# On Flight in Persecution - Author: [Tertullian](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/tertullian/) - Latin title: *De fuga in persecutione* - Date: ca. 208–213 (approximate) - Source: Franz Oehler, ed., Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani quae supersunt omnia, vol. 1 (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1853), 461–492 (Latin text: Franz Oehler (Oehler 1, 1853), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Editions and translations: Tertulliani Opera, Pars 2: Opera montanistica, CCSL 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1954) - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/ - Passages: 14 ## On Flight in Persecution 1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-1 - Source: Oehler 1:461–463 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Answering Fabius, who asked whether Christians may flee in persecution, Tertullian first argues that persecution comes by God's will, as the winnowing and testing of his servants, since it makes them better. ### Latin text Quaesisti proxime, Fabi frater, fugiendum necne sit in persecutione, quod nescio quid annuntiaretur. Ibidem ego oblocutus aliquid pro loco ac tempore et quarundam personarum importunitate semitractatam materiam abstuli mecum plenius eam de stilo nunc renuntiaturus, utpote quam mihi tua consultatio commendarat et condicio temporum suo iam nomine iniunxerat. Quanto enim frequentiores imminent persecutiones, tanto examinatio procuranda est, quomodo eas excipere fides debeat. Procuranda autem examinatio penes vos, qui, si forte, paracletum non recipiendo deductorem omnis veritatis merito adhuc etiam aliis quaestionibus obnixi estis. Igitur consultationi tuae ordinem quoque induimus, animadvertentes ante determinari oportere de statu ipsius persecutionis, utrum a deo obveniat, an a diabolo, quo facilius de obitu eius constare possit. Omnis enim rei inspectio auctore cognito planior. Satis est quidem praescribere nihil fieri sine dei voluntate. Sed non statim hac sententia ceteris retractatibus locum dabimus, ne a praesenti articulo avocemur, si qui responderit: Ergo et malum a deo et delictum a deo, nihil iam in diabolo, nihil etiam in nobis ipsis. De persecutione nunc quaeritur. Circa hanc interim dixerim nihil fieri sine dei voluntate, respiciens eam inprimis dignam deo esse et, ut ita dixerim, necessariam, ad probationem scilicet servorum eius sive reprobationem. Quis est enim exitus persecutionis, quis effectus alius, nisi probatio et reprobatio fidei, qua suos utique dominus examinabit? Hoc domini iudicium est persecutio, per quam quis aut probatus aut reprobatus iudicatur. Porro iudicium soli deo competit. Haec pala illa, quae et nunc dominicam aream purgat, ecclesiam scilicet, confusum acervum fidelium eventilans et discernens frumentum martyrum et paleas negatorum, et haec etiam scalae, quas somniat Iacob, aliis ascensum in superiora, aliis descensum ad inferiora demonstrantes. Sic et agonem intellegi capit persecutionem. A quo certamen edicitur, nisi a quo corona et praemia proponuntur? Legis edictum agonis istius in Apocalypsi, quibus praemiis ad victoriam invitet vel maxime illos qui proprie vicerint in persecutione, vincendo luctati revera non adversus carnem et sanguinem, sed adversus spiritalia nequitiae. Ita agnosces ad eundem agonothetam pertinere certaminis arbitrium qui invitat ad praemium. Totum quod agitur in persecutione gloria dei est, probantis et reprobantis, imponentis et deponentis. Quod autem ad gloriam dei pertinet, utique ex voluntate illius eveniet. Sed quando deus magis creditur, nisi cum magis timetur? nisi in tempore persecutionis? Ecclesia in attonito est. Tunc et fides in expeditione sollicitior et disciplinatior in ieiuniis et stationibus et orationibus et humilitate, in alterutra diligentia et dilectione, in sanctitate et sobrietate. Non enim vacatur nisi timori et spei. Adeo et ex hoc ipso ostenditur nobis non posse diabolo deputari eam quae meliores efficit dei servos. ### English translation (Claude) You asked recently, brother Fabius, whether one should flee in persecution or not, because some news or other was being reported. At the time I said something against it, as suited the place and the occasion, and, because of the importunity of certain persons, I carried the subject away with me only half treated, intending now to set it out more fully in writing, since your inquiry had commended it to me and the state of the times had already laid it on me in its own right. For the more frequently persecutions threaten, the more we must attend to examining how faith ought to receive them. And the examination must be attended to among you, who, by not receiving the Paraclete, the guide into all truth, are naturally still beset by other questions as well. So we also give your inquiry an order, noting that we must first determine the character of persecution itself, whether it comes from God or from the devil, so that it may be easier to be clear about how to meet it. For the examination of anything is plainer once its author is known. It is indeed enough to lay down that nothing happens without the will of God. But we shall not at once, by this statement, give room to other discussions, lest we be called away from the present point, if someone should reply: “Then evil too is from God, and sin is from God; nothing is any longer in the devil, nothing even in ourselves.” The present question is persecution. Concerning it, meanwhile, I would say that nothing happens without the will of God, bearing in mind that persecution above all is worthy of God and, if I may say so, necessary, namely for the approval or the rejection of his servants. For what is the outcome of persecution, what other effect does it have, but the approval or rejection of faith, by which the Lord will surely examine his own? Persecution is this judgment of the Lord, through which one is judged either approved or rejected. Now judgment belongs to God alone. This is that winnowing fan which even now cleanses the Lord's threshing floor, the church, winnowing the mixed heap of the faithful and separating the wheat of the martyrs from the chaff of the deniers; and these are also the ladders of which Jacob dreamed, showing some the way up to higher things and others the way down to lower. So persecution may also be understood as a contest. By whom is the contest proclaimed, if not by the one who sets out the crown and the prizes? You read the edict of this contest in the Apocalypse: with what prizes he invites to victory above all those who have properly conquered in persecution, having wrestled in conquering, truly, not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of wickedness. So you will recognize that the judging of the contest belongs to the same president of the games who invites to the prize. The whole of what happens in persecution is the glory of God, who approves and rejects, sets up and puts down. And what pertains to the glory of God will surely come about by his will. But when is God more believed than when he is more feared, than in the time of persecution? The church is in awe. Then faith too is more watchful in its readiness, and more disciplined in fasts and stations and prayers and humility, in mutual diligence and love, in holiness and sobriety. For there is room only for fear and hope. So from this very fact it is shown to us that persecution, which makes God's servants better, cannot be ascribed to the devil. ### Scripture references - John 16:13: allusion, high confidence - Matt 3:12: allusion, high confidence - Gen 28:12: allusion, high confidence - Rev 2:7: allusion, medium confidence - Eph 6:12: allusion, high confidence - 1 Sam 2:7: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - This is a work of Tertullian's New Prophecy (Montanist) period: “you, who do not receive the Paraclete” addresses Catholic Christians who rejected the New Prophecy. “Stations” (stationes) are the Wednesday and Friday fasts. The allusions are John 16:13, Matt 3:12, Gen 28:12, the promises to the victors in Rev 2–3, Eph 6:12, and 1 Sam 2:7. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 1 (Oehler 1:461–463; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-1). ## On Flight in Persecution 2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-2 - Source: Oehler 1:463–467 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The devil's iniquity is only the instrument of persecution, not its author: as Job, Peter, the Lord's Prayer, and Paul's thorn show, Satan can do nothing to God's servants except by God's permission. ### Latin text Si, quod iniquitas a deo non est, sed a diabolo, persecutio autem ex iniquitate consistit (quid enim iniquius, quam veri dei antistites, omnes sectatores veritatis nocentissimorum more tractari?), ideo videtur persecutio a diabolo evenire, a quo iniquitas agitur ex qua constat persecutio, scire debemus, quatinus nec persecutio est sine iniquitate diaboli nec probatio fidei sine persecutione, propter probationem fidei necessariam iniquitatem non patrocinium praestare persecutioni, sed ministerium; praecedere enim dei voluntatem circa fidei probationem, quae est ratio persecutionis, sequi autem diaboli iniquitatem ad instrumentum persecutionis, quae ratio est probationis. Nam et alias in quantum iustitiae iniquitas aemula est, in tantum materia est ad testimonia eius, cuius est aemula, ut sic iustitia in iniquitate perficiatur, quomodo virtus in infirmitate perficitur. Nam infirma mundi electa sunt a deo, ut confundantur fortia, et stulta eius, ut confundatur sapientia. Ita et iniquitas adhibetur, ut iustitia probetur confundens iniquitatem. Igitur quod ministerium non est arbitrii, sed servitii (arbitrium enim domini persecutio propter fidei probationem, ministerium autem iniquitas diaboli propter persecutionis instructionem), ita eam per diabolum, si forte, non a diabolo evenire credimus. Nihil satanae in servos dei vivi licebit, nisi permiserit dominus, ut aut ipsum destruat per fidem electorum in temptatione victricem, aut homines eius fuisse traducat qui defecerint ad illum. Habes exemplum Iob, cui diabolus nullam potuit incutere temptationem, nisi a deo accepisset potestatem, nec in substantiam quidem eius, nisi dominus, Ecce, dixisset, omnia quae sunt ei, in manu tua do, in ipsum autem ne extenderis manum. Denique nec extendit, nisi posteaquam et hoc postulanti dominus, Ecce, dixisset, trado tibi illum, tantum animam eius custodi. Sic et in apostolos facultatem temptationis postulavit non habens eam nisi ex permissu, siquidem dominus in evangelio ad Petrum, Ecce, inquit, postulavit satanas, ut cerneret vos velut frumentum, verum ego rogavi pro te, ne deficeret fides tua, id est, ne tantum diabolo permitteretur, ut fides periclitaretur. Quo ostenditur utrumque apud deum esse, et concussionem fidei et protectionem, cum utrumque ab eo petitur, concussio a diabolo, protectio a filio. Et utique cum filius dei protectionem fidei habet in sua potestate, quam a patre postulat, a quo omnem accipit potestatem in caelis et in terris, quale est, ut concussionem fidei diabolus in manu sua habeat? Sed in legitima oratione, cum dicimus ad patrem, Ne nos inducas in temptationem (quae autem maior temptatio, quam persecutio?), ab eo illam profitemur accidere a quo veniam eius deprecamur. Hoc est enim quod sequitur, Sed erue nos a maligno, id est, ne nos induxeris in temptationem, permittendo nos maligno. Tunc enim eruimur diaboli manibus, cum illi non tradimur in temptationem. Nec in porcorum gregem diaboli legio habuit potestatem, nisi eam de deo impetrasset; tantum potestatem abest ut in oves dei habeat. Possum dicere porcorum quoque setas tunc numeratas apud deum fuisse, nedum capillos sanctorum. Habere videtur diabolus propriam iam potestatem, si forte, in eos qui ad deum non pertinent, semel in stillam situlae et in pulverem areae et in salivam nationibus deputatis a deo ac per hoc diabolo expositis in vacuam quodammodo