On the Shows 24 · Sophia Scriptura

Latin text · CSEL 20:24–25

Quot adhuc modis probauimus, nihil ex his quae spectaculis deputantur placitum deo esse! at congruens seruo dei quod deo placitum non sit? si omnia propter diabolum instituta et ex diaboli rebus instructa monstrauimus (nihil enim non diaboli est quicquid dei non est uel deo displicet), hoc erit pompa diaboli, aduersus quem in signaculo fidei eieramus. quod autem eieramus, neque facto neque dicto neque uisu neque conspectu participare debemus. ceterum sic nos eieramus et rescindimus signaculum rescindendo testationem eius. numquid ergo superest, ut ab ipsis ethnicis responsum flagitemus? illi nobis iam renuntient, an liceat Christianis spectaculo uti. atquin hinc uel maxime intelligunt factum Christianum, de repudio spectaculorum. itaque negat manifeste qu per quod agnoscitur tollit. quid autem spei superest in eiusmodi homine? nemo in castra hostium transit nisi proiectis armis suis, nisi destitutis signis et sacramentis principis sui, nisi pactus simul perire.

English · Claude translation

In how many ways, then, have we now proved that nothing of what belongs to the shows is pleasing to God! Or is what is not pleasing to God fitting for the servant of God? If we have shown that all of them were instituted for the devil's sake and furnished from the devil's things (for whatever is not God's, or displeases God, is the devil's), this will be the pomp of the devil, which we renounced in the seal of faith. But what we have renounced, we ought not to share in by deed or word, by sight or glance. Otherwise we renounce in such a way that we break the seal by breaking its testimony. Does it remain, then, for us to demand an answer from the heathen themselves? Let them tell us now whether it is lawful for Christians to attend the shows. Indeed, it is chiefly from this that they know a man has become a Christian: from his rejection of the shows. So he plainly denies the faith who takes away the thing by which he is recognized. What hope is left in such a man? No one passes over into the camp of the enemy without throwing away his arms, deserting the standards and the oath of his commander, and agreeing to perish with the enemy.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 20:24–25 · 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)

Topics

Baptism, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

“The seal of faith” is baptism. Sacramenta here is the soldier's oath of allegiance, in keeping with the military image of the last sentence.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (word split in the digital text): institu ta → instituta.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Spect. 24 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-spectaculis/24/).

Plain text

Tertullian, Spect. 24 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-spectaculis/24/).