Against Marcion 2.28
Summary: Tertullian turns Marcion's method back on him: every charge made against the Creator — ignorance, change of mind, repentance, fraud, cruelty — can be made against Marcion's own god.
Latin text · CSEL 47:374–375
Nunc et de pusillitatibus et malignitatibus ceterisque notis et ipse aduersus Marcionem antithesis aemulas faciam. si ignorauit deus meus esse alium super se, etiam tuus omnino non sciit esse alium infra se. quid enim ait Heraclitus ille tenebrosus? eadem uia sursum et deorsum. denique si + non ignorasset, et ab initio ei occurrisset. delictum et mortem et ipsum auctorem delicti diabolum et omne malum, quod deus meus passus est esse, hoc et tuus, qui illum pati passus est. mutauit sententias suas deus noster. proinde quam et uester. qui enim genus humanum tam sero respexit, eam sententiam mutauit, qua tanto aeuo non respexit. paenituit in aliquo deum nostrum. sed et uestrum. eo enim, quod tandem animaduertit ad hominis salutem, paenitentiam dissimulationis pristinae fecit, debitam malo facto. porro malum factum deputabitur neglegentia salutis humanae, non nisi per paenitentiam emendata apud deum uestrum. mandauit fraudem deus noster, sed auri et argenti. quanto autem homo pretiosior auro et argento, tanto fraudulentior deus uester, qui hominem domino et factori suo eripit. oculum pro oculo reposcit deus noster. sed et uester uicem prohibens iterabilem magis iniuriam facit. quis enim non rursus percutiet non repercussus? nesciit deus noster, quales adlegeret. ergo nec uester. Iudam (enim) traditorem non adlegisset, si praescisset. si et mentitum alicubi dicis creatorem, longe maius mendacium est in tuo Christo, cuius corpus non fuit uerum. multos saeuitia dei mei absumpsit. tuus quoque deus quos saluos non facit utique in exitium disponit. deus meus aliquem iussit occidi. tuus semetipsum uoluit interfici, non minus homicida in semetipsum quam in eo, a quo uellet occidi. multos autem occidisse deum eius probabo Marcioni. nam fecit homicidam populum, utique periturum, nisi si nihil deliquit in Christum. sed expedita uirtus ueritatis paucis amat. multa mendacio erunt necessaria.
English · Claude translation
Now, regarding pettinesses and malignities and the other marks of censure, I too will make rival antitheses against Marcion. If my God did not know that there was another above him, your god too did not know at all that there was another below him. For what does that obscure Heraclitus say? “The way up and the way down are the same.” In short, if he had not been ignorant, he would have opposed him from the beginning. Sin and death, and the devil himself, the author of sin, and every evil which my God allowed to exist — this yours too allowed, since he allowed my God to allow it. Our God changed his sentences; just so did yours. For he who looked upon the human race so late changed that sentence by which for so long an age he did not look upon it. Our God repented of something; so did yours. For by at last turning his attention to man's salvation he repented of his former neglect, a repentance owed for a bad deed. And the neglect of human salvation will be counted a bad deed, amended with your god only by repentance. Our God commanded a fraud — but of gold and silver. But as much as man is more precious than gold and silver, so much more fraudulent is your god, who snatches man away from his lord and maker. Our God demands an eye for an eye; but yours, by forbidding retaliation, rather multiplies injury. For who will not strike again if he is not struck back? Our God did not know what sort of men he was choosing; neither, then, did yours: he would not have chosen Judas the traitor if he had known beforehand. If you say that the Creator lied somewhere, a far greater lie is in your Christ, whose body was not real. The cruelty of my God has consumed many; your god too surely consigns to destruction those he does not save. My God ordered someone to be killed; yours willed himself to be killed, no less a murderer of himself than of the one by whom he wished to be killed. And I will prove to Marcion that his god killed many: for he made the people murderers, who will surely perish — unless they did no wrong against Christ. But the ready strength of truth is content with few words; falsehood will need many.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The saying is Heraclitus, fragment B60 (Diels–Kranz). “Eye for an eye” is Exod 21:24; the command not to retaliate, Matt 5:39 (Luke 6:29); Judas, Luke 6:16. Marcion held that Christ's body only seemed real. A cross (+) before “non ignorasset” marks a doubtful reading. Correction: “ludam (euim)” read as “Iudam (enim)”.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR: I read as l, n as u.): ludam (euim) → Iudam (enim).
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 2.28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/2/28/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 2.28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/2/28/).
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