possessionem. Ceterum in domesticos dei nihil illi licet ex propria potestate, quia, quando liceat, id est ex quibus causis, exempla in scripturis signata demonstrant. Aut enim ex causa probationis conceditur ei ius temptationis provocato vel provocanti, ut in superioribus, aut ex causa reprobationis traditur ei peccator, quasi carnifici in poenam, ut Saul (Et abscessit, inquit, spiritus domini a Saule, et concutiebat eum spiritus nequam a domino et suffocabat eum), aut ex causa cohibitionis, ut apostolus refert datum sibi sudem angelum satanae, ut colaphizaretur; nec hanc speciem permitti diabolo in sanctos humiliandos per carnis vexationem, nisi simul ut et virtus tolerantiae scilicet in infirmitate perfici possit. Nam et ipse apostolus Phygellum et Hermogenem tradidit satanae, uti emendentur, ne blasphement. Vides iam et a servis dei facilius diabolum accipere potestatem; tanto abest, ut eam ex proprietate possideat. ### English translation (Claude) Someone may argue that iniquity is not from God but from the devil, and that persecution consists of iniquity (for what is more iniquitous than that the priests of the true God, all followers of the truth, should be treated like the worst criminals?), and that persecution therefore seems to come from the devil, by whom the iniquity is worked of which persecution consists. We ought to know, since there is neither persecution without the devil's iniquity nor testing of faith without persecution, that the iniquity necessary for the testing of faith provides persecution not with its authorship but with its service: God's will concerning the testing of faith, which is the reason for persecution, comes first, and the devil's iniquity follows as the instrument of persecution, which is the means of testing. For in other respects too, as far as iniquity is the rival of justice, so far it is the material for bearing witness to that of which it is the rival, so that justice is perfected in iniquity as strength is perfected in weakness. For the weak things of the world have been chosen by God to put the strong to shame, and its foolish things to put wisdom to shame. So iniquity too is employed, so that justice may be proved by putting iniquity to shame. Therefore, since service is not a matter of choice but of servitude (for persecution is the Lord's choice, for the testing of faith, while the devil's iniquity is the service, for equipping persecution), we believe that persecution comes about through the devil, perhaps, but not from the devil. Satan will be allowed nothing against the servants of the living God unless the Lord permits it, either to destroy Satan himself through the faith of the elect, victorious in temptation, or to expose as his those who have defected to him. You have the example of Job, on whom the devil could bring no temptation unless he had received power from God, not even against his property, unless the Lord had said, “Behold, all that he has I give into your hand, but do not stretch out your hand against himself.” In fact he did not stretch it out until, when he asked for this too, the Lord had said, “Behold, I hand him over to you; only preserve his life.” So also he asked for an opportunity to tempt the apostles, not having it except by permission, since the Lord says to Peter in the gospel, “Behold, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail”: that is, that the devil might not be permitted so much that faith would be endangered. This shows that both are in God's keeping, the shaking of faith and its protection, since both are sought from him: the shaking by the devil, the protection by the Son. And surely, since the Son of God has the protection of faith in his power, which he asks from the Father, from whom he receives all power in heaven and on earth, how could the devil have the shaking of faith in his own hand? But in the lawful prayer, when we say to the Father, “Do not lead us into temptation” (and what greater temptation is there than persecution?), we profess that it comes from him from whom we ask to be spared it. For this is what follows: “But deliver us from the evil one”, that is, do not lead us into temptation by handing us over to the evil one. For we are delivered from the devil's hands when we are not handed over to him into temptation. Nor did the devil's legion have power over the herd of swine unless it had obtained it from God; so far is it from having power over God's sheep. I can say that even the bristles of the swine were then numbered with God, not to speak of the hairs of the saints. The devil seems, perhaps, to have power of his own over those who do not belong to God, since the nations were once for all reckoned by God as a drop of a bucket, and dust of the threshing floor, and spittle, and so exposed to the devil as a possession left, in a way, vacant. But against those of God's household nothing is allowed him by his own power, since the examples recorded in the Scriptures show when it is allowed, that is, for what causes. For either the right to tempt is granted him for the sake of testing, whether he is challenged or is the challenger, as above; or the sinner is handed over to him for the sake of rejection, as to an executioner for punishment, like Saul (“And the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul,” it says, “and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him and choked him”); or for the sake of restraint, as the apostle reports that a stake was given him, an angel of Satan, to buffet him; and not even this kind is permitted to the devil for humbling the saints by vexation of the flesh unless at the same time the strength of endurance may be perfected in weakness. For the apostle himself also handed Phygelus and Hermogenes over to Satan, that they might be corrected and not blaspheme. You see now that the devil receives power more readily even from God's servants; so far is he from possessing it in his own right. ### Scripture references - 2 Cor 12:9: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 1:27: allusion, high confidence - Job 1:12: quotation, high confidence - Job 2:6: quotation, high confidence - Luke 22:31: quotation, high confidence - Matt 28:18: allusion, high confidence - Matt 6:13: quotation, high confidence - Mark 5:13: allusion, high confidence - Matt 10:30: allusion, high confidence - Isa 40:15: allusion, high confidence - 1 Sam 16:14: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 12:7: allusion, high confidence - 1 Tim 1:20: allusion, high confidence - 2 Tim 1:15: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Tertullian names Phygelus and Hermogenes (2 Tim 1:15), but those handed over to Satan in 1 Tim 1:20 are Hymenaeus and Alexander. The quotations and allusions are 2 Cor 12:9, 1 Cor 1:27, Job 1:12, Job 2:6, Luke 22:31–32, Matt 28:18, Matt 6:13, Mark 5:12–13, Matt 10:30, Isa 40:15, 1 Sam 16:14, 2 Cor 12:7, and 1 Tim 1:20. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 2 (Oehler 1:463–467; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-2). ## On Flight in Persecution 3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-3 - Source: Oehler 1:467–468 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: God, who makes peace and creates war, is the author of persecution; those who fear that crowded church gatherings will provoke the heathen should trust that nothing happens without God's will. ### Latin text Cum ergo et haec exempla magis in persecutionibus eveniant, siquidem magis tunc probamur vel reprobamur, et magis tunc humiliamur vel emendamur, ab eo permittatur vel imperetur necesse est catholice fieri haec a quo et ex parte, scilicet ab illo qui dicit, Ego sum qui facio pacem et condo mala, id est bellum; hoc est enim contrarium paci. Nostrae autem paci quod est bellum quam persecutio? Si persecutionis vel maxime exitus aut vitam afferunt aut mortem, aut plagam aut sanationem, habes auctorem eiusdem: Ego percutiam et sanabo, ego vivificabo et mortificabo. Uram, inquit, illos sicut uritur aurum, et probabo, inquit, illos sicut probatur argentum. Cum enim exurimur persecutionis ardore, tunc probamur de fidei tenore. Haec erunt ignea iacula diaboli, per quae fidei ustio et conflatio administratur, ex dei tamen voluntate. De isto quis dubitare possit, ignoro, nisi plane frivola et frigida fides, deprehendens eos qui timide conveniunt in ecclesiam. Dicitis enim, quoniam incondite convenimus et simul convenimus et complures concurrimus in ecclesiam, quaerimur a nationibus et timemus, ne turbentur nationes. Annon scitis, quod deus omnium sit dominus? Et si velit deus, tunc persecutionem patieris, si vero noluerit, silebunt nationes. Credas utique, si tamen in eum deum credis, sine cuius voluntate nec passer unius assis cadit in terram. Nos autem, puto, multis passeribus antistamus. ### English translation (Claude) Since, then, these examples occur more in persecutions, since then more than at other times we are approved or rejected, and then more than at other times humbled or corrected, these things must be permitted or commanded to happen universally by him by whom they are also done in part, namely by him who says, “I am he who makes peace and creates evils,” that is, war; for that is the opposite of peace. And what is war to our peace but persecution? If the outcomes of persecution above all bring either life or death, either a wound or healing, you have its author: “I will strike and I will heal; I will make alive and I will put to death.” “I will burn them,” he says, “as gold is burned, and I will test them,” he says, “as silver is tested.” For when we are burned up by the heat of persecution, then we are tested for the firmness of our faith. These will be the fiery darts of the devil, through which the burning and smelting of faith is carried out, but by the will of God. Who could doubt this I do not know, unless it be a plainly trifling and chilly faith, which gets hold of those who come together timidly in church. For you say: “Since we assemble without order, and assemble together, and flock to church in great numbers, we are sought out by the heathen, and we fear lest the heathen be stirred up.” Do you not know that God is Lord of all? If God wills it, then you will suffer persecution; but if he does not will it, the heathen will keep quiet. You should certainly believe it, if indeed you believe in that God without whose will not even a sparrow sold for a penny falls to the ground. And we, I think, are worth more than many sparrows. ### Scripture references - Isa 45:7: quotation, high confidence - Deut 32:39: quotation, high confidence - Zech 13:9: quotation, high confidence - Eph 6:16: allusion, high confidence - Matt 10:29: allusion, high confidence - Matt 10:31: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The quotations and allusions are Isa 45:7, Deut 32:39, Zech 13:9, Eph 6:16, and Matt 10:29–31. