Book IV.1159    [The remarks of Bishop Kaye on our author’s Marcion are simply invaluable, and the student cannot dispense with what is said more particularly of this Book. See Kaye, pp. 450–480.]

In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke’s Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian’s Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.”  It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man.

Chapter I.—Examination of the Antitheses of Marcion, Bringing Them to the Test of Marcion’s Own 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.

Every opinion and the whole scheme1160    Paraturam. of the impious and sacrilegious Marcion we now bring to the test1161    Provocamus ad. [Kaye, p. 469, refers to Schleiermacher’s Critical Essay on St. Luke and to a learned note of Mr. Andrews Norton of Harvard (vol. iii. Appendix C.) for valuable remarks on Marcion’s Gospel.] of that very Gospel which, by his process of interpolation, he has made his own. To encourage a belief of this Gospel he has actually1162    Et, emphatic. devised for it a sort of dower,1163    Dotem quandam. in a work composed of contrary statements set in opposition, thence entitled Antitheses, and compiled with a view to such a severance of the law from the gospel as should divide the Deity into two, nay, diverse, gods—one for each Instrument, or Testament1164    [See cap. 2, infra.] as it is more usual to call it; that by such means he might also patronize1165    Patrocinaretur. belief in “the Gospel according to the Antitheses.” These, however, I would have attacked in special combat, hand to hand; that is to say, I would have encountered singly the several devices of the Pontic heretic, if it were not much more convenient to refute them in and with that very gospel to which they contribute their support. Although it is so easy to meet them at once with a peremptory demurrer,1166    Præscriptive occurere. This law term (the Greek παραγραφή) seems to refer to the Church’s “rule of faith” (præscriptio), which he might at once put in against Marcion’s heresy; only he prefers to refute him on his own ground. yet, in order that I may both make them admissible in argument, and account them valid expressions of opinion, and even contend that they make for our side, that so there may be all the redder shame for the blindness of their author, we have now drawn out some antitheses of our own in opposition to Marcion. And indeed1167    Atque adeo. I do allow that one order did run its course in the old dispensation under the Creator,1168    Apud Creatorem. and that another is on its way in the new under Christ. I do not deny that there is a difference in the language of their documents, in their precepts of virtue, and in their teachings of the law; but yet all this diversity is consistent with one and the same God, even Him by whom it was arranged and also foretold.  Long ago1169    Olim. did Isaiah declare that “out of Sion should go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem”1170    Isa. ii. 3.—some other law, that is, and another word. In short, says he, “He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people;”1171    Isa. ii. 4. meaning not those of the Jewish people only, but of the nations which are judged by the new law of the gospel and the new word of the apostles, and are amongst themselves rebuked of their old error as soon as they have believed. And as the result of this, “they beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears (which are a kind of hunting instruments) into pruning-hooks;”1172    Isa. ii. 4. that is to say, minds, which once were fierce and cruel, are changed by them into good dispositions productive of good fruit. And again:  “Hearken unto me, hearken unto me, my people, and ye kings, give ear unto me; for a law shall proceed from me, and my judgment for a light to the nations;”1173    Isa. ii. 4, according to the Sept. wherefore He had determined and decreed that the nations also were to be enlightened by the law and the word of the gospel. This will be that law which (according to David also) is unblameable, because “perfect, converting the soul”1174    Ps. xix. 7. from idols unto God. This likewise will be the word concerning which the same Isaiah says, “For the Lord will make a decisive word in the land.”1175    T.’s version of Isa. x. 23. “Decisus Sermo” ="determined” of A.V. Because the New Testament is compendiously short,1176    Compendiatum. and freed from the minute and perplexing1177    Laciniosis. burdens of the law. But why enlarge, when the Creator by the same prophet foretells the renovation more manifestly and clearly than the light itself?  “Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old” (the old things have passed away, and new things are arising). “Behold, I will do new things, which shall now spring forth.”1178    Isa. xliii. 18, 19. So by Jeremiah: “Break up for yourselves new pastures,1179    Novate novamen novum. Agricultural words. and sow not among thorns, and circumcise yourselves in the foreskin of your heart.”1180    Altered version of Jer. iv. 3, 4. And in another passage: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Jacob, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I arrested their dispensation, in order to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”1181    Jer. xxxi. 31, 32, with slight change. He thus shows that the ancient covenant is temporary only, when He indicates its change; also when He promises that it shall be followed by an eternal one. For by Isaiah He says: “Hear me, and ye shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you,” adding “the sure mercies of David,”1182    Isa. lv. 3. in order that He might show that that covenant was to run its course in Christ. That He was of the family of David, according to the genealogy of Mary,1183    Secundum Mariæ censum. See Kitto’s Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature (third edition), in the article “Genealogy of Jesus Christ,” where the translator of this work has largely given reasons for believing that St. Luke in his genealogy, (chap. iii.) has traced the descent of the Virgin Mary. To the authorities there given may be added this passage of Tertullian, and a fuller one, Adversus Judæos, ix., towards the end. [p. 164, supra.] He declared in a figurative way even by the rod which was to proceed out of the stem of Jesse.1184    Isa. xi. 1. Forasmuch then as he said, that from the Creator there would come other laws, and other words, and new dispensations of covenants, indicating also that the very sacrifices were to receive higher offices, and that amongst all nations, by Malachi when he says: “I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord, neither will I accept your sacrifices at your hands. For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place a sacrifice is offered unto my name, even a pure offering”1185    Mal. i. 10, 11.—meaning simple prayer from a pure conscience,—it is of necessity that every change which comes as the result of innovation, introduces a diversity in those things of which the change is made, from which diversity arises also a contrariety.  For as there is nothing, after it has undergone a change, which does not become different, so there is nothing different which is not contrary.1186    To its former self. Of that very thing, therefore, there will be predicated a contrariety in consequence of its diversity, to which there accrued a change of condition after an innovation. He who brought about the change, the same instituted the diversity also; He who foretold the innovation, the same announced beforehand the contrariety likewise.  Why, in your interpretation, do you impute a difference in the state of things to a difference of powers? Why do you wrest to the Creator’s prejudice those examples from which you draw your antitheses, when you may recognise them all in His sensations and affections? “I will wound,” He says, “and I will heal;” “I will kill,” He says again, “and I will make alive”1187    Deut. xxxii. 39.—even the same “who createth evil and maketh peace;”1188    Isa. xlv. 7. from which you are used even to censure Him with the imputation of fickleness and inconstancy, as if He forbade what He commanded, and commanded what He forbade. Why, then, have you not reckoned up the Antitheses also which occur in the natural works of the Creator, who is for ever contrary to Himself? You have not been able, unless I am misinformed, to recognise the fact,1189    Recogitare. that the world, at all events,1190    Saltim. even amongst your people of Pontus, is made up of a diversity of elements which are hostile to one another.1191    Æmularum invicem. It was therefore your bounden duty first to have determined that the god of the light was one being, and the god of darkness was another, in such wise that you might have been able to have distinctly asserted one of them to be the god of the law and the other the god of the gospel. It is, however, the settled conviction already1192    Præjudicatum est. of my mind from manifest proofs, that, as His works and plans1193    In the external world. exist in the way of Antitheses, so also by the same rule exist the mysteries of His religion.1194    Sacramenta.

