Antidote for the Scorpion's Sting

Contents

Reading pages: 1–7 · 8–13 · 14–15

1. 1As scorpions strike in the summer heat, heretics such as the Gnostics and Valentinians strike Christians in the heat of persecution, arguing that God does not want martyrdom; Tertullian offers this treatise as an antidote.
2. 2Before arguing that martyrdom is good, Tertullian shows from the Law and the Prophets that God strictly forbade idolatry and commanded his people to reject other gods even at the cost of family and life.
3. 3God has always punished idolatry, as the golden calf, the sin at Baal of Peor, and Israel's repeated apostasy under the judges show; this establishes the ground for martyrdom.
4. 4By forbidding idolatry, God made room for martyrdom and willed it: whoever keeps his command under violence and dies for it is a soldier fulfilling the oath with which God sealed him.
5. 5God is good, so his will is good; martyrdom is good because it frees from idolatry, as painful surgery is good because it heals, and God heals the death brought by Adam's disobedience with remedies that resemble the disease.
6. 6Martyrdom is a contest like the athletic games, in which God tests and crowns his people, and a second baptism, in blood, that restores those who have fallen after baptism.
7. 7When heretics call God a murderer, Tertullian answers from Scripture: Wisdom “slaughters her children” for their life and glory, as God gave up his own Son; the pagans do not question their gods' demands for human sacrifice.
8. 8God honours the deaths of his faithful: from Abel through the prophets to John the Baptist the righteous have suffered, and the three young men and Daniel were ready to die rather than worship idols.
9. 9Christ too commands martyrdom: he blesses the persecuted, warns that all his disciples will be hated and betrayed, tells them to fear God rather than men, and promises to confess those who confess him and deny those who deny that they are Christians.
10. 10Against the Valentinians, who put the required confession in heaven before celestial powers, Tertullian argues that confession belongs on earth, before human judges, where persecution, betrayal, and death take place.
11. 11Christ's sayings about losing one's life, answering before tribunals, and being hated and betrayed describe exactly what persecuted Christians experience, so they cannot be explained away as allegories.
12. 12The apostles, who knew Christ's meaning best, taught martyrdom: Peter bids Christians rejoice in suffering, John says perfect love casts out fear, and the Apocalypse promises its rewards to victors who shed their blood, while the fearful go to the lake of fire.
13. 13Paul, once a persecutor, commends suffering for Christ throughout his letters: to the Thessalonians, Romans, Corinthians, and Philippians, and above all to Timothy as his own martyrdom approaches.
14. 14Paul's command to obey the authorities is a call to live well, not an excuse to avoid martyrdom: Caesar receives taxes and honour, but man himself belongs to God alone.
15. 15Even if the apostles' words could be twisted, their deaths cannot: Acts and the imperial records show Peter, Stephen, James, and Paul suffering, and Paul himself wished to die for Christ, rebuking any who would dissuade him.