{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030450.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030450.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030450.htm","text":"Chapter IV.\u2014Another Instance of Marcion\u2019s Tampering with St. Paul\u2019s Text. The Fulness of Time, Announced by the Apostle, Foretold by the Prophets. Mosaic Rites Abrogated by the Creator Himself. Marcion\u2019s Tricks About Abraham\u2019s Name. The Creator, by His Christ, the Fountain of the Grace and the Liberty Which St. Paul Announced. Marcion\u2019s Docetism Refuted.\n\u201cBut,\u201d says he, \u201cI speak after the manner of men: when we were children, we were placed in bondage under the elements of the world.\u201d 5322 This, however, was not said \u201cafter the manner of men.\u201d For there is no figure 5323 here, but literal truth. For (with respect to the latter clause of this passage), what child (in the sense, that is, in which the Gentiles are children) is not in bondage to the elements of the world, which he looks up to 5324 in the light of a god? With regard, however, to the former clause, there was a figure (as the apostle wrote it); because after he had said, \u201cI speak after the manner of men,\u201d he adds), \u201cThough it be but a man\u2019s covenant, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.\u201d 5325 For by the figure of the permanency of a human covenant he was defending the divine testament. \u201cTo Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. He said not \u2018to seeds,\u2019 as of many; but as of one, \u2018to thy seed,\u2019 which is Christ.\u201d 5326 Fie on 5327 Marcion\u2019s sponge! But indeed it is superfluous to dwell on what he has erased, when he may be more effectually confuted from that which he has retained. 5328 \u201cBut when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son\u201d 5329 \u2014the God, of course, who is the Lord of that p. 436 very succession of times which constitutes an age; who also ordained, as \u201csigns\u201d of time, suns and moons and constellations and stars; who furthermore both predetermined and predicted that the revelation of His Son should be postponed to the end of the times. 5330 \u201cIt shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain (of the house) of the Lord shall be manifested\u201d; 5331 \u201cand in the last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh\u201d 5332 as Joel says. It was characteristic of Him (only) 5333 to wait patiently for the fulness of time, to whom belonged the end of time no less than the beginning. But as for that idle god, who has neither any work nor any prophecy, nor accordingly any time, to show for himself, what has he ever done to bring about the fulness of time, or to wait patiently its completion? If nothing, what an impotent state to have to wait for the Creator\u2019s time, in servility to the Creator! But for what end did He send His Son? \u201cTo redeem them that were under the law,\u201d 5334 in other words, to \u201cmake the crooked ways straight, and the rough places smooth,\u201d as Isaiah says 5335 \u2014in order that old things might pass away, and a new course begin, even \u201cthe new law out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,\u201d 5336 and \u201cthat we might receive the adoption of sons,\u201d 5337 that is, the Gentiles, who once were not sons. For He is to be \u201cthe light of the Gentiles,\u201d and \u201cin His name shall the Gentiles trust.\u201d 5338 That we may have, therefore the assurance that we are the children of God, \u201cHe hath sent forth His Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.\u201d 5339 For \u201cin the last days,\u201d saith He, \u201cI will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.\u201d 5340\nNow, from whom comes this grace, but from Him who proclaimed the promise thereof? Who is (our) Father, but He who is also our Maker? Therefore, after such affluence (of grace), they should not have returned \u201cto weak and beggarly elements.\u201d 5341 By the Romans, however, the rudiments of learning are wont to be called elements. He did not therefore seek, by any depreciation of the mundane elements, to turn them away from their god, although, when he said just before, \u201cHowbeit, then, ye serve them which by nature are no gods,\u201d 5342 he censured the error of that physical or natural superstition which holds the elements to be god; but at the God of those elements he aimed not in this censure. 5343 He tells us himself clearly enough what he means by \u201celements,\u201d even the rudiments of the law: \u201cYe observe days, and months, and times, and years\u201d 5344 \u2014the sabbaths, I suppose, and \u201cthe preparations,\u201d 5345 and the fasts, and the \u201chigh days.\u201d 5346 For the cessation of even these, no less than of circumcision, was appointed by the Creator\u2019s decrees, who had said by Isaiah, \u201cYour new moons, and your sabbaths, and your high days I cannot bear; your fasting, and feasts, and ceremonies my soul hateth;\u201d 5347 also by Amos, \u201cI hate, I despise your feast-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies;\u201d 5348 and again by Hosea, \u201cI will cause to cease all her mirth, and her feast-days, and her sabbaths, and her new moons, and all her solemn assemblies.