Sophia Scriptura

Prescription against Heretics 12

Tertullian · Prescription against Heretics · ca. 203 · Carthage · Read in context

Summary: If seeking is still needed, it must be done within the church and without harm to the rule of faith, never among heretics.

Latin text · Oehler 2:13–14

Nobis etsi quaerendum est adhuc et semper, ubi tamen quaeri oportet? Apud haereticos, ubi omnia extranea et adversaria nostrae veritati, ad quos vetamur accedere? Quis servus cibaria ab extraneo, ne dicam ab inimico domini sui, sperat? Quis miles ab infoederatis, ne dicam ab hostibus regibus, donativum et stipendium captat, nisi plane desertor et transfuga et rebellis? Etiam anus illa intra tectum suum drachmam requirebat, etiam pulsator ille vicini ianuam tundebat, etiam vidua illa non inimicum, licet durum, iudicem interpellabat. Nemo inde instrui potest unde destruitur; nemo ab eo inluminatur a quo contenebratur. Quaeramus ergo in nostro et a nostris et de nostro, idque dumtaxat quod salva regula fidei potest in quaestionem devenire.

English · Claude translation

Even if we must still seek, and always, where ought the seeking to be done? Among the heretics, where everything is foreign and hostile to our truth, and whom we are forbidden to approach? What slave expects his rations from a stranger, not to say from his master's enemy? What soldier looks for a bounty and pay from kings who are not allies, not to say enemies, unless he is plainly a deserter, a turncoat, and a rebel? Even that old woman searched for her drachma inside her own house; even that man who knocked beat on his neighbor's door; even that widow appealed to a judge who was harsh, but not an enemy. No one can be built up from the source that tears him down; no one is enlightened by the one who darkens him. Let us seek, then, in what is our own, and from our own people, and concerning what is our own, and only that which can come into question without harm to the rule of faith.

About this passage

Source
Oehler 2:13–14 · Franz Oehler, ed., Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani quae supersunt omnia, vol. 2 (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1854), 3–46 · Latin text: Franz Oehler (Oehler 2), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Oehler 2. 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, vol. 2 (1854); 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
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are to Luke 15:8, 11:5, and 18:3, and to Titus 3:10 and 2 John 10 (not approaching heretics).

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Praescr. 12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/12/).

Plain text
Tertullian, Praescr. 12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/12/).

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