To the Nations 1.20
Summary: Since the pagans are guilty of everything they charge against Christians, they should correct themselves first, and if they did, they would become Christians.
Latin text · Oehler 1:346–348
Quonam igitur usque, iniquissimae nationes, non agnoscitis, immo insuper execramini vestros, si nihil inter nos diversitas habet, si unum et eidem sumus? Quia non odistis quod estis, date dextras potius, compingite oscula, miscete complexus, cruenti cum cruentis, incesti cum incestis, coniurati cum coniuratis, obstinati et vani cum aequalibus. Pariter deorum numina laesimus, pariter indignationem eorum provocamus. Habetis et vos tertium genus etsi non de tertio ritu, attamen de tertio sexu. Illud aptius de viro et femina viris et feminis iunctum. Aut numquid ipso vos collegio offendimus? Solet aequalitas aemulationis materiam sumministrare. Sic figulus figulo, faber fabro invidet. Immo iam desine simulata confessio! Rediit conscientia ad veritatem et ad constantiam veritatis. Nam omnia ista in nobis solis erunt et a nobis solis revincuntur quibus inlata sunt, agnitione scilicet diversae partis, unde scientia instructa et consilium inspirat et iudicium gubernat. Vestra denique sententia est, ne causam quis iudicet nisi duobus auditis, quod in nobis solis neglegitis. Naturae vitio satisfacitis, ut quae in vobis non refutetis, in aliis damnetis, aut quorum reatum in vobis memineritis, ea in alios iactetis. Diverso opere occupati eritis: in extraneos casti, in vosmetipsos incesti, exertiores foris, subiecti domi. Haec est iniquitas, ut gnari ab ignaris, absoluti a reis iudicemur. Auferte stipulam de oculo vestro, aut trabem de oculo vestro, ut stipulam de alieno extrahatis. Emendate vosmetipsos prius, ut Christianos puniatis. Nisi quod emendaveritis, non punietis, immo eritis Christiani; immo si fueritis Christiani, eritis emendati. Discite quid in nobis accusetis, et non accusabitis: recognoscite quid in vobis non accusetis, et accusabitis. Patet iam hinc vobis, quantum aperire potuerimus e pauculis istis libellulis, erroris inspectio et veritatis recognitio. Damnate veritatem, sed inspectam si potestis, et probate errorem, sed repertum si putatis. Quodsi praescribitur vobis errorem amare et odisse veritatem, cur quod amatis et odistis non noveritis?
English · Claude translation
How long then, most unjust nations, will you fail to acknowledge, nay, go on to curse, your own kind, if there is no difference between us, if we are one and the same? Since you do not hate what you are, give us your right hands instead, join kisses, mingle embraces, the bloody with the bloody, the incestuous with the incestuous, conspirators with conspirators, the obstinate and vain with their equals. We have alike injured the divinity of the gods; alike we provoke their indignation. You too have a third race, if not of a third rite, then of a third sex. That one is more aptly made of man and woman joined to men and women. Or do we offend you by the very fellowship? Equality usually supplies material for rivalry: so potter envies potter, and smith envies smith. But now, pretended confession, stop! Conscience has returned to the truth and to the constancy of the truth. For all these things will be found in us alone, and are refuted by us alone on whom they are laid, by knowledge, that is, of the other side, from which instructed knowledge both inspires counsel and governs judgment. Your own rule, after all, is that no one should judge a case without hearing both parties; this you neglect in our case alone. You indulge a fault of nature, condemning in others what you do not refute in yourselves, or hurling at others things whose guilt you remember in yourselves. You will be busy in contrary ways: chaste toward strangers, incestuous toward yourselves; vigorous abroad, submissive at home. This is the injustice: that we who know are judged by those who do not, the acquitted by the guilty. Take the straw out of your eye, or rather the beam out of your eye, so that you may draw the straw out of another's. Correct yourselves first, so that you may punish the Christians. Except that, once you have corrected yourselves, you will not punish them; nay, you will be Christians; nay, if you become Christians, you will be corrected. Learn what you accuse in us, and you will not accuse it; recognize what you do not accuse in yourselves, and you will accuse it. From this point, as far as we have been able to open it up in these few little books, the inspection of error and the recognition of truth lie open to you. Condemn the truth, but after inspecting it, if you can; and approve error, but after finding it out, if you think fit. But if it is laid down for you to love error and hate truth, why do you not know what you love and what you hate?
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The saying about the straw and the beam is Matt 7:3–5 (Luke 6:41–42). “Pretended confession” addresses the hypothetical admission of the charges that Tertullian has used throughout this part of the book for the sake of argument.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Nat. 1.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/1/20/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Nat. 1.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/1/20/).
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