Against Praxeas 10
Summary: No one can be his own father or son; the Monarchians' claim that God made himself his own Son abolishes both Father and Son, and God's omnipotence proves nothing unless Scripture shows he did it.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Latin text · CSEL 47:240–242
Ita ut pater, et filius est, et (ut) neque dies eadem et nox, neque pater idem et filius, ut sint ambo unus et utrumque alter, quod uanissimi isti Monarchiani uolunt. (ipse se), inquiunt, filium sibi fecit. atquin pater filium facit et patrem filius, et qui ex alterutro fiunt, a semetipsis sibi fieri nullo modo possunt, ut pater se sibi filium faciat et filius se sibi patrem praestet. quae instituit deus, etiam ipse custodit. habeat necesse est pater filium, ut pater sit, et filius patrem, ut filius sit. aliud est autem habere, aliud esse. uerbi gratia, ut maritus sim, habeam oportet uxorem, non ipse mihi ero uxor. sic etiam, ut pater sim, filium habebo, non ipse mihi ero filius, et ut filius sim, patrem habebo, non ipse mihi ero pater. quae enim me faciunt si habuero, tunc ero: pater, si filium habeam, filius, [ero] si patrem. porro si ipse ero quid eorum, iam non habeo quod ipse ero: nec patrem, quia ipse ero pater, nec filium, quia ipse ero filius. in quantum autem alterum ex his habere me oportet, alterum esse, in tantum, si utrumque fuero, alterum non ero, dum alterum non habeo. si enim ipse ero filius, qui et pater, iam non habeo filium, sed ipse sum filius. non habendo autem filium, dum ipse sum filius, quomodo pater ero? habere enim filium debeo, ut pater sim. non sum ergo filius, quia patrem non habeo, qui facit filium. aeque si ipse sum pater, qui et filius, iam non habeo patrem, sed ipse sum pater. non habendo autem patrem, dum ipse sum pater, quomodo filius ero? habere enim patrem debeo, ut filius sim. non ergo ero pater, quia filium non habeo, qui facit patrem. hoc erit totum ingenium diaboli, alterum ex altero excludere, dum utrumque in unum sub monarchiae fauore concludens neutrum haberi facit, ut et pater non sit. qui scilicet filium non habet, et filius non sit, qui aeque patrem non habet; dum enim pater est, filius non erit,*** sic monarchiam tenent qui nec patrem nec filium continent. sed nihil deo difficile: quis hoc nesciat? et: impossibilia apud saeculum possibilia apud deum: quis ignoret? et: stulta mundi elegit deus. ut confundat sapientia: legimus omnia. (ergo>, inquiunt, (difficile non fuit deo ipsum se et patrem et filium facere aduersus traditam formam rebus humanis. nam et sterilem parere contra naturam difficile deo non fuit, sicut nec uirginem. plane nihil deo difficile. sed si tam abrupte in praesumptionibus nostris hac sententia utamur. quiduis de deo confingere poterimus. quasi fecerit, quia facere potuerit. non autem, quia omnia potest facere, ideo (quo)que credendum est illum fecisse etiam quod non fecerit, sed an fecerit requirendum. potuit, si uoluisset, deus pennis hominem ad uolandum instruxisse, quod et miluis praestitit; non tamen, quia potuit, statim et fecit. potuit et Praxean et omnes pariter haereticos statim extinxisse; non tamen, quia potuit, extinxit. [oportebat enim et miluos esse et haereticos, oportebat et patrem crucifigi.] hac ratione erit aliquid et difficile deo, id scilicet, quodcumque non fecerit, non quia non potuerit, sed quia noluerit. dei enim posse uelle est, et non posse nolle. quod autem uoluit. et potuit et ostendit. ergo quia, si uoluit semetipsum sibi filium facere, potuit et quia, si potuit, fecit, tunc probabis illum et potuisse et uoluisse, si probaueris illum fecisse.
English · Claude translation
So he is either Father or Son; and just as day and night are not the same, so the Father and the Son are not the same, so that both should be one and each the other, as these most empty Monarchians would have it. “He made himself his own Son,” they say. On the contrary, the Father makes the Son, and the Son the Father; and those who are made from one another can in no way be made by themselves for themselves, so that the Father should make himself his own Son and the Son present himself as his own Father. What God has established, he himself also keeps. The Father must have a Son in order to be Father, and the Son a Father in order to be Son. But to have is one thing, to be another. For example, to be a husband I must have a wife; I shall not myself be my wife. So also, to be a father, I shall have a son; I shall not myself be my son; and to be a son I shall have a father; I shall not myself be my father. For I shall be these things if I have what makes me them: a father if I have a son, a son if I have a father. But if I am myself one of these, I no longer have what I myself shall be: neither a father, because I shall myself be the father, nor a son, because I shall myself be the son. And inasmuch as I must have the one and be the other, to that extent, if I am both, I shall not be the one, since I do not have the other. For if I am myself the son who is also the father, I no longer have a son, but am myself the son. And not having a son, since I am myself the son, how shall I be a father? For I must have a son to be a father. So I am not a son either, since I have no father, who makes a son. Likewise, if I am myself the father who is also the son, I no longer have a father, but am myself the father. And not having a father, since I am myself the father, how shall I be a son? For I must have a father to be a son. So I shall not be a father, since I have no son, who makes a father. This will be the whole cleverness of the devil: to exclude the one by the other, and, while shutting both up into one under favor of the monarchy, to cause neither to be held, so that he is not Father, since he has no Son, and he is not Son, since likewise he has no Father; for while he is Father, he will not be Son … So they hold the monarchy who hold neither Father nor Son. “But nothing is difficult for God”: who does not know this? And “things impossible with the world are possible with God”: who is ignorant of it? And “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise”: we have read it all. “So,” they say, “it was not difficult for God to make himself both Father and Son, contrary to the form handed down for human affairs. For it was not difficult for God, against nature, to make a barren woman bear, or a virgin either.” Certainly nothing is difficult for God. But if we use this maxim so recklessly in our presumptions, we shall be able to invent anything we like about God, as if he had done it because he could have done it. But it is not to be believed that because he can do all things he has therefore also done what he has not done; we must ask whether he has done it. God could, if he had wished, have fitted man with wings for flying, as he gave them to kites; yet, because he could, he did not therefore do it. He could also have extinguished Praxeas and all the heretics together at once; yet, because he could, he did not extinguish them. On this reasoning there will be something difficult for God too, namely whatever he has not done, not because he could not, but because he would not. For with God, to be able is to will, and not to be able is not to will. But what he has willed, he both could and has shown. So, since if he willed to make himself his own Son he could, and since if he could he did, you will prove that he could and willed only when you have proved that he did.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Gen 18:14 (Jer 32:17), Luke 18:27 (Matt 19:26), and 1 Cor 1:27; the allusions are Gen 18 (Sarah) and Isa 7:14. The digital text's opening “ita ut pater, et filius est” is read as “ita aut pater aut filius est” (“so he is either Father or Son”), as the sense and the older editions require. The editor deletes “ero” and the ironic sentence “For there had to be kites and heretics; the Father too had to be crucified”; they are omitted. The asterisks in the digital text mark a gap after “filius non erit”; it is shown as “…”. A garbled closing mark in the digital text (“se\\”) is read as “se),”.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (garbled bracket in the digital text): (ipse se\\ inquiunt → (ipse se), inquiunt.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Prax. 10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praxean/10/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Prax. 10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praxean/10/).
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