Chapter XV.—The Lateness of the Revelation of Marcion’s God. The Question of the Place Occupied by the Rival Deities. Instead of Two Gods, Marcion Really (Although, as It Would Seem, Unconsciously) Had Nine Gods in His System.

After all, or, if you like,182    Vel. before all, since you have said that he has a creation183    Conditionem. of his own, and his own world, and his own sky; we shall see,184    Adv. Marcionem, v. 12. indeed, about that third heaven, when we come to discuss even your own apostle.185    For Marcion’s exclusive use, and consequent abuse, of St. Paul, see Neander’s Antignostikus (Bohn), vol. ii. pp. 491, 505, 506. Meanwhile, whatever is the (created) substance, it ought at any rate to have made its appearance in company with its own god. But now, how happens it that the Lord has been revealed since the twelfth year of Tiberius Cæsar, while no creation of His at all has been discovered up to the fifteenth of the Emperor Severus;186    [This date not merely settles the time of our author’s work against Marcion, but supplies us with evidence that his total lapse must have been very late in life. For the five books, written at intervals and marked by progressive tokens of his spiritual decline, are as a whole, only slightly offensive to Orthodoxy. This should be borne in mind.] although, as being more excellent than the paltry works187    Frivolis. Again in reference to Marcion undervaluing the creation as the work of the Demiurge. of the Creator, it should certainly have ceased to conceal itself, when its lord and author no longer lies hid? I ask, therefore,188    Et ideo. if it was unable to manifest itself in this world, how did its Lord appear in this world? If this world received its Lord, why was it not able to receive the created substance, unless perchance it was greater than its Lord? But now there arises a question about place, having reference both to the world above and to the God thereof. For, behold, if he189    In this and the following sentences, the reader will observe the distinction which is drawn between the Supreme and good God of Marcion and his “Creator,” or Demiurge. has his own world beneath him, above the Creator, he has certainly fixed it in a position, the space of which was empty between his own feet and the Creator’s head. Therefore God both Himself occupied local space, and caused the world to occupy local space; and this local space, too, will be greater than God and the world together. For in no case is that which contains not greater than that which is contained.  And indeed we must look well to it that no small patches190    Subsiciva. be left here and there vacant, in which some third god also may be able with a world of his own to foist himself in.191    Stipare se. Now, begin to reckon up your gods. There will be local space for a god, not only as being greater than God, but as being also unbegotten and unmade, and therefore eternal, and equal to God, in which God has ever been. Then, inasmuch as He too has fabricated192    Molitus est. a world out of some underlying material which is unbegotten, and unmade, and contemporaneous with God, just as Marcion holds of the Creator, you reduce this likewise to the dignity of that local space which has enclosed two gods, both God and matter. For matter also is a god according to the rule of Deity, being (to be sure) unbegotten, and unmade, and eternal. If, however, it was out of nothing that he made his world, this also (our heretic) will be obliged to predicate193    Sentire. of the Creator, to whom he subordinates194    Subicit. matter in the substance of the world.  But it will be only right that he195    The Supreme and good God. Tertullian here gives it as one of Marcion’s tenets, that the Demiurge created the World out of pre-existent matter. too should have made his world out of matter, because the same process occurred to him as God which lay before the Creator as equally God. And thus you may, if you please, reckon up so far,196    Interim. three gods as Marcion’s,—the Maker, local space, and matter. Furthermore,197    Proinde et. he in like manner makes the Creator a god in local space, which is itself to be appraised on a precisely identical scale of dignity; and to Him as its lord he subordinates matter, which is notwithstanding unbegotten, and unmade, and by reason hereof eternal. With this matter he further associates evil, an unbegotten principle with an unbegotten object, an unmade with an unmade, and an eternal with an eternal; so here he makes a fourth God. Accordingly you have three substances of Deity in the higher instances, and in the lower ones four. When to these are added their Christs—the one which appeared in the time of Tiberius, the other which is promised by the Creator—Marcion suffers a manifest wrong from those persons who assume that he holds two gods, whereas he implies198    Assignet. no less than nine,199    Namely, (1) the supreme and good God; (2) His Christ; (3) the space in which He dwells; (4) the matter of His creation; (5) the Demiurge (or Marcion’s “Creator”); (6) his promised Christ; (7) the space which contains him; (8) this world, his creation; (9) evil, inherent in it. though he knows it not.

CAPUT XV.

Post haec, vel ante haec, cum dixeris esse et illi conditionem suam, et suum mundum, et suum coelum; 0263A de coelo quidem illo tertio videbimus, si et ad apostolum vestrum discutiendum pervenerimus; interim, quaecumque substantia est, cum suo utique deo apparuisse debuerat. At nunc quale est ut Dominus anno XII Tiberii Caesaris revelatus sit, substantia vero ad decimum quintum jam Severi imperatoris nulla omnino comperta sit, quae frivolis Creatoris praecellens utique latere desisset, non latente jam Domino suo et auctore? Et ideo, si ipsa non potuit manifestari in hoc mundo, quomodo Dominus paruit ejus in hoc mundo? Si Dominum cepit hic mundus, cur substantiam capere non potuit, nisi Domino fortasse majorem? Jam nunc de loco quaestio est, pertinens et ad mundum illum superiorem, et ad ipsum Deum ejus. Ecce enim, si et ille habet mundum suum infra se 0263B supra Creatorem, in loco utique fecit eum, cujus spatium vacabat inter pedes suos, et caput Creatoris. Ergo et Deus ipse in loco erat, et mundum in loco faciebat; et erit jam locus ille major et Deo et mundo. Nihil enim non majus est id quod capit, eo quod capitur; et videndum ne qua adhuc illic vacent subsiciva , in quibus et tertius aliqui stipare Deus se cum mundo suo possit. Ergo jam incipe deos computare. Erit enim et locus deus, non tantum qua Deo major, sed et qua innatus et infectus; ac per hoc, aeternus, et Deo par; in quo semper Deus fuerit. Dehinc, si et ille mundum ex aliqua materia subjacente molitus est, innata, et infecta, et contemporali Deo, quemadmodum et de Creatore Marcion sentit, redigis et hoc ad majestatem loci, qui et deum et materiam, 0263C duos deos, clusit. Et materia enim Deus, secundum formam divinitatis, innata scilicet, et infecta, et aeterna. Aut si de nihilo molitus est mundum, hoc et de Creatore sentire cogetur, cui materiam subjicit in substantia mundi. Sed ex materia et ille fecisse debebit; eadem ratione occurrente illi quoque Deo, quae opponeretur Creatori, ut aeque Deo. Atque ita tres interim mihi deos numera Marcionis, Factorem, et Locum, et Materiam. Proinde Creatorem in loco facit, utique eadem conditione censendo; et materiam ei subjicit, utique innatam et infectam, et hoc nomine aeternam, ut Domino. Amplius, et malum 0264A materiae deputans, innatum innatae, infectum infectae, et aeternum aeternae, quartum jam hinc deum fecit. Habes igitur in superioribus tres substantias divinitatis, in inferioribus quatuor. His cum accedunt et sui Christi, alter qui apparuit sub Tiberio, alter qui a Creatore repromittitur, manifestam jam fraudem Marcion patitur ab eis qui duos illum deos inferre praesumunt, cum novem assignet, licet nesciens.