the Prophets Pertained to the Same God. TheLaw of Nature, Which is in Fact the Creator’s Discipline, and the Gospel of Christ Both EnjoinChastity. The Resurrection Provided for in the Old Testament by Christ. Man’s CompoundNature.I shall not be sorry to bestow attention on the shorter epistles also. Even in brief works thereis much pungency.
5889 For although he rejected St. Matthew’s Gospel, which contains the statement, he retained St. Paul’s epistle, from whichthe statement is clearly proved.
Chapter XVI.—The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. An Absurd Erasure of Marcion; Its ObjectTransparent. The Final Judgment on the Heathen as Well as the Jews Could Not Be Administeredby Marcion’s Christ. The Man of Sin—What? Inconsistency of Marcion’s View. The Antichrist.The Great Events of the Last Apostasy Within the Providence and Intention of the Creator,Whose are All Things from the Beginning. Similarity of the Pauline Precepts with Those of theCreator.We are obliged from time to time to recur to certain topics in order to affirm truths which areconnected with them. We repeat then here, that as the Lord is by the apostle proclaimed
5930and especially by the Apostle John, who says that “already many false prophets are gone out into
Chapter XVII.—The Epistle to the Laodiceans. The Proper Designation is to the Ephesians.Recapitulation of All Things in Christ from the Beginning of the Creation. No Room forMarcion’s Christ Here. Numerous Parallels Between This Epistle and Passages in the OldTestament. The Prince of the Power of the Air, and the God of This World—Who? Creationand Regeneration the Work of One God. How Christ Has Made the Law Obsolete. A VainErasure of Marcion’s. The Apostles as Well as the Prophets from the Creator.
Chapter XVIII.—Another Foolish Erasure of Marcion’s Exposed. Certain Figurative Expressionsof the Apostle, Suggested by the Language of the Old Testament. Collation of Many Passagesof This Epistle, with Precepts and Statements in the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Prophets.All Alike Teach Us the Will and Purpose of the Creator.
Chapter XIX.—The Epistle to the Colossians. Time the Criterion of Truth and Heresy. Applicationof the Canon. The Image of the Invisible God Explained. Pre-Existence of Our Christ in theCreator’s Ancient Dispensations. What is Included in the Fulness of Christ. The EpicureanCharacter of Marcion’s God. The Catholic Truth in Opposition Thereto. The Law is to ChristWhat the Shadow is to the Substance.
Chapter XX.—The Epistle to the Philippians. The Variances Amongst the Preachers of Christ NoArgument that There Was More Than One Only Christ. St. Paul’s Phrases—Form of a Servant,Likeness, and Fashion of a Man—No Sanction of Docetism. No Antithesis (Such as MarcionAlleged) in the God of Judaism and the God of the Gospel Deducible from Certain ContrastsMentioned in This Epistle. A Parallel with a Passage in Genesis. The Resurrection of the Body,and the Change Thereof.
Chapter XXI.—The Epistle to Philemon. This Epistle Not Mutilated. Marcion’s Inconsistency inAccepting This, and Rejecting Three Other Epistles Addressed to Individuals. Conclusions.Tertullian Vindicates the Symmetry and Deliberate Purpose of His Work Against Marcion.To this epistle alone did its brevity avail to protect it against the falsifying hands of Marcion.I wonder, however, when he received (into his Apostolicon) this letter which was written but toone man, that he rejected the two epistles to Timothy and the one to Titus, which all treat ofecclesiastical discipline. His aim, was, I suppose, to carry out his interpolating process even to the
Chapter I.—The Opinions of Hermogenes, by the Prescriptive Rule of Antiquity Shown to BeHeretical. Not Derived from Christianity, But from Heathen Philosophy. Some of the TenetsMentioned.W E are accustomed, for the purpose of shortening argument,
Last edited by mlinssen on Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:33 am, edited 3 times in total.
Re: Tertullian prefers John over all the others combined
I assume that GMark was mentioned least because its portrayal of Jesus is alien from how most Christians conceive of (and conceived of, for the proto-Orthodox) Jesus; Jesus is portrayed as actively trying to conceal salvific truth from people because he wants them to be damned (GMark 4:10-12), as not preaching to crowds in coherent ways which we can read (that is, not through parables), as unable to perform miracles (GMark 6:5), and as being regarded by his family as a lunatic (GMark 3:21).
Perhaps GMatthew was cited little because as a Judaizing reaction to GMark, it would not have been accepted by Marcionites as authoritative.
Re: Tertullian prefers John over all the others combined
First, I forgot to exclude John the Baptist - so now the number for John is 19, which still is more than Mark and Matthew combinedABuddhist wrote: ↑Mon Aug 22, 2022 2:17 pmI assume that GMark was mentioned least because its portrayal of Jesus is alien from how most Christians conceive of (and conceived of, for the proto-Orthodox) Jesus; Jesus is portrayed as actively trying to conceal salvific truth from people because he wants them to be damned (GMark 4:10-12), as not preaching to crowds in coherent ways which we can read (that is, not through parables), as unable to perform miracles (GMark 6:5), and as being regarded by his family as a lunatic (GMark 3:21).
Perhaps GMatthew was cited little because as a Judaizing reaction to GMark, it would not have been accepted by Marcionites as authoritative.
Yes, that is an awkward one indeed isn't it, clumsy Mark makes it appear as if Jesus is somehow purposely setting up the poor people.
