Against Marcion 1.16
Summary: Creation is full of contrasting pairs, so the invisible world belongs to the same Creator as the visible one, not to a god who has made nothing that can be seen.
Latin text · CSEL 47:310–312
Non comparente igitur mundo alio sicut nec deo eius. consequens est, ut duas species rerum, uisibilia et inuisibilia. duobus auctoribus deis diuidant et ita suo deo inuisibilia defendant. quis autem poterit inducere in animum, nisi spiritus haereticus, eius esse inuisibilia. qui nihil uisibile praemiserit. quam eius, qui uisibilia operatus inuisibilium quoque fidem fecerit, cum iustius multo sit aliquibus exemplariis adnuere quam nullis? uidebimus et apostolus cui auctori inuisibilia deputet, cum et illum explorauerimus. nunc enim communibus plurimum sensibus et argumentationibus iustis secuturae scripturarum quoque aduocationi fidem sternimus, confirmantes diuersitatem hanc uisibilium et inuisibilium deo creatori deputandam, sicuti tota operatio eius ex diuersitatibus constat, ex corporalibus et incorporalibus, ex animalibus et inanimalibus, ex uocalibus et mutis, ex mobilibus et statiuis, ex genitalibus et sterilibus, ex aridis et sucidis, ex calidis et frigidis. sic et hominem ipsum diuersitas temperauit, tam in corpore quam in sensu. alia membra fortia alia infirma, alia honesta alia inhonesta. alia gemina alia unica, alia comparia alia disparia. proinde et in sensu nunc laetitia nunc anxietas nunc amor nunc odium nunc ira nunc lenitas. quod si ita est, ut aemula inter se conditionis uniuersitas ista modulata sit, iam igitur et uisibilibus inuisibilia debentur, non alteri auctori deputanda quam cui et aemula eorum. (qui) ipsum creatorem diuersum notant, iubentem quae prohibuit et prohibentem quae iussit, percutientem et sanantem, cur in hac sola specie uniformem eum capiunt, uisibilium solummodo conditorem, quem proinde credendum sit et uisibilia et inuisibilia condidisse quemadmodum et uitam et mortem, et mala et pacem? et utique, si illa inuisibilia maiora sunt uisibilibus creatoris suo loco magnis, sic quoque congruit eius esse maiora, cuius et magna, quia nec magna, nedum maiora, ei competant, cuius nec modica comparent.
English · Claude translation
Since, then, no other world appears, any more than its god does, it follows that they divide the two kinds of things, visible and invisible, between two gods as their authors, and so claim the invisible things for their own god. But who could bring himself to believe — unless it be a heretical spirit — that the invisible things belong to him who has set forth nothing visible, rather than to him who, by making the visible things, has also created faith in the invisible, when it is much more just to give assent on the strength of some samples than of none? We shall see to which author the apostle too ascribes the invisible things, when we have examined him as well. For now, mostly by common sense and sound arguments, we are laying the ground of faith for the appeal to the Scriptures that is to follow, confirming that this diversity of visible and invisible is to be ascribed to God the Creator, just as his whole work consists of diversities: of corporeal and incorporeal, animate and inanimate, vocal and mute, moving and stationary, fertile and barren, dry and moist, hot and cold. So too diversity has tempered man himself, both in body and in feeling: some members strong, others weak; some honourable, others dishonourable; some paired, others single; some matching, others unmatched. So also in feeling: now joy, now anxiety; now love, now hatred; now anger, now gentleness. If it is so, that this universe of creation has been composed of parts that rival one another, then invisible things too are owed to the visible, and are to be ascribed to no other author than the one to whom their rivals are ascribed. Those who brand the Creator himself as inconsistent — commanding what he forbade and forbidding what he commanded, striking and healing — why do they take him as uniform in this one respect, as maker of visible things only, when he should likewise be believed to have made both visible and invisible, just as both life and death, both evils and peace? And surely, if those invisible things are greater than the Creator's visible things, which are great in their own place, it is fitting in this way too that the greater should belong to him to whom the great belong; for neither great things, still less greater, belong to one to whom not even small things are shown to belong.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The apostle's statement is Col 1:16. The honourable and dishonourable members recall 1 Cor 12:22–23; striking and healing, Deut 32:39; evils and peace, Isa 45:7.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 1.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/16/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 1.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/1/16/).
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