[2472] This is an ironical concession from the Marcionite side.
[2473] Another concession.
[2474] Tertullian's rejoinder.
[2475] De isto.
[2476] They called it kosmos.
[2477] By sapientiæ professores he means the heathen philosophers; see De Præscript. Hæret. c. 7.
[2478] In his book adv. Hermogenem, c. 8, Tertullian calls the philosophers "hæreticorum patriarchæ."
[2479] Formidaverint.
[2480] Substantiæ.
[2481] Dei.
[2482] The Greek name of Jupiter, Zeus, is here derived from zeo, ferveo, I glow. Juno's name, Era, Tertullian connects with aer, the air; para to aer kath' huperthesin Era. These names of the two great deities suggest a connection with fire and air.
[2483] i.e., Cybele.
[2484] The earth's irrigations, and the washings of the image of Cybele every year in the river Almo by her priests, are here confusedly alluded to. For references to the pagan custom, see White and Riddle's large Lat. Dict. s. v. Almo.
[2485] Mithras, the Persian sun-god, was symbolized by the image of a lion. The sun entering the zodiacal sign Leo amidst summer heat may be glanced at.
[2486] Deficiam ad.
[2487] Sordidum. [Well and nobly said.]
Chapter XIV.--All Portions of Creation Attest the Excellence of the Creator, Whom Marcion Vilifies. His Inconsistency Herein Exposed. Marcion's Own God Did Not Hesitate to Use the Creator's Works in Instituting His Own Religion.
Now, when you make merry with those minuter animals, which their glorious Maker has purposely endued with a profusion of instincts and resources, [2488] --thereby teaching us that greatness has its proofs in lowliness, just as (according to the apostle) there is power even in infirmity [2489] --imitate, if you can, the cells of the bee, the hills of the ant, the webs of the spider, and the threads of the silkworm; endure, too, if you know how, those very creatures [2490] which infest your couch and house, the poisonous ejections of the blister-beetle, [2491] the spikes of the fly, and the gnat's sheath and sting. What of the greater animals, when the small ones so affect you with pleasure or pain, that you cannot even in their case despise their Creator? Finally, take a circuit round your own self; survey man within and without. Even this handiwork of our God will be pleasing to you, inasmuch as your own lord, that better god, loved it so well, [2492] and for your sake was at the pains [2493] of descending from the third heaven to these poverty-stricken [2494] elements, and for the same reason was actually crucified in this sorry [2495] apartment of the Creator. Indeed, up to the present time, he has not disdained the water which the Creator made wherewith he washes his people; nor the oil with which he anoints them; nor that union of honey and milk wherewithal he gives them the nourishment [2496] of children; nor the bread by which he represents his own proper body, thus requiring in his very sacraments the "beggarly [2497] elements" of the Creator. You, however, are a disciple above his master, and a servant above his lord; you have a higher reach of discernment than his; you destroy what he requires. I wish to examine whether you are at least honest in this, so as to have no longing for those things which you destroy. You are an enemy to the sky, and yet you are glad to catch its freshness in your houses. You disparage the earth, although the elemental parent [2498] of your own flesh, as if it were your undoubted enemy, and yet you extract from it all its fatness [2499] for your food. The sea, too, you reprobate, but are continually using its produce, which you account the more sacred diet. [2500] If I should offer you a rose, you will not disdain its Maker. You hypocrite, however much of abstinence you use to show yourself a Marcionite, that is, a repudiator of your Maker (for if the world displeased you, such abstinence ought to have been affected by you as a martyrdom), you will have to associate yourself with [2501] the Creator's material production, into what element soever you shall be dissolved. How hard is this obstinacy of yours! You vilify the things in which you both live and die.
[2488] De industria ingeniis aut viribus ampliavit.
[2489] 2 Cor. xii. 5.
[2490] Tertullian, it should be remembered, lived in Africa.
[2491] Cantharidis.
[2492] Adamavit.
[2493] Laboravit.
[2494] Paupertina. This and all such passages are, of course, in imitation of Marcion's contemptuous view of the Creator's work.
