Sophia Scriptura

Prescription against Heretics 19

Tertullian · Prescription against Heretics · ca. 203 · Carthage · Read in context

Summary: The first question is not what Scripture says but to whom the faith and the Scriptures belong; where the true faith is, there are the true Scriptures and interpretation.

Latin text · Oehler 2:18

Ergo non ad scripturas provocandum est, nec in his constituendum certamen in quibus aut nulla aut incerta victoria est aut parum certa. Nam etsi non ita evaderet conlatio scripturarum, ut utramque partem parem sisteret, ordo rerum desiderabat illud prius proponi, quod nunc solum disputandum est: quibus competat fides ipsa, cuius sint scripturae, a quo, et per quos, et quando, et quibus sit tradita disciplina qua fiunt Christiani. Ubi enim apparuerit esse veritatem disciplinae et fidei Christianae, illic erit veritas scripturarum et expositionum et omnium traditionum Christianarum.

English · Claude translation

So appeal must not be made to the Scriptures, nor the contest set on ground where victory is either impossible or uncertain or not certain enough. For even if a comparison of Scriptures did not turn out so as to leave both sides equal, the order of things would require that this question be put first, which is now the only one to be disputed: to whom does the faith itself belong? Whose are the Scriptures? By whom, and through whom, and when, and to whom was the teaching handed down by which people become Christians? For wherever it appears that the truth of the Christian teaching and faith is, there will be the truth of the Scriptures and of their interpretation and of all Christian traditions.

About this passage

Source
Oehler 2:18 · Franz Oehler, ed., Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani quae supersunt omnia, vol. 2 (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1854), 3–46 · Latin text: Franz Oehler (Oehler 2), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Oehler 2. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of Oehler, vol. 2 (1854); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Topics
Heresy, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • Disciplina is rendered “teaching” here and in ch. 20.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Praescr. 19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/19/).

Plain text
Tertullian, Praescr. 19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praescriptione/19/).

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