Against Marcion 1.17
Summary: Saying that Marcion's god saved mankind proves nothing until his existence is shown from works; and a good god who waited so long to reveal himself would be either ignorant, hesitant, powerless, or unwilling.
Latin text · CSEL 47:312–313
His compressi erumpunt dicere: (sufficit unicum hoc opus deo nostro, quod hominem liberauit summa et praecipua bonitate sua et omnibus locustis anteponenda. o deum maiorem, cuius tam magnum opus non potuit inueniri quam in homine dei minoris! enimuero prius est, ut eum probes esse per quae deum probari oportet, per opera, tunc deinde per beneficia. primo enim quaeritur, an sit, et ita, qualis sit. alterum de operibus, alterum de beneficiis dinoscetur. ceterum non quia liberasse dicitur hominem, ideo esse eum constat, sed si esse constiterit, tunc et liberasse dicetur, ut et an liberauerit constet, quia potuerit et esse et non liberasse. quomodo ergo, quia liberasse dicetur, etiam esse credetur, cum potuerit et esse et non liberasse?. Nunc, in isto articulo ab ignoti dei quaestione deducto si satis constitit tam nihil illum condidisse quam debuisse condidisse, uti cognosceretur ex operibus, quia si fuisset, cognosci debuisset, et utique a primordio rerum, — deum enim non decuisset latuisse — regrediar necesse est ad originem quaestionis dei ignoti, ut ceteros quoque ramulos eius excutiam. primo enim quaeri oportebit, qui postea se protulerit in notitiam cur postea et non a primordio rerum quibus utique necessarius, qua deus, et quidem necessarior quo melior latere non debuit. non enim potest dici non fuisse aut materiam aut causam cognoscendi deum, cum et homo a primordio esset in saeculo, cui nunc subuenit, et malitia creatoris, aduersus quam ut bonus subuenit. igitur aut ignorauit et causam et materiam suae reuelationis necessariae aut dubitauit ++ aut non potuit aut noluit. omnia haec deo indigna, maxime optimo. sed et hunc locum alibi implebimus exprobratione serae reuelationis, sicut nunc sola demonstratione.
English · Claude translation
Hard pressed by these arguments, they burst out: “This one work is enough for our god: that he has set man free by his supreme and pre-eminent goodness, which is to be preferred to all your locusts.” O greater god, whose work, great as it is, could be found only in the man of a lesser god! But first you must prove that he exists, through the means by which God must be proved — through works — and only then through benefits. For first it is asked whether he exists, and then what he is like; the one is discerned from works, the other from benefits. Besides, it is not established that he exists because he is said to have set man free; rather, if it is established that he exists, then he will also be said to have set man free, so that it may be established whether he did, since he could both exist and not have set man free. How, then, because he is said to have set man free, will he be believed to exist, when he could both exist and not have set man free?
Now, in this part of the question of the unknown god, if it has been sufficiently established that he created nothing as surely as that he ought to have created, so as to be known from his works — since, if he had existed, he ought to have been known, and indeed from the beginning of things, for it would not have befitted God to lie hidden — I must go back to the root of the question of the unknown god, so as to shake down its other twigs too. For first it must be asked why he who afterwards brought himself forward into knowledge did so afterwards and not from the beginning of things. For these he was surely necessary, as God — and indeed, the better, the more necessary — and he ought not to have lain hidden. For it cannot be said that there was no material or cause for knowing God, since man, whom he now succours, was in the world from the beginning, and so was the Creator's malice, against which, as the good god, he brings succour. Therefore he was either ignorant of the cause and material of his necessary revelation, or doubted, or could not, or would not. All these are unworthy of God, above all of the supremely good. But we shall fill out this topic elsewhere with a reproach of his late revelation, as now with a demonstration only.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “All your locusts” is a sneer at the Creator's lesser creatures. The digital text marks something after “dubitauit” with “++”; the sense is complete as translated.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR: u read as n.): dubitanit → dubitauit.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 1.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/17/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 1.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/17/).
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