CAPUT PRIMUM.

Omnem sententiam et omnem paraturam impii atque sacrilegi Marcionis ad ipsum jam Evangelium ejus provocamus, quod interpolando suum fecit. Et ut fidem instrueret, dotem quamdam commentatus est illi, opus ex contrarietatum oppositionibus, Antitheses cognominatum , et ad separationem Legis 0361B et Evangelii coactum, qua duos Deos dividens, proinde diversos, alterum alterius Instrumenti, vel (quod magis usui est dicere) Testamenti; ut exinde Evangelio quoque secundum antitheses credendo patrocinaretur. Sed et istas proprio congressu cominus, id est, per singulas injectiones Pontici cecidissem, si non multo opportunius in ipso et cum ipso Evangelio, cui procurant, retunderentur. Quamquam tam facile est praescriptive occurrere, et quidem ut accepto eas faciam, ut rato habeam, ut nobiscum facere dicam, quo magis de caecitate auctoris sui erubescant nostrae jam antitheses adversus Marcionem. Atque confiteor alium ordinem decucurrisse in veteri dispositione apud Creatorem, alium in nova apud Christum. Non nego distare documenta eloquii, praecepta virtutis, 0361C legis disciplinas; dum tamen tota diversitas in unum et eumdem Deum competat; illum scilicet a quo constat dispositam, sicut et praedicatam. Olim concionatur Isaias (Is. II, 3), prodituram ex Sion legem, et sermonem Domini ex Hierusalem: aliam utique legem, aliumque sermonem. Denique: Judicabit, inquit, inter nationes, et traducet populum plurimum; scilicet non unius gentis Judaeorum, sed nationum, quae per novam legem Evangelii et novum sermonem Apostolorum judicantur et traducuntur apud semetipsas de pristino errore, simul crediderunt, atque exinde concidunt machaeras suas in aratra; et sibynas, quod genus venabulorum est, in falces, id est, feros et saevos quondam animos convertunt in sensus probos, et bonae frugis operarios. Et rursus (Is. LI, 4): Audite me, 0361D audite me, populus meus; et reges auribus intendite 0362A in me, quoniam lex prodibit a me, et judicium meum in lucem nationum, quo judicaverat atque decreverat nationes quoque illuminandas per Evangelii legem atque sermonem. Haec erit lex apud David invituperabilis, qua perfecta, convertens animas, utique ab idolis ad Deum. Hic erit et sermo, de quo idem Isaias (Is. X, 23): Quoniam, inquit, decisum sermonem faciet Dominus in terra. Compendiatum est enim Novum Testamentum, et legis laciniosis oneribus expeditum. Sed quid pluribus? cum manifestius, et luce ipsa clarius novatio praedicetur a Creatore per eumdem (Is. XLIII, 18): Ne rememineritis priorum, et antiqua ne cogitaveritis. Vetera transierunt, nova oriuntur. Ecce facio nova, quae nunc orientur. Idem per Hieremiam (Ierem. IV, 3): Novate vobis novamen novum, et ne severitis in spinas, et circumcidimini praeputia cordis vestri; et alibi (Ierem. XXXI, 31): Ecce veniunt dies, dicit Dominus, et perficiam domui Jacob et domui Juda testamentum novum, non secundum testamentum quod disposui patribus eorum in die qua arripui dispositionem eorum, ad educendos eos de terra Aegypti. Adeo pristinum testamentum temporale significat, dum mutabile ostendit, etiam dum aeternum de postero pollicetur. Nam per Isaiam (Is. LV, 3): Audite me, et vivetis, et disponam vobis testamentum; adjiciens: Sancta et fidelia David; ut id testamentum in Christo decursurum demonstraret . Eumdem ex genere David secundum Mariae censum, etiam in virga ex radice Jesse processura figurate praedicabat. Igitur si alias leges, aliosque sermones, et novas testamentorum 0362C dispositiones a Creatore dixit futuras, ut etiam ipsorum sacrificiorum alia officia potiora, et quidem apud nationes destinarit, dicente Malachia (Mal. I, 10---11): Non est voluntas mea in vobis, inquit Dominus, et sacrificia vestra non excipiam de manibus vestris; quoniam a solis ortu usque ad occasum glorificatum est in nationibus nomen meum, et in omni loco sacrificium nomini meo offertur, et sacrificium mundum, scilicet simplex oratio de conscientia pura: necesse est, omnis demutatio veniens ex innovatione, diversitatem ineat cum his quorum fit, et contrarietatem ex diversitate. Sicut enim nihil demutatum, quod non diversum; ita nihil diversum, quod non contrarium. Ejusdem ergo deputabitur etiam contrarietas ex diversitate, cujus fuerit demutatio ex innovatione. Qui disposuit 0362D demutationem, iste instituit et diversitatem; 0363A qui praedicavit innovationem, iste praenuntiavit et contrarietatem. Quid differentiam rerum ad distantiam interpretaris potestatum? quid antitheses exemplorum distorques adversus Creatorem, quas in ipsis quoque sensibus et affectionibus ejus potes recognoscere? Ego, inquit (Deut. XXXII, 39), percutiam, et ego sanabo: Ego, inquit (I Reg. II, 6), occidam, et ego vivificabo; condens scilicet (Is. XLV, 7) mala, et faciens pacem; qua etiam soles illum mobilitatis quoque et inconstantiae nomine reprehendere, prohibentem quae jubet, et jubentem quae prohibet . Cur ergo non et antitheses ad naturalia reputasti contrarii sibi semper Creatoris? nec mundum saltim recogitare potuisti, nisi fallor, etiam apud Ponticos, ex diversitatibus structum aemularum invicem substantiarum? 0363B Prius itaque debueras alium Deum luminis, alium tenebrarum determinasse, ut ita posses alium Legis, alium Evangelii adseverasse. Caeterum, praejudicatum est ex manifestis, cujus opera et ingenia per antitheses constant, eadem forma constare etiam sacramenta.