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 3 (Oehler 1:467–468; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-3). ## On Flight in Persecution 4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-4 - Source: Oehler 1:468–470 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Because persecution comes from God, it is good in itself, even when it seems evil to those it harms, and so it ought not and cannot be escaped by flight. ### Latin text Igitur si constat a quo persecutio eveniat, possumus iam consultationem tuam inducere et determinare ex hoc ipso praetractatu fugiendum in persecutione non esse. Si enim persecutio a deo evenit, nullo modo fugiendum erit, quod a deo evenit; sicut duplex ratio defendit, quia neque debeat devitari neque possit evadi quod a deo evenit. Non debet devitari, quia bonum; necesse est enim bonum esse omne quod deo visum est. Et numquid ideo in Genesi sic positum est, Et vidit deus quia bonum est, non quod ignoraret bonum esse, nisi vidisset, sed ut hoc sono portenderet bonum esse quod deo visum est? Multa quidem sunt, quae a deo eveniant et alicuius malo eveniant. Immo bonum est ideo, quia a deo evenit, ut divinum, rationale. Quid enim divinum non rationale, non bonum? Quid bonum non divinum? Si autem sensui cuiusque videtur, non sensus hominis praeiudicat statui rerum, sed status sensui. Status enim unusquisque certum quid est et dat sensui legem ita sentiendi statum sicuti est. Si autem statu quidem bonum quod a deo venit (nihil enim a deo non bonum, quia divinum, quia rationale), sensui vero malum videtur, erit status in tuto, sensus in vitio. Statu optima res pudicitia et veritas et iustitia, quae a multorum sensu displicent. Numquid ideo status sensui addicitur? Ita et persecutio statu bona est, quia divina et rationalis dispositio, sensui eorum vero, quorum malo venit, displicet. Vides etiam illud malum rationale apud deum habere, cum quis in persecutione evertitur de salute, sicut et bonum illud ratione contingere, cum quis ex persecutione proficit in salute, Nisi si irrationaliter quis aut perit apud dominum aut salvus est, is non poterit persecutionem malum dicere, quae etiam in mali parte bonum est, dum ratione administratur. Ita si bonum persecutio quoquo modo, quia de statu constat, merito definimus quod bonum est vitari non oportere, quia delictum sit quod bonum est recusare, eo amplius, quod deo visum est, iam vero nec posse vitari, quia a deo evenit, cuius voluntas non poterit evadi. Igitur qui putant fugiendum aut malum exprobrant deo, si persecutionem uti malum fugiunt (bonum enim nemo devitat), aut fortiores se deo existimant, qui putant se evadere posse, si deus tale aliquid voluerit evenire. ### English translation (Claude) If, then, it is clear from whom persecution comes, we can now take up your question and determine from this very preliminary discussion that one must not flee in persecution. For if persecution comes from God, what comes from God is in no way to be fled from; a twofold reason defends this: what comes from God ought not to be avoided, and it cannot be escaped. It ought not to be avoided, because it is good; for everything that God has approved must be good. And is it not for this reason that it is set down in Genesis, “And God saw that it was good”? Not because he would not have known it was good unless he had seen it, but to indicate by this wording that what God has approved is good. There are indeed many things that come from God and come to someone's harm. Yet a thing is good for this very reason, that it comes from God, as divine, as rational. For what is divine and not rational, not good? What is good and not divine? And if it seems otherwise to someone's perception, man's perception does not prejudge the state of things, but the state prejudges the perception. For each state is something definite, and gives the perception the law of perceiving the state as it is. But if what comes from God is good in its state (for nothing from God is not good, because it is divine, because it is rational), but seems evil to the perception, the state will be safe and the perception at fault. In their state, chastity and truth and justice are excellent things, and yet they displease many people's perception. Is the state, then, made over to the perception? So persecution too is good in its state, because it is a divine and rational arrangement, but it displeases the perception of those to whose harm it comes. You see that even that evil has its reason with God, when someone in persecution is overthrown from salvation, just as that good too happens by reason, when someone advances to salvation through persecution. Unless someone perishes or is saved before the Lord without reason, he will not be able to call persecution evil, which is good even on its evil side, since it is administered by reason. So if persecution is in any case good, because this is established from its state, we rightly determine that what is good ought not to be avoided, because it is a sin to refuse what is good, all the more because God has approved it; and further that it cannot be avoided, because it comes from God, whose will cannot be escaped. Therefore those who think one should flee either charge God with evil, if they flee persecution as an evil (for no one avoids a good), or think themselves stronger than God, if they think they can escape when God has willed something of the kind to happen. ### Scripture references - Gen 1:10: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - “Approved” renders deo visum est (“seemed good to God”), echoing “God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:10 and elsewhere). ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 4 (Oehler 1:468–470; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-4). ## On Flight in Persecution 5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-5 - Source: Oehler 1:470–471 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Whoever flees for fear of denying has already half denied; it is better to stay and trust God to protect, as the martyr Rutilius, who fled repeatedly, was caught and burned all the same. ### Latin text Sed quod meum est, inquit, fugio, ne peream, si negavero; illius est, si voluerit, etiam fugientem me reducere in medium. Hoc mihi prius responde: certus es te negaturum, si non fugeris, an incertus? Si enim certus, iam negasti, quia praesumendo te negaturum id despopondisti de quo praesumpsisti, et vane iam fugis, ne neges, qui, si negaturus es, iam negasti. Si vero incertus es, cur non ex aequalitate incerti metus inter utrumque eventum etiam confiteri te posse praesumis et salvum magis fieri, quo minus fugias, sicut negaturum te praesumis, ut fugias? Iam nunc aut in nobis est utrumque aut totum in deo. Si in nobis est confiteri aut negare, cur non id praesumimus, quod est melius, id est confessuros nos? Nisi si vis confiteri, pati non vis; nolle autem confiteri negare est. Si vero in deo totum est, cur non totum relinquimus arbitrio eius agnoscentes virtutem et potestatem, quod possit nos sicut fugientes reducere in medium, ita et non fugientes, immo et in medio populo conversantes obumbrare? Quale est, ut ad fugiendum deo honorem reddas, qui possit te etiam fugientem producere in medium, ad contestandum autem inhonores illum desperans potentiam protectionis ab illo? Quare non magis ex hac parte constantiae et fiduciae in deum dicis: Ego quod meum est facio; non discedo; deus, si voluerit, ipse me proteget? Hoc potius nostrum est, stare sub dei arbitrio, quam fugere sub nostro. Rutilius sanctissimus martyr, cum totiens fugisset persecutionem de loco in locum, etiam periculum, ut putabat, nummis redemisset, post totam securitatem, quam sibi prospexerat, ex inopinato apprehensus et praesidi oblatus tormentis dissipatus, credo pro fugae castigatione, dehinc ignibus datus passionem, quam vitarat, misericordiae dei retulit. Quid aliud voluit dominus nobis demonstrare hoc documento, quam fugiendum non esse, quia nihil fuga prosit, si deus nolit? ### English translation (Claude) “But,” someone says, “I do my part: I flee, lest I perish if I deny; it is his part, if he wills, to bring me back into the open even as I flee.” First answer me this: are you certain that you will deny if you do not flee, or uncertain? If certain, you have already denied, because by presuming that you will deny you have given away the very thing about which you presumed; and you flee in vain lest you deny, since, if you are going to deny, you have already denied. But if you are uncertain, why, since your fear is equally uncertain between the two outcomes, do you not presume that you can also confess and rather be saved, so that you do not flee, just as you presume that you will deny, so that you do flee? Now either both are in our power or the whole is in God's. If confessing or denying is in our power, why do we not presume the better, that is, that we shall confess? Unless you are willing to confess but unwilling to suffer; but to be unwilling to confess is to deny. But if the whole is in God's power, why do we not leave the whole to his judgment, acknowledging his strength and power, that just as he can bring us back into the open when we flee, so he can also shield us when we do not flee, even when we live in the midst of the people? What sort of thing is it that, in fleeing, you honour God as able to bring you out into the open even as you flee, but, when it comes to bearing witness, you dishonour him by despairing of his power to protect? Why do you not rather say, from this side, that of constancy and trust in God: “I do my part; I do not leave; God, if he wills, will himself protect me”? It is rather our part to stand under God's judgment than to flee under our own. Rutilius, a most holy martyr, after he had so often fled persecution from place to place and had even bought off the danger, as he thought, with money, was, after all the security he had provided for himself, unexpectedly seized, brought before the governor, torn apart by tortures (as a punishment, I believe, for his flight), and then given to the flames; and so he rendered to the mercy of God the suffering he had avoided. What else did the Lord wish to show us by this example than that we must not flee, since flight profits nothing if God does not will it? ### Translation notes - Rutilius is otherwise unknown. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 5 (Oehler 1:470–471; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-5). ## On Flight in Persecution 6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-6 - Source: Oehler 1:471–474 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Christ's command to flee from city to city was given to the apostles for their mission to Israel; once the gospel went to the nations the apostles no longer fled, as Paul's refusal to avoid Jerusalem shows, so the command does not bind Christians now. ### Latin text Immo, inquit, praeceptum adimplevit fugiens de civitate in civitatem. Sic enim voluit quidam, sed et ipse fugitivus, argumentari, et qui proinde nolunt intellegere sensum domini illius pronuntiationis, ut eam ad velamentum timiditatis suae utantur, cum et personas suas habuerit et tempora et causas. Cum coeperint, inquit, persequi vos, fugite de civitate in civitatem. Hoc in personas proprie apostolorum et in tempora et in causas eorum pertinere defendimus, sicut subsequentes sensus probabunt, qui non nisi in apostolos competunt: In viam nationum ne ieritis et in civitatem Samaritanorum ne introieritis, sed ite potius ad oves perditas domus Israëlis. Nobis autem et via nationum patet, in qua et inventi sumus et usque in finem incedimus, et nulla civitas excepta est, quo per totum orbem praedicamus, sed nec cura nobis Israëlis iniuncta est extra ordinem, nisi qua et omnibus gentibus praedicare debemus. Etiam si apprehendamur, non in concilia eorum perducemur nec in synagogis illorum flagellabimur, sed Romanis utique potestatibus et tribunalibus obiciemur. Sic igitur et fugae praeceptum apostolorum condicio desiderabat, quoniam primo praedicandum erat ad oves perditas domus Israëlis. Ut ergo perficeretur praedicatio apud quos priores eam perfici oportebat, uti panem ante filii quam canes sumerent, ideo illis fugere tunc ad tempus praecepti, non propter eludendum periculum proprio nomine persecutionis (atquin persecutiones eos passuros praedicabat et tolerandas docebat), sed propter profectum annuntiationis, ne statim oppressis evangelii quoque disseminatio perimeretur. Neque enim quasi tacite in aliquam civitatem transfugiendum erat, sed quasi ubique annuntiaturis et ex hoc ubique persecutiones subituris, donec replerent doctrinam suam. Denique, Non consummabitis, inquit, civitates Israëlis. Adeo intra terminos Iudaeae praeceptum fugae continebatur. Nobis autem nulla Iudaeae praefinitio competit praedicationis in omnem iam carnem effuso spiritu sancto. Itaque Paulus et apostoli ipsi memores praecepti dominici contestantur illud apud Israël, quem iam doctrina sua impleverant, Vobis oportuit in primis sermonem dei tradi, sed quoniam repulistis