 |
|
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture.
There is nothing without a beginning but God alone. Now, inasmuch as the beginning occupies the first place in the condition of all things, so it must necessarily take precedence in the treatment of them, if a clear knowledge is to be arrived at concerning their condition; for you could not find the means of examining even the quality of anything, unless you were certain of its existence, and that after discovering its origin. Since therefore I am brought, in the course of my little work, to this point, I require to know of Marcion the origin of his apostle even— I, who am to some degree a new disciple, the follower of no other master; who at the same time can believe nothing, except that nothing ought to be believed hastily (and that I may further say is hastily believed, which is believed without any examination of its beginning); in short, I who have the best reason possible for bringing this inquiry to a most careful solution, since a man is affirmed to me to be an apostle whom I do not find mentioned in the Gospel in the catalogue of the apostles. Indeed, when I hear that this man was chosen by the Lord after He had attained His rest in heaven, I feel that a kind of improvidence is imputable to Christ, for not knowing before that this man was necessary to Him; and because He thought that he must be added to the apostolic body in the way of a fortuitous encounter rather than a deliberate selection; by necessity (so to speak), and not voluntary choice, although the members of the apostolate had been duly ordained, and were now dismissed to their several missions. Wherefore, O shipmaster of Pontus, if you have never taken on board your small craft any contraband goods or smuggler's cargo, if you have never thrown overboard or tampered with a freight, you are still more careful and conscientious, I doubt not, in divine things; and so I should be glad if you would inform us under what bill of lading you admitted the Apostle Paul on board, who ticketed him, what owner forwarded him, who handed him to you, that so you may land him without any misgiving, lest he should turn out to belong to him, who can substantiate his claim to him by producing all his apostolic writings. He professes himself to be an apostle
— to use his own, words— not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:1 Of course, any one may make a profession concerning himself; but his profession is only rendered valid by the authority of a second person. One man signs, another countersigns; one man appends his seal, another registers in the public records. No one is at once a proposer and a seconder to himself. Besides, you have read, no doubt, that many shall come, saying, I am Christ.
Luke 21:8 Now if any one can pretend that he is Christ, how much more might a man profess to be an apostle of Christ! But still, for my own part, I appear in the character of a disciple and an inquirer; that so I may even thus both refute your belief, who have nothing to support it, and confound your shamelessness, who make claims without possessing the means of establishing them. Let there be a Christ, let there be an apostle, although of another god; but what matter? since they are only to draw their proofs out of the Testament of the Creator. Because even the book of Genesis so long ago promised me the Apostle Paul. For among the types and prophetic blessings which he pronounced over his sons, Jacob, when he turned his attention to Benjamin, exclaimed, Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall impart nourishment.
He foresaw that Paul would arise out of the tribe of Benjamin, a voracious wolf, devouring his prey in the morning: in order words, in the early period of his life he would devastate the Lord's sheep, as a persecutor of the churches; but in the evening he would give them nourishment, which means that in his declining years he would educate the fold of Christ, as the teacher of the Gentiles. Then, again, in Saul's conduct towards David, exhibited first in violent persecution of him, and then in remorse and reparation, on his receiving from him good for evil, we have nothing else than an anticipation of Paul in Saul— belonging, too, as they did, to the same tribe— and of Jesus in David, from whom He descended according to the Virgin's genealogy. Should you, however, disapprove of these types, the Acts of the Apostles, at all events, have handed down to me this career of Paul, which you must not refuse to accept. Thence I demonstrate that from a persecutor he became an apostle, not of men, neither by man;
Galatians 1:1 thence am I led to believe the Apostle himself; thence do I find reason for rejecting your defence of him, and for bearing fearlessly your taunt. Then you deny the Apostle Paul.
I do not calumniate him whom I defend. I deny him, to compel you to the proof of him. I deny him, to convince you that he is mine. If you have regard to our belief you should admit the particulars which comprise it. If you challenge us to your belief, (pray) tell us what things constitute its basis. Either prove the truth of what you believe, or failing in your proof, (tell us) how you believe. Else what conduct is yours, believing in opposition to Him from whom alone comes the proof of that which you believe? Take now from my point of view the apostle, in the same manner as you have received the Christ— the apostle shown to be as much mine as the Christ is. And here, too, we will fight within the same lines, and challenge our adversary on the mere ground of a simple rule, that even an apostle who is said not to belong to the Creator— nay, is displayed as in actual hostility to the Creator— can be fairly regarded as teaching nothing, knowing nothing, wishing nothing in favour of the Creator while it would be a first principle with him to set forth another god with as much eagerness as he would use in withdrawing us from the law of the Creator. It is not at all likely that he would call men away from Judaism without showing them at the same time what was the god in whom he invited them to believe; because nobody could possibly pass from allegiance to the Creator without knowing to whom he had to cross over. For either Christ had already revealed another god— in which case the apostle's testimony would also follow to the same effect, for fear of his not being else regarded as an apostle of the god whom Christ had revealed, and because of the impropriety of his being concealed by the apostle who had been already revealed by Christ— or Christ had made no such revelation concerning God; then there was all the greater need why the apostle should reveal a God who could now be made known by no one else, and who would undoubtedly be left without any belief at all, if he were revealed not even by an apostle. We have laid down this as our first principle, because we wish at once to profess that we shall pursue the same method here in the apostle's case as we adopted before in Christ's case, to prove that he proclaimed no new god; that is, we shall draw our evidence from the epistles of St. Paul himself. Now, the garbled form in which we have found the heretic's Gospel will have already prepared us to expect to find the epistles also mutilated by him with like perverseness— and that even as respects their number.
