Sophia Scriptura

Prescription against Heretics 15

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

Summary: Since heretics appeal to Scripture, the first question must be to whom the Scriptures belong; those who have no right to them are not to be admitted to argue from them.

Latin text · Oehler 2:16

Venimus igitur ad propositum. Hoc enim dirigebamus et hoc praestruebamus allocutionis praefatione, ut iam hinc de eo congrediamur de quo adversarii provocant. Scripturas obtendunt, et hac sua audacia statim quosdam movent. In ipso vero congressu firmos quidem fatigant, infirmos capiunt, medios cum scrupulo dimittunt. Hunc igitur potissimum gradum obstruimus non admittendi eos ad ullam de scripturis disputationem. Si hae sunt illae vires eorum, uti eas habere possint, dispici debet, cui competat possessio scripturarum, ne is admittatur ad eas cui nullo modo competit.

English · Claude translation

We come, then, to the point at issue. This is what we were aiming at, and what we were preparing for in the preface of our address, so that we may now join battle on the ground to which our adversaries challenge us. They put forward the Scriptures, and by this boldness of theirs they at once move some people. In the actual encounter they wear out the strong, catch the weak, and send away the wavering with a scruple. So we block this position above all: they are not to be admitted to any dispute about the Scriptures. If these are their strength, then before they can use them it must be examined to whom the possession of the Scriptures belongs, so that no one may be admitted to them to whom they in no way belong.

About this passage

Source
Oehler 2:16 · 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)
Topics
Heresy, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • Here Tertullian introduces the legal “prescription” (praescriptio), an objection that bars a claim before its merits are heard.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Praescr. 15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/15/).

Plain text
Tertullian, Praescr. 15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/15/).

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