\u201d 5349 The institutions which He set up Himself, you ask, did He then destroy? Yes, rather than any other. Or if another destroyed them, he only helped on the purpose of the Creator, by removing what even He had condemned. But this is not the place to discuss the question why the Creator abolished His own laws. It is enough for us to have proved that He intended such an abolition, that so it may be affirmed that the apostle determined nothing to the prejudice of the Creator, since the abolition itself proceeds from the Creator. But as, in the case of thieves, something of the stolen goods is apt to drop by the way, as a clue to their detection; so, as it seems to me, it has happened to Marcion: the last mention of Abraham\u2019s name he has left untouched (in the epistle), although no passage required his erasure more than this, even his partial alteration of the text. 5350 \u201cFor (it is written) that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman; but he who was of the bond maid was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise: which things are allegorized\u201d 5351 (that is to say, they presaged something besides the literal history); \u201cfor these are the p. 437 two covenants,\u201d or the two exhibitions (of the divine plans), 5352 as we have found the word interpreted, \u201cthe one from the Mount Sinai,\u201d in relation to the synagogue of the Jews, according to the law, \u201cwhich gendereth to bondage\u201d\u2014\u201cthe other gendereth\u201d (to liberty, being raised) above all principality, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come, \u201cwhich is the mother of us all,\u201d in which we have the promise of (Christ\u2019s) holy church; by reason of which he adds in conclusion: \u201cSo then, brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free.\u201d 5353 In this passage he has undoubtedly shown that Christianity had a noble birth, being sprung, as the mystery of the allegory indicates, from that son of Abraham who was born of the free woman; whereas from the son of the bond maid came the legal bondage of Judaism. Both dispensations, therefore, emanate from that same God by whom, 5354 as we have found, they were both sketched out beforehand. When he speaks of \u201cthe liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,\u201d 5355 does not the very phrase indicate that He is the Liberator who was once the Master? For Galba himself never liberated slaves which were not his own, even when about to restore free men to their liberty. 5356 By Him, therefore, will liberty be bestowed, at whose command lay the enslaving power of the law. And very properly. It was not meet that those who had received liberty should be \u201centangled again with the yoke of bondage\u201d 5357 \u2014that is, of the law; now that the Psalm had its prophecy accomplished: \u201cLet us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us, since the rulers have gathered themselves together against the Lord and against His Christ.\u201d 5358 All those, therefore, who had been delivered from the yoke of slavery he would earnestly have to obliterate the very mark of slavery\u2014even circumcision, on the authority of the prophet\u2019s prediction. He remembered how that Jeremiah had said, \u201cCircumcise the foreskins of your heart;\u201d 5359 as Moses likewise had enjoined, \u201cCircumcise your hard hearts\u201d 5360 \u2014not the literal flesh. If, now, he were for excluding circumcision, as the messenger of a new god, why does he say that \u201cin Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision?\u201d 5361 For it was his duty to prefer the rival principle of that which he was abolishing, if he had a mission from the god who was the enemy of circumcision.\nFurthermore, since both circumcision and uncircumcision were attributed to the same Deity, both lost their power 5362 in Christ, by reason of the excellency of faith\u2014of that faith concerning which it had been written, \u201cAnd in His name shall the Gentiles trust?\u201d 5363 \u2014of that faith \u201cwhich,\u201d he says \u201cworketh by love.\u201d 5364 By this saying he also shows that the Creator is the source of that grace. For whether he speaks of the love which is due to God, or that which is due to one\u2019s neighbor\u2014in either case, the Creator\u2019s grace is meant: for it is He who enjoins the first in these words, \u201cThou shalt love God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength;\u201d 5365 and also the second in another passage: \u201cThou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.\u201d 5366 \u201cBut he that troubleth you shall have to bear judgment.\u201d 5367 From what God? From (Marcion\u2019s) most excellent god? But he does not execute judgment. From the Creator? But neither will He condemn the maintainer of circumcision. Now, if none other but the Creator shall be found to execute judgment, it follows that only He, who has determined on the cessation of the law, shall be able to condemn the defenders of the law; and what, if he also affirms the law in that portion of it where it ought (to be permanent)? \u201cFor,\u201d says he, \u201call the law is fulfilled in you by this: \u2018Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.\u2019\u201d 5368 If, indeed, he will have it that by the words \u201cit is fulfilled\u201d it is implied that the law no longer has to be fulfilled, then of course he does not mean that I should any more love my neighbour as myself, since this precept must have ceased together with the law. But no! we must evermore continue to observe this commandment. The Creator\u2019s law, therefore, has received the approval of the rival god, who has, in fact, bestowed upon it not the sentence of a summary dismissal, 5369 but the favour of a compendious acceptance; 5370 p. 438 the gist of it all being concentrated in this one precept! But this condensation of the law is, in fact, only possible to Him who is the Author of it. When, therefore, he says, \u201cBear ye one another\u2019s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,\u201d 5371 since this cannot be accomplished except a man love his neighbour as himself, it is evident that the precept, \u201cThou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself\u201d (which, in fact, underlies the injunction, \u201cBear ye one another\u2019s burdens\u201d), is really \u201cthe law of Christ,\u201d though literally the law of the Creator. Christ, therefore, is the Creator\u2019s Christ, as Christ\u2019s law is the Creator\u2019s law. \u201cBe not deceived, 5372 God is not mocked.