To the Nations 2.3
Summary: The elements cannot be gods: the world either had a beginning and so is not eternal, or else Varro's reasons for calling the elements living beings point instead to an unseen mover behind them.
Latin text · Oehler 1:352–355
His ita expeditis videmus physicum istud ad hoc subornatum, ut deos elementa contendat, cum ex his etiam alios deos natos alleget; dei enim nonnisi de deis nascerentur. Quos quoniam in mythico apud poëtas plenius suo loco examinabimus, tamen, quod de ipsis interim retractandum est quod ad praesentem speciem facit, simul et de praesenti specie ad ipsos conversi forsan ostensuri sumus deos nullo modo videri posse qui de elementis nati dicuntur, ut iam hinc praeiudicatum sit deos elementa non esse, cum qui de elementis nati dicuntur, dei non sunt; aeque demonstrantes elementa deos non esse ad illam agnatorum speciem praestruemus recte deos non esse defendi quorum parentes, id est elementa, dei non sunt. Scitum deum e deo nasci, quemadmodum de non deo non deum. Igitur quod elementa contineat mundus iste, ut summaliter tractem de universitate, partibus eius praeministrans (nam quae condicio eius, eadem utique erit et elementorum et membrorum), aut ab aliquo institutus sit necesse est, qua Platonis humanitas, aut a nullo, qua Epicuri duritia; et si institutus est, habendo initium habebit etiam finem. Ita quod aliquando non fuit ante initium et quandoque non erit post finem, non capit utique videri deus, carens substantia divinitatis id est aeternitate, quae sine initio et fine censetur. Si vero institutus omnino non est ac propterea deus habendus, quod ut deus neque initium neque finem sui patitur, quomodo quidam assignant elementis, quae deos volunt, generationem, cum Stoici negent quicquam deo nasci? Item quomodo volunt quos de elementis natos ferunt deos haberi, cum deum negent nasci? Itaque quod mundi erit, hoc elementis adscribetur, caelo dico et terrae et sideribus et igni, quae deos et deorum parentes adversus negatam generationem dei et nativitatem frustra vobis credi proposuit Varro, ut qui Varro indicaverat animalia esse caelum et astra. Quod si ita est, etiam mortalia sint necesse est, secundum animalis formam; nam etsi immortalem constat animam, ipsi hoc soli licebit, non etiam illi cui adnectatur, id est corpori. Nemo autem negabit elementis corpus esse, cum et contingamus ea et contingamur ab eis, certaque corpora ex illis decidere videamus. Ergo si animalia deposita ratione animae, qua corporum condicio, mortalia, non utique immortalia. Et tamen unde animalia Varroni videntur elementa? Quoniam elementa moventur. Ac ne ex diverso proponatur, multa alia moveri, ut rotas, ut plaustra, ut machinas ceteras, ultro praevenit dicens eo animalia credita, quod per semetipsa moverentur, nullo extrinsecus apparente motatore eorum aut incitatore, sicuti apparet qui rotam compellit et plaustra volvit et machinam temperat. Igitur nisi animalia, non mobilia per se. Porro allegans quid non appareat, ostendit quid quaesisse debuerat, id est artificem et arbitrum motus; neque enim statim non est quod, quia non videmus, non credimus esse. Immo eo altius investigandum est quod non videatur, ut quod videatur quale sit scire possimus. Alioquin si tantum ea quae comparent ideo esse credantur quia comparent, quomodo deos etiam eos recipitis qui non comparent? si autem videntur esse qui non sunt, cur non sint et qui non videntur? Motatorem dico caelestium rerum. Sint ergo et animalia, quia mobilia per se, etiam mobilia per se, quia non per alium, tamen ut ea non statim dei, quia animalia, ita nec ideo, quia per se mobilia: aut quid vetat universa animalia, ut mobilia per se, deos haberi? Et hoc alia sane vanitate Aegyptiis licet.
English · Claude translation
These points being settled, we see that this natural theology has been suborned to maintain that the elements are gods, while it alleges that other gods too were born from them; for gods would be born only of gods. We shall examine these gods more fully in their own place, under the mythical kind, among the poets; yet as regards what must meanwhile be treated about them that bears on the present subject, turning at the same time from the present subject to them, we shall perhaps show that those who are said to be born of the elements can in no way be regarded as gods, so that it is thereby prejudged that the elements are not gods, since those said to be born of the elements are not gods; and likewise, by showing that the elements are not gods, we shall lay the ground for that class of offspring, that those cannot rightly be maintained to be gods whose parents, that is the elements, are not gods. It is an accepted maxim that god is born of god, as non-god of non-god. So, since this world contains the elements (to treat of the whole summarily, as a preliminary to its parts; for whatever its condition, the same will surely be that of its elements and members), it must either have been established by someone, as Plato's humanity holds, or by no one, as Epicurus's hardness holds; and if it was established, then having a beginning it will also have an end. So what once did not exist, before its beginning, and at some time will not exist, after its end, cannot possibly be regarded as god, since it lacks the substance of divinity, that is, eternity, which is reckoned to be without beginning and end. But if it was not established at all, and for that reason is to be held god, because like a god it admits neither beginning nor end, how do some assign generation to the elements, which they want to be gods, when the Stoics deny that a god has any birth? Likewise, how do they want those whom they report born of the elements to be held gods, when they deny that a god is born? So whatever belongs to the world will be ascribed to the elements: I mean heaven and earth and the stars and fire, which Varro has proposed to you, to no purpose, for belief as gods and parents of gods, against the denial of the generation and birth of a god, since this same Varro had indicated that heaven and the stars are living beings. If this is so, they must also be mortal, according to the form of a living being; for even if it is agreed that the soul is immortal, this will be permitted to it alone, not also to that to which it is joined, namely the body. But no one will deny that the elements have body, since we touch them and are touched by them, and we see certain bodies fall from them. Therefore if they are living beings, then, setting aside the account of the soul, they are mortal, as is the condition of bodies, and by no means immortal. And yet why do the elements seem to Varro to be living beings? Because the elements move. And lest it be objected on the other side that many other things move, such as wheels, wagons, and other machines, he anticipates it of his own accord, saying that they were believed to be living because they moved by themselves, with no mover or driver appearing from outside, as one appears who drives the wheel, rolls the wagon, and regulates the machine. So if they were not living, they would not be self-moving. But in alleging what does not appear, he points to what he ought to have sought, namely the artificer and director of the motion; for a thing does not at once fail to exist because, since we do not see it, we do not believe that it exists. Rather, what is not seen must be investigated all the more deeply, so that we may know the nature of what is seen. Otherwise, if only the things that appear are believed to exist because they appear, how do you receive as gods also those who do not appear? And if those who do not exist seem to exist, why should not those also exist who are not seen? I mean the mover of the heavenly things. Let them be living beings, then, because they are self-moving, and self-moving because not moved by another; still, just as they are not at once gods because they are living, so neither are they gods because they are self-moving: or what forbids all living things, as self-moving, to be held gods? And this, indeed, with another kind of vanity, is permitted to the Egyptians.
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Tertullian, Nat. 2.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/2/3/).
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Tertullian, Nat. 2.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/2/3/).
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