Against Marcion 1.11
Summary: A god who created nothing, owns nothing, and has left no works by which to be known cannot be proved God; if Marcion's god wished to be known, he should have made himself known through works greater than the Creator's.
Latin text · CSEL 47:303–305
Et merito, inquiunt. quis enim non tam suis notus est quam extraneis? nemo. teneo et hanc uocem. quale est enim, ut aliquid extraneum deo sit? cui nihil extraneum esset, si quis esset, — quia dei hoc est, omnia illius esse et omnia ad illum pertinere — uel ne statim audiret a nobis: quid ergo illi cum extraneis? quod plenius suo loco audiet. at nunc satis est nullum probari cuius nihil probatur. sicut enim creator ex hoc et deus et indubitatus deus, quia omnia ipsius et nihil extraneum illi, ita et alius idcirco non deus, quia omnia non eius ideoque et extranea. denique si uniuersitas creatoris est, iam nec locum uideo dei alterius. plena et occupata sunt omnia suo auctore. si uacat aliquid spatii alicuius diuinitati in creaturis, plane falsae uacabit. patet mendacio ueritas. tanta uis idolorum cur non recipiat alicubi deum Marcionis? igitur et hoc ex forma creatoris expostulo, deum (eius) ex operibus cognosci debuisse alicuius proprii sui mundi et hominis et saeculi, quando etiam error orbis propterea deos praesumpserit, quos homines interdum confitetur. quoniam aliquid ab unoquoque prospectum uidetur utilitatibus et commodis uitae. ita et hoc ex forma dei creditum est diuinum esse, instituere uel demonstrare quid aptum et necessarium rebus humanis. adeo inde auctoritas accommodata si falsae diuinitati, unde praecesserat uerae, unam saltim cicerculam deus Marcionis propriam protulisse debuerat, ut nouus aliqui Triptolemus praedicaretur. aut exhibe rationem deo dignam, cur nihil condiderit, si est; quia condidisset, si fuisset, illo scilicet praeiudicio, quo et nostrum deum non alias manifestum est esse quam quia totum condidit hoc. semel enim praescriptio stabit non posse illos et deum confiteri creatorem et eum, quem uolunt aeque deum credi, non ad eius formam probare, quem et ipsi et omnes deum (agnoscunt,) ut, quando hoc ipso nemo creatorem deum dubitet. quia totum hoc condidit, hoc ipso nemo debeat credere deum et illum, qui nihil condidit, nisi ratio forte proferatur. duplex ista uideatur necesse est, ut aut noluerit condere quid aut non potuerit. tertium cessat sed non potuisse indignum deo est. noluisse an dignum, uolo inquirere. dic mihi, Marcion, uoluit deus tuus cognosci se quocumque in tempore an non? alio proposito et descendit et praedicauit et passus resurrexit quam uti cognosceretur? at sine dubio, si cognitus est, uoluit. nihil enim circa eum fieret, nisi uoluisset. qui ergo tantopere notitiam sui procurauit, ut in dedecore carnis exhiberetur, et quidem maiore, si falsae, - nam hoc turpius, si et mentitus est substantiam corporis — qui et maledictum in se creatoris admisit ligno suspensus, quanto honestius per aliqua propriae molitionis indicia cognitionem sui praestruxisset! maxime aduersus eum cognosci habens, apud quem ex operibus ab initio cognitus non erat. nam et quale est, ut creator quidem ignorans esse alium super se deum, ut uolunt Marcionitae, qui solum se etiam iurans adseuerabat, tantis operibus notitiam sui armauerit, quam potuerat non ita curasse secundum singularitatis suae praesumptionem, ille autem sublimior, sciens inferiorem deum tam instructum, nullam sibi prospexerit agnoscendo paraturam? quando etiam insigniora et superbiora opera debuisset condidisse, ut et deus ex operibus cognosceretur secundum creatorem et ex honestioribus potior et generosior creatore.
English · Claude translation
“And rightly so,” they say; “for who is not better known to his own than to strangers?” No one. I seize on this saying too. For how can anything be foreign to God? To him nothing would be foreign, if he were anyone at all — for this belongs to God, that all things are his and all things belong to him — or else he would at once hear from us: “What then has he to do with strangers?” He will hear this more fully in its place. For now it is enough that no one is proved whose work is not proved. For just as the Creator is on this ground both God and undoubted God, that all things are his and nothing is foreign to him, so the other is on this ground not God, that all things are not his and are therefore foreign to him. In short, if the universe is the Creator's, I do not even see room for another god. All things are full and occupied by their Author. If any space in creation is empty for any divinity, clearly it will be empty for a false one. Truth is plain to be seen before falsehood. Why does not so great a host of idols make room somewhere for Marcion's god?
So I demand this also after the pattern of the Creator: that his god ought to have been known from the works of some world, some man, some age of his own; since even the error of the world has presumed to be gods, for this very reason, those whom it sometimes admits to have been men, because something seems to have been provided by each for the needs and comforts of life. So this too, after the pattern of God, has been believed divine: to establish or show something fitting and necessary for human affairs. Since, then, authority was lent to false divinity from the same source from which it had first come to the true, Marcion's god ought to have produced at least one little chickpea of his own, so that he might be proclaimed some new Triptolemus. Or else show a reason worthy of God why he created nothing, if he exists; for he would have created, if he had existed — by that same prejudgment by which it is plain that our God exists for no other reason than that he created all this. For the prescription will stand once for all: they cannot both confess the Creator to be God and fail to prove the one whom they wish to be equally believed God by the pattern of him whom they and everyone acknowledge as God; so that, since no one doubts the Creator to be God for this very reason — that he created all this — for this very reason no one ought to believe that he too is God who created nothing, unless perhaps some reason is offered.
That reason must be one of two: either he did not will to create anything, or he could not. There is no third. But not to have been able is unworthy of God. Whether not to have willed is worthy, I wish to inquire. Tell me, Marcion: did your god will to be known at some time or not? With what other purpose did he come down and preach and suffer and rise again, than that he might be known? Without doubt, if he was known, he willed it; for nothing would be done concerning him unless he had willed it. He, then, who took such pains to make himself known that he was displayed in the disgrace of flesh — and a greater disgrace if the flesh was false, for it is the more shameful if he also lied about the substance of his body — who even took upon himself the Creator's curse, hanging on a tree: how much more honourably he would have prepared the way for knowledge of himself by some signs of his own workmanship! — especially since he had to be made known against one by whom he had not been known from the beginning through works. For how can it be that the Creator, not knowing (as the Marcionites will have it) that there was another god above him, and asserting even on oath that he alone existed, armed the knowledge of himself with such great works, though, presuming himself unique, he need not have taken such care; while that loftier one, knowing that the inferior god was so equipped, provided himself with no means of being acknowledged? — when he ought to have created works even more distinguished and splendid, so that, like the Creator, he might be known as God from his works, and from nobler works as more powerful and more noble than the Creator.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The curse of hanging on a tree is Deut 21:23, applied to Christ in Gal 3:13. The Creator's oath that he alone is God recalls Isa 45:5, 21–23. Triptolemus was the legendary giver of grain. Marcion taught that Christ's flesh was only apparent. Corrections: “«rpatoris” read as “creatoris”, “procuranit” as “procurauit”.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR garble of “creatoris”.; OCR: u read as n.; Stray comma in the digital text.): «rpatoris → creatoris; procuranit → procurauit; condidit hoc., semel → condidit hoc. semel.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 1.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/11/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 1.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/11/).
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