The epistle which we also allow to be the most decisive against Judaism, is that wherein the apostle instructs the Galatians. For the abolition of the ancient law we fully admit, and hold that it actually proceeds from the dispensation of the Creator,— a point which we have already often treated in the course of our discussion, when we showed that the innovation was foretold by the prophets of our God. Now, if the Creator indeed promised that the ancient things should pass away,
to be superseded by a new course of things which should arise, while Christ marks the period of the separation when He says, The law and the prophets were until John
Luke 16:16 — thus making the Baptist the limit between the two dispensations of the old things then terminating— and the new things then beginning, the apostle cannot of course do otherwise, (coming as he does) in Christ, who was revealed after John, than invalidate the old things
and confirm the new,
and yet promote thereby the faith of no other god than the Creator, at whose instance it was foretold that the ancient things should pass away. Therefore both the abrogation of the law and the establishment of the gospel help my argument even in this epistle, wherein they both have reference to the fond assumption of the Galatians, which led them to suppose that faith in Christ (the Creator's Christ, of course) was obligatory, but without annulling the law, because it still appeared to them a thing incredible that the law should be set aside by its own author. Again, if they had at all heard of any other god from the apostle, would they not have concluded at once, of themselves, that they must give up the law of that God whom they had left, in order to follow another? For what man would be long in learning, that he ought to pursue a new discipline, after he had taken up with a new god? Since, however, the same God was declared in the gospel which had always been so well known in the law, the only change being in the dispensation, the sole point of the question to be discussed was, whether the law of the Creator ought by the gospel to be excluded in the Christ of the Creator? Take away this point, and the controversy falls to the ground. Now, since they would all know of themselves, on the withdrawal of this point, that they must of course renounce all submission to the Creator by reason of their faith in another god, there could have been no call for the apostle to teach them so earnestly that which their own belief must have spontaneously suggested to them. Therefore the entire purport of this epistle is simply to show us that the supersession of the law comes from the appointment of the Creator— a point, which we shall still have to keep in mind. Since also he makes mention of no other god (and he could have found no other opportunity of doing so, more suitable than when his purpose was to set forth the reason for the abolition of the law— especially as the prescription of a new god would have afforded a singularly good and most sufficient reason), it is clear enough in what sense he writes, I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him who has called you to His grace to another gospel
Galatians 1:6-7 — He means) another
as to the conduct it prescribes, not in respect of its worship; another
as to the discipline it teaches, not in respect of its divinity; because it is the office of Christ's gospel to call men from the law to grace, not from the Creator to another god. For nobody had induced them to apostatize from the Creator, that they should seem to be removed to another gospel,
simply when they return again to the Creator. When he adds, too, the words, which is not another,
Galatians 1:7 he confirms the fact that the gospel which he maintains is the Creator's. For the Creator Himself promises the gospel, when He says by Isaiah: Get you up into the high mountain, you that bringest to Sion good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, you that bringest the gospel to Jerusalem.
Also when, with respect to the apostles personally, He says, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring good tidings of good
Isaiah 52:7 — even proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles, because He also says, In His name shall the Gentiles trust;
that is, in the name of Christ, to whom He says, I have given you as a light of the Gentiles.
Isaiah 42:6 However, you will have it that it is the gospel of a new god which was then set forth by the apostle. So that there are two gospels for two gods; and the apostle made a great mistake when he said that there is not another
gospel, Galatians 1:7 since there is (on the hypothesis) another; and so he might have made a better defence of his gospel, by rather demonstrating this, than by insisting on its being but one. But perhaps, to avoid this difficulty, you will say that he therefore added just afterwards, Though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel, let him be accursed,
Galatians 1:8 because he was aware that the Creator was going to introduce a gospel! But you thus entangle yourself still more. For this is now the mesh in which you are caught. To affirm that there are two gospels, is not the part of a man who has already denied that there is another. His meaning, however, is clear, for he has mentioned himself first (in the anathema): But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel.
Galatians 1:8 It is by way of an example that he has expressed himself. If even he himself might not preach any other gospel, then neither might an angel. He said angel
in this way, that he might show how much more men ought not to be believed, when neither an angel nor an apostle ought to be; not that he meant to apply an angel to the gospel of the Creator. He then cursorily touches on his own conversion from a persecutor to an apostle— confirming thereby the Acts of the Apostles, in which book may be found the very subject of this epistle, how that certain persons interposed, and said that men ought to be circumcised, and that the law of Moses was to be observed; and how the apostles, when consulted, determined, by the authority of the Holy Ghost, that a yoke should not be put upon men's necks which their fathers even had not been able to bear.
Now, since the Acts of the Apostles thus agree with Paul, it becomes apparent why you reject them. It is because they declare no other God than the Creator, and prove Christ to belong to no other God than the Creator; while the promise of the Holy Ghost is shown to have been fulfilled in no other document than the Acts of the Apostles. Now, it is not very likely that these should be found in agreement with the apostle, on the one hand, when they described his career in accordance with his own statement; but should, on the other hand, be at variance with him when they announce the (attribute of) divinity in the Creator's Christ— as if Paul did not follow the preaching of the apostles when he received from them the prescription of not teaching the Law.
But with regard to the countenance of Peter and the rest of the apostles, he tells us that fourteen years after he went up to Jerusalem,
in order to confer with them Galatians 2:1-2 about the rule which he followed in his gospel, lest perchance he should all those years have been running, and be running still, in vain, (which would be the case,) of course, if his preaching of the gospel fell short of their method. So great had been his desire to be approved and supported by those whom you wish on all occasions to be understood as in alliance with Judaism! When indeed he says, that neither was Titus circumcised,
Galatians 2:3 he for the first time shows us that circumcision was the only question connected with the maintenance of the law, which had been as yet agitated by those whom he therefore calls false brethren unawares brought in.
Galatians 2:4 These persons went no further than to insist on a continuance of the law, retaining unquestionably a sincere belief in the Creator. They perverted the gospel in their teaching, not indeed by such a tampering with the Scripture as should enable them to expunge the Creator's Christ, but by so retaining the ancient régime as not to exclude the Creator's law. Therefore he says: Because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ, that they might bring us into bondage, to whom we gave place by subjection not even for an hour.
