Against Marcion 2.22
Summary: The ban on images targets idolatry, so the bronze serpent and the cherubim on the ark do not break it; and when God rejects sacrifices he is rejecting worship offered without faith, not contradicting his own law.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Latin text · CSEL 47:364–366
Proinde et similitudinem uetans fieri omnium. quae in caelo et in terra et in aquis. ostendit et causas. [idolatriae scilicet substantiam cohibentes.] subicit enim: non adorabitis ea neque seruietis illis. serpentis autem aenei effigies postea praecepta Moysi a domino non ad idolatriae titulum pertinebat, sed ad remediandos eos, qui a serpentibus infestabantur. et taceo de figura remedii. sic et Cherubin et Seraphin aurea in arcae figuratum exemplum; certe simplex ornamentum. adcommodata suggestui, longe diuersas habendo causas ab idolatriae condicione, ob quam similitudo prohibetur, non uidentur similitudinum prohibitarum legi refragari, non in eo similitudinis statu deprehensa, ob quem similitudo prohibetur. diximus de sacrificiorum rationali institutione, auocante scilicet ab idolis ad deum officia ea, quae si rursus eiecerat dicens: quo mihi multitudinem sacrificiorum uestrorum? hoc ipsum uoluit intellegi, quod non sibi ea proprie exegisset. non enim bibam, inquit, sanguinem taurorum, quia et alibi ait: deus aeternus non esuriet nec sitiet. nam etsi ad oblationes Abelis aduertit et holocausta Noe odoratus est libenter, quae iocunditas siue uiscerum berbicinorum siue nidoris ardentium uictimarum? sed animus simplex et deum metuens offerentium ea, quae a deo habebant et pabuli et suauis olentiae, gratiae apud deum deputabatur, non. quae fiebant exigentem, sed illud, propter quod fiebant, ob honorem dei scilicet. si cliens diuiti aut regi nihil desideranti tamen aliquid uilissimi munusculi obtulerit, quantitas et qualitas muneris infuscabit diuitem et regem, an delectabit titulus officii? at si cliens ei munera (uel) ultro uel etiam indicta ordine suo offerat et sollemnia regis obseruet, non ex fide tamen nec corde puro nec pleno circa cetera quoque obsequio, nonne consequens, ut rex ille uel diues exclamet: quo mihi multitudinem munerum tuorum? *** plenus sum et sollemnitates et dies festos et uestra sabbata dicendo, quae secundum libidinem suam, non secundum religionem dei celebrando sua iam, non dei fecerant. condicionalem idcirco et rationalem demonstrauit recusationem eorum. % quae administranda praescripserat.
English · Claude translation
Likewise, in forbidding the making of a likeness of anything in heaven and on earth and in the waters, he also showed the reasons. For he adds: “You shall not worship them nor serve them.” But the image of the bronze serpent, afterwards commanded to Moses by the Lord, did not belong under the heading of idolatry; it served to heal those who were being attacked by serpents — and I say nothing of the figure in the remedy. So too the golden cherubim and seraphim, a figurative model on the ark, were certainly a simple ornament, fitted to the stand; having reasons far different from the condition of idolatry for which likeness is forbidden, they do not seem to contradict the law forbidding likenesses, since they are not found in that state of likeness for which likeness is forbidden.
We have spoken of the rational institution of sacrifices, which called those duties away from idols to God. And if he afterwards cast them off again, saying, “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?”, he wanted precisely this to be understood: that he had not required them for his own sake. “For I will not drink,” he says, “the blood of bulls”; as he says elsewhere too: “The eternal God will neither hunger nor thirst.” For although he looked with favour on Abel's offerings and gladly smelled Noah's burnt offerings, what pleasure is there in the entrails of sheep or in the smoke of burning victims? But the simple and God-fearing mind of those who offered to God what they had from God, both food and sweet savour, was counted as thanks before God, who did not require what was done but that for which it was done, namely the honour of God. If a client offers a rich man or a king, who wants for nothing, some little gift, however cheap, will the size and quality of the gift shame the rich man and king, or will the dutiful intent delight him? But if a client offers him gifts, whether of his own accord or even as prescribed in his turn, and observes the king's solemnities, yet not in good faith, nor with a pure heart, nor with full obedience in other matters too, does it not follow that the king or rich man would exclaim: “What to me is the multitude of your gifts?” … “I am full,” and in saying “your solemnities and feast days and your sabbaths” — which, by celebrating them according to their own desire and not according to the religion of God, they had already made their own and not God's. So he showed that his rejection of the things he had prescribed to be performed was conditional and rational.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Exod 20:4–5, Isa 1:11, Ps 50:13 (49:13 Vulg.), a paraphrase of Isa 40:28, and Isa 1:13–14. The bronze serpent is Num 21:8–9 (cf. John 3:14 for its “figure”); the cherubim, Exod 25:18–20 (seraphim are not mentioned on the ark in Scripture); Abel's and Noah's offerings, Gen 4:4 and 8:21. The asterisks mark a lacuna, rendered “…”; the editor deletes “idolatriae scilicet substantiam cohibentes” (“namely those restraining the substance of idolatry”) as spurious, and it is left out of the translation; “berbicinorum” is kept as printed.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Marc. 2.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/2/22/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Marc. 2.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-marcionem/2/22/).
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