Sophia Scriptura

On the Shows 18

Tertullian · On the Shows · ca. 197–202 · Carthage · Read in context

Summary: Though Paul mentions the stadium, the violence and vanity of athletics disfigure God's image, and wrestling mimics the devil who threw the first humans.

Latin text · CSEL 20:19–20

Quodsi et stadium contendas in scripturis nominari, sane obtinebis. sed quae in stadio geruntur, indigna conspectu tuo non negabis, pugnos et calces et colaphos et omnem, petulantiam manus et quamcumque humani oris, id est diuinae imaginis, depugnationem. non probabis usquam uanos cursus et iaculatus et saltus uaniores, nusquam tibi uires aut iniuriosae aut uanae placebunt, sed nec cura facticii corporis, ut plasticam dei supergressa, et propter Graeciae otium altiles, homines oderis. et palaestrica diaboli negotium est: primos homines diabolus elisit. ipse caestus colubrina uis est, tenax ad occupandum, tortuosa ad obligandum, liquida ad elabendum. nullus tibi coronarum usus est; quid de coronis uoluptates aucuparis?

English · Claude translation

If you argue that the stadium is named in the Scriptures, you will certainly win your point. But you will not deny that what is done in the stadium is unworthy of your sight: punches, kicks, cuffs, every wantonness of the hand, and every disfigurement of the human face, that is, of the image of God. You will nowhere approve the vain running and throwing, and the vainer leaping; nowhere will strength please you, whether it does harm or is merely vain; nor will care for an artificial body, as though it surpassed God's modelling; and you will hate men fattened for the idleness of Greece. Wrestling too is the devil's business: the devil first threw the first human beings. The very grip is the power of a serpent: tenacious in seizing, twisting in binding, slippery in escaping. You have no use for crowns; why do you hunt pleasures from crowns?

About this passage

Source
CSEL 20:19–20 · August Reifferscheid and Georg Wissowa, eds., Quinti Septimi Florentis Tertulliani Opera, Pars 1, CSEL 20 (Prague: Tempsky; Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1890), 1–29 · Latin text: August Reifferscheid and Georg Wissowa (CSEL 20), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in CSEL 20. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 20; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Scripture
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The stadium in Scripture is 1 Cor 9:24.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Spect. 18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-spectaculis/18/).

Plain text
Tertullian, Spect. 18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-spectaculis/18/).

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