\u201d 5373 But Marcion\u2019s god can be mocked; for he knows not how to be angry, or how to take vengeance. \u201cFor whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.\u201d 5374 It is then the God of recompense and judgment who threatens 5375 this. \u201cLet us not be weary in well-doing;\u201d 5376 and \u201cas we have opportunity, let us do good.\u201d 5377 Deny now that the Creator has given a commandment to do good, and then a diversity of precept may argue a difference of gods. If, however, He also announces recompense, then from the same God must come the harvest both of death 5378 and of life. But \u201cin due time we shall reap;\u201d 5379 because in Ecclesiastes it is said, \u201cFor everything there will be a time.\u201d 5380 Moreover, \u201cthe world is crucified unto me,\u201d who am a servant of the Creator\u2014\u201cthe world,\u201d (I say,) but not the God who made the world\u2014\u201cand I unto the world,\u201d 5381 not unto the God who made the world. The world, in the apostle\u2019s sense, here means life and conversation according to worldly principles; it is in renouncing these that we and they are mutually crucified and mutually slain. He calls them \u201cpersecutors of Christ.\u201d 5382 But when he adds, that \u201che bare in his body the scars 5383 of Christ\u201d\u2014since scars, of course, are accidents of body 5384 \u2014he therefore expressed the truth, that the flesh of Christ is not putative, but real and substantial, 5385 the scars of which he represents as borne upon his body.\nThis apparent quotation is in fact a patching together of two sentences from Gal. 3:15, Gal. 4:3 (Fr. Junius). \u201cIf I may be allowed to guess from the manner in which Tertullian expresseth himself, I should imagine that Marcion erased the whole of chap. iii. after the word \u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03c9 in Gal. 3.15-4.3. Then the words will be connected thus: \u2018Brethren, I speak after the manner of men\u2026when we were children we were in bondage under the elements of the world; but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son.\u2019 This is precisely what the argument of Tertullian requires, and they are the very words which he connects together\u201d (Lardner, Hist. of Heretics, x. 43). Dr. Lardner, touching Marcion\u2019s omissions in this chap. iii. of the Epistle to the Galatians, says: \u201cHe omitted Gal. 3.6-8, in order to get rid of the mention of Abraham, and of the gospel having been preached to him.\u201d This he said after St. Jerome, and then adds: \u201cHe ought also to have omitted part of Gal. 3.9, \u03c3\u1f7a\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u1ff7 \u1fbd\u0391\u03b2\u03c1\u03b1\u03ac\u03bc, which seems to have been the case, according to T.\u2019s manner of stating the argument against him\u201d (Works, History of Heretics, x. 43).\n435:5323 435:5324 435:5325\nGal. iii. 15. This, of course, is consistent in St. Paul\u2019s argument. Marcion, however, by erasing all the intervening verses, and affixing the phrase \u201cafter the manner of men\u201d to the plain assertion of Gal. iv. 3, reduces the whole statement to an absurdity.\n435:5326 435:5327 435:5328\nSo, instead of pursuing the contents of Gal. 3., he proceeds to such of Gal. 4. as Marcion reserved.\n435:5329 436:5330 436:5331\nIsa. ii. 2 (Sept).\n436:5332\nJoel iii. 28, as quoted by St. Peter, Acts ii. 17.\n436:5333 436:5334 436:5335 436:5336 436:5337 436:5338 436:5339 436:5340\nJoel iii. 28, as given in Acts ii. 17.\n436:5341 436:5342 436:5343 436:5344 436:5345\nC\u0153nas puras: probably the \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03ba\u03b5\u03c5\u03b1\u03af mentioned in John xix. 31.\n436:5346\nSee also John xix. 31.\n436:5347 436:5348 436:5349 436:5350\nIn other words, Marcion has indeed tampered with the passage, omitting some things; but (strange to say) he has left untouched the statement which, from his point of view, most required suppression.\n436:5351\nAllegorica: on the importance of rendering \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7\u03b3\u03bf\u03c1\u03bf\u03cd\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03b1 by this participle rather than by the noun \u201can allegory,\u201d as in A.V., see Bp. Marsh\u2019s Lectures on the Interpretation of the Bible, pp. 351\u2013354.\n437:5352\nOstensiones: revelationes perhaps.\n437:5353 437:5354 437:5355 437:5356\nTertullian, in his terse style, takes the case of the emperor, as the highest potentate, who, if any, might make free with his power. He seizes the moment when Galba was saluted emperor on Nero\u2019s death, and was the means of delivering so many out of the hands of the tyrant, in order to sharpen the point of his illustration.\n437:5357 437:5358 437:5359 437:5360 437:5361 437:5362 437:5363 437:5364 437:5365 437:5366 437:5367 437:5368 437:5369 437:5370\nCompendium: the terseness of the original cannot be preserved in the translation.\n438:5371 438:5372\nErratis: literally, \u201cye are deceived.\u201d\n438:5373 438:5374 438:5375 438:5376 438:5377 438:5378 438:5379 438:5380 438:5381 438:5382\nSee Gal. vi. 17, \u03ba\u03cc\u03c0\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u03bc\u03bf\u03b9 \u03bc\u03b7\u03b4\u03b5\u1f76\u03c2 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b5\u03c7\u03ad\u03c4\u03c9, \u201clet no one harass me.\u201d\n438:5383\nStigmata: the scars not of circumcision, but of wounds suffered for His sake (Conybeare and Howson).\n438:5384 438:5385","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: Anothe...","type":"page"}