Prescription against Heretics 36
Summary: Anyone may visit the apostolic churches, such as Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus, and Rome, where the apostles taught and died; Rome's faith, shared with Africa, is the one from which the heresies broke away.
Latin text · Oehler 2:33–35
Age iam, qui voles curiositatem melius exercere in negotio salutis tuae, percurre ecclesias apostolicas, apud quas ipsae adhuc cathedrae apostolorum suis locis praesident, apud quas ipsae authenticae litterae eorum recitantur, sonantes vocem et repraesentantes faciem uniuscuiusque. Proxima est tibi Achaia, habes Corinthum. Si non longe es a Macedonia, habes Philippos, habes Thessalonicenses. Si potes in Asiam tendere, habes Ephesum. Si autem Italiae adiaces, habes Romam, unde nobis quoque auctoritas praesto est. Ista quam felix ecclesia cui totam doctrinam apostoli cum sanguine suo profuderunt, ubi Petrus passioni dominicae adaequatur, ubi Paulus Ioannis exitu coronatur, ubi apostolus Ioannes, posteaquam in oleum igneum demersus nihil passus est, in insulam relegatur. Videamus quid didicerit, quid docuerit, cum Africanis quoque ecclesiis contesserarit. Unum deum dominum novit, creatorem universitatis, et Christum Iesum ex virgine Maria filium dei creatoris, et carnis resurrectionem; legem et prophetas cum evangelicis et apostolicis litteris miscet; inde potat fidem; eam aqua signat, sancto spiritu vestit, eucharistia pascit, martyrium exhortatur, et ita adversus hanc institutionem neminem recipit. Haec est institutio, non dico iam, quae futuras haereses praenuntiabat, sed de qua haereses prodierunt. Sed non sunt ex illa ex quo factae sunt adversus illam. Etiam de olivae nucleo mitis et opimae et necessariae asper oleaster oritur, etiam de papavere ficus gratissimae et suavissimae ventosa et vana caprificus exsurgit. Ita et haereses de nostro frutice, non nostro genere, veritatis grano, sed mendacio silvestres.
English · Claude translation
Come now, you who would exercise your curiosity better in the business of your salvation: run through the apostolic churches, in which the very chairs of the apostles still preside in their places, in which their own authentic letters are read aloud, sounding the voice and bringing before us the face of each one. Achaia is very near you: you have Corinth. If you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, you have the Thessalonians. If you can travel to Asia, you have Ephesus. And if you are near Italy, you have Rome, from which authority is ready at hand for us too. How happy is that church, into which the apostles poured out their whole teaching together with their blood; where Peter is made equal to the Lord's passion; where Paul is crowned with the death of John; where the apostle John, after being plunged into burning oil and suffering nothing, is banished to an island! Let us see what it learned, what it taught, what fellowship it shares with the churches of Africa too. It knows one God, the Lord, the Creator of the universe, and Christ Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, the Son of God the Creator, and the resurrection of the flesh. It joins the law and the prophets with the writings of the evangelists and apostles; from there it drinks in its faith. This faith it seals with water, clothes with the Holy Spirit, feeds with the Eucharist; it urges martyrdom; and against this institution it receives no one. This is the institution, I do not now say which foretold the heresies to come, but from which the heresies went out. But they are not of it, from the time they were made against it. Even from the kernel of the olive, mild, rich, and needful, the rough wild olive springs; even from the seed of the fig, most pleasant and sweet, the empty and worthless wild fig rises. So too the heresies come from our shrub, not of our kind: from a grain of the truth, but made wild by falsehood.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Peter was crucified (as Christ was); Paul was beheaded, as was John the Baptist. The story of the apostle John in boiling oil at Rome appears first here. “Seals with water” refers to baptism; “clothes with the Holy Spirit” to the laying on of hands. The allusion is 1 John 2:19. The digital text's “nibil” is read as “nihil.” “Papavere” (poppy seed) is used here loosely for the tiny seed of the fig.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (letter misread in the digital text): nibil passus → nihil passus.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Praescr. 36 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/36/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Praescr. 36 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/36/).
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