[2495] Cellula.
[2496] Infantat.
[2497] Mendicitatibus.
[2498] Matricem.
[2499] Medullas.
[2500] [The use of fish for fasting-days has no better warrant than Marcion's example.]
[2501] Uteris.
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, [2502] before all, since you have said that he has a creation [2503] of his own, and his own world, and his own sky; we shall see, [2504] indeed, about that third heaven, when we come to discuss even your own apostle. [2505] 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; [2506] although, as being more excellent than the paltry works [2507] of the Creator, it should certainly have ceased to conceal itself, when its lord and author no longer lies hid? I ask, therefore, [2508] 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 he [2509] 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 patches [2510] 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. [2511] 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 fabricated [2512] 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 predicate [2513] of the Creator, to whom he subordinates [2514] matter in the substance of the world. But it will be only right that he [2515] 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, [2516] three gods as Marcion's,--the Maker, local space, and matter. Furthermore, [2517] 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 implies [2518] no less than nine, [2519] though he knows it not.
[2502] Vel.
[2503] Conditionem.
[2504] Adv. Marcionem, v. 12.
[2505] For Marcion's exclusive use, and consequent abuse, of St. Paul, see Neander's Antignostikus (Bohn), vol. ii. pp. 491, 505, 506.
[2506] [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.]
[2507] Frivolis. Again in reference to Marcion undervaluing the creation as the work of the Demiurge.
[2508] Et ideo.
[2509] 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.
[2510] Subsiciva.
[2511] Stipare se.
[2512] Molitus est.
[2513] Sentire.
[2514] Subicit.
[2515] 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.
[2516] Interim.
[2517] Proinde et.
[2518] Assignet.
[2519] 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.
Chapter XVI.--Marcion Assumes the Existence of Two Gods from the Antithesis Between Things Visible and Things Invisible. This Antithetical Principle in Fact Characteristic of the Works of the Creator, the One God--Maker of All Things Visible and Invisible.
Since, then, that other world does not appear, nor its god either, the only resource left [2520] to them is to divide things into the two classes of visible and invisible, with two gods for their authors, and so to claim [2521] the invisible for their own, (the supreme) God. But who, except an heretical spirit, could ever bring his mind to believe that the invisible part of creation belongs to him who had previously displayed no visible thing, rather than to Him who, by His operation on the visible world, produced a belief in the invisible also, since it is far more reasonable to give one's assent after some samples (of a work) than after none? We shall see to what author even (your favourite) apostle attributes [2522] the invisible creation, when we come to examine him. At present (we withhold his testimony), for [2523] we are for the most part engaged in preparing the way, by means of common sense and fair arguments, for a belief in the future support of the Scriptures also. We affirm, then, that this diversity of things visible and invisible must on this ground be attributed to the Creator, even because the whole of His work consists of diversities--of things corporeal and incorporeal; of animate and inanimate; of vocal and mute of moveable and stationary; of productive and sterile; of arid and moist; of hot and cold. Man, too, is himself similarly tempered with diversity, both in his body and in his sensation. Some of his members are strong, others weak; some comely, others uncomely; some twofold, others unique; some like, others unlike. In like manner there is diversity also in his sensation: now joy, then anxiety; now love, then hatred; now anger, then calmness. Since this is the case, inasmuch as the whole of this creation of ours has been fashioned [2524] with a reciprocal rivalry amongst its several parts, the invisible ones are due to the visible, and not to be ascribed to any other author than Him to whom their counterparts are imputed, marking as they do diversity in the Creator Himself, who orders what He forbade, and forbids what He ordered; who also strikes and heals. Why do they take Him to be uniform in one class of things alone, as the Creator of visible things, and only them; whereas He ought to be believed to have created both the visible and the invisible, in just the same way as life and death, or as evil things and peace? [2525] And verily, if the invisible creatures are greater than the visible, which are in their own sphere great, so also is it fitting that the greater should be His to whom the great belong; because neither the great, nor indeed the greater, can be suitable property for one who seems to possess not even the smallest things.