Galatians 2:4-5 Let us only attend to the clear sense and to the reason of the thing, and the perversion of the Scripture will be apparent. When he first says, Neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised,
and then adds, And that because of false brethren unawares brought in,
Galatians 2:3-4 etc., he gives us an insight into his reason for acting in a clean contrary way, showing us wherefore he did that which he would neither have done nor shown to us, if that had not happened which induced him to act as he did. But then I want you to tell us whether they would have yielded to the subjection that was demanded, if these false brethren had not crept in to spy out their liberty? I apprehend not. They therefore gave way (in a partial concession), because there were persons whose weak faith required consideration. For their rudimentary belief, which was still in suspense about the observance of the law, deserved this concessive treatment, when even the apostle himself had some suspicion that he might have run, and be still running, in vain. Galatians 2:2 Accordingly, the false brethren who were the spies of their Christian liberty must be thwarted in their efforts to bring it under the yoke of their own Judaism before that Paul discovered whether his labour had been in vain, before that those who preceded him in the apostolate gave him their right hands of fellowship, before that he entered on the office of preaching to the Gentiles, according to their arrangement with him. He therefore made some concession, as was necessary, for a time; and this was the reason why he had Timothy circumcised, Acts 16:3 and the Nazarites introduced into the temple, Acts 21:23-26 which incidents are described in the Acts. Their truth may be inferred from their agreement with the apostle's own profession, how to the Jews he became as a Jew, that he might gain the Jews, and to them that were under the law, as under the law,
— and so here with respect to those who come in secretly,— and lastly, how he became all things to all men, that he might gain all.
Now, inasmuch as the circumstances require such an interpretation as this, no one will refuse to admit that Paul preached that God and that Christ whose law he was excluding all the while, however much he allowed it, owing to the times, but which he would have had summarily to abolish if he had published a new god. Rightly, then, did Peter and James and John give their right hand of fellowship to Paul, and agree on such a division of their work, as that Paul should go to the heathen, and themselves to the circumcision. Galatians 2:9 Their agreement, also, to remember the poor
Galatians 2:10 was in complete conformity with the law of the Creator, which cherished the poor and needy, as has been shown in our observations on your Gospel. It is thus certain that the question was one which simply regarded the law, while at the same time it is apparent what portion of the law it was convenient to have observed. Paul, however, censures Peter for not walking straightforwardly according to the truth of the gospel. No doubt he blames him; but it was solely because of his inconsistency in the matter of eating,
which he varied according to the sort of persons (whom he associated with) fearing them which were of the circumcision,
Galatians 2:12 but not on account of any perverse opinion touching another god. For if such a question had arisen, others also would have been resisted face to face
by the man who had not even spared Peter on the comparatively small matter of his doubtful conversation. But what do the Marcionites wish to have believed (on the point)? For the rest, the apostle must (be permitted to) go on with his own statement, wherein he says that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith:
Galatians 2:16 faith, however, in the same God to whom belongs the law also. For of course he would have bestowed no labour on severing faith from the law, when the difference of the god would, if there had only been any, have of itself produced such a severance. Justly, therefore, did he refuse to build up again (the structure of the law) which he had overthrown.
The law, indeed, had to be overthrown, from the moment when John cried in the wilderness, Prepare the ways of the Lord,
that valleys and hills and mountains may be filled up and levelled, and the crooked and the rough ways be made straight and smooth Luke 3:4-5 — in other words, that the difficulties of the law might be changed into the facilities of the gospel.
For he remembered that the time was come of which the Psalm spoke, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast off their yoke from us;
since the time when the nations became tumultuous, and the people imagined vain counsels;
when the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ,
in order that thenceforward man might be justified by the liberty of faith, not by servitude to the law, because the just shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:4 Now, although the prophet Habakkuk first said this, yet you have the apostle here confirming the prophets, even as Christ did. The object, therefore, of the faith whereby the just man shall live, will be that same God to whom likewise belongs the law, by doing which no man is justified. Since, then, there equally are found the curse in the law and the blessing in faith, you have both conditions set forth by the Creator: Behold,
says He, I have set before you a blessing and a curse.
Deuteronomy 11:26 You cannot establish a diversity of authors because there happens to be one of things; for the diversity is itself proposed by one and the same author. Why, however, Christ was made a curse for us,
Galatians 3:13 is declared by the apostle himself in a way which quite helps our side, as being the result of the Creator's appointment. But yet it by no means follows, because the Creator said of old, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree,
that Christ belonged to another god, and on that account was accursed even then in the law. And how, indeed, could the Creator have cursed by anticipation one whom He knew not of? Why, however, may it not be more suitable for the Creator to have delivered His own Son to His own curse, than to have submitted Him to the malediction of that god of yours,— in behalf, too, of man, who is an alien to him? Now, if this appointment of the Creator respecting His Son appears to you to be a cruel one, it is equally so in the case of your own god; if, on the contrary, it be in accordance with reason in your god, it is equally so— nay, much more so— in mine. For it would be more credible that that God had provided blessing for man, through the curse of Christ, who formerly set both a blessing and a curse before man, than that he had done so, who, according to you, never at any time pronounced either. We have received therefore, the promise of the Spirit,
as the apostle says, through faith,
even that faith by which the just man lives, in accordance with the Creator's purpose. What I say, then, is this, that that God is the object of faith who prefigured the grace of faith. But when he also adds, For you are all the children of faith,
Galatians 3:26 it becomes clear that what the heretic's industry erased was the mention of Abraham's name; for by faith the apostle declares us to be children of Abraham,
and after mentioning him he expressly called us children of faith
also. But how are we children of faith? And of whose faith, if not Abraham's? For since Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness;
Galatians 3:6 since, also, he deserved for that reason to be called the father of many nations,
while we, who are even more like him in believing in God, are thereby justified as Abraham was, and thereby also obtain life— since the just lives by his faith,— it therefore happens that, as he in the previous passage called us sons of Abraham,
since he is in faith our (common) father, so here also he named us children of faith,
for it was owing to his faith that it was promised that Abraham should be the father of (many) nations. As to the fact itself of his calling off faith from circumcision, did he not seek thereby to constitute us the children of Abraham, who had believed previous to his circumcision in the flesh? In short, faith in one of two gods cannot possibly admit us to the dispensation of the other, so that it should impute righteousness to those who believe in him, and make the just live through him, and declare the Gentiles to be his children through faith. Such a dispensation as this belongs wholly to Him through whose appointment it was already made known by the call of this self-same Abraham, as is conclusively shown by the natural meaning.