eum nec dignos vos aeterna vita existimastis, ecce convertimus nos ad nationes. Atque exinde conversi et ipsi, sicut antecessores instituerant, et in viam nationum abierunt et in civitates Samaritanorum introierunt, ut in totam scilicet terram exiret sonus eorum et in terminos orbis voces eorum. Si ergo cessavit exceptio viae nationum et introitus in civitates Samaritanorum, cur non cessaverit et fugae praeceptum pariter emissum? Denique ex quo saturato Israële apostoli in nationes transierunt, nec fugerunt de civitate in civitatem nec pati dubitaverunt. Atquin et Paulus, qui se per murum concesserat expediri de persecutione, qua ad hoc tempus erat praecepti, idem iam in clausula officii et in consummatione praecepti discipulis magnopere deprecantibus, ne se Hierosolyma committeret passurus illic quae Agabus prophetaverat, sollicitudini eorum non subscripsit, sed e contrario, Quid, inquit, facitis lacrimantes et conturbantes cor meum? Ego enim non modo vincula pati optaverim, sed etiam mori Hierosolymis pro nomine domini mei Iesu Christi. Atque ita omnes aierunt, Fiat voluntas domini. Quae erat voluntas domini? Utique non fugiendi iam persecutionem. Ceterum poterant et priorem domini voluntatem proposuisse, qua fugere mandaverat, qui illum persecutionem vitasse maluerant. Igitur cum etiam sub apostolis ipsis temporale fuerit fugae praeceptum, sicut et reliquorum praescriptorum, non potest apud nos perseverare, quod apud doctores nostros concessavit, etsi non proprie ad illos fuisset emissum, aut, si perseverare illud dominus voluit, deliquerunt apostoli, qui non usque in finem fugere curaverunt. ### English translation (Claude) “But,” someone says, “he fulfilled a command by fleeing from city to city.” So a certain man wished to argue, but he too was a fugitive; and so do those who likewise refuse to understand the sense of that declaration of the Lord, so as to use it as a cloak for their cowardice, although it had its own persons and times and occasions. “When they begin,” he says, “to persecute you, flee from city to city.” We maintain that this applies properly to the persons of the apostles and to their times and occasions, as the following sayings will prove, which apply only to the apostles: “Do not go into the way of the nations, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But for us the way of the nations lies open too, in which we were also found and in which we walk to the end, and no city is excepted, since we preach throughout the whole world; nor has the care of Israel been laid on us in any special way, except that we must preach to all nations. Even if we are arrested, we shall not be brought into their councils nor scourged in their synagogues, but we shall certainly be set before Roman authorities and tribunals. So the condition of the apostles also required the command to flee, since the preaching was first to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So that the preaching might be completed among those among whom it had to be completed first, that the children might take the bread before the dogs, it was commanded them then to flee for a time; not in order to elude danger on the ground of persecution as such (on the contrary, he foretold that they would suffer persecutions and taught that these must be endured), but for the advance of the proclamation, lest, if they were crushed at once, the spreading of the gospel should perish too. For they were not to flee into some city as if to keep silent there, but as men who would proclaim everywhere and for that reason undergo persecutions everywhere, until they had completed their teaching. In short, he says, “You will not finish the cities of Israel.” So the command to flee was confined within the borders of Judea. But for us no limit of Judea applies to the preaching, since the Holy Spirit has now been poured out on all flesh. So Paul and the apostles themselves, remembering the Lord's command, declare it before Israel, which they had now filled with their teaching: “It was necessary that the word of God be delivered to you first; but since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations.” And from then on they themselves turned, as their predecessor had laid down, and went into the way of the nations and entered the cities of the Samaritans, so that their sound might go out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. If, then, the exception concerning the way of the nations and entry into the cities of the Samaritans has ceased, why should not the command to flee, issued at the same time, have ceased too? In short, from the time when Israel had had its fill and the apostles passed over to the nations, they neither fled from city to city nor hesitated to suffer. Indeed Paul too, who had allowed himself to be let down over the wall to escape persecution, since the command was in force up to that time, the same man, now at the close of his ministry and the fulfilment of the command, when the disciples earnestly begged him not to commit himself to Jerusalem, where he would suffer what Agabus had prophesied, did not give way to their anxiety, but on the contrary said, “What are you doing, weeping and troubling my heart? For I would wish not only to suffer chains but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.” And so they all said, “The will of the Lord be done.” What was the will of the Lord? Surely no longer to flee persecution. Otherwise, those who would rather he had avoided persecution could have put forward the Lord's earlier will, by which he had commanded flight. Therefore, since even under the apostles themselves the command to flee was temporary, like the rest of those directions, what ceased among our teachers cannot continue among us, even if it had not been issued specifically to them; or else, if the Lord willed it to continue, the apostles sinned, who did not take care to go on fleeing to the end. ### Scripture references - Matt 10:23: quotation, high confidence - Matt 10:5: quotation, high confidence - Matt 10:17: allusion, high confidence - Matt 15:26: allusion, high confidence - Joel 2:28: allusion, high confidence - Acts 13:46: quotation, high confidence - Acts 8:5: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 19:4 (18:5 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:33: allusion, high confidence - Acts 21:11: allusion, high confidence - Acts 21:13: quotation, high confidence - Acts 21:14: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - “A certain man … a fugitive” is an unnamed opponent, probably a Catholic bishop or teacher who had fled. The quotations and allusions are Matt 10:23, Matt 10:5–6, Matt 10:17–18, Matt 15:26, Joel 2:28 (Acts 2:17), Acts 13:46, Acts 8:5, Ps 19:4 (18:5 Vulg.; Rom 10:18), 2 Cor 11:33 (Acts 9:25), and Acts 21:10–14. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 6 (Oehler 1:471–474; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-6). ## On Flight in Persecution 7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-7 - Source: Oehler 1:474–475 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: A permanent command to flee would contradict Christ's other sayings on confessing him, enduring to the end, and not fearing those who kill the body; the fearful are threatened with the second death, not offered flight. ### Latin text Videamus nunc, an et cetera domini edicta congruant perpetuo fugae praecepto. Primo quidem, si a deo persecutio est, quale est, ut idem fugiendam eam mandet, qui et infert? Quam si evadi vellet, melius non immitteret, ne voluntatem suam alia voluntate praevaricari videretur. Aut pati enim nos voluit persecutionem aut fugere. Si fugere, quomodo pati? si pati, quomodo fugere? Iam vero quanta inaequalitas sententiarum iubentis fugere et invitantis ad passionem contrariam fugae. Qui confessus fuerit me et ego confitebor illum coram patre meo. Quomodo confitebitur fugiens? quomodo fugiet confitens? Qui mei confusus fuerit, et ego confundar eius coram patre. Si devito passionem, confundor confessionem. Felices qui persecutionem passi fuerint causa nominis mei. Infelices ergo qui fugiendo ex praecepto non erunt passi. Qui sustinuerit in finem, iste salvabitur. Quid ergo me iubens fugere vis in finem sustinere? Tanta diversitas sententiarum si non congruit divinae gravitati, apparet ex his quoque praeceptum fugae suam tunc habuisse rationem, quam ostendimus. Sed infirmitatem, inquit, quorundam prospiciens dominus pro sua humanitate nihilominus et portum fugae demonstravit. Non enim idoneus erat etiam sine fuga tam turpi et indigno et servili praesidio salvos facere in persecutione quos sciret infirmos. Atquin non fovet, sed recusat semper infirmos, primum docens non fugiendos esse persecutores, sed potius non timendos. Nolite timere eos qui corpus occidere possunt, animae autem nihil valent facere, sed timete eum qui et corpus et animam perdere potest in gehennam. Atque exinde quae timidis praefinit? Qui pluris fecerit animam suam quam me, non est me dignus, et qui non tollit crucem suam et sequitur me, non potest esse meus discipulus. Postremo in Apocalypsi non fugam timidis offert, sed inter ceteros reprobos particulam in stagnum sulphuris et ignis, quod est mors secunda. ### English translation (Claude) Let us now see whether the Lord's other edicts agree with a perpetual command to flee. First, if persecution is from God, what sort of thing is it that the same one who brings it should order it to be fled? If he wanted it escaped, he would do better not to send it, lest he seem to transgress his own will by another will. For he wanted us either to suffer persecution or to flee it. If to flee, how to suffer? If to suffer, how to flee? And what inconsistency there would be in the sayings of one who orders flight and invites to suffering, the opposite of flight! “Whoever confesses me, I too will confess him before my Father.” How will one who flees confess? How will one who confesses flee? “Whoever is ashamed of me, I too will be ashamed of him before the Father.” If I avoid suffering, I am ashamed of confession. “Blessed are those who have suffered persecution for my name's sake.” Unhappy, then, are those who, by fleeing according to the command, will not have suffered. “He who endures to the end will be saved.” Why, then, while ordering me to flee, do you want me to endure to the end? If such a contradiction of sayings does not befit the divine gravity, it is clear from these too that the command to flee had its own reason at that time, which we have shown. “But,” someone says, “the Lord, foreseeing the weakness of some, in his kindness nonetheless pointed out the harbour of flight as well.” For of course he was not able, without flight, that shameful, unworthy, and servile defence, to save in persecution those whom he knew to be weak! And yet he does not cherish the weak but always rejects them, teaching first that persecutors are not to be fled but rather not feared: “Do not fear those who can kill the body but can do nothing to the soul; but fear him who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna.” And then what does he lay down for the fearful? “He who values his own life more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Finally, in the Apocalypse he offers the fearful not flight but, among the other reprobate, a portion in the lake of sulphur and fire, which is the second death. ### Scripture references - Matt 10:32: quotation, high confidence - Luke 9:26: quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:10: quotation, high confidence - Matt 10:22: quotation, high confidence - Matt 10:28: quotation, high confidence - Matt 10:37: quotation, high confidence - Luke 14:27: quotation, high confidence - Rev 21:8: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The quotations and allusions are Matt 10:32, Luke 9:26, Matt 5:10–11, Matt 10:22, Matt 10:28, Matt 10:37–38 (Luke 14:27), and Rev 21:8. