Against Marcion 2.1
Summary: Book 2 turns from Marcion's false god to the defence of the true God, the Creator, who ought to be worshipped rather than put on trial.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Latin text · CSEL 47:333–334
Occasio reformandi opusculi huius. cui quid acciderit primo libellulo praefati sumus, hoc quoque contulit nobis, uti duobus diis aduersus Marcionem retractandis suum cuique titulum et uolumen distingueremus pro materiae diuisione, alterum deum definientes omnino non esse, alterum defendentes digne deum esse, quatenus ita Pontico placuit alterum inducere alterum excludere. non enim poterat aedificare mendacium sine demolitione ueritatis. aliud subruere necesse habuit, ut quod uellet extrueret. sic aedificat qui propria paratura caret. Oportuerat autem in hoc solum disceptasse, quod nemo sit deus ille, qui creatori superducitur, ut falso deo depulso regulis certis et unicam et perfectam praescribentibus diuinitatem nihil iam quaereretur in deum uerum, quem quanto constaret esse. — sic quoque, dum alium esse non constat — tanto qualemcumque sine controuersia haberi deceret, adorandum potius quam iudicandum et demerendum magis quam retractandum. [uel quam timendum ob seueritatem. quid enim amplius homini necessarium quam cura in deum uerum. in quem, ut + ita dixerim, inciderat, quia alius deus non erat?
English · Claude translation
The occasion for revising this work — what befell it I explained in the preface to the first little book — has also brought us this: that, in dealing with the two gods against Marcion, we give each its own title and volume according to the division of the material, defining the one as not existing at all and defending the other as worthily God, since it has pleased the man of Pontus to bring in the one and exclude the other. For he could not build his lie without demolishing the truth; he had to undermine one thing in order to build what he wanted. So builds the man who has no materials of his own. But the dispute ought to have concerned this alone: that the god who is set above the Creator is no one; so that, once the false god had been driven off by sure rules prescribing a divinity both unique and perfect, there would be no further question about the true God. As surely as it was established that he exists — and so too while it is not established that another exists — it would befit us to hold him without controversy, of whatever kind he is: to be adored rather than judged, to be won over rather than discussed. For what is more necessary for man than care for the true God, upon whom, so to speak, he had fallen, since there was no other god?
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- A cross (+) before “ita dixerim” in the digital text marks a doubtful reading; the phrase is rendered “so to speak.” The editor deletes “uel quam timendum ob seueritatem” (“or than feared for his severity”) as spurious (the closing bracket is missing in the digital text); it is left out of the translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Stray letter (line marker) in the digital text.; Word split in the digital text.): ex trueret → extrueret; seueritatem. I quid → seueritatem. quid.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 2.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/2/1/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 2.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/2/1/).
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