Mark is encountered in this same minute quantity when we look at early extant MSS by the way - but those numbers / sample sets are so small that we shouldn't think much of that
Mark 4:10 is the judaising of logion 62 and Mark trips over his own feet: worse even, his allegation that the crowds don't understand but that the disciples do is refuted by his very own 4:34.
6:5 is created in order to demonstrate the truthfulness of 6:4, Matthew mitigates that with 13:57-58, and Mark is inspired by 31 here
Mark 3:20 Καὶ (And) ἔρχεται (He comes) εἰς (to) οἶκον (a house), καὶ (and) συνέρχεται (comes together) πάλιν (again) ὁ (a) ὄχλος (crowd), ὥστε (so that) μὴ (not) δύνασθαι (are they able) αὐτοὺς (them) μηδὲ (even) ἄρτον (bread) φαγεῖν (to eat).
21 καὶ (And) ἀκούσαντες (having heard of it), οἱ (those) παρ’ (belonging to) αὐτοῦ (Him) ἐξῆλθον (went out) κρατῆσαι (to seize) αὐτόν (Him); ἔλεγον (they were saying) γὰρ (for) ὅτι (-), “Ἐξέστη (He is out of His mind).”
21 καὶ (And) ἀκούσαντες (having heard of it), οἱ (those) παρ’ (belonging to) αὐτοῦ (Him) ἐξῆλθον (went out) κρατῆσαι (to seize) αὐτόν (Him); ἔλεγον (they were saying) γὰρ (for) ὅτι (-), “Ἐξέστη (He is out of His mind).”
Would this be the grounds for your assertion?
As you can see, there is no talk of who's doing this and "family" is a grand interpretation, as it is unclear who does the saying.
A lunatic? There is only one single word under all that weight, and that is the Ἐξέστη - "Out-is", from ἐξίστημι, to out-/displace: 3rd person singular present tense.
It is wordplay at something by Mark but it says just that
And yes, Mark isn't the poster child of Churchianity, Matthew is...
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Re: Tertullian prefers John over all the others combined
I realize the quoted matter was posted before the mystery of John more-or-less evaporated. I'd just like to put in a few (hundred) words for Mark.ABuddhist wrote: ↑Mon Aug 22, 2022 2:17 pmI assume that GMark was mentioned least because its portrayal of Jesus is alien from how most Christians conceive of (and conceived of, for the proto-Orthodox) Jesus; Jesus is portrayed as actively trying to conceal salvific truth from people because he wants them to be damned (GMark 4:10-12), as not preaching to crowds in coherent ways which we can read (that is, not through parables), as unable to perform miracles (GMark 6:5), and as being regarded by his family as a lunatic (GMark 3:21).
Perhaps GMatthew was cited little because as a Judaizing reaction to GMark, it would not have been accepted by Marcionites as authoritative.
"Jesus is portrayed as actively trying to conceal salvific truth from people because he wants them to be damned (GMark 4:10-12)" overstates what is on the page about Jesus's attitude toward the situation he comments upon IMO. Jesus is on a suicide mission, which makes sense only if he avoids being killed en route to his target.
He accepts, as described in the Jewish Bible passage he mentions, that not everybody who hears the safely hidden message will understand it and implicitly conjectures that some of those would have understood it had the matter been stated plainly. Jesus does, however, seem to overestimate some people's capacity to understand the plain version (e.g. his disciples struggle throughout). Perhaps his message is more difficult than he appreciates.
For whatever reason, everybody seems to understand the Tenants parable just fine (12:1-11). Maybe either the teacher's composition skill improved with practice, or the audience's comprehension skills improved with practice or self-selection, or both. Alternatively, maybe the target situation in the Tenants story was inherently more coherent and concrete than some of the other tales.
The "unable to perform miracles (GMark 6:5)" is a figure of speech. That is, instead of the bland "He performed fewer miracles there than elsewhere," the author exaggerates the drought and then walks it back: he could perform (emphatically) no miracles there at all - except for the ones he did perform. Such are among the tricks of maintaining audience interest in the unfolding narration. If he performed any miracles then there can be no issue about his ability to perform them.
And finally, the "being regarded by his family as a lunatic (GMark 3:21)." Although Paul does use the word in question in contrast to sobriety, Mark uses it to depict the reaction of crowds to signs and wonders, presumably not intending to call them lunatics. The structure of the passage keeps the attentive audience guessing who's doing the charcterizing. Sober commentators have nominated the newly appointed Twelve, the bad guys who are about to accuse Jesus of demonic possession, or the family who shows up and sure enough can't get in the house (and don't try very hard even though the party includes muscle boys).
I agree that Matthew seems more popular among the faithful than Mark, and Luke is more relevant to Marcion. There's also the ground fact that there isn't much in Mark that isn't also elsewhere in the synoptics. The small observed difference between the pious Matthew and the more secular-tolerant Mark doesn't seem to call for much explanation. Not much happened = not much to explain.
And then there's John (now apart from the John the Baptist material).
I thought the OP disliked changing thread titles
. Oh well, I'll put a naive idea in play: if someone is tilting with Marcion (gnostic or proto-gnostic), then can we be surprised that the notoriously gnostic-friendly John comes up (as in the rhetorical trope "Here's somebody like you, and he says thus and so, why aren't you in agreement?")?