But,
says he, I speak after the manner of men: when we were children, we were placed in bondage under the elements of the world.
This, however, was not said after the manner of men.
For there is no figure here, but literal truth. For (with respect to the latter clause of this passage), what child (in the sense, that is, in which the Gentiles are children) is not in bondage to the elements of the world, which he looks up to in the light of a god? With regard, however, to the former clause, there was a figure (as the apostle wrote it); because after he had said, I speak after the manner of men,
he adds), Though it be but a man's covenant, no man disannuls, or adds thereto.
For by the figure of the permanency of a human covenant he was defending the divine testament. To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. He said not 'to seeds,' as of many; but as of one, 'to your seed,' which is Christ.
Galatians 3:16 Fie on Marcion's sponge! But indeed it is superfluous to dwell on what he has erased, when he may be more effectually confuted from that which he has retained. But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son
Galatians 4:4 — the God, of course, who is the Lord of that very succession of times which constitutes an age; who also ordained, as signs
of time, suns and moons and constellations and stars; who furthermore both predetermined and predicted that the revelation of His Son should be postponed to the end of the times. It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain (of the house) of the Lord shall be manifested
; and in the last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh
as Joel says. It was characteristic of Him (only) to wait patiently for the fulness of time, to whom belonged the end of time no less than the beginning. But as for that idle god, who has neither any work nor any prophecy, nor accordingly any time, to show for himself, what has he ever done to bring about the fulness of time, or to wait patiently its completion? If nothing, what an impotent state to have to wait for the Creator's time, in servility to the Creator! But for what end did He send His Son? To redeem them that were under the law,
Galatians 4:5 in other words, to make the crooked ways straight, and the rough places smooth,
as Isaiah says Isaiah 40:4 — in order that old things might pass away, and a new course begin, even the new law out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,
Isaiah 2:3 and that we might receive the adoption of sons,
Galatians 4:5 that is, the Gentiles, who once were not sons. For He is to be the light of the Gentiles,
and in His name shall the Gentiles trust.
Isaiah 42:4, 6 That we may have, therefore the assurance that we are the children of God, He has sent forth His Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Galatians 4:6 For in the last days,
says He, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.
Now, from whom comes this grace, but from Him who proclaimed the promise thereof? Who is (our) Father, but He who is also our Maker? Therefore, after such affluence (of grace), they should not have returned to weak and beggarly elements.
Galatians 4:9 By the Romans, however, the rudiments of learning are wont to be called elements. He did not therefore seek, by any depreciation of the mundane elements, to turn them away from their god, although, when he said just before, Howbeit, then, you serve them which by nature are no gods,
Galatians 4:8 he censured the error of that physical or natural superstition which holds the elements to be god; but at the God of those elements he aimed not in this censure. He tells us himself clearly enough what he means by elements,
even the rudiments of the law: You observe days, and months, and times, and years
Galatians 4:10 — the sabbaths, I suppose, and the preparations,
and the fasts, and the high days.
For the cessation of even these, no less than of circumcision, was appointed by the Creator's decrees, who had said by Isaiah, Your new moons, and your sabbaths, and your high days I cannot bear; your fasting, and feasts, and ceremonies my soul hates;
Isaiah 1:13-14 also by Amos, I hate, I despise your feast-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies;
Amos 5:21 and again by Hosea, I will cause to cease all her mirth, and her feast-days, and her sabbaths, and her new moons, and all her solemn assemblies.
Hosea 2:11 The institutions which He set up Himself, you ask, did He then destroy? Yes, rather than any other. Or if another destroyed them, he only helped on the purpose of the Creator, by removing what even He had condemned. But this is not the place to discuss the question why the Creator abolished His own laws. It is enough for us to have proved that He intended such an abolition, that so it may be affirmed that the apostle determined nothing to the prejudice of the Creator, since the abolition itself proceeds from the Creator. But as, in the case of thieves, something of the stolen goods is apt to drop by the way, as a clue to their detection; so, as it seems to me, it has happened to Marcion: the last mention of Abraham's name he has left untouched (in the epistle), although no passage required his erasure more than this, even his partial alteration of the text. For (it is written) that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman; but he who was of the bond maid was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise: which things are allegorized
(that is to say, they presaged something besides the literal history); for these are the two covenants,
or the two exhibitions (of the divine plans), as we have found the word interpreted, the one from the Mount Sinai,
in relation to the synagogue of the Jews, according to the law, which genders to bondage
— the other genders
(to liberty, being raised) above all principality, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come, which is the mother of us all,
in which we have the promise of (Christ's) holy church; by reason of which he adds in conclusion: So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free.
