Against Marcion 1.27
Summary: A god who forbids sin but never punishes it invites every vice; the Marcionites themselves still fear sin, and their teaching that sinners are “cast away” implies a judgment after all.
Latin text · CSEL 47:328–329
Sed iudicat plane malum nolendo et damnat prohibendo, dimittit autem non uindicando et absoluit non puniendo. o deum ueritatis praeuaricatorem, sententiae suae circumscriptorem! timet damnare quod damnat. timet odisse quod non amat, factum sinit quod fieri non sinit, mauult ostendere quid nolit quam probare. hoc erit bonitas imaginaria, disciplina phantasma et ipsa, transfunctoria praecepta, secura delicta. audite, peccatores, quique nondum hoc estis, ut esse possitis: deus melior inuentus est, qui nec offenditur nec irascitur nec ulciscitur, cui nullus ignis coquitur in gehenna, cui nullus dentium frendor horret in exterioribus tenebris: bonus tantum est. denique prohibet delinquere, sed litteris solis. in uobis est, si uelitis illi obsequium subsignare. ut honorem deo habuisse uideamini; timorem enim non uult atque adeo prae se ferunt Marcionitae, quod deum suum omnino non timeant. malus enim, inquiunt, timebitur, bonus autem diligetur, stulte, quem dominum appellas negas timendum, cum hoc nomen potestatis sit, etiam timendae? at quomodo diliges, nisi timeas non diligere? plane nec pater tuus est, in quem competat et amor propter pietatem et timor propter potestatem, nec legitimus dominus, ut diligas propter humanitatem et timeas propter disciplinam. sic denique plagiarii diliguntur, non etiam timentur. non enim timebitur nisi iusta et ordinaria dominatio. diligi autem potest etiam adultera; sollicitatione enim constat, non auctoritate, et adulatione. non potestate. quid denique adulantius quam delicta non exequi? age itaque, qui deum non times quasi bonum, quid non in omnem libidinem ebullis, summum, quod sciam, fructum uitae omnibus, qui deum non timent? quid non frequentas tam sollemnes uoluptates circi furentis et caueae saeuientis et scaenae lasciuientis? quid non et in persecutionibus statim oblata acerra animam negatione lucraris? absit, inquis, absit! ergo iam times delictum et timendo probasti illum timeri, qui prohibet delictum. aliud est, si eadem dei tui peruersitate quae non times obseruas, qua et ille quod non uindicat prohibet. — multo adhuc uanius, cum interrogati: quid fiet peccatori cuique die illo? respondent abici illum. qua? si ab oculis, nonne et hoc iudicio agitur? iudicatur enim abiciendus, et utique iudicio damnationis; nisi si in salutem abicitur peccator, ut et hoc deo optimo competat. et quid erit abici, nisi amittere id, quod erat consecuturus. si non abiceretur, id est salutem? ergo salutis in detrimentum abicietur, et hoc decerni non poterit nisi ab irato et offenso et executore delicti, id est iudice.
English · Claude translation
“But he plainly judges evil by being unwilling, and condemns it by forbidding; he lets it go, however, by not avenging, and acquits it by not punishing.” O god, betrayer of truth, cheat of his own sentence! He is afraid to condemn what he condemns, afraid to hate what he does not love; he allows to be done what he does not allow to be done; he prefers to show what he does not want rather than to prove it. This will be an imaginary goodness, a discipline that is itself a phantom, perfunctory precepts, carefree sins. Hear, you sinners — and you who are not yet such, so that you may become so: a better god has been found, who is neither offended nor angry nor avenges; for whom no fire is cooked up in Gehenna, for whom no gnashing of teeth shudders in the outer darkness: he is only good. In short, he forbids sinning — but only in writing. It is up to you whether you choose to put your signature to obedience to him, so that you may seem to have paid honour to God; for he does not want fear. And so the Marcionites openly profess that they do not fear their god at all. “For a bad god,” they say, “will be feared, but a good one loved.” Fool, do you say that one whom you call Lord is not to be feared, when this is a name of power, and of power to be feared? And how will you love unless you fear not to love? Plainly he is neither your father, to whom both love for dutiful affection and fear for his power are due, nor your lawful master, so that you love him for his kindness and fear him for his discipline. It is kidnappers who are loved like that, and not feared as well. For only a just and regular dominion will be feared; an adulterous one can be loved, since it rests on seduction, not authority, on flattery, not power. And what is more flattering than not to punish sins?
Come then, you who do not fear God because he is good: why do you not boil over into every lust — the highest fruit of life, as far as I know, for all who do not fear God? Why do you not frequent the solemn pleasures of the raving circus, the savage arena, and the lascivious stage? Why, in persecutions too, when the incense box is held out, do you not at once gain your life by denial? “Far be it,” you say, “far be it!” Then you already fear sin, and by fearing it you have proved that he is feared who forbids sin. Unless, by the same perversity as your god's, you keep what you do not fear, just as he forbids what he does not avenge. It is still more foolish when, asked what will become of every sinner on that day, they answer that he will be cast away. Cast away where? If out of sight, is not this too done by a judgment? For he is judged fit to be cast away — and surely by a judgment of condemnation; unless the sinner is cast away for salvation, so that this too may suit the supremely good god! And what will being cast away be, but losing what he would have obtained if he had not been cast away — that is, salvation? So he will be cast away to the loss of salvation; and this cannot be decreed except by one who is angry and offended and punishes sin — that is, by a judge.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The fire of Gehenna recalls Matt 5:22; the gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness, Matt 8:12. The incense box was offered to Christians in persecution as a test of sacrifice to the gods.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Line-break hyphen and stray comma in the digital text.): con-, stat → constat.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 1.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/27/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 1.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/27/).
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