Against Marcion 1.15
Summary: Marcion's god has no visible world of his own; and if he made one, the place and matter it required would themselves be gods, so that Marcion's system actually implies nine gods, not two.
Latin text · CSEL 47:309–310
Post haec, uel ante haec, cum dixeris esse et illi conditionem suam et suum mundum et suum caelum, — de caelo quidem illo tertio uidebimus, si et ad apostolum uestrum discutiendum peruenerimus — interim, quaecumque substantia eius est, cum suo utique deo apparuisse debuerat. at nunc quale est, ut dominus anno quinto decimo Tiberii Caesaris reuelatus sit, substantia uero anno quinto decimo iam Seueri imperatoris nulla omnino comperta sit? quae friuolis creatoris praecellens utique latere desisset, non latente iam domino suo et auctore. et ideo, si ipsa non potuit manifestari in hoc mundo, quomodo dominus paruit eius in hoc mundo? si dominum cepit hic mundus, cur substantiam capere non potuit, nisi domino fortasse maiorem? iam nunc de loco quaestio est, pertinens et ad mundum illum superiorem et ad ipsum deum eius. ecce enim, si et ille habet mundum suum infra se, super creatorem, in loco utique fecit eum, cuius spatium uacabat inter pedes suos et caput creatoris. ergo et deus ipse in loco erat et mundum in loco faciebat, et erit iam locus ille maior et deo et mundo. nihil enim non maius est id quod capit eo quod capitur. et uidendum, ne qua adhuc illic uacent subsiciua. in quibus et tertius aliqui stipare deus se cum mundo suo possit. ergo iam incipe deos computare. erit enim et locus deus, non tantum qua deo maior, sed et qua innatus et infectus ac per hoc aeternus et deo par, in quo semper deus fuerit. dehinc si et ille mundum ex aliqua materia subiacente molitus est innata et infecta et contemporali deo, quemadmodum de creatore Marcion sentit, redigis et hoc ad maiestatem loci, qui et deum et materiam, duos deos, clusit. et materia enim deus secundum formam diuinitatis, innata scilicet et infecta et aeterna, aut si de nihilo molitus est mundum, hoc et de creatore sentire cogetur, cui materiam subicit in substantiam mundi. sed ex, materia et ille fecisse debebit. eadem ratione occurrente illi quoque, [deo] quae opponitur creatori, ut aeque deo. atque ita tres interim mihi deos numera Marcionis, factorem et locum et materiam. proinde et creatorem in loco facit, utique eadem condicione censendo, et materiam ei subicit, utique innatam et infectam et hoc nomine aeternam, ut dominum. amplius; et malum materiae deputans, innatum innatae, infectum infectae et aeternum aeternae, quartum iam hinc deum fecit. habes igitur in superioribus tres substantias diuinitatis, in inferioribus quattuor. his cum accedunt et sui Christi, alter qui apparuit sub Tiberio alter qui a creatore promittitur. manifestam iam fraudem Marcion patitur ab eis, qui duos illum deos inferre: praesumunt, cum nouem adsignet, licet nesciens,
English · Claude translation
After this, or before it, you will say that he too has his own creation, his own world, and his own heaven — about that third heaven we shall see, if we come to discussing your apostle as well. Meanwhile, whatever his substance is, it ought surely to have appeared along with its god. But as it is, how can it be that the lord was revealed in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, while his substance has not been discovered at all even by now, the fifteenth year of the emperor Severus? Since it surpasses the Creator's trifles, it would surely have ceased to lie hidden once its lord and author was no longer hidden. And so, if it could not itself be shown in this world, how did its lord appear in this world? If this world held the lord, why could it not hold his substance — unless perhaps the substance was greater than its lord?
Now comes the question of place, which concerns both that higher world and its god himself. For see: if he too has his own world beneath him, above the Creator, he must have made it in a place, whose space lay empty between his own feet and the Creator's head. So God himself was in a place and was making the world in a place, and that place will now be greater than both God and the world; for what contains is always greater than what is contained. And we must see whether some leftover plots are not still empty there, in which some third god could squeeze himself in with his world. So start counting gods now. For the place too will be a god, not only as greater than God but also as unborn and unmade and therefore eternal and equal to God, the place in which God has always been. Next, if he too built his world out of some underlying matter, unborn, unmade, and coeval with God, as Marcion holds concerning the Creator, you reduce this too to the majesty of the place, which has enclosed both God and matter, two gods. For matter too is a god according to the form of divinity, being unborn, unmade, and eternal. Or if he built the world out of nothing, Marcion will be compelled to hold this of the Creator as well, to whom he assigns matter as the substance of the world. But he too will have to have made it out of matter, since the same reasoning that is set against the Creator confronts him as well, as being equally God. And so for the moment count me three gods of Marcion: the maker, the place, and the matter. In the same way he puts the Creator in a place, reckoning him surely on the same terms, and assigns him matter, surely unborn and unmade and on that account eternal, like its lord. Further, by ascribing evil to matter — unborn to the unborn, unmade to the unmade, eternal to the eternal — he has now made a fourth god. You have, then, three substances of divinity in the higher realm and four in the lower. When their own Christs are added to these — one who appeared under Tiberius, the other who is promised by the Creator — Marcion is plainly wronged by those who presume that he introduces two gods, since he assigns nine, though without knowing it.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The fifteenth year of Tiberius is from Luke 3:1; the fifteenth year of Severus dates this edition to about AD 207/208. The third heaven is 2 Cor 12:2. The count of nine: in the higher realm the god, his place, and his matter; in the lower the Creator, his place, his matter, and evil; and two Christs.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Line-break hyphen and stray letter in the digital text.; Stray asterisk in the digital text.; Stray letter (line marker) in the digital text.): anno quinto* decimo → anno quinto decimo; amplius; I et malum → amplius; et malum; quat- i tuor → quattuor.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 1.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/15/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 1.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/15/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text