In this passage he has undoubtedly shown that Christianity had a noble birth, being sprung, as the mystery of the allegory indicates, from that son of Abraham who was born of the free woman; whereas from the son of the bond maid came the legal bondage of Judaism. Both dispensations, therefore, emanate from that same God by whom, as we have found, they were both sketched out beforehand. When he speaks of the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free,
Galatians 5:1 does not the very phrase indicate that He is the Liberator who was once the Master? For Galba himself never liberated slaves which were not his own, even when about to restore free men to their liberty. By Him, therefore, will liberty be bestowed, at whose command lay the enslaving power of the law. And very properly. It was not meet that those who had received liberty should be entangled again with the yoke of bondage
Galatians 5:1 — that is, of the law; now that the Psalm had its prophecy accomplished: Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us, since the rulers have gathered themselves together against the Lord and against His Christ.
All those, therefore, who had been delivered from the yoke of slavery he would earnestly have to obliterate the very mark of slavery— even circumcision, on the authority of the prophet's prediction. He remembered how that Jeremiah had said, Circumcise the foreskins of your heart;
Jeremiah 4:4 as Moses likewise had enjoined, Circumcise your hard hearts
Deuteronomy 10:16 — not the literal flesh. If, now, he were for excluding circumcision, as the messenger of a new god, why does he say that in Christ neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision?
Galatians 5:6 For it was his duty to prefer the rival principle of that which he was abolishing, if he had a mission from the god who was the enemy of circumcision.
Furthermore, since both circumcision and uncircumcision were attributed to the same Deity, both lost their power in Christ, by reason of the excellency of faith— of that faith concerning which it had been written, And in His name shall the Gentiles trust?
Isaiah 42:4 — of that faith which,
he says works by love.
Galatians 5:6 By this saying he also shows that the Creator is the source of that grace. For whether he speaks of the love which is due to God, or that which is due to one's neighbor— in either case, the Creator's grace is meant: for it is He who enjoins the first in these words, You shall love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength;
Deuteronomy 6:5 and also the second in another passage: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
Leviticus 19:18 But he that troubles you shall have to bear judgment.
Galatians 5:10 From what God? From (Marcion's) most excellent god? But he does not execute judgment. From the Creator? But neither will He condemn the maintainer of circumcision. Now, if none other but the Creator shall be found to execute judgment, it follows that only He, who has determined on the cessation of the law, shall be able to condemn the defenders of the law; and what, if he also affirms the law in that portion of it where it ought (to be permanent)? For,
says he, all the law is fulfilled in you by this: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'
Galatians 5:14 If, indeed, he will have it that by the words it is fulfilled
it is implied that the law no longer has to be fulfilled, then of course he does not mean that I should any more love my neighbour as myself, since this precept must have ceased together with the law. But no! we must evermore continue to observe this commandment. The Creator's law, therefore, has received the approval of the rival god, who has, in fact, bestowed upon it not the sentence of a summary dismissal, but the favour of a compendious acceptance; the gist of it all being concentrated in this one precept! But this condensation of the law is, in fact, only possible to Him who is the Author of it. When, therefore, he says, Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,
Galatians 6:2 since this cannot be accomplished except a man love his neighbour as himself, it is evident that the precept, You shall love your neighbour as yourself
(which, in fact, underlies the injunction, Bear one another's burdens
), is really the law of Christ,
though literally the law of the Creator. Christ, therefore, is the Creator's Christ, as Christ's law is the Creator's law. Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
Galatians 6:7 But Marcion's god can be mocked; for he knows not how to be angry, or how to take vengeance. For whatsoever a man sowes, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:7 It is then the God of recompense and judgment who threatens this. Let us not be weary in well-doing;
Galatians 6:9 and as we have opportunity, let us do good.
Galatians 6:10 Deny now that the Creator has given a commandment to do good, and then a diversity of precept may argue a difference of gods. If, however, He also announces recompense, then from the same God must come the harvest both of death and of life. But in due time we shall reap;
Galatians 6:9 because in Ecclesiastes it is said, For everything there will be a time.
Ecclesiastes 3:17 Moreover, the world is crucified unto me,
who am a servant of the Creator— the world,
(I say,) but not the God who made the world— and I unto the world,
Galatians 6:14 not unto the God who made the world. The world, in the apostle's sense, here means life and conversation according to worldly principles; it is in renouncing these that we and they are mutually crucified and mutually slain. He calls them persecutors of Christ.
But when he adds, that he bare in his body the scars of Christ
— since scars, of course, are accidents of body — he therefore expressed the truth, that the flesh of Christ is not putative, but real and substantial, the scars of which he represents as borne upon his body.
My preliminary remarks on the preceding epistle called me away from treating of its superscription, for I was sure that another opportunity would occur for considering the matter, it being of constant recurrence, and in the same form too, in every epistle. The point, then, is, that it is not (the usual) health which the apostle prescribes for those to whom he writes, but grace and peace.
1 Corinthians 1:3 I do not ask, indeed, what a destroyer of Judaism has to do with a formula which the Jews still use. For to this day they salute each other with the greeting of peace,
and formerly in their Scriptures they did the same. But I understand him by his practice plainly enough to have corroborated the declaration of the Creator: How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good, who preach the gospel of peace!
Isaiah 52:7 For the herald of good, that is, of God's grace
was well aware that along with it peace
also was to be proclaimed. Now, when he announces these blessings as from God the Father and the Lord Jesus,
1 Corinthians 1:3 he uses titles that are common to both, and which are also adapted to the mystery of our faith; and I suppose it to be impossible accurately to determine what God is declared to be the Father and the Lord Jesus, unless (we consider) which of their accruing attributes are more suited to them severally. First, then, I assert that none other than the Creator and Sustainer of both man and the universe can be acknowledged as Father and Lord; next, that to the Father also the title of Lord accrues by reason of His power, and that the Son too receives the same through the Father; then that grace and peace
are not only His who had them published, but His likewise to whom offence had been given. For neither does grace exist, except after offence; nor peace, except after war. Now, both the people (of Israel) by their transgression of His laws, and the whole race of mankind by their neglect of natural duty, had both sinned and rebelled against the Creator. Marcion's god, however, could not have been offended, both because he was unknown to everybody, and because he is incapable of being irritated. What grace, therefore, can be had of a god who has not been offended? What peace from one who has never experienced rebellion? The cross of Christ,
he says, is to them that perish foolishness; but unto such as shall obtain salvation, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18 And then, that we may know from whence this comes, he adds: For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.'
