Against Marcion 1.12
Summary: A god without works would exist without purpose, which is unworthy of God; and by demanding faith while giving no works to ground it, he would be both impudent and malicious.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Latin text · CSEL 47:305–306
Ceterum et si esse eum possemus confiteri, sine causa esse eum deberemus argumentari. sine causa enim esset qui rem non haberet, quia res omnis causa est, ut sit aliquis, cuius res sit. porro in quantum nihil oportet esse sine causa, [id est sine re] quia si sine causa sit, proinde est atque si non sit. [non habens rei causam rem ipsam] in tantum deum dignius credam non esse quam esse sine causa. sine causa est enim qui rem non habendo non habet causam. deus autem sine causa, id est sine re, esse non debet. ita quotiens ostendo eum sine causa esse, tamquam sit, hoc constituo, non esse illum, quia si fuisset, omnino sine causa non fuisset. sic et ipsam fidem dico illum sine causa ab homine captare. aliter solito deum credere ex operum auctoritate formatum. quia nihil tale prospexit, per quod homo deum didicit. nam etsi credunt plerique in illum, non statim ratione credunt. non habentes dei pignus, opera eius deo digna. itaque hoc nomine cessationis et defectionis operum et impudentiae et malignitatis adfinis est: impudentiae, qua fidem non debitam sibi captat, cui praestruendae nihil prospexit. malignitatis. qua plures incredulitatis reos fecit, nihil fidei procurando.
English · Claude translation
Moreover, even if we could admit that he exists, we should have to argue that he exists without cause. For he would be without cause who had no work, since every work is the cause of there being someone whose work it is. Further, inasmuch as nothing ought to exist without cause — because if it is without cause, it is just as if it did not exist — to that extent I will more worthily believe that God does not exist than that he exists without cause. For he is without cause who, having no work, has no cause. But God ought not to exist without cause, that is, without work. So whenever I show that he exists without cause, as though he existed, I establish this: that he does not exist, because if he had existed, he would certainly not have been without cause. In the same way I say that he seeks faith from man without cause — faith which is accustomed otherwise to believe in God as shaped by the authority of his works — because he has provided nothing of the kind through which man has learned God. For even if very many believe in him, they do not therefore believe with reason, having no pledge of God, namely works worthy of God. And so on this account of idleness and lack of works he is close to both impudence and malice: impudence, in that he seeks a faith not owed to him, having provided nothing to prepare it; malice, in that he has made many guilty of unbelief by providing nothing for faith.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Res” is rendered “work”: Tertullian means something done or made that gives a being its reason for existing. The editor deletes, as spurious, “id est sine re” (“that is, without work”) and “non habens rei causam rem ipsam”; they are left out of the translation.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 1.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/12/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 1.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/12/).
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