To the Nations 1.14 · Sophia Scriptura

Latin text · Oehler 1:335–336

Nova iam de deo nostro fama suggessit, nec adeo nuper quidam perditissimus in ista civitate, etiam suae religionis desertor, solo detrimento cutis Iudaeus, utique magis post bestiarum morsus, ut ad quas se locando quotidie toto iam corpore decutiendus incedit, picturam in nos proposuit sub ista proscriptione: ONCOETES. Is erat auribus canteriorum et in toga, cum libro, altero pede ungulato. Et credidit vulgus infami Iudaeo. Quod enim aliud genus seminari est infamiae nostrae? Itaque in tota civitate Onocoëtes praedicatur. Sed et hoc tamquam hesternum et auctoritate temporis destitutum et qualitate auctoris infirmum libenter excipiam studio retorquendi. Videamus igitur, an hic quoque nobiscum deprehendamini. Neque enim interest qua forma, dum deformia simulacra curemus. Sunt penes vos et canino capite, et leonino, et de bove et de ariete et hirco cornuti dii, caprigenae vel anguini, et alites planta, fronte et tergo. Quid itaque nostrum unicum denotatis? Plures Onocoëtae penes vos deprehenduntur.

English · Claude translation

Rumor has now put about something new concerning our god. Not long ago a most abandoned fellow in this city, a deserter even of his own religion, a Jew only by the loss of his skin, and all the more so after the bites of beasts, since by hiring himself out to them every day he now goes about with his whole body ripe for flaying, exhibited a picture against us with this inscription: ONOCOETES. The figure had the ears of a donkey, wore a toga, held a book, and had one foot hoofed. And the crowd believed the infamous Jew. For what other kind of seed is there for our infamy? So throughout the whole city “Onocoetes” is proclaimed. But this too, being a thing of yesterday, lacking the authority of time and weak from the character of its author, I will gladly take up in my zeal for turning things back. Let us see, then, whether here too you are caught along with us. For it makes no difference of what shape they are, so long as we give our care to deformed images. You have gods with a dog's head and a lion's head, gods horned like the ox, the ram, and the goat, goat-born or snake-bodied, winged on foot, forehead, and back. Why then do you single out our one? Many Onocoetae are found among you.

About this passage

Source

Oehler 1:335–336 · Franz Oehler, ed., Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani quae supersunt omnia, vol. 1 (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1853), 305–395 · Latin text: Franz Oehler (Oehler 1), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Oehler 1. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Oehler 1; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

The digital text prints ONCOETES in the inscription and Onocoëtes twice after it; the translation follows the latter. The word is probably formed from Greek onos (“ass”) and koitēs (“one who lies with”), but its intended sense is uncertain. “A Jew only by the loss of his skin” refers to circumcision, with a pun on skin in the following clause.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (l misread for I in the digital text; misread letter in the digital text): temperis → temporis; infami ludaeo → infami Iudaeo.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Nat. 1.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/1/14/).

Plain text

Tertullian, Nat. 1.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/1/14/).