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 7 (Oehler 1:474–475; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-7). ## On Flight in Persecution 8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-8 - Source: Oehler 1:475–476 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Christ withdrew from danger only until his teaching was complete; then he faced his Passion, and in Gethsemane, though his flesh was weak, he submitted to the Father's will, as Christians should. ### Latin text Refugit et ipse vim interdum, sed eadem ratione qua apostolis fugere praeceperat, donec scilicet doctrinam suam impleret, qua consummata, non dico stetit, sed nec auxilium a patre angelorum exercituum desideravit, increpito etiam Petri gladio. Professus quidem et ipse est animam anxiam usque ad mortem et carnem infirmam, ut tibi ostenderet primo in se utramque substantiam humanam fuisse ex proprietate anxietatis animae et imbecillitatis carnis, ne aliam, ut quidam nunc induxerunt, aut carnem aut animam Christi interpretareris, dehinc ut demonstratis conditionibus earum scires illas nihil valere per semetipsas sine spiritu. Et ideo praeponit spiritus promptus, ut utramque conditionem substantiae utriusque respiciens intellegas in te esse etiam fortitudinem spiritus, quomodo et infirmitatem carnis, ac iam hinc scias quid unde facias et quid cui subicias, infirmum scilicet forti, ne, ut nunc facis, de carnis quidem infirmitate causeris, de spiritus autem firmitate dissimules. Postulavit et ipse a patre, si fieri posset, transiret ab illo calix passionis. Postula et tu, sed stans ut ille, sed postulans tantum, sed subiungens et reliqua, Verum non quod ego volo, sed quod tu. Fugiens autem quomodo hoc postulabis, ipse tibi praestans calicis translationem, nec quod pater vult faciens, sed quod tu? ### English translation (Claude) He himself too sometimes withdrew from violence, but for the same reason for which he had commanded the apostles to flee, namely, until he had completed his teaching; once it was completed, I do not say he stood firm, but he did not even ask the Father for the help of armies of angels, and he even rebuked Peter's sword. He did indeed profess that his soul was troubled even to death and that the flesh was weak, first to show you that both human substances were in him, from the properties of the soul's anxiety and the flesh's weakness, so that you would not interpret either Christ's flesh or his soul as something different, as some have now introduced; and next so that, their conditions having been shown, you might know that they can do nothing by themselves without the spirit. And so he puts first, “the spirit is willing,” so that, considering the condition of each substance, you may understand that in you there is the strength of the spirit as well as the weakness of the flesh, and may know from this what to do and by what means, and what to subject to what, namely the weak to the strong; so that you do not, as you now do, plead the weakness of the flesh while passing over the firmness of the spirit. He himself too asked the Father that, if it were possible, the cup of suffering might pass from him. You too ask, but standing firm as he did, only asking, and adding the rest as well: “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” But if you flee, how will you ask this, when you are yourself bringing about the passing of the cup, and doing not what the Father wills, but what you will? ### Scripture references - John 8:59: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 26:53: allusion, high confidence - Matt 26:52: allusion, high confidence - Matt 26:38: allusion, high confidence - Matt 26:41: quotation, high confidence - Matt 26:39: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - “As some have now introduced” refers to teachers (probably Valentinians) who held that Christ's flesh or soul was of a different kind from ours. The allusions and quotations are Luke 4:30 and John 8:59, Matt 26:53, Matt 26:52, Matt 26:38, Matt 26:41, and Matt 26:39. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 8 (Oehler 1:475–476; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-8). ## On Flight in Persecution 9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-9 - Source: Oehler 1:476–478 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The apostles, who wrote from chains and exile, never renewed the command to flee; Paul's armour of God, John's teaching that perfect love casts out fear, and the oracles of the Spirit all call to martyrdom, not flight. ### Latin text Omnia apostoli secundum deum utique docuerunt, omnia evangelii revolverunt. Ubi illos ostendis praeceptum fugiendi de civitate in civitatem restaurasse? quia nec potuissent tale quid constituere tam contrarium exemplis suis, ut fugam mandarent, qui cummaxime de vinculis vel insulis, quibus ob confessionem, non ob fugam nominis continebantur, ad ecclesias scribebant. Infirmos sustinere iubet Paulus, utique enim non fugientes. Quomodo enim sustineantur absentes? An patientia? Dicit sustinendos, sicubi per infirmitatem fidei suae offenderint, sicut pusillanimes consolari, non tamen in fugam mitti. Sed cum admonet, ne locum malo demus, non fugae suggerit consilium, sed iracundiae docet temperamentum, et si redimendum tempus dicit, quia dies nequam sunt, non per fugam, per sapientiam conversationis lucrari nos vult commeatum. Ceterum qui lucere nos iubet velut filios lucis non iubet fuga abscondi ut filios tenebrarum. Stare immobiles praecipit, utique nec fuga mobiles, et accinctos, in fugam, an in occursum evangelii? Arma quoque demonstrat, quae fugituris non essent necessaria. Inter quae et clypeum, quo possitis tela diaboli extinguere, resistentes sine dubio et excipientes omnem vim illius. Proinde et Iohannes pro fratribus quoque animas ponendas docet, nedum pro domino. Hoc a fugientibus non potest adimpleri. Denique memor Apocalypsis suae, in qua timidorum exitum audierat, de suo sensu admonet et ipse timorem reiciendum: Timor, inquit, non est in dilectione. Sed enim perfecta dilectio foras mittit timorem, quia timor suppliciamentum habet, utique ignem stagni; qui autem timet, non est perfectus in dilectione, dei scilicet. Porro quis fugiet persecutionem, nisi qui timebit? Quis timebit, nisi qui non amavit? Spiritum vero si consulas, quid magis sermone illo spiritus probat? Namque omnes paene ad martyrium exhortatur, non ad fugam; ut et illius commemoremur: Publicaris, inquit, bonum tibi est; qui enim non publicatur in hominibus, publicatur in domino. Ne confundaris, iustitia te producit in medium. Quid confunderis laudem ferens? Potestas fit, cum conspiceris ab hominibus. Sic et alibi: Nolite in lectulis nec in aborsibus et febribus mollibus optare exire, sed in martyriis, uti glorificetur qui est passus pro vobis. ### English translation (Claude) The apostles surely taught everything according to God; they unfolded everything in the gospel. Where do you show that they renewed the command to flee from city to city? They could not have laid down anything so contrary to their own examples as to order flight, when they were writing to the churches precisely from chains or islands, where they were held for confessing the Name, not for fleeing it. Paul orders us to bear with the weak: surely not those who flee. For how could the absent be borne with? By patience? He says they are to be borne with where they have stumbled through the weakness of their faith, just as the faint-hearted are to be comforted, yet not sent into flight. And when he warns us not to give place to the evil one, he is not suggesting the counsel of flight but teaching the restraint of anger; and if he says the time must be redeemed because the days are evil, he wants us to gain our interval not by flight but by wisdom of conduct. Moreover, he who orders us to shine as children of light does not order us to hide by flight like children of darkness. He commands us to stand unmoved, surely not moved by flight either; and girded: for flight, or for going to meet the gospel? He also shows us armour, which would not be needed by those about to flee, and among it a shield with which you can quench the devil's darts, surely by resisting and taking the whole of his violence. So also John teaches that we must lay down our lives even for our brothers, much more for the Lord. This cannot be fulfilled by those who flee. Finally, mindful of his Apocalypse, in which he had heard the end of the fearful, he too warns from his own conviction that fear must be rejected: “There is no fear,” he says, “in love; but perfect love casts out fear, since fear has punishment” (the fire of the lake, surely), “and he who fears is not perfect in love” (the love of God, that is). Further, who will flee persecution but one who fears? Who will fear but one who has not loved? And if you consult the Spirit, what does he approve more than that saying of the Spirit? For he exhorts almost everyone to martyrdom, not to flight; to mention that saying too: “You are exposed in public,” he says; “it is good for you; for he who is not exposed among men is exposed before the Lord. Do not be ashamed; righteousness brings you forward into the open. Why are you ashamed, when you are bearing praise? Power comes about when you are gazed upon by men.” So also elsewhere: “Do not desire to depart this life in beds, nor in miscarriages and soft fevers, but in martyrdoms, that he who suffered for you may be glorified.” ### Scripture references - 1 Thess 5:14: allusion, high confidence - Eph 4:27: allusion, high confidence - Eph 5:16: allusion, high confidence - Eph 5:8: allusion, high confidence - Eph 6:14: allusion, high confidence - Eph 6:16: allusion, high confidence - 1 John 3:16: allusion, high confidence - 1 John 4:18: quotation, high confidence - Rev 21:8: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The two sayings of “the Spirit” are oracles of the New Prophecy (Montanism), which Tertullian accepted as utterances of the Paraclete; they are translated as he quotes them. The allusions and quotations are 1 Thess 5:14, Eph 4:27, Eph 5:16, Eph 5:8 and 1 Thess 5:5, Eph 6:13–16, 1 John 3:16, 1 John 4:18, and Rev 21:8. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 9 (Oehler 1:476–478; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-9). ## On Flight in Persecution 10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-10 - Source: Oehler 1:478–480 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The proverb that he who flees lives to fight again is worldly wisdom; a Christian soldier who flees has already been defeated, and like Jonah he cannot escape God anyway, so it is better to stay and trust him. ### Latin text Sed omissis quidam divinis exhortationibus illum magis Graecum versiculum saecularis sententiae sibi adhibent: Qui fugiebat, rursus proeliabitur; ut et rursus forsitan fugiat. Et quando vincet qui, cum fugerit, victus est? Bonum militem Christo imperatori suo praestat qui tam plene ab apostolo armatus tuba persecutionis audita diem deserit persecutionis. Respondebo et ego de saeculo aliquid: Usque adeone mori miserum est? Moriatur quoquo modo aut victus aut victor. Nam etsi negando ceciderit, cum tormentis tamen proeliatus. Malo miserandum quam erubescendum. Pulchrior est miles in pugna pilo transmissus quam in fuga salvus. Times hominem, Christiane, quem timeri oportet ab angelis, siquidem angelos iudicaturus es: quem timeri oportet a daemoniis, siquidem et in daemonas accepisti potestatem: quem timeri oportet ab universo mundo, siquidem et in te mundus iudicatur? Christum indutus es, siquidem in Christum tinctus es, qui fugis diabolum. Depretiasti Christum, qui in te est, fugitivum cum diabolo te reddidisti. Sed dominum fugiens exprobras omnibus fugitivis sui vanitatem consilii. Fugerat et quidam animosus prophetes dominum, traiecerat ab Ioppe Tarsum, quasi et a deo transfretaret, sed illum non dico in mari et in terra, verum in uterum etiam bestiae invenio, in quo nec mori per triduum potuit nec vel sic deum evadere. Quanto melius qui sive