Now, since these are the Creator's words, and since what pertains to the doctrine of the cross he accounts as foolishness, therefore both the cross, and also Christ by reason of the cross, will appertain to the Creator, by whom were predicted the incidents of the cross. But if the Creator, as an enemy, took away their wisdom in order that the cross of Christ, considered as his adversary, should be accounted foolishness, how by any possibility can the Creator have foretold anything about the cross of a Christ who is not His own, and of whom He knew nothing, when He published the prediction? But, again, how happens it, that in the system of a Lord who is so very good, and so profuse in mercy, some carry off salvation, when they believe the cross to be the wisdom and power of God, while others incur perdition, to whom the cross of Christ is accounted folly;— (how happens it, I repeat,) unless it is in the Creator's dispensation to have punished both the people of Israel and the human race, for some great offence committed against Him, with the loss of wisdom and prudence? What follows will confirm this suggestion, when he asks, Hath not God infatuated the wisdom of this world?
1 Corinthians 1:20 and when he adds the reason why: For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
1 Corinthians 1:21 But first a word about the expression the world;
because in this passage particularly, the heretics expend a great deal of their subtlety in showing that by world is meant the lord of the world. We, however, understand the term to apply to any person that is in the world, by a simple idiom of human language, which often substitutes that which contains for that which is contained. The circus shouted,
The forum spoke,
and The basilica murmured,
are well-known expressions, meaning that the people in these places did so. Since then the man, not the god, of the world in his wisdom knew not God, whom indeed he ought to have known (both the Jew by his knowledge of the Scriptures, and all the human race by their knowledge of God's works), therefore that God, who was not acknowledged in His wisdom, resolved to smite men's knowledge with His foolishness, by saving all those who believe in the folly of the preached cross. Because the Jews require signs,
who ought to have already made up their minds about God, and the Greeks seek after wisdom,
1 Corinthians 1:22 who rely upon their own wisdom, and not upon God's. If, however, it was a new god that was being preached, what sin had the Jews committed, in seeking after signs to believe; or the Greeks, when they hunted after a wisdom which they would prefer to accept? Thus the very retribution which overtook both Jews and Greeks proves that God is both a jealous God and a Judge, inasmuch as He infatuated the world's wisdom by an angry and a judicial retribution. Since, then, the causes are in the hands of Him who gave us the Scriptures which we use, it follows that the apostle, when treating of the Creator, (as Him whom both Jew and Gentile as yet have) not known, means undoubtedly to teach us, that the God who is to become known (in Christ) is the Creator. The very stumbling-block
which he declares Christ to be to the Jews,
1 Corinthians 1:23 points unmistakeably to the Creator's prophecy respecting Him, when by Isaiah He says: Behold I lay in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.
Isaiah 8:14 This rock or stone is Christ. Isaiah 28:16 This stumbling-stone Marcion retains still. Now, what is that foolishness of God which is wiser than men,
but the cross and death of Christ? What is that weakness of God which is stronger than men,
1 Corinthians 1:25 but the nativity and incarnation of God? If, however, Christ was not born of the Virgin, was not constituted of human flesh, and thereby really suffered neither death nor the cross, there was nothing in Him either of foolishness or weakness; nor is it any longer true, that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;
nor, again, has God chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty;
nor the base things
and the least things in the world, and things which are despised, which are even as nothing
(that is, things which really are not), to bring to nothing things which are
(that is, which really are). 1 Corinthians 1:27 For nothing in the dispensation of God is found to be mean, and ignoble, and contemptible. Such only occurs in man's arrangement. The very Old Testament of the Creator itself, it is possible, no doubt, to charge with foolishness, and weakness, and dishonour and meanness, and contempt. What is more foolish and more weak than God's requirement of bloody sacrifices and of savoury holocausts? What is weaker than the cleansing of vessels and of beds? What more dishonourable than the discoloration of the reddening skin? Leviticus 13:2-6 What so mean as the statute of retaliation? What so contemptible as the exception in meats and drinks? The whole of the Old Testament, the heretic, to the best of my belief, holds in derision. For God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound its wisdom. Marcion's god has no such discipline, because he does not take after (the Creator) in the process of confusing opposites by their opposites, so that no flesh shall glory; but, as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.
In what Lord? Surely in Him who gave this precept. Unless, forsooth, the Creator enjoined us to glory in the god of Marcion.
By all these statements, therefore, does he show us what God he means, when he says, We speak the wisdom of God among them that are perfect.
1 Corinthians 2:6-7 It is that God who has confounded the wisdom of the wise, who has brought to nought the understanding of the prudent, who has reduced to folly the world's wisdom, by choosing its foolish things, and disposing them to the attainment of salvation. This wisdom, he says, once lay hidden in things that were foolish, weak, and lacking in honour; once also was latent under figures, allegories, and enigmatical types; but it was afterwards to be revealed in Christ, who was set as a light to the Gentiles,
Isaiah 42:6 by the Creator who promised through the mouth of Isaiah that He would discover the hidden treasures, which eye had not seen.
Now, that that god should have ever hidden anything who had never made a cover wherein to practise concealment, is in itself a wholly incredible idea. If he existed, concealment of himself was out of the question— to say nothing of any of his religious ordinances. The Creator, on the contrary, was as well known in Himself as His ordinances were. These, we know, were publicly instituted in Israel; but they lay overshadowed with latent meanings, in which the wisdom of God was concealed, to be brought to light by and by among the perfect,
when the time should come, but pre-ordained in the counsels of God before the ages.
1 Corinthians 2:7 But whose ages, if not the Creator's? For because ages consist of times, and times are made up of days, and months, and years; since also days, and months, and years are measured by suns, and moons, and stars, which He ordained for this purpose (for they shall be,
says He, for signs of the months and the years
), it clearly follows that the ages belong to the Creator, and that nothing of what was fore-ordained before the ages can be said to be the property of any other being than Him who claims the ages also as His own. Else let Marcion show that the ages belong to his god. He must then also claim the world itself for him; for it is in it that the ages are reckoned, the vessel as it were of the times, as well as the signs thereof, or their order. But he has no such demonstration to show us. I go back therefore to the point, and ask him this question: Why did (his god) fore-ordain our glory before the ages of the Creator? I could understand his having predetermined it before the ages, if he had revealed it at the commencement of time. But when he does this almost at the very expiration of all the ages of the Creator, his predestination before the ages, and not rather within the ages, was in vain, because he did not mean to make any revelation of his purpose until the ages had almost run out their course. For it is wholly inconsistent in him to be so forward in planning purposes, who is so backward in revealing them.
In the Creator, however, the two courses were perfectly compatible— both the predestination before the ages and the revelation at the end thereof, because that which He both fore-ordained and revealed He also in the intermediate space of time announced by the pre-ministration of figures, and symbols, and allegories. But because (the apostle) subjoins, on the subject of our glory, that none of the princes of this world knew it, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,
1 Corinthians 2:8 the heretic argues that the princes of this world crucified the Lord (that is, the Christ of the rival god) in order that this blow might even recoil on the Creator Himself. Any one, however, who has seen from what we have already said how our glory must be regarded as issuing from the Creator, will already have come to the conclusion that, inasmuch as the Creator settled it in His own secret purpose, it properly enough was unknown to all the princes and powers of the Creator, on the principle that servants are not permitted to know their masters' plans, much less the fallen angels and the leader of transgression himself, the devil; for I should contend that these, on account of their fall, were greater strangers still to any knowledge of the Creator's dispensations. But it is no longer open to me even to interpret the princes and powers of this world as the Creator's, since the apostle imputes ignorance to them, whereas even the devil according to our Gospel recognised Jesus in the temptation, Matthew 4:1-11 and, according to the record which is common to both (Marcionites and ourselves) the evil spirit knew that Jesus was the Holy One of God, and that Jesus was His name, and that He was come to destroy them. Luke 4:34 The parable also of the strong man armed, whom a stronger than he overcame and seized his goods, is admitted by Marcion to have reference to the Creator: therefore the Creator could not have been ignorant any longer of the God of glory, since He is overcome by him; nor could He have crucified him whom He was unable to cope with. The inevitable inference, therefore, as it seems to me, is that we must believe that the princes and powers of the Creator did knowingly crucify the God of glory in His Christ, with that desperation and excessive malice with which the most abandoned slaves do not even hesitate to slay their masters. For it is written in my Gospel that Satan entered into Judas.
Luke 22:3 According to Marcion, however, the apostle in the passage under consideration 1 Corinthians 2:8 does not allow the imputation of ignorance, with respect to the Lord of glory, to the powers of the Creator; because, indeed, he will have it that these are not meant by the princes of this world.
But (the apostle) evidently did not speak of spiritual princes; so that he meant secular ones, those of the princely people, (chief in the divine dispensation, although) not, of course, among the nations of the world, and their rulers, and king Herod, and even Pilate, and, as represented by him, that power of Rome which was the greatest in the world, and then presided over by him. Thus the arguments of the other side are pulled down, and our own proofs are thereby built up. But you still maintain that our glory comes from your god, with whom it also lay in secret. Then why does your god employ the self-same Scripture which the apostle also relies on? What has your god to do at all with the sayings of the prophets? Who has discovered the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counsellor?
Isaiah 40:13 So says Isaiah. What has he also to do with illustrations from our God? For when (the apostle) calls himself a wise master-builder,
1 Corinthians 3:10 we find that the Creator by Isaiah designates the teacher who sketches out the divine discipline by the same title, I will take away from Judah the cunning artificer,
etc. And was it not Paul himself who was there foretold, destined to be taken away from Judah
— that is, from Judaism— for the erection of Christianity, in order to lay that only foundation, which is Christ?
1 Corinthians 3:11 Of this work the Creator also by the same prophet says, Behold, I lay in Sion for a foundation a precious stone and honourable; and he that rests thereon shall not be confounded.
Isaiah 28:16 Unless it be, that God professed Himself to be the builder up of an earthly work, that so He might not give any sign of His Christ, as destined to be the foundation of such as believe in Him, upon which every man should build at will the superstructure of either sound or worthless doctrine; forasmuch as it is the Creator's function, when a man's work shall be tried by fire, (or) when a reward shall be recompensed to him by fire; because it is by fire that the test is applied to the building which you erect upon the foundation which is laid by Him, that is, the foundation of His Christ. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16 Now, since man is the property, and the work, and the image and likeness of the Creator, having his flesh, formed by Him of the ground, and his soul of His afflatus, it follows that Marcion's god wholly dwells in a temple which belongs to another, if so be we are not the Creator's temple. But if any man defile the temple of God, he shall be himself destroyed
— of course, by the God of the temple. 1 Corinthians 3:17 If you threaten an avenger, you threaten us with the Creator. You must become fools, that you may be wise.
1 Corinthians 3:18 Wherefore? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
1 Corinthians 3:19 With what God? Even if the ancient Scriptures have contributed nothing in support of our view thus far, an excellent testimony turns up in what (the apostle) here adjoins: For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness; and again, The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
For in general we may conclude for certain that he could not possibly have cited the authority of that God whom he was bound to destroy, since he would not teach for Him. Therefore,
says he, let no man glory in man;
1 Corinthians 3:21 an injunction which is in accordance with the teaching of the Creator, wretched is the man that trusts in man;
Jeremiah 17:5 again, It is better to trust in the Lord than to confide in man;
and the same thing is said about glorying (in princes).
