Prescription against Heretics 29
Summary: If the church had erred until the heretics came, all its baptisms, gifts, ministries, and martyrdoms would have been in vain; but truth comes before its copies, and the true doctrine foretold the heresies.
Latin text · Oehler 2:26
Quoquo modo sit erratum, tam diu utique regnavit error quam diu haereses non erant. Aliquos Marcionitas et Valentinianos liberanda veritas expectabat. Interea perperam evangelizabatur, perperam credebatur; tot milia milium perperam tincta, tot opera fidei perperam administrata, tot virtutes, tot charismata perperam operata, tot sacerdotia, tot ministeria perperam functa, tot denique martyria perperam coronata. Aut si non perperam nec in vacuum quale est, ut ante res dei currerent quam cuius dei notum esset? ante Christiani quam Christus inventus? ante haereses quam vera doctrina? Sed enim in omnibus veritas imaginem antecedit, post vero similitudo succedit. Ceterum satis ineptum, ut pro priori doctrina haeresis habeatur, vel quoniam ipsa est quae futuras haereses cavendas praenuntiabat. Ad eius doctrinae ecclesiam scriptum est, immo ipsa doctrina ad ecclesiam scribit, Et si angelus de caelo aliter evangelizaverit, citra quam nos, anathema sit.
English · Claude translation
However the error came about, error reigned for as long as there were no heresies. Truth was waiting for some Marcionites and Valentinians to set it free. In the meantime the gospel was preached wrongly, believed wrongly; so many thousands of thousands were baptized wrongly, so many works of faith performed wrongly, so many miracles, so many spiritual gifts worked wrongly, so many priesthoods, so many ministries exercised wrongly, so many martyrdoms, in short, crowned wrongly. Or, if not wrongly nor in vain, how could it be that the things of God were in progress before it was known which God they belonged to? That there were Christians before Christ was found? Heresies before true doctrine? But in all things the truth precedes the image; the likeness follows after. Besides, it is quite absurd that heresy should be held to be the earlier doctrine, if only because it is that very doctrine which foretold that heresies to come must be guarded against. To the church of that doctrine it was written, or rather that doctrine itself writes to the church: “Even if an angel from heaven preaches a gospel other than we have, let him be anathema.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Gal 1:8. The digital text's “administrate” is read as “administrata.”
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (letter misread in the digital text): perperam administrate → perperam administrata.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Praescr. 29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/29/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Praescr. 29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/29/).
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