On Patience 8
Summary: Christians should bear blows and insults patiently, as Christ commanded; patience blunts every injury, so that the one who inflicts it loses his aim and is himself the one who grieves.
Latin text · CSEL 47:13–14
Ipsam animam ipsumque corpus in saeculo isto expositum omnibus ad iniuriam gerimus eiusque iniuriae patientiam sumus: minorum delibatione laedemur? absit a seruo Christi tale inquinamentum, ut patientia maioribus temptationibus praeparata in friuolis excidat! si manu quis temptauerit prouocare, praesto est dominica monela: uerberanti te, inquit, in faciem etiam alteram genam obuerte. fatigetur improbitas patientia tua; quiuis ictus illi sit dolore et contumelia constrictus. plus improbum illum caedis sustinendo, grauius a domino uapulaturum; ab eo enim uapulabit, cuius gratia sustines. si linguae amaritudo maledicto siue conuicio eruperit, respice dictum: cum uos maledixerint, gaudete. dominus ipse maledictus in lege est et tamen solus est benedictus. igitur dominum serui consequamur et maledicamur patienter, ut benedicti esse possimus. si parum aequanimiter audiam dictum aliquod in me proteruum aut nequam, reddam et ipse amaritudinis uicem necesse est, aut cruciabor impatientia muta. cum ergo (re)percussero maledictis, quomodo secutus inueniar doctrinam domini, qua traditum est non uasculorum inquinamentis, sed eorum, quae ex ore promuntur, hominem communicari, item: manere nos omnis uani et superuacui dicti reatum? sequitur ergo, ut a quo nos dominus arcet, idem ab alio aequanimiter pati admoneat. hic iam uide patientiae uoluptatem. nam omnis iniuria, seu lingua seu manu incussa, cum patientiam offenderit, eodem exitu dispungetur, quo telum aliquod in petra constantissimae duritiae libratum et obtusum. concidet enim ibidem inrita opera et infructuosa et nonnumquam repercussum in eum, qui misit, reciproco impetu saeuiet. nempe idcirco quis te laedit, ut doleas, quia fructus laedentis in dolore laesi est. ergo cum fructum eius euerteris non dolendo, ipse doleat necesse est amissione fructus sui. tunc tu non modo inlaesus abis, quod etiam solum tibi sufficit, sed insuper aduersarii tui et frustratione oblectatus et dolore defensus. haec est patientiae utilitas et uoluptas.
English · Claude translation
We carry our very soul and our very body exposed in this world to injury from all, and we undertake patience under that injury: shall we be hurt by the slighting of lesser things? Far be from a servant of Christ such a defilement, that patience prepared for greater temptations should fail in trifles! If anyone tries to provoke you by force of hand, the Lord's admonition is at hand: “To him who strikes you on the face,” he says, “turn the other cheek as well.” Let wickedness be wearied by your patience; let whatever blow it is be bound up with pain and shame for him. You strike that wicked man more by enduring, since he will be beaten more heavily by the Lord; for he will be beaten by him for whose sake you endure. If bitterness of tongue breaks out in cursing or abuse, look back to the saying: “When they curse you, rejoice.” The Lord himself is cursed in the law, and yet he alone is blessed. Let us servants, then, follow the Lord and be cursed patiently, so that we may be blessed. If I hear with too little equanimity some insolent or wicked word against me, I must either return bitterness myself or be tortured by mute impatience. When, then, I strike back with curses, how shall I be found to have followed the teaching of the Lord, by which it has been handed down that a man is defiled not by the defilements of vessels but by what comes out of the mouth; and again, that the guilt of every vain and superfluous word awaits us? It follows, then, that what the Lord keeps us from, he also admonishes us to endure calmly from another. Now see here the pleasure of patience. For every injury, whether inflicted by tongue or by hand, when it strikes against patience, will be finished with the same outcome as some weapon hurled at a rock of the firmest hardness and blunted. For there it will fall, a vain and fruitless effort, and sometimes, rebounding, it will rage with a recoiling force against the one who sent it. Surely someone hurts you so that you may grieve, since the fruit of the one who hurts lies in the grief of the one hurt. So when you overturn his fruit by not grieving, he must grieve at the loss of his fruit. Then you not only go away unhurt, which alone is enough for you, but besides are both delighted by your adversary's frustration and protected by his grief. This is the usefulness and the pleasure of patience.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Matt 5:39 (loosely) and a paraphrase of Luke 6:22–23 (Matt 5:11–12); the allusions are Deut 21:23 (Gal 3:13), Matt 15:11, and Matt 12:36. “Admonition” renders monela, a rare word in Tertullian.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; garbled word in the digital text; stray punctuation in the digital text): èXPOsitum → expositum; patientiam summus → patientiam sumus; temptationinus → temptationibus; quis te, laedit → quis te laedit.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Pat. 8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-patientia/8/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Pat. 8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-patientia/8/).
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