inimicum dei timens non fugit eum, sed potius contemnit, confidens scilicet de tutela domini, sive deum reformidat quanto magis sub oculis eius astitit, dicens: Dominus est, potens est. Omnia illius sunt; ubi fuero, in manu eius sum; faciat quod vult, non discedo, et si perire me volet, ipse me perdat, dum me ego servo illi. Malo invidiam ei facere per voluntatem ipsius pereundo, quam bilem per meam evadendo. ### English translation (Claude) But some, passing over the divine exhortations, apply to themselves rather that Greek line of worldly wisdom, “He who fled will fight again”: and perhaps flee again, too. And when will he conquer who, in fleeing, was conquered? A fine soldier he presents to Christ his commander, who, so fully armed by the apostle, hears the trumpet of persecution and deserts on the day of persecution! I too will answer with something from the world: “Is it so very wretched to die?” Let him die in any way at all, either vanquished or victor. For even if he falls by denying, he has at least fought with the tortures. I would rather be pitied than blush. A soldier is more handsome pierced by a javelin in battle than safe in flight. Do you fear man, Christian, you who ought to be feared by angels, since you will judge angels; who ought to be feared by demons, since you have received power over demons too; who ought to be feared by the whole world, since the world too is judged in you? You have put on Christ, since you have been dipped into Christ, and you flee from the devil! You have cheapened Christ, who is in you; you have made yourself a fugitive before the devil. But in fleeing from the Lord you rebuke all fugitives with the vanity of their plan. A certain bold prophet too had fled from the Lord; he had crossed from Joppa towards Tarsus, as though he could sail away from God as well; but I find him, not to say on sea and on land, but even in the belly of a beast, in which he could neither die for three days nor even so escape God. How much better is the man who, if he fears the enemy of God, does not flee him but rather despises him, trusting in the Lord's protection; or who, if he stands in awe of God, all the more stands before his eyes, saying: “He is Lord, he is powerful. All things are his; wherever I am, I am in his hand; let him do what he wills; I do not leave; and if he wills that I perish, let him destroy me himself, while I keep myself for him. I would rather bring odium on him by perishing by his will than rouse his anger by escaping by my own.” ### Scripture references - 1 Cor 6:3: allusion, high confidence - Luke 10:19: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 6:2: allusion, high confidence - Gal 3:27: allusion, high confidence - Jonah 1:3: allusion, high confidence - Jonah 1:17 (2:1 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Menander, Monost. 45 (Menander (fragments)): quotation, medium confidence - Virgil, Aen. 12.646 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The Greek line is Menander, Monostichoi 45 (“The man who flees will fight again”). “Is it so very wretched to die?” is Virgil, Aen. 12.646. The allusions are 1 Cor 6:3, Mark 16:17 and Luke 10:19, 1 Cor 6:2, Gal 3:27, and Jonah 1:3, 17 (2:1 Vulg.). ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 10 (Oehler 1:478–480; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-10). ## On Flight in Persecution 11 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-11 - Source: Oehler 1:480–482 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: When deacons, presbyters, and bishops flee, the laity lose heart; Scripture condemns the shepherd who abandons his flock to the wolves, so church leaders above all must not flee in persecution. ### Latin text Hoc sentire et facere omnem servum dei oportet, etiam minoris loci, ut maioris fieri possit, si quem gradum in persecutionis tolerantia ascenderit. Sed cum ipsi auctores, id est ipsi diaconi et presbyteri et episcopi fugiunt, quomodo laicus intellegere poterit, qua ratione dictum: Fugite de civitate in civitatem? Itaque cum duces fugiunt, quis de gregario numero sustinebit ad gradum in acie figendum suadere? Certe quidem bonus pastor animam pro pecoribus ponit, ut Moyses non domino adhuc Christo revelato et iam in se figurato ait: Si perdis hunc populum, inquit, et me pariter cum eo disperde. Ceterum Christo confirmante figuras suas malus pastor est qui viso lupo fugit et pecora diripienda derelinquit. Proicietur de villa pastor huiusmodi, detinebuntur illi missionis suae mercedes in compensationem, immo et de priore peculio eius exigetur detrimenti domini(??)i restitutio. Etenim qui habet, dabitur ei, ab eo autem, qui non habet, etiam quod videtur habere auferetur. Sic Zacharias comminatur: Ex(??)ge (??)homphaea in pastores et evellite oves, et superdueam m(??)num meam in pastores. In quos et Ezechiel et Hieremias iisdem minis perorant, quod non tantum de pecoribus improbe vescantur pascentes potius semetipsos, verum et dispersum gregem faciant et in praedam esse omnibus bestiis agri, dum non est pastor illis. Quod numquam magis fit, quam cum in persecutione destituitur ecclesia a clero. Si et spiritum quis agnoverit, audiet fugitivos denotantem. Porro si eos qui gregi praesunt fugere, cum lupi irruunt, nec decet, immo nec licet (qui enim talem pastorem malum pronuntiavit, utique damnavit, omne autem quod damnatur, illicitum factum est sine dubio), ideo praepositos ecclesiae in persecutione fugere non oportebit. Ceterum si grex fugere deberet, non deberet praepositus gregis stare, sine causa staturus ad tutelam gregis, quam grex non desideraret, ex licentia fugae scilicet. ### English translation (Claude) Every servant of God ought to think and act in this way, even one of lower rank, so that he may become one of higher rank, if he has climbed some step in the endurance of persecution. But when the leaders themselves, that is, the deacons and presbyters and bishops themselves, flee, how will a layman be able to understand in what sense it was said, “Flee from city to city”? So when the officers flee, which of the rank and file will be persuaded to stand his ground in the battle line? Certainly the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, as Moses, when the Lord had not yet been revealed as Christ but was already figured in him, said: “If you destroy this people,” he says, “destroy me too together with them.” But Christ, confirming his own figures, says that he is a bad shepherd who, seeing the wolf, flees and leaves the sheep to be torn. A shepherd of that kind will be thrown off the farm; the wages of his service will be withheld from him in compensation; indeed restitution for his master's loss will be exacted even from his former savings. For to him who has, it will be given; but from him who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away. So Zechariah threatens: “Rise, sword, against the shepherds, and pluck out the sheep, and I will bring my hand upon the shepherds.” Against them Ezekiel and Jeremiah too inveigh with the same threats: that they not only wickedly feed on the sheep, pasturing themselves instead, but also scatter the flock and make it a prey to all the beasts of the field, since they have no shepherd. This never happens more than when the church is abandoned by its clergy in persecution. If anyone also acknowledges the Spirit, he will hear him branding fugitives. Further, if it is neither fitting nor even lawful for those who are over the flock to flee when the wolves rush in (for he who declared such a shepherd bad surely condemned him, and whatever is condemned has without doubt become unlawful), then those in charge of the church ought not to flee in persecution. But if the flock ought to flee, the one in charge of the flock ought not to stand firm; he would stand without cause, to protect a flock that would not want his protection, since it would have, of course, the licence to flee. ### Scripture references - Matt 10:23: quotation, high confidence - John 10:11: allusion, high confidence - Exod 32:32: quotation, high confidence - John 10:12: allusion, high confidence - Matt 25:29: quotation, high confidence - Zech 13:7: quotation, high confidence - Ezek 34:5: allusion, high confidence - Jer 23:1: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - “If anyone also acknowledges the Spirit” refers to the oracles of the New Prophecy, which Tertullian's Catholic opponents rejected. Several words in the Zechariah quotation are marked uncertain in the digital text. The quotations and allusions are Matt 10:23, John 10:11, Exod 32:32, John 10:12, Matt 25:29, Zech 13:7, Ezek 34:2–8, and Jer 23:1–2. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 11 (Oehler 1:480–482; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/1/#p-11). ## On Flight in Persecution 12 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/12/#p-12 - Source: Oehler 1:482–488 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Buying off persecutors with money is only flight by another means and a form of denial; Christ bought Christians with his blood, the apostles never ransomed themselves, and what Christians owe God in persecution is their blood, not coins. ### Latin text Quod pertineat, frater, ad tuum problema, habes sententiae nostrae responsionem et exhortationem. Porro qui quaerit, an persecutio fugienda sit, sequentem quaestionem quoque iam prospiciat necesse est, an, si fugienda non est, redimenda certe sit. Ultro igitur et de hoc tibi suggeram, definiens persecutionem, quam constat non esse fugiendam, proinde nec redimendam. Pretium interest; ceterum sicut fuga redemptio gratuita est, ita redemptio nummaria fuga est. Certe et huius timiditatis consilium est. Quod times, redimis, ergo fugis. Pedibus stetisti, curristi nummis. Hoc ipso, quod stetisti, ex redemptione fugisti. Ut autem redimas hominem tu nummis, quem sanguine suo redemit Christus, quam indignum deo et dispositionibus eius, qui filio suo non pepercit pro te, ut fieret maledictum pro nobis, quia maledictus qui pependerit in ligno, qui tamquam ovis ad victimam ductus est et tamquam agnus ante tondentem, sic non aperuit os, sed posuit dorsum suum in flagella, maxillas autem in palmas, et faciem non avertit a sputaminibus, et inter iniquos deputatus est, et traditus est in mortem, mortem autem crucis. Totum hoc, ut nos a peccatis lucraretur. Sol cessit diem emptionis nostrae. Apud inferos remancipatio nostra est et stipulatio nostra in caelis. Sublevatas sunt portae sempiternae, ut introiret rex gloriae, dominus virtutum, hominem de terris, immo ab inferis mercatus in caelos. Quis est nunc, qui adversus illum reluctatur, immo depretiat mercem eius tam magno comparatam, pretiosissimo scilicet sanguine, et commaculat? Iam ergo melius fugere quam fieri viliorem, si non tanto sibi constabit homo, quanti constitit domino. Et dominus quidem illum redemit ab angelis munditenentibus potestatibus, a spiritualibus nequitiae, a tenebris huius aevi, a iudicio aeterno, a morte perpetua. Tu autem pro eo pacisceris cum delatore vel milite vel furunculo aliquo praeside sub tunica et sinu, quod aiunt, ut furtivo, quem coram toto mundo Christus emit, immo et manumisit. Hunc ergo liberum pretio aestimabis et pretio possidebis, nisi eodem, quanto, ut diximus, domino constitit, sanguine suo scilicet? Ut quid ergo de homine Christum redimis in homine, in quo Christus est? Non aliter et Simon facere temptavit, cum pecuniam apostolis obtulit pro spiritu Christi. Audiet ergo et iste, qui se redimens Christi spiritum redemit: Pecunia tua tecum sit in interitum, quoniam gratiam dei pretio consequendam putasti. Quis tamen abnegatorem spernat? Quid enim dicit ille concussor? Da mihi pecuniam. Certe ne eum tradat, siquidem non aliud venditat, quam quod praestaturus est praemio tuo. Cum das, utique ne tradaris voluisti. Non traditus autem traduci habebas? Ergo dum nolendo tradi non vis traduci, nolendo negasti, quod te esse traduci noluisti. Immo, inquis, dum nolo traduci quod