Sophia Scriptura

On Prayer 14

Tertullian · On Prayer · ca. 198–206 · Carthage · Read in context

Summary: Jewish ritual washing cannot cleanse hands stained with the blood of the prophets and of Christ; Christians pray with hands raised and outstretched in the shape of the cross.

Latin text · CSEL 20:189

Omnibus licet membris lauet quotidie Israel, numquam tamen mundus est. certe manus eius semper inmundae, sanguine prophetarum et ipsius domini incrustatae in aeternum; et ideo conscientia patrum hereditarii rei nec attollere eas ad dominum audent, ne exclamet aliquis Eseias, ne exhorreat Christus. nos uero non attollimus tantum, sed etiam expandimus, et dominicam passionem modulantes et orantes confitemur Christo.

English · Claude translation

Though Israel washes all its limbs daily, it is never clean. Certainly its hands are always unclean, crusted for ever with the blood of the prophets and of the Lord himself; and therefore, heirs to guilt through the conscience of their fathers, they do not dare to lift them up to the Lord, lest some Isaiah should cry out, lest Christ should shudder. We, however, not only lift them up but also spread them out, and, modeling them on the Lord's passion, we also confess Christ as we pray.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 20:189 · August Reifferscheid and Georg Wissowa, eds., Quinti Septimi Florentis Tertulliani Opera, Pars 1, CSEL 20 (Prague: Tempsky; Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1890), 180–200 · Latin text: August Reifferscheid and Georg Wissowa (CSEL 20), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in CSEL 20. 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 CSEL 20; 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)
Scripture
Topics
Prayer

Notes

Translation notes

  • The polemic against Judaism is Tertullian's own view, translated as written. The allusions are Matt 23:31–35 (1 Thess 2:15) and Isa 1:15. Praying with arms outstretched imitated the cross.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Or. 14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-oratione/14/).

Plain text
Tertullian, Or. 14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-oratione/14/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage