Against Praxeas 11
Summary: Praxeas must show from Scripture that God is his own Son; instead Scripture everywhere distinguishes the one who speaks, the one spoken to, and the one spoken of, showing the three persons.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Latin text · CSEL 47:242–245
Probare autem tam aperte debebis ex scripturis, quam nos probamus, illum sibi filium fecisse sermonem suum. si enim filium nominat, filius autem non erit alius quam qui ex ipso prodiit, sermo autem prodiit ex ipso, hic erit filius, non ipse, de quo prodiit. non enim ipse prodiit ex semetipso. porro » semetipso facis et prodisse. quod deus etsi potuit fecisse, non tamen fecit. aut exhibe probationem, quam expostulo meae similem, id est sic scripturas eundem filium et patrem ostendere, quemadmodum apud nos distincte pater et filius demonstrantur; distincte, inquam, non diuise. sicut ego profero dictum a deo: eructuauit cor meum sermonem optimum, aeque tu contra opponas alicubi dixisse deum: eructuauit me cor meum sermonem optimum, ut ipse sit, qui et eructuauit et quod eructuauit, et ipse, qui protulerit et qui prolatus sit, si ipse est et sermo et deus. ecce ego propono patrem filio dixisse: filius meus es tu, ego hodie generaui te. si uelis, ut credam ipsum esse patrem et filium, ostende sic pronuntiatum alibi: dominus dixit ad se: filius meus sum ego, ego hodie generaui me; proinde et: ante luciferum generaui me; et: dominus condidi me initium uiarum in opera mea, ante omnes autem colles generaui me), et si qua alia in hunc modum sunt. quem autem uerebatur deus dominus uniuersitatis ita pronuntiare, si ita res erat? an uerebatur, ne non crederetur, si simpliciter se et patrem et filium pronuntiasset? unum tamen ueritus est: mentiri, — ueritus autem semetipsum et suam ueritatem — et ideo ueracem deum credens scio illum non aliter quam disposuit pronuntiasse nec aliter disposuisse quam pronuntiauit. tu porro eum mendacem efficias et fallacem et deceptorem fidei huius, si cum ipse esset sibi filius, alii dabat filii personam, quando scripturae omnes et demonstrationem et distinctionem trinitatis ostendant, a quibus et praescriptio nostra deducitur non posse unum atque eundem uideri qui loquitur et de quo loquitur et ad quem loquitur, quia neque peruersitas neque fallacia deo congruat, ut, cum ipse esset, ad quem loquebatur, ad alium potius et non ad semetipsum loqueretur. accipe igitur et alias uoces patris de filio per Esaiam: ecce filius meus, quem elegi, dilectus meus, in quem bene sensi; ponam spiritum meum super ipsum, et iudicium nationibus adnuntiabit. accipe et ad ipsum: magnum tibi est, ut uoceris filius meus ad statuendas tribus Iacob et ad conuertendam dispersionem Israhelis; posui te in lucem nationum, ut sis salus in extremum terrae. accipe nunc et filii uoces de patre: spiritus domini super me, quapropter unxit me ad euangelizandum hominibus. item ad patrem in psalmo: dee domine, ne dereliqueris me, donec adnuntiem brachium tuum natiuitati uniuersae uenturae; item in alio: domine, quid multiplicati sunt qui comprimunt me? sed et omnes paene psalmi, (qui) Christi personam sustinent, filium ad patrem [id est Christum ad deum] uerba facientem repraesentant. animaduerte etiam spiritum loquentem ex tertia persona de patre et filio: dixit dominus domino meo: sede ad dexteram meam, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum, item per Esaiam: haec dicit dominus domino meo Christo, item per eundem ad patrem de filio: domine, quis credidit auditui nostro, et brachium domini cui reuelatum est? ad nuntiauimus de illo: sicut puerulus. sicut radix in terra sitienti, et non erat forma eius nec gloria. haec pauca de multis. nec enim adfectamus uniuersas scripturas euoluere, cum et in singulis capitulis(sunt)plenam maiestatem et auctoritatem contestantes. maiorem congressum in retractatibus habemus. his itaque paucis, tamen manifeste, distinctio trinitatis exponitur: est enim ipse, qui pronuntiat, spiritus, et pater, ad quem pronuntiat, et filius, de quo pronuntiat. sic et cetera, quae nunc ad patrem de filio uel ad filium, nunc ad filium de patre uel ad patrem [nunc] a spiritu pronuntiantur, unamquamque personam in sua proprietate constituunt.
English · Claude translation
You will have to prove from the Scriptures as plainly as we prove it that he made his own Word into his Son. For if he calls him Son, and the Son will be none other than the one who came forth from him, and the Word came forth from him, this will be the Son, not he himself from whom he came forth. For he himself did not come forth from himself. But you make him also come forth from himself, which God, even if he could have done it, still did not do. Or produce a proof like mine, which I demand: that is, show that the Scriptures show the same one as Son and Father, just as with us the Father and the Son are shown distinctly; distinctly, I say, not dividedly. Just as I bring forward the saying of God, “My heart has poured forth an excellent Word,” so you in reply must produce somewhere that God said, “My heart has poured forth myself as an excellent Word,” so that he is himself both the one who poured forth and what he poured forth, himself both the one who put forth and the one who was put forth, if he is himself both Word and God. See, I put forward that the Father said to the Son, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” If you want me to believe that he himself is Father and Son, show me it declared elsewhere thus: “The Lord said to himself, ‘I am my Son; today I have begotten myself’”; and likewise, “Before the morning star I begot myself”; and, “I the Lord established myself as the beginning of my ways for my works; and before all the hills I begot myself”; and whatever other sayings there are of this kind. Whom was God, the Lord of the universe, afraid of, that he did not declare it so, if that was how things were? Or was he afraid of not being believed if he had simply declared himself both Father and Son? One thing, however, he did fear: to lie; he feared himself and his own truth. And so, believing God to be truthful, I know that he declared things not otherwise than he had arranged them, and did not arrange them otherwise than he declared them. You, on the other hand, would make him a liar and a cheat and a deceiver of this faith, if, being himself his own Son, he gave the person of the Son to another; since all the Scriptures show both the demonstration and the distinction of the Trinity, from which our prescription too is derived: that he who speaks, he of whom he speaks, and he to whom he speaks cannot be seen as one and the same, since neither perversity nor deceit befits God, that, being himself the one to whom he spoke, he should speak rather to another and not to himself. Hear, then, other sayings too of the Father about the Son, through Isaiah: “Behold my Son, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased; I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will announce judgment to the nations.” Hear also what he says to him: “It is a great thing for you to be called my Son, to establish the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel; I have set you as a light of the nations, that you may be salvation to the end of the earth.” Hear now also the sayings of the Son about the Father: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to men.” Likewise to the Father in the psalm: “O God, Lord, do not forsake me until I declare your arm to every generation to come”; likewise in another: “Lord, why are they multiplied who press upon me?” And indeed almost all the psalms that bear the person of Christ represent the Son speaking to the Father. Notice too the Spirit speaking, as a third person, of the Father and the Son: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet’”; likewise through Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord to my Lord Christ”; likewise through the same prophet, to the Father about the Son: “Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We announced concerning him: like a little child, like a root in thirsty ground, and he had no form or glory.” These are a few out of many. For we do not aim to unroll all the Scriptures, since even in single passages there are testimonies to the full majesty and authority. We have a greater contest in the discussions. In these few passages, then, yet plainly, the distinction of the Trinity is set out: for there is the one who declares, the Spirit; and the Father, to whom he declares; and the Son, of whom he declares. So too the other sayings spoken by the Spirit, now to the Father about the Son or to the Son, now to the Son about the Father or to the Father, establish each person in its own individuality.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Ps 45:1 (44:2 Vulg.), Ps 2:7, Ps 110:3 (109:3 Vulg.), Prov 8:22, 25, Isa 42:1, Isa 49:6, Isa 61:1 (Luke 4:18), Ps 71:18 (70:18 Vulg.), Ps 3:1 (3:2 Vulg.), Ps 110:1 (109:1 Vulg.), Isa 45:1 (read as “to my Lord Christ,” from Greek kyriō for Kyrō, “Cyrus”), and Isa 53:1-2. The phrase “porro » semetipso” is garbled in the digital text; it is rendered by the sense. The editor deletes “id est Christum ad deum” (“that is, Christ to God”) and “nunc”; they are omitted. Persona is rendered “person”; proprietas “individuality.”
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (garbled punctuation in the digital text; split word in the digital text; stray punctuation in the digital text): sermonem optimum\\ ut → sermonem optimum, ut; dilectus me us. → dilectus meus,; si. cum ipse → si cum ipse.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Prax. 11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praxean/11/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Prax. 11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praxean/11/).
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