sum, sum confessus id esse quod nolo traduci, id est Christianum. Potest itaque te martyrem vindicare constanter ostendisse Christus? Redimens non ostendit. Apud unum, si forte, confessus es, ergo et apud plures nolendo confiteri negasti. Ipsa salus iudicabit hominem excidisse, dum evadit. Excidit ergo qui maluit evasisse. Negatio est etiam martyrii recusatio. Christianus pecunia salvus est, et in hoc nummos habet, ne patiatur, dum adversus deum erit dives. At enim Christus sanguine fuit dives pro illo. Felices itaque pauperes, quia illorum est, inquit, regnum caelorum, qui animam solam in confiscato habent. Si non possumus deo servire et mammonae, possumus et a deo redimi et a mammona? Quis enim magis serviet mammonae quam quem mammonas redemit? Postremo quo exemplo uteris in redemptionem traditionis? Apostoli tractantes persecutionibus agitati quando se pecunia liberaverunt? Quae illis utique non deerat ex praediorum pretiis ad pedes eorum depositis, certe multis locupletibus credentibus viris ac feminis, qui his etiam refrigeria subministrabant. Quando Onesiphorus aut Aquila aut Stephanus hoc modo eis in persecutione succurrerunt? Paulus quidem, cum Felix praeses pecunias accepturum se pro eo a discipulis sperasset, de quo et ipse in secreto tractavit cum ipso, neque ipse pro se neque discipuli pro eo numeraverunt. Illi utique discipuli, qui flentes, quod aeque Hierosolymam tendere perseveraret et persecutiones praedicatas illic non praecaveret, postremo inquiunt: Fiat voluntas dei. Quae ista voluntas? Utique ut pateretur pro nomine domini, non ut redimeretur. Oportet enim, quomodo Christus animam suam posuit pro nobis, ita fieri pro eo et a nobis, nec tantum pro ipso, immo etiam pro fratribus propter ipsum. Quod Ioannes docens non et pro fratribus numerandum, sed moriendum potius pronuntiavit. Nihil interest, si quem Christianum redimere non debeas aut emere. Et adeo voluntas dei sic est. Aspice regnorum et imperiorum utique a deo dispositum statum, in cuius manu cor regis, tanta cotidie aerario augendo prospiciuntur remedia censuum, vectigalium, collationum, stipendiorum, nec umquam usque adhuc ex Christianis tale aliquid prospectum est sub aliqua redemptione capitis et sectae redigendis, cum tantae multitudinis nemini ignotae fructus ingens meti posset. Sanguine empti, sanguine numerati nullum nummum pro capite debemus, quia caput nostrum Christus est. Non decet Christum pecunia constare. Quomodo et martyria fieri possent in gloriam domini, si tributo licentiam sectae compensaremus? Itaque qui eam praemio paciscitur, dispositioni divinae adversatur. Cum igitur nihil nobis Caesar indixerit in hunc modum stipendiariae sectae, sed nec indici umquam tale quid possit, antichristo iam instante et in sanguinem, non in pecunias hiante Christianorum, quomodo mihi proponere potest scripturam esse, Reddite quae sunt Caesaris Caesari? Miles me vel delator vel inimicus concutit, nihil Caesari exigens, immo contra faciens, cum Christianum, legibus humanis reum, mercede dimittit. Alius est denarius quem Caesari debeo, qui ad eum pertinet, de quo tunc agebatur, tributarius, a tributariis scilicet, non a liberis debitus. Aut quomodo reddam quae sunt dei deo, utique proinde imaginem et monetam ipsius inscriptam nomine eius, id est hominem Christianum? Quid autem deo debeo, sicut denarium Caesari, nisi sanguinem quem pro me filius fudit ipsius? Quodsi deo quidem hominem et sanguinem meum debeo, nunc vero in eo sum tempore, ut quod deo debeo expostuler, utique fraudem deo facio id agens, ne quod debeo solvam. Bene observavi praeceptum Caesari reddens quae sunt Caesaris, deo vero quae sunt dei abnegans. ### English translation (Claude) As far as your problem is concerned, brother, you have the answer of our view and its exhortation. Further, whoever asks whether persecution is to be fled must also foresee the next question: whether, if it is not to be fled, it may at least be bought off. So I shall go on to advise you on this too, defining that persecution, which it is agreed is not to be fled, is likewise not to be bought off. The price is the only difference; for just as flight is a buying-off free of charge, so buying-off with money is flight. Certainly this too is the counsel of cowardice. What you fear, you buy off; so you flee. With your feet you have stood; with your money you have run. By the very fact that you have stood, you have fled by buying yourself off. But that you should redeem with money a man whom Christ redeemed with his own blood: how unworthy of God and of his arrangements, who did not spare his own Son for you, that he might become a curse for us, since cursed is he who hangs on a tree; who was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer, so he did not open his mouth, but gave his back to the scourges and his cheeks to blows, and did not turn his face from spitting, and was counted among the lawless, and was delivered to death, even the death of the cross. All this that he might win us back from sins. The sun gave up the day of our purchase. Our re-conveyance is in the underworld, and our contract is in heaven. The eternal gates were lifted up, so that the King of glory, the Lord of hosts, might enter, having bought man from the earth, indeed from the underworld, for heaven. Who is there now who struggles against him, indeed who cheapens and stains his merchandise, bought at so great a price, namely his most precious blood? Better, then, to flee than to become cheaper, if man is not to cost himself as much as he cost the Lord. And the Lord redeemed him from the angelic powers that rule the world, from the spirits of wickedness, from the darkness of this age, from eternal judgment, from everlasting death. But you bargain for him with an informer or a soldier or some petty thief of a governor, under the tunic and in the fold of the garment, as they say, as though for stolen goods: him whom Christ bought in the sight of the whole world, and indeed set free. Will you, then, value this free man at a price and possess him by a price, unless by the same price that, as we have said, he cost the Lord, namely his own blood? Why, then, do you redeem Christ from man, in a man in whom Christ is? Simon too tried to do nothing else when he offered money to the apostles for the Spirit of Christ. So let this man too hear, who by redeeming himself has bought the Spirit of Christ: “Your money go with you to perdition, since you thought the grace of God could be obtained for a price.” Who, though, would look down on a denier? For what does that extortioner say? “Give me money.” Surely so that he may not betray you, since he is selling nothing other than what he will provide in return for your payment. When you pay, you surely wanted not to be betrayed. But not being betrayed, would you have had to be exposed? So while, by not wanting to be betrayed, you do not want to be exposed, by not wanting it you have denied, because you did not want to be exposed as what you are. “No,” you say; “while I do not want to be exposed as what I am, I have confessed that I am what I do not want to be exposed as, that is, a Christian.” Can Christ, then, claim you as a martyr for having shown him steadfastly? He who buys himself off does not show him. Before one man, perhaps, you have confessed; therefore before many, by not wanting to confess, you have denied. His very safety will judge that the man has fallen, in that he escapes. So he who preferred to escape has fallen. The refusal of martyrdom is also denial. A Christian is saved by money, and he keeps coins for this, that he may not suffer, while he will be rich against God. But Christ was rich in blood for him. Blessed, therefore, are the poor, for theirs, he says, is the kingdom of heaven, who have only their soul in their treasury. If we cannot serve God and mammon, can we be redeemed both by God and by mammon? For who will serve mammon more than one whom mammon has redeemed? Finally, what example do you use for buying off betrayal? When did the apostles, harassed by persecutions while carrying out their ministry, free themselves with money? And money was surely not lacking to them, from the prices of estates laid at their feet, and certainly from the many wealthy believers, men and women, who also supplied their comforts. When did Onesiphorus or Aquila or Stephanas help them in this way in persecution? Paul indeed, when Felix the governor hoped to receive money for him from the disciples, and even discussed it with him in private, neither paid for himself, nor did the disciples pay for him; those disciples, surely, who, weeping because he persisted in going to Jerusalem and would not guard against the persecutions foretold there, finally said, “The will of God be done.” What was that will? Surely that he should suffer for the name of the Lord, not that he should be bought off. For just as Christ laid down his life for us, so it must be done by us for him, and not only for him but also for our brothers for his sake. John, teaching this, declared not that we must pay for our brothers, but rather that we must die for them. It makes no difference whether it is a Christian you must not redeem or buy. And so this is God's will. Look at the state of kingdoms and empires, surely arranged by God, in whose hand is the heart of the king: so many means of enlarging the treasury are devised daily, censuses, customs, contributions, military levies, and yet never up to now has anything of the kind been devised to be collected from Christians by way of a ransom for the person and the sect, although an enormous harvest could be reaped from so great a multitude, known to everyone. Bought with blood, paid for with blood, we owe no coin for our head, because our head is Christ. It is not fitting that Christ should cost money. And how could martyrdoms take place for the glory of the Lord, if we paid off the sect's licence by tribute? So he who bargains for it with a payment opposes the divine arrangement. Since, then, Caesar has imposed nothing on us in this way, as a tributary sect, nor could anything of the kind ever be imposed, with the Antichrist now at hand and gaping for the blood, not the money, of Christians, how can Scripture be put to me, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's”? A soldier or an informer or an enemy extorts from me, demanding nothing for Caesar, indeed doing the opposite, when for a fee he lets go a Christian who is guilty under human laws. The denarius I owe to Caesar is a different one: the one that belongs to him, which was then under discussion, the tribute denarius, owed by tributaries, of course, not by the free. Or how shall I render to God the things that are God's, surely in the same way his image and coin, inscribed with his name, that is, the Christian man? And what do I owe God, as the denarius to Caesar, but the blood which his Son shed for me? But if I owe God the man and my blood, and I am now in the time when what I owe God is being demanded of me, I surely defraud God by acting so as not to pay what I owe. A fine way of keeping the precept, rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and denying God the things that are God's! ### Scripture references - 1 Pet 1:19: allusion, high confidence - Rom 8:32: allusion, high confidence - Gal 3:13: quotation, high confidence - Deut 21:23: allusion, medium confidence - Isa 53:7: quotation, high confidence - Isa 50:6: quotation, high confidence - Isa 53:12: allusion, high confidence - Phil 2:8: allusion, high confidence - Luke 23:45: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 24:7 (23:7 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Eph 6:12: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 6:20: allusion, medium confidence - Acts 8:20: quotation, high confidence - Matt 5:3: quotation, high confidence - Matt 6:24: allusion, high confidence - Acts 4:34: allusion, high confidence - 2 Tim 1:16: allusion, medium confidence - Acts 24:26: allusion, high confidence - Acts 21:14: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 3:16: allusion, high confidence - Prov 21:1: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 11:3: allusion, high confidence - Matt 22:21: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The practice condemned is paying soldiers, informers, or officials to avoid arrest. “Re-conveyance” and “contract” (remancipatio, stipulatio) are Roman legal terms for sale. The quotations and allusions include 1 Pet 1:18–19, Rom 8:32, Gal 3:13 (Deut 21:23), Isa 53:7, Isa 50:6, Isa 53:12, Phil 2:8, Luke 23:44–45, Ps 24:7–10 (23:7–10 Vulg.), Eph 6:12, 1 Cor 6:20, Acts 8:18–20, Matt 5:3, Matt 6:24, Acts 4:34–35, 2 Tim 1:16, Acts 18:2, 1 Cor 16:17, Acts 24:26, Acts 21:14, 1 John 3:16, Prov 21:1, 1 Cor 11:3, and Matt 22:21. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 12 (Oehler 1:482–488; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/12/#p-12). ## On Flight in Persecution 13 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/12/#p-13 - Source: Oehler 1:488–491 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The command to give to all who ask concerns alms, not extortion, and the saying about making friends by mammon does not mean paying off persecutors; Tertullian denounces whole churches and their bishops who pay regular protection money to soldiers. ### Latin text Sed et omni petenti me dabo in causa eleemosynae, non in concussurae. Petenti inquit. Porro qui concutit, non petit. Qui comminatur, si non acceperit, non postulat, sed extorquet. Non eleemosynam expectat qui non miserandus, sed timendus venit. Dabo igitur misericordiae, non timiditatis meae nomine, ubi qui accepit deum honorat et benedictionem mihi reddit, non ubi amplius et benefactum praestitisse se credit et praedam suam aspiciens dicit: De reatu. Irascar et in inimicum? Sed inimicitiae et alios habent titulos. Non tamen dixit traditorem aut persecutorem aut concussorem. Nam huic quanto magis carbones acervabo super caput, si me non redemero? Proinde, inquit, qui tibi tunicam sustulerit, vel etiam pallium concede. Ad eum pertinet, qui rem, non qui fidem meam eripere quaesierit. Concedam et pallium non minanti traditionem. Si minatus fuerit, etiam tunicam reposcam. Omnium iam nunc domini sententiarum suae sunt et causae et regulae. Termini non in infinitum nec ad omnia spectant. Atque adeo omni petenti dari iubet, ipse signum petentibus non dat. Alioquin si omnibus passim petentibus dandum putas, tu mihi videris, non dico vinum febricitanti, sed etiam venenum aut gladium mortem desideranti daturus. Facite autem vobis amicos de mammona, quomodo intellegendum sit, parabola praemissa te doceat. Ad populum Iudaicum dictum, qui, commissam sibi rationem domini cum male administrasset, deberet de mammonae hominibus, quod nos eramus, amicos sibi potius prospicere quam inimicos, et relevare nos a debitis peccatorum, quibus deo detinebamur, si nobis id dominica ratione conferrent, ut, cum coepisset ab his deficere gratia, ad nostram fidem refugientes reciperentur in tabernacula aeterna. Quamvis nunc puta aliam interpretationem parabolae et sententiae istius, dum scias verisimile non esse, ut concussores nostri in amicitiam redacti per mammonam recipiant tunc nos in tabernacula aeterna. Sed quid non timiditas persuadebit? Quasi et fugere scriptum permittat et redimere praecipiat. Parum denique est, si unus aut alius ita eruitur. Massaliter totae ecclesiae tributum sibi irrogaverunt. Nescio dolendum an erubescendum sit, cum in matricibus beneficiariorum et curiosorum inter tabernarios et (??)ianeos et fures balnearum et aleones et lenones Christiani quoque vectigales continentur. Hanc episcopatui formam apostoli providentius condiderunt, ut regno suo securi frui possent, sub obtentu procurandi(??)? Scilicet enim talem pacem Christus ad patrem regrediens mandavit a militibus per Saturnalia redimendam! ### English translation (Claude) But I will also give to everyone who asks me, for the sake of almsgiving, not of extortion. “To him who asks,” he says. But he who extorts does not ask. He who threatens if he does not receive is not requesting but wresting. He does not expect alms who comes not to be pitied but to be feared. I will give, then, in the name of my mercy, not of my timidity, where the one who receives honours God and returns a blessing to me; not where he even believes he has done me a favour and, looking at his booty, says, “For the guilt.” Shall I be angry even with an enemy? But enmities have other titles too. Yet he did not say a betrayer or a persecutor or an extortioner. For on such a one how much more shall I heap coals of fire, if I do not buy myself off? Likewise he says, “Whoever takes away your tunic, let him have your cloak too.” That applies to one who has sought to snatch my property, not my faith. I will let my cloak go too to one who does not threaten betrayal. If he threatens it, I will even demand my tunic back. All the Lord's sayings have their own occasions and rules. Their limits do not extend indefinitely or to everything. So, although he orders us to give to everyone who asks, he himself does not give a sign to those who ask. Otherwise, if you think one must give indiscriminately to all who ask, you seem to me ready to give, I do not say wine to a man with a fever, but even poison or a sword to one who wants to die. As for “Make friends for yourselves by mammon,” let the parable that precedes it teach you how it is to be understood. It was said to the Jewish people, who, having badly managed the account of the Lord entrusted to them, ought to provide for themselves friends rather than enemies from among the men of mammon, which we were, and to relieve us from the debts of sins by which we were held by God, if they would share with us the Lord's account; so that, when grace began to fail them, they might flee to our faith and be received into the eternal dwellings. Suppose now another interpretation of this parable and saying, so long as you know that it is not likely that our extortioners, won over into friendship by mammon, will then receive us into the eternal dwellings. But what will cowardice not persuade us of? As though Scripture both permitted flight and commanded buying off! In short, it is a small thing if one or another is rescued in this way. Whole churches en masse have levied a tax on themselves. I do not know whether it is to be grieved or blushed at, when Christians too are listed as tax-payers in the registers of the beneficiarii and the curiosi, among shopkeepers and … and bath-thieves and gamblers and pimps. Did the apostles, with greater foresight, lay down this form for the episcopate, so that bishops might enjoy their reign in safety under the pretext of making provision? For of course, when returning to the Father, Christ commanded that such a peace be bought from the soldiers at the Saturnalia! ### Scripture references - Matt 5:42: quotation, high confidence - Rom 12:20: allusion, high confidence - Matt 5:40: quotation, high confidence - Matt 12:39: allusion, high confidence - Luke 16:9: quotation, high confidence - Luke 16:1: allusion, high confidence - John 14:27: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Beneficiarii and curiosi were military police and informers. One word in the list of trades is marked uncertain in the digital text and is shown as “…”; “For the guilt” (De reatu) is obscure. The quotations and allusions are Matt 5:42, Rom 12:20 (Prov 25:22), Matt 5:40, Matt 12:39, Luke 16:9 with Luke 16:1–8, and John 14:27. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 13 (Oehler 1:488–491; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/12/#p-13). ## On Flight in Persecution 14 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/12/#p-14 - Source: Oehler 1:491–492 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Christians can meet safely by faith and prudence, at night or in small groups, rather than by bribery; the teaching is hard, but those who have received the Paraclete neither flee nor buy off persecution. ### Latin text Sed quomodo colligemus, inquis, quomodo dominica sollemnia celebrabimus? Utique quomodo et apostoli, fide, non pecunia tuti, quae fides si montem transferre potest, multo magis militem. Esto sapientia, non praemio cautus. Neque enim statim et a populo eris tutus, si officia militaria redemeris. Una ergo tibi et fides et sapientia ad tutelam opus est, quibus non adhibitis et redemptionem tuam potes perdere, adhibitis haud redemptionem desiderare. Postremo si colligere interdiu non potes, habes noctem, luce Christi luminosa adversus eam. Non potes discurrere per singulos. Sit tibi et in tribus ecclesia. Melius est, turbas tuas aliquando non videas, quam addicas. Serva Christo virginem sponsam; nemo quaestum de ea faciat. Haec tibi, frater, dura forsitan et intolerabilia videntur, sed recita deum dixisse, Qui capit, capiat, id est, Qui non capit, discedat. Non potest qui pati timet eius esse qui passus est. At qui pati non timet, iste perfectus erit in dilectione, utique dei. Perfecta enim dilectio foras mittit timorem. Et ideo multi vocati, pauci electi. Non quaeritur qui latam viam sequi paratus sit, sed qui angustam. Et ideo paracletus necessarius, deductor omnium veritatum, exhortator omnium tolerantiarum. Quem qui receperunt, neque fugere persecutionem neque redimere noverunt, habentes ipsum qui pro nobis erit, sicut locuturus in interrogatione, ita iuvaturus in passione. ### English translation (Claude) “But how,” you say, “shall we assemble? How shall we celebrate the Lord's solemnities?” Surely as the apostles did, safe by faith, not by money; and if faith can move a mountain, much more can it move a soldier. Let wisdom, not payment, be your precaution. For you will not at once be safe from the populace as well if you buy off the military officials. So you need both faith and wisdom together for protection; if you do not use them, you may lose even what you paid for, and if you do use them, you will not need to pay. Finally, if you cannot assemble by day, you have the night, made bright against it by the light of Christ. You cannot run about among all of them one by one: let the church be for you even in three. It is better that you should sometimes not see your crowds than hand them over. Keep a virgin bride for Christ; let no one make a profit of her. These things, brother, may seem to you hard and intolerable; but remember that God said, “Let him accept it who can accept it,” that is, let him who cannot accept it go away. He who fears to suffer cannot belong to him who suffered. But he who does not fear to suffer will be perfect in love, the love of God, surely; for perfect love casts out fear. And so many are called, but few chosen. What is sought is not someone ready to follow the broad way, but the narrow one. And therefore the Paraclete is necessary, the guide into all truths, the encourager to every endurance. Those who have received him know neither how to flee persecution nor how to buy it off, since they have him who will be for us, who will speak for us when we are questioned and help us when we suffer. ### Scripture references - Matt 17:20: allusion, high confidence - Matt 18:20: allusion, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:2: allusion, high confidence - Matt 19:12: quotation, high confidence - 1 John 4:18: quotation, high confidence - Matt 22:14: quotation, high confidence - Matt 7:13: allusion, high confidence - John 16:13: allusion, high confidence - Matt 10:19: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The closing appeal to the Paraclete reflects Tertullian's New Prophecy (Montanist) conviction that the Spirit's recent guidance forbids flight. The quotations and allusions are Matt 17:20, Matt 18:20, 2 Cor 11:2, Matt 19:12, 1 John 4:18, Matt 22:14, Matt 7:13–14, John 16:13, and Matt 10:19–20. ### Citation (SBL) Tertullian, Fug. 14 (Oehler 1:491–492; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-fuga/12/#p-14).