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 Its General Terms, Thus Far Treated.

But this argument you will try to shake with an objection from the name of God, by alleging that that name is a vague80    Passivo. one, and applied to other beings also; as it is written, “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty;81    כְּעַרִַח־אֵל. Tertullian’s version is: In ecclesia deorum. The Vulgate: In synagoga deorum. He judgeth among the gods.” And again, “I have said, Ye are gods.”82    Ps. lxxxii. 1, 6. As therefore the attribute of supremacy would be inappropriate to these, although they are called gods, so is it to the Creator. This is a foolish objection; and my answer to it is, that its author fails to consider that quite as strong an objection might be urged against the (superior) god of Marcion: he too is called god, but is not on that account proved to be divine, as neither are angels nor men, the Creator’s handiwork. If an identity of names affords a presumption in support of equality of condition, how often do worthless menials strut insolently in the names of kings—your Alexanders, Cæsars, and Pompeys!83    The now less obvious nicknames of “Alex. Darius and Olofernes,” are in the text. This fact, however, does not detract from the real attributes of the royal persons.  Nay more, the very idols of the Gentiles are called gods. Yet not one of them is divine because he is called a god. It is not, therefore, for the name of god, for its sound or its written form, that I am claiming the supremacy in the Creator, but for the essence84    Substantiæ. to which the name belongs; and when I find that essence alone is unbegotten and unmade—alone eternal, and the maker of all things—it is not to its name, but its state, not to its designation, but its condition, that I ascribe and appropriate the attribute of the supremacy.  And so, because the essence to which I ascribe it has come85    Vocari obtinuit. to be called god, you suppose that I ascribe it to the name, because I must needs use a name to express the essence, of which indeed that Being consists who is called God, and who is accounted the great Supreme because of His essence, not from His name. In short, Marcion himself, when he imputes this character to his god, imputes it to the nature,86    Statum. not to the word. That supremacy, then, which we ascribe to God in consideration of His essence, and not because of His name, ought, as we maintain, to be equal87    Ex pari. in both the beings who consist of that substance for which the name of God is given; because, in as far as they are called gods (i.e. supreme beings, on the strength, of course, of their unbegotten and eternal, and therefore great and supreme essence), in so far the attribute of being the great Supreme cannot be regarded as less or worse in one than in another great Supreme. If the happiness, and sublimity, and perfection88    Integritas. of the Supreme Being shall hold good of Marcion’s god, it will equally so of ours; and if not of ours, it will equally not hold of Marcion’s. Therefore two supreme beings will be neither equal nor unequal: not equal, because the principle which we have just expounded, that the Supreme Being admits of no comparison with Himself, forbids it; not unequal, because another principle meets us respecting the Supreme Being, that He is capable of no diminution. So, Marcion, you are caught89    Hæsisti. in the midst of your own Pontic tide.  The waves of truth overwhelm you on every side. You can neither set up equal gods nor unequal ones. For there are not two; so far as the question of number is properly concerned. Although the whole matter of the two gods is at issue, we have yet confined our discussion to certain bounds, within which we shall now have to contend about separate peculiarities.

CAPUT VII.

Tentabis ad haec de nomine Dei concutere retractatum, 0253C ut passivo, et in alios quoque permisso, quia scriptum sit (Ps. LXXXII, 1): Deus deorum stetit in ecclesia deorum; in medio autem deos dijudicabit . Et (ib. v. 6): Ego dixi: Vos dii estis; nec tamen idcirco eis competat possessio summi magni, quia dei cognominentur, ita nec Creatori. Respondebo et stulto, qui nec hoc recogitaverit, ne tantumdem et in deum Marcionis possit retorqueri ut et illum deum, nec ideo tamen summum magnum probatum, sicut nec angeli aut homines Creatoris. Si communio nominum conditionibus praejudicat, quanti nequam servi regum nominibus insultant, Alexandri, et Darii, et Holofernis? nec tamen ideo regibus, id 0254A quod sunt detrahetur. Nam et ipsa idola gentium dei vulgo; sed deus nemo ea re qua deus dicitur. Ita ego non nomini Dei, nec sono, nec notae nominis hujus, summum magnum in Creatore defendo, sed ipsi substantiae, cui nomen hoc contingit. Hanc inveniens solam innatam, infectam, solam aeternam et universitatis conditricem; non nomini, sed statui, nec appellationi, sed conditioni ejus summum magnum et adscribo et vindico. Et ideo quia deus jam vocari obtinuit substantia cui adscribo, nomini me adscribere putas; quia necesse est per nomen ostendam cui adscribam substantiae; scilicet qua constat qui Deus dicitur, et summum magnum ex substantia, non ex nomine deputatur. Denique hoc et Marcion suo deo vindicans secundum statum, non secundum 0254B vocabulum vindicat. Id ergo summum magnum quod Deo adscribimus ex substantiae lege, non ex nominis sorte, contendimus ex pari esse debere in duobus, qui ea substantia constant qua Deus dicitur: quia in quantum dii vocantur, id est summa magna, substantiae scilicet merito innatae et aeternae, ac per hoc magnae et summae, in tantum non possit summum magnum minus et deterius alio summo magno haberi. Si summi magni felicitas et sublimitas et integritas stabit in deo Marcionis, stabit aeque et in nostro: si non et in nostro, aeque nec in Marcionis. Ergo nec paria erunt duo summa magna, quia prohibet disposita jam regula summi magni, comparationem non sustinentis; nec disparia, quia et alia summi magni regula occurrit, diminutionem non 0254C admittens. Haesisti, Marcion, in medio Ponti tui aestu: utrinque te fluctus veritatis involvunt. Nec pares, nec dispares deos sistere potes. Duo enim non sunt, quod pertineat proprie ad numeri retractatum. Quamquam tota materia de duobus diis dimicetur, his interim lineis eam clusimus, intra quas de singularibus jam proprietatibus congrediemur.