Sophia Scriptura

Prescription against Heretics 31

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

Summary: The parable of the wheat and the weeds shows that what was sown first is true and what came later is false.

Latin text · Oehler 2:29

Sed ab excessu revertar ad principalitatem veritatis et posteritatem mendacitatis disputandam ex illius quoque parabolae patrocinio quae bonum semen frumenti a domino seminatum in primore constituit, avenarum autem sterilis foeni adulterium ab inimico diabolo postea superducit. Proprie enim doctrinarum distinctionem figurat, quia et alibi verbum dei seminis similitudo est. Ita ex ipso ordine manifestatur id esse dominicum et verum quod sit prius traditum, id autem extraneum et falsum quod sit posterius inmissum. Ea sententia manebit adversus posteriores quasque haereses, quibus nulla constantia de conscientia competit ad defendendam sibi veritatem.

English · Claude translation

But let me return from this digression to argue the priority of truth and the lateness of falsehood, with the support also of that parable which puts first the good seed of wheat sown by the Lord, and brings in afterwards, from the enemy, the devil, the adulteration of barren wild oats. For it properly represents the distinction of doctrines, since elsewhere too the word of God is likened to seed. So from the very order it is made plain that what was handed down first is of the Lord and true, and what was brought in later is foreign and false. This judgment will stand against all later heresies, which have no settled consciousness of their own by which to defend the truth for themselves.

About this passage

Source
Oehler 2:29 · 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 Matt 13:24-30, 37-39, and Luke 8:11.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Praescr. 31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/31/).

Plain text
Tertullian, Praescr. 31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/31/).

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