And the hidden things of darkness He will Himself bring to light,
1 Corinthians 4:5 even by Christ; for He has promised Christ to be a Light, Isaiah 42:6 and Himself He has declared to be a lamp, searching the hearts and reins.
From Him also shall praise be had by every man,
1 Corinthians 4:5 from whom proceeds, as from a judge, the opposite also of praise. But here, at least, you say he interprets the world to be the God thereof, when he says: We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
1 Corinthians 4:9 For if by world he had meant the people thereof, he would not have afterwards specially mentioned men.
To prevent, however, your using such an argument as this, the Holy Ghost has providentially explained the meaning of the passage thus: We are made a spectacle to the world,
i.e. both to angels,
who minister therein, and to men,
who are the objects of their ministration. Of course, a man of the noble courage of our apostle (to say nothing of the Holy Ghost) was afraid, when writing to the children whom he had begotten in the gospel, to speak freely of the God of the world; for against Him he could not possibly seem to have a word to say, except only in a straightforward manner! I quite admit, that, according to the Creator's law, Leviticus 18:8 the man was an offender who had his father's wife.
1 Corinthians 5:1 He followed, no doubt, the principles of natural and public law. When, however, he condemns the man to be delivered unto Satan,
1 Corinthians 5:5 he becomes the herald of an avenging God. It does not matter that he also said, For the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord,
1 Corinthians 5:5 since both in the destruction of the flesh and in the saving of the spirit there is, on His part, judicial process; and when he bade the wicked person be put away from the midst of them,
1 Corinthians 5:13 he only mentioned what is a very frequently recurring sentence of the Creator. Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened.
1 Corinthians 5:7 The unleavened bread was therefore, in the Creator's ordinance, a figure of us (Christians). For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.
1 Corinthians 5:7 But why is Christ our passover, if the passover be not a type of Christ, in the similitude of the blood which saves, and of the Lamb, which is Christ? Exodus 12 Why does (the apostle) clothe us and Christ with symbols of the Creator's solemn rites, unless they had relation to ourselves? When, again, he warns us against fornication, he reveals the resurrection of the flesh. The body,
says he, is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body,
1 Corinthians 6:13 just as the temple is for God, and God for the temple. A temple will therefore pass away with its god, and its god with the temple. You see, then, how that He who raised up the Lord will also raise us up.
1 Corinthians 6:14 In the body will He raise us, because the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And suitably does he add the question: Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ?
1 Corinthians 6:15 What has the heretic to say? That these members of Christ will not rise again, for they are no longer our own? For,
he says, you are bought with a price.
1 Corinthians 6:20 A price! surely none at all was paid, since Christ was a phantom, nor had He any corporeal substance which He could pay for our bodies! But, in truth, Christ had wherewithal to redeem us; and since He has redeemed, at a great price, these bodies of ours, against which fornication must not be committed (because they are now members of Christ, and not our own), surely He will secure, on His own account, the safety of those whom He made His own at so much cost! Now, how shall we glorify, how shall we exalt, God in our body, 1 Corinthians 6:20 which is doomed to perish? We must now encounter the subject of marriage, which Marcion, more continent than the apostle, prohibits. For the apostle, although preferring the grace of continence, 1 Corinthians 7:7-8 yet permits the contraction of marriage and the enjoyment of it, and advises the continuance therein rather than the dissolution thereof. 1 Corinthians 7:27 Christ plainly forbids divorce, Moses unquestionably permits it.
Now, when Marcion wholly prohibits all carnal intercourse to the faithful (for we will say nothing about his catechumens), and when he prescribes repudiation of all engagements before marriage, whose teaching does he follow, that of Moses or of Christ? Even Christ, however, when He here commands the wife not to depart from her husband, or if she depart, to remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband,
1 Corinthians 7:10-11 both permitted divorce, which indeed He never absolutely prohibited, and confirmed (the sanctity) of marriage, by first forbidding its dissolution; and, if separation had taken place, by wishing the nuptial bond to be resumed by reconciliation. But what reasons does (the apostle) allege for continence? Because the time is short.
1 Corinthians 7:29 I had almost thought it was because in Christ there was another god! And yet He from whom emanates this shortness of the time, will also send what suits the said brevity. No one makes provision for the time which is another's. You degrade your god, O Marcion, when you make him circumscribed at all by the Creator's time. Assuredly also, when (the apostle) rules that marriage should be only in the Lord,
1 Corinthians 7:39 that no Christian should intermarry with a heathen, he maintains a law of the Creator, who everywhere prohibits marriage with strangers. But when he says, although there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth,
1 Corinthians 8:5 the meaning of his words is clear— not as if there were gods in reality, but as if there were some who are called gods, without being truly so. He introduces his discussion about meats offered to idols with a statement concerning idols (themselves): We know that an idol is nothing in the world.
1 Corinthians 8:4 Marcion, however, does not say that the Creator is not God; so that the apostle can hardly be thought to have ranked the Creator among those who are called gods, without being so; since, even if they had been gods, to us there is but one God, the Father.
1 Corinthians 8:6 Now, from whom do all things come to us, but from Him to whom all things belong? And pray, what things are these? You have them in a preceding part of the epistle: All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come.
1 Corinthians 3:21-22 He makes the Creator, then the God of all things, from whom proceed both the world and life and death, which cannot possibly belong to the other god. From Him, therefore, among the all things
comes also Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:23 When he teaches that every man ought to live of his own industry, 1 Corinthians 9:13 he begins with a copious induction of examples— of soldiers, and shepherds, and husbandmen. 1 Corinthians 9:7 But he wanted divine authority. What was the use, however, of adducing