{"id":944,"date":"2021-01-04T07:59:07","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T15:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readingthechurchfathers.wordpress.com\/?p=944"},"modified":"2021-01-04T07:59:07","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T15:59:07","slug":"tertullian-against-marcion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-against-marcion\/","title":{"rendered":"Tertullian: Against Marcion"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may, I assure you, more easily find a man born without a heart or without brains, like Marcion himself, than without a body, like Marcion\u2019s Christ.
\n— Against Marcion IV.X<\/p>\n

It would have been but right that a new god should first be expounded, and his discipline be introduced afterwards; because it would be the god that would impart authority to the discipline, and not the discipline to the god; except that it has happened that Marcion acquired his very perverse opinions not from a master, but his master from his opinion!
\n— Against Marcion IV.XII<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Incarnation<\/h4>\n

None but Christ could become incarnate by being born of the flesh in order that by His own nativity He might regenerate our birth, and might further by His death also dissolve our death, by rising again in that flesh in which, that He might even die, He was born. Therefore on that occasion He did Himself appear with the angels to Abraham in the verity of the flesh, which had not as yet undergone birth, because it was not yet going to die, although it was even now learning to hold intercourse amongst men. Still greater was the propriety in angels, who never received a dispensation to die for us, not having assumed even a brief experience of flesh by being born, because they were not destined to lay it down again by dying; but, from whatever quarter they obtained it, and by what means soever they afterwards entirely divested themselves of it, they yet never pretended it to be unreal flesh. Since the Creator \u201cmaketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire\u201d\u2014as truly spirits as also fire\u2014so has He truly made them flesh likewise; wherefore we can now recall to our own minds, and remind the heretics also, that He has promised that He will one day form men into angels, who once formed angels into men.
\n— Against Marcion III.IX<\/p>\n

Prophecy Concerning Christ’s Birth<\/h4>\n

His destined capture of the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria before the king of Assyria is no doubt a wonderful sign .<\/p>\n

For besides the generally known fact, that the riches of the East, that is to say, its strength and resources, usually consist of gold and spices, it is certainly true of the Creator, that He makes gold the riches of the other nations also. Thus He says by Zechariah: \u201cAnd Judah shall also fight at Jerusalem and shall gather together all the wealth of the nations round about, gold and silver.\u201d Moreover, respecting that gift of gold, David also says: \u201cAnd there shall be given to Him of the gold of Arabia;\u201d and again: \u201cThe kings of Arabia and Saba shall offer to Him gifts.\u201d For the East generally regarded the magi as kings; and Damascus was anciently deemed to belong to Arabia, before it was transferred to Syroph\u0153nicia on the division of the Syrias (by Rome).<\/p>\n

Its riches Christ then received, when He received the tokens thereof in the gold and spices; while the spoils of Samaria were the magi themselves. These … became the spoils of Samaria, that is to say, of idolatry, because they believed in Christ. He designated idolatry under the name of Samaria, as that city was shameful for its idolatry, through which it had then revolted from God from the days of king Jeroboam. Nor is this an unusual manner for the Creator, figuratively to employ names of places as a metaphor derived from the analogy of their sins. … by Egypt is sometimes understood, in His sense, the whole world as being marked out by superstition and a curse. By a similar usage Babylon also in our (St.) John is a figure of the city of Rome, as being like (Babylon) great and proud in royal power, and warring down the saints of God. … Moreover, by the phrase \u201cbefore or against the king of Assyria,\u201d understand \u201cagainst Herod;\u201d against whom the magi then opposed themselves, when they refrained from carrying him back word concerning Christ, whom he was seeking to destroy.
\n— Against Marcion III.XIII<\/p>\n

Relation Between Law and Gospel<\/h4>\n

Since [Christ’s] object in making the comparison was to show that He was separating the new condition of the gospel from the old state of the law, He proved that that [it] not to have been branded as a separation of things which were alien to each other; for nobody ever unites his own things with things that are alien to them, in order that he may afterwards be able to separate them from the alien things. A separation is possible by help of the conjunction through which it is made. Accordingly, the things which He separated He also proved to have been once one; as they would have remained, were it not for His separation. But still we make this concession, that there is a separation, by reformation, by amplification, by progress; just as the fruit is separated from the seed, although the fruit comes from the seed. So likewise the gospel is separated from the law, whilst it advances from the law\u2014a different thing from it, but not an alien one; diverse, but not contrary.
\n— Against Marcion IV.XI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may, I assure you, more easily find a man born without a heart or without brains, like Marcion himself, than without a body, like Marcion\u2019s Christ. — Against Marcion IV.X It would have been but right that a new god should first be expounded, and his discipline be introduced afterwards; because it would be the god that would impart authority to the discipline, and not the discipline to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[81,91,97,100],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tertullian","tag-gnosticism","tag-incarnation","tag-law-and-gospel","tag-marcion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":922,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-divine-justice\/","url_meta":{"origin":944,"position":0},"title":"Tertullian: Divine Goodness and Justice","author":"Nemo","date":"January 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"In short, from the very first the Creator was both good and also just. And both His attributes advanced together. His goodness created, His justice arranged, the world; and in this process it even then decreed that the world should be formed of good materials, because it took counsel with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":956,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-christ-as-lord-of-the-sabbath\/","url_meta":{"origin":944,"position":1},"title":"Tertullian: Christ as Lord of the Sabbath","author":"Nemo","date":"January 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"For although the Creator had forbidden that the manna should be gathered for two days, He yet permitted it on the one occasion only of the day before the Sabbath, in order that the yesterday\u2019s provision of food might free from fasting the feast of the following Sabbath-day. ... [Christ]\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":938,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-divine-passions\/","url_meta":{"origin":944,"position":2},"title":"Tertullian: Divine Passions","author":"Nemo","date":"January 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"What would be said, if, when you thought the doctor necessary, you were to find fault with his instruments, because they cut, or cauterize, or amputate, or tighten; whereas there could be no doctor of any value without his professional tools?... Your conduct is equally unreasonable, when you allow indeed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":980,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-on-the-flesh-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":944,"position":3},"title":"Tertullian: On the Flesh of Christ","author":"Nemo","date":"January 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Virgin Birth He who was going to consecrate a new order of birth, must Himself be born after a novel fashion, concerning which Isaiah foretold how that the Lord Himself would give the sign. 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