Against Praxeas 31
Summary: To believe in one God without the Son and the Spirit is the Jewish faith; the gospel reveals one God in three persons, and those who confuse Father and Son deny both, like the antichrists John condemns.
Latin text · CSEL 47:288–289
Ceterum Iudaicae fidei ista res, sic unum deum credere. ut filium adnumerare ei nolis et post filium spiritum, quid enim erit inter nos et illos nisi differentia ista? quod opus euangelii, quae est substantia noui testamenti statuens legem et prophetas usque ad Iohannem, si non exinde pater et filius et spiritus sanctus, tres crediti, unum deum sistunt? sic deus? uoluit nouare sacramentum, ut noue unus crederetur per filium et spiritum, ut coram iam deus in suis propriis nominibus et personis cognosceretur, qui et retro per filium et spiritum praedicatus non intellegebatur. uiderint igitur antichristi, qui negant patrem et filium. negant enim patrem. dum eundem filium dicunt, et negant filium, dum eundem patrem credunt, dando illis quae non sunt. auferendo quae sunt. qui uero confessus fuerit Christum filium dei, non patrem, deus in illo manet et ipse in deo. nos credimus testimonio dei, quo testatus est de filio suo: qui filium non habet, nec uitam habet. non habet autem filium qui eum alium quam filium credit.
English · Claude translation
Besides, it is a matter of the Jewish faith to believe in one God in such a way as to refuse to count the Son with him, and after the Son the Spirit. For what difference will there be between us and them but this? What is the work of the gospel, what is the substance of the New Testament, which sets the law and the prophets as lasting until John, if from then on the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, believed as three, do not make one God? God willed so to renew the sacrament that he might be believed as one in a new way, through the Son and the Spirit, so that God might now be known openly in his own proper names and persons, who in former times too, though preached through the Son and the Spirit, was not understood. Let them look to it, then, these antichrists, who deny the Father and the Son. For they deny the Father when they say he is the same as the Son, and they deny the Son when they believe him to be the same as the Father, giving them what they are not and taking away what they are. But “whoever confesses” that Christ is the Son of God, not the Father, “God abides in him and he in God.” We believe the testimony of God, by which he testified concerning his Son: “He who does not have the Son does not have life.” And he does not have the Son who believes him to be other than the Son.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Luke 16:16 (Matt 11:13), 1 John 2:22-23, 4:15, 5:9-12. The comparison with “the Jewish faith” is Tertullian's own polemic, translated as written. The digital text's “qiud,” “lohannem,” “Domi nibus,” and “acti christi” are corrected, and a missing full stop is supplied.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (letter misread in the digital text; letters misread in the digital text; letters transposed in the digital text; missing full stop in the digital text): qiud enim → quid enim; usque ad lohannem → usque ad Iohannem; Domi nibus → nominibus; acti christi → antichristi; quae sunt qui uero → quae sunt. qui uero.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Prax. 31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praxean/31/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Prax. 31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praxean/31/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text