Prescription against Heretics 33
Summary: Many heresies were already present or foreshadowed in the apostles' day and condemned by them: denial of the resurrection, Judaizing, forbidding marriage, endless genealogies, the Nicolaitans, docetism, and Simon's magic.
Latin text · Oehler 2:31–32
Adhibeo super haec ipsarum doctrinarum recognitionem quae tunc sub apostolis fuerunt ab isdem apostolis et demonstratae et deieratae. Nam et sic facilius traducentur, dum aut iam tunc fuisse deprehenduntur, aut ex illis quae iam tunc fuerunt seminia sumpsisse. Paulus in prima ad Corinthios notat negatores et dubitatores resurrectionis. Haec opinio propria Sadducaeorum. Partem eius usurpat Marcion et Apelles et Valentinus, et si qui alii resurrectionem carnis infringunt. Et ad Galatas scribens invehitur in observatores et defensores circumcisionis et legis. Hebionis haeresis sic est. Timotheum instruens nuptiarum quoque interdictores suggillat. Ita instituunt Marcion et Apelles, eius secutor. Aeque tangit eos qui dicerent factam iam resurrectionem. Id de se Valentiniani asseverant. Sed et cum genealogias indeterminatas nominat, Valentinus agnoscitur, apud quem Aeon ille nescio qui novi et non unius nominis generat ex sua Charite Sensum et Veritatem, et hi aeque procreant ex se Sermonem et Vitam, dehinc et isti generant Hominem et Ecclesiam, de qua prima ogdoade Aeonum exinde decem alii, et duodecim reliqui Aeones miris nominibus oriuntur in meram fabulam triginta Aeonum. Idem apostolus, cum improbat elementis servientes, aliquid Hermogenis ostendit, qui materiam non natam introducens deo non nato eam comparat, et ita matrem elementorum deam faciens potest ei servire quam deo comparat. Ioannes vero in Apocalypsi idolothyta edentes et stupra committentes iubetur castigare. Sunt et nunc alii Nicolaitae. Gaiana haeresis dicitur. At in epistula eos maxime antichristos vocat qui Christum negarent in carnem venisse, et qui non putarent Iesum esse filium dei. Illud Marcion, hoc Hebion vindicavit. Simonianae autem magiae disciplina angelis serviens utique et ipsa inter idololatrias deputabatur et a Petro apostolo in ipso Simone damnabatur.
English · Claude translation
In addition to this I bring forward a review of the very doctrines that existed then, under the apostles, and were both pointed out and denounced by those same apostles. For in this way they will be exposed more easily, when they are found either to have existed already then or to have taken their seeds from those that existed already then. Paul, in the first letter to the Corinthians, censures those who deny and doubt the resurrection. This opinion was the Sadducees' own. Part of it is taken up by Marcion and Apelles and Valentinus, and whoever else undermines the resurrection of the flesh. And writing to the Galatians he inveighs against those who observe and defend circumcision and the law. Such is the heresy of Ebion. Instructing Timothy, he also rebukes those who forbid marriage. So teach Marcion and Apelles, his follower. He likewise touches those who said that the resurrection had already taken place. The Valentinians assert this of themselves. And when he names endless genealogies, Valentinus is recognized, in whose system that Aeon, whoever he is, of a new and more than one name, begets from his own Grace Mind and Truth; and these likewise procreate from themselves Word and Life; then these beget Man and Church; and from this first ogdoad of Aeons ten others, and the twelve remaining Aeons, arise with marvelous names, in the pure fable of thirty Aeons. The same apostle, when he condemns those who serve the elements, points to something of Hermogenes, who, introducing matter as unborn, makes it the equal of the unborn God, and so, making the mother of the elements a goddess, can serve what he makes equal to God. John, in the Apocalypse, is ordered to rebuke those who eat things sacrificed to idols and commit fornication. There are Nicolaitans of another kind even now; it is called the Gaian heresy. And in his letter he calls antichrists above all those who denied that Christ had come in the flesh and those who did not think that Jesus was the Son of God. Marcion claimed the first; Ebion the second. The teaching of Simon's magic, which serves angels, was itself reckoned among idolatries and was condemned by the apostle Peter in Simon himself.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are 1 Cor 15:12, Gal 5:2-4, 1 Tim 4:3, 2 Tim 2:18, 1 Tim 1:4, Gal 4:3, 9, Rev 2:14-15, 20, 1 John 4:3 and 2:22, and Acts 8:9-24. “Stupra” is rendered “fornication” here as the biblical sense of Rev 2:14, 20. The Gaian (Cainite) heresy is uncertain; the reading “Gaiana” may point to the Cainites. The Valentinian Aeons: “Grace” (Charis), “Mind,” “Truth,” “Word,” “Life,” “Man,” and “Church.” The digital text's “genealogies” is read as “genealogias.”
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (letter misread in the digital text): genealogies indeterminatas → genealogias indeterminatas.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Praescr. 33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/33/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Praescr. 33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/33/).
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