Against Marcion 1.7
Summary: That Scripture calls others “gods” proves nothing: supreme greatness belongs to God's eternal substance, not to the name, and so two gods can be neither equal nor unequal.
Latin text · CSEL 47:298–300
Temptabis ad haec de nomine dei concutere retractatum; ut passiuo et in alios quoque permisso, quia scriptum sit:! deus deorum stetit in ecclesia deorum, in medio autem deos diiudicabit, et: ego dixi, uos dii estis. nec tamen idcirco eis competat possessio summi magni, quia dii cognominentur; ita nec creatori. respondebo et stulto, qui nec hoc recogitauerit, ne tantundem et in deum Marcionis possit retorqueri, ut et illum deum dictum nec ideo tamen summum magnum probatum, sicut nec angeli aut homines creatoris. si communio nominum condicionibus praeiudicat, quanti nequam serui regum nominibus insultant, Alexandri et Darii et Olofernae? nec tamen ideo regibus id quod sunt detrahetur. nam et ipsa idola gentium dei uulgo, sed deus nemo ea re, qua deus dicitur. ita ego non nomini dei nec sono nec notae nominis huius summum magnum in creatore defendo, sed ipsi substantiae, cui nomen hoc contigit. hanc inueniens solam innatam infectam, solam aeternam et uniuersitatis conditricem, non nomini, sed statui, nec appellationi, sed condicioni eius summum magnum et adscribo et uindico. et ideo. quia deus iam uocari obtinuit substantia cui adscribo, nomini me adscribere putas, quia necesse est per nomen ostendam cui adscribam substantiae, scilicet qua constat qui deus dicitur. at summum magnum ex substantia, non ex nomine, deputatur. denique hoc et Marcion suo deo uindicans, secundum statum, non secundum uocabulum uindicat. 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, quae deus dicitur, quia in quantum dii uocantur, 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 iam regula summi magni comparationem non sustinens, nec disparia, quia et alia summi magni regula occurrit, diminutionem non admittens. haesisti, Marcion, in medio Ponti tui aestu. utrimque te fluctus ueritatis inuoluunt. nec pares nec dispares deos sistere potes. duo enim non sunt. quod pertineat proprie ad numeri retractatum, quamquam tota materia de duobus deis dimicetur, his interim lineis eum clusimus, intra quas de singularibus iam proprietatibus congrediemur.
English · Claude translation
Against this you will try to shake our treatment by way of the name of God, as a name loosely used and allowed to others as well, because it is written: “God has stood in the assembly of gods, and in their midst he will judge between gods,” and: “I said, You are gods.” Yet, you will say, the possession of the supreme great does not belong to these just because they are called gods; so neither does it belong to the Creator. I shall answer the fool — who has not reflected on this either — that the same argument might be turned back against Marcion's god: he too is called god, and yet is not thereby proved to be the supreme great, any more than the Creator's angels or men. If sharing names prejudges conditions, how many worthless slaves insult kings by bearing the names of Alexander and Darius and Holofernes! Yet the kings will not for that reason lose what they are. For even the idols of the nations are commonly called gods, but none is God by the fact that it is called god. So I defend the supreme great in the Creator not for the sake of the name of God, nor the sound or sign of that name, but for the very substance to which this name has fallen. Finding this alone unborn and unmade, alone eternal and the founder of the universe, I ascribe and claim the supreme great for it not because of its name but because of its state, not because of its title but because of its condition. And because the substance to which I ascribe it has already come to be called God, you think I am ascribing it to the name, since I must necessarily indicate by the name the substance to which I ascribe it — namely, that in which he consists who is called God. But the supreme great is reckoned from the substance, not from the name. Indeed Marcion too, claiming it for his god, claims it according to state, not according to vocabulary.
That supreme great, then, which we ascribe to God by the law of substance, not by the chance of a name, we contend must be present equally in two who consist of that substance which is called God; because in so far as they are called gods — that is, supreme greats, being of a substance rightly called unborn and eternal and therefore great and supreme — to that extent one supreme great cannot be held less or lower than another supreme great. If the happiness, loftiness, and integrity of the supreme great will stand firm in Marcion's god, it will stand equally in ours; if not in ours, then not in Marcion's either. Therefore the two supreme greats will be neither equal, because the rule of the supreme great already laid down forbids it, not tolerating comparison; nor unequal, because another rule of the supreme great confronts us, not admitting diminution. You are stuck, Marcion, in the middle of the surge of your own Pontus. The waves of truth engulf you on both sides. You can set up gods neither equal nor unequal, for there are not two. As far as the treatment of number properly goes — although the whole matter is fought over the two gods — we have meanwhile enclosed him within these lines, within which we shall now engage on the particular properties.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Ps 82:1 and 82:6 (81:1, 81:6 Vulg.). Correction: “mento” read as “merito”.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR: ri read as n (“merito”).): scilicet mento innatae → scilicet merito innatae.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 1.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/7/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 1.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/7/).
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