Chapter XVI.—Christ’s Flesh in Nature, the Same as Ours, Only Sinless. The Difference Between Carnem Peccati and Peccatum Carnis: It is the Latter Which Christ Abolished. The Flesh of the First Adam, No Less Than that of the Second Adam, Not Received from Human Seed, Although as Entirely Human as Our Own, Which is Derived from It.

The famous Alexander,229    Although Tertullian dignifies him with an ille, we have no particulars of this man. [It may be that this is an epithet, rather than a name, given to some enemy of truth like Alexander the “Coppersmith” (2 Tim. iv. 14) or like that (1 Tim. i. 20), blasphemer, whose character suits the case.] too, instigated by his love of disputation in the true fashion of heretical temper, has made himself conspicuous against us; he will have us say that Christ put on flesh of an earthly origin,230    Census. in order that He might in His own person abolish sinful flesh.231    So Bp. Kaye renders “carnem peccati.” [See his valuable note, p. 253.] Now, even if we did assert this as our opinion, we should be able to defend it in such a way as completely to avoid the extravagant folly which he ascribes to us in making us suppose that the very flesh of Christ was in Himself abolished as being sinful; because we mention our belief (in public),232    We take the meminerimus to refer “to the Creed.” that it is sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven; and we further declare that it will come again from thence in all the pomp233    Suggestu. of the Father’s glory: it is therefore just as impossible for us to say that it is abolished, as it is for us to maintain that it is sinful, and so made void, since in it there has been no fault. We maintain, moreover, that what has been abolished in Christ is not carnem peccati, “sinful flesh,” but peccatum carnis, “sin in the flesh,”—not the material thing, but its condition;234    Naturam. not the substance, but its flaw;235    Culpam. and (this we aver) on the authority of the apostle, who says, “He abolished sin in the flesh.”236    “Tertullian, referring to St. Paul, says of Christ: ‘Evacuavit peccatum in carne;’ alluding, as I suppose, to Romans viii. 3. But the corresponding Greek in the printed editions is κατέκρινε τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐν τῇ σαρκί (‘He condemned sin in the flesh’). Had Tertullian a different reading in his Greek mss., or did he confound Romans viii. 3 with Romans vi. 6, ἵνα καταργηθῇ τὸ σῶμα τὴς ἁμαρτίας (‘that the body of sin might be destroyed’)? Jerome translates the Greek καταργέω by ‘evacuo,’ c. xvi. See Adv. Marcionem, ver. 14. Dr. Neander has pointed out two passages in which Tertullian has ‘damnavit or damnaverit delinquentiam in carne.’ See de Res. Carnis. 46; de Pudicitiâ. 17.”—Bp. Kaye. Now in another sentence he says that Christ was “in the likeness of sinful flesh,”237    Also in Rom. viii. 3. not, however, as if He had taken on Him “the likeness of the flesh,” in the sense of a semblance of body instead of its reality; but he means us to understand likeness to the flesh which sinned,238    Peccatricis carnis. because the flesh of Christ, which committed no sin itself, resembled that which had sinned,—resembled it in its nature, but not in the corruption it received from Adam; whence we also affirm that there was in Christ the same flesh as that whose nature in man is sinful.  In the flesh, therefore, we say that sin has been abolished, because in Christ that same flesh is maintained without sin, which in man was not maintained without sin. Now, it would not contribute to the purpose of Christ’s abolishing sin in the flesh, if He did not abolish it in that flesh in which was the nature of sin, nor (would it conduce) to His glory. For surely it would have been no strange thing if He had removed the stain of sin in some better flesh, and one which should possess a different, even a sinless, nature! Then, you say, if He took our flesh, Christ’s was a sinful one. Do not, however, fetter with mystery a sense which is quite intelligible. For in putting on our flesh, He made it His own; in making it His own, He made it sinless.  A word of caution, however, must be addressed to all who refuse to believe that our flesh was in Christ on the ground that it came not of the seed of a human father,239    Viri. let them remember that Adam himself received this flesh of ours without the seed of a human father. As earth was converted into this flesh of ours without the seed of a human father, so also was it quite possible for the Son of God to take to Himself240    Transire in: “to pass into.” the substance of the selfsame flesh, without a human father’s agency.241    Sine coagulo.

CAPUT XVI.

Insuper, argumentandi libidine, ex forma ingenii haeretici, locum sibi fecit Alexander ille, quasi nos affirmemus, idcirco Christum terreni census induisse carnem, ut evacuaret in semetipso carnem peccati. Quod etsi diceremus, quacunque ratione muniremus sententiam nostram, dum ne tanta amentia, qua putavit, tanquam ipsam carnem Christi opinemur, ut peccatricem, evacuatam in ipso: cum illam et ad dexteram Patris in coelis praesidere meminerimus, et venturam inde, suggestu paternae claritatis, praedicemus. Adeo, ut evacuatam non possumus dicere, ita nec peccatricem; nec evacuatam, in qua dolus non fuit. Defendimus autem, non carnem 0780C peccati evacuatam esse in Christo, sed peccatum carnis; non materiam, sed naturam; nec substantiam, sed culpam: secundum Apostoli auctoritatem dicentis (Rom., VIII, 3): Evacuavit peccatum in carne. Nam et alibi (Ibid.): in similitudine, inquit, carnis peccati fuisse Christum. Non quod similitudinem carnis acceperit, quasi imaginem corporis, et non veritatem; sed similitudinem peccatricis carnis vult intelligi; quod ipsa non peccatrix caro Christi, ejus fuit par, cujus erat 0781A peccatum; genere, non vitio Adae: quando hinc etiam confirmamus eam fuisse carnem in Christo, cujus natura est in homine peccatrix; et sic in illa peccatum evacuatum, quod in Christo sine peccato habeatur, quae in homine sine peccato non habebatur. Nam neque ad propositum Christi faceret evacuantis peccatum carnis, non in ea carne evacuare illud, in qua erat natura peccati, neque ad gloriam. Quid enim magnum, si in carne meliore, et alterius, id est non peccatricis naturae, naevum redemit? Ergo, inquis, si nostram induit, peccatrix fuit caro Christi. Noli constringere explicabilem sensum. Nostram enim induens, suam fecit; suam faciens, non peccatricem eam fecit. Caeterum (quod ad omnes dictum sit, qui ideo non putant carnem nostram in Christo fuisse, 0781B quia non fuit ex viri semine) recordentur Adam ipsum in hanc carnem, non ex semine viri factum. Sicut terra conversa est in hanc carnem sine viri semine, ita et Dei Verbum potuit sine coagulo in ejusdem carnis transire materiam.