Against Marcion 1.14
Summary: Even tiny creatures show the Creator's skill; Marcion's own Christ loved the Creator's man and uses the Creator's water, oil, milk, honey, and bread in his sacraments, and the Marcionites themselves live on the Creator's world.
Latin text · CSEL 47:308–309
At cum et animalia inrides minutiora, quae maximus artifex de industria ingeniis aut uiribus ampliauit, sic magnitudinem in mediocritate probari docens quemadmodum uirtutem; in infirmitate secundum apostolum, imitare, si potes, apis aedificia, formicae stabula, aranei retia, bombycis stamina, sustine, si potes, illas ipsas lectuli et tegetis tuae bestias, cantharidis uenena, muscae spicula, culicis et tubam et lanceam. qualia erunt maiora, cum tam modicis aut iuuaris aut laederis, ut nec in modicis despicias creatorem? postremo te tibi circumfer, intus ac foris considera hominem: placebit tibi uel hoc opus dei nostri, quod tuus dominus, ille deus melior, adamauit, propter quem in haec paupertina elementa de tertio caelo descendere laborauit, cuius causa in hac cellula creatoris etiam crucifixus est? sed ille quidem usque nunc nec aquam reprobauit creatoris, qua suos abluit, nec oleum, quo suos ungit, nec mellis et lactis societatem, qua suos infantat, nec panem, quo ipsum corpus suum repraesentat etiam in sacramentis propriis egens mendicitatibus creatoris. at tu, super magistrum discipulus et seruus super dominum, sublimius illo sapis, destruens quae ille desiderat. uolo inspicere, si ex fide saltim, ut non et ipse quae destruis adpetas. aduersaris caelum, et libertatem caeli in habitationibus captas: despicis terram — plane inimicae iam tuae, carnis, matricem — et, omnes medullas eius uictui extorques; reprobus et mare, sed usque ad copias eius, quas sanctiorem cibum deputas. rosam tibi si obtulero, non fastidies creatorem. hypocrita, ut apocarteresi probes te Marcionitam, id est repudiatorem creatoris, — nam haec apud uos pro martyrio adfectari debuisset, si uobis mundus displiceret — in quamcumque materiam resolueris, substantiam creatoris uteris. quanta obstinatio duritiae tuae! depretias in quibus et uiuis et moreris.
English · Claude translation
But when you mock even the smaller animals, which the greatest Craftsman has deliberately enlarged with skill or strength — teaching in this way that greatness is proved in smallness, just as power is in weakness, according to the apostle — imitate, if you can, the bee's buildings, the ant's granaries, the spider's webs, the silkworm's threads; endure, if you can, those very beasts of your bed and your mat, the blister-beetle's poison, the fly's sting, the gnat's trumpet and lance. What will the greater things be like, when you are either helped or harmed by such small ones? — so that you should not despise the Creator even in small things. Finally, look around at yourself, consider man inside and out: will even this work of our God please you, which your lord, that better god, loved so much, for whose sake he took the trouble to come down from the third heaven into these poor elements, for whose cause he was even crucified in this little cell of the Creator? He, at least, has not to this day rejected the Creator's water, with which he washes his own, nor the oil with which he anoints his own, nor the mixture of honey and milk with which he feeds his own as infants, nor the bread by which he represents his very body, needing even in his own sacraments the beggarly elements of the Creator. But you, a disciple above your master and a servant above your lord, are wiser than he, destroying what he desires. I want to see whether you are at least sincere, so that you yourself do not covet what you destroy. You are against heaven, and yet in your houses you seek the freedom of heaven; you despise the earth — plainly the mother of your flesh, which you now treat as an enemy — and yet you wring out all its marrow for your food; you reject the sea too, but only up to its produce, which you reckon a holier food. If I offer you a rose, you will not scorn the Creator. Hypocrite! Even if you were to prove yourself a Marcionite — that is, a repudiator of the Creator — by starving yourself to death (for that is what you ought to seek among you in place of martyrdom, if the world displeased you), into whatever matter you are dissolved, you will be making use of the Creator's substance. How great is the obstinacy of your hardness! You depreciate the things in which you both live and die.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Power in weakness” is 2 Cor 12:9; the third heaven, 2 Cor 12:2; “beggarly elements,” Gal 4:9; the disciple and master, Matt 10:24. The newly baptized were given milk and honey. The Marcionites abstained from meat but ate fish (“a holier food”). “Starving to death” renders the Greek loanword apocarteresis.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Line-break hyphen and stray letter in the digital text.; Stray letter (line marker) in the digital text.): magnitu-i dinem → magnitudinem; tegetis tuae bestias,I → tegetis tuae bestias,; super dominum. I, sublimius → super dominum, sublimius; adpetas. I aduersaris → adpetas. aduersaris; captas:I despicis → captas: despicis.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 1.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/14/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 1.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/14/).
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