Against Praxeas 2
Summary: Against Praxeas, Tertullian sets out the rule of faith: one God under an “economy,” Father, Son, and Spirit, three in degree, form, and aspect but one in substance, condition, and power.
Latin text · CSEL 47:228–230
Itaque post tempus pater natus et pater passus, ipse deus dominus omnipotens, Iesus Christus praedicatur. nos uero et semper et nunc magis, ut instructiores per paracletum, deductorem scilicet omnis ueritatis, unicum quidem deum credimus, sub hac tamen dispensatione, quam oikonomiam dicimus, ut unici dei sit et filius, sermo ipsius, qui ex ipso processerit, per quem omnia facta sunt et sine quo factum est nihil. hunc missum a patre in uirginem et ex ea natum, hominem et deum, filium hominis et filium dei, et cognominatum Iesum Christum; hunc passum, hunc mortuum et sepultum secundum scripturas et resuscitatum a patre et in caelo resumptum sedere ad dexteram patris, uenturum iudicare uiuos et mortuos; qui exinde miserit secundum promissionem suam a patre spiritum sanctum, paracletum, sanctificatorem fidei eorum, qui credunt in patrem et filium et spiritum sanctum. hanc regulam ab initio euangelii decucurrisse, etiam ante priores quosque haereticos, nedum ante Praxean hesternum, probabit tam ipsa posteritas omnium haereticorum quam ipsa nouellitas Praxeae hesterni. quo peraeque aduersus uniuersas haereses iam hinc praeiudicatum sit id esse uerum, quodcumque primum, id esse adulterum, quodcumque posterius. sed salua ista praescriptione ubique tamen propter instructionem et munitionem quorundam dandus est etiam retractatibus locus, uel ne uideatur unaquaeque peruersitas non examinata, sed praeiudicata damnari, maxime haec, quae se existimat meram ueritatem possidere, dum unicum deum non alias putat credendum, quam si ipsum eundemque et patrem et filium et spiritum dicat; quasi non sic quoque unus sit omnia, dum ex uno omnia, per substantiae scilicet unitatem, et nihilominus custodiatur oikonomiae sacramentum, quae unitatem in trinitatem disponit, tres dirigens patrem et filium et spiritum, — tres autem non statu, sed gradu, nec substantia, sed forma, nec potestate, sed specie, — unius autem substantiae et unius status et unius potestatis, quia unus deus, ex quo et gradus isti et formae et species in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti deputantur. (qui) quomodo numerum sine diuisione patiuntur, procedentes tractatus demonstrabunt.
English · Claude translation
So, after a time, the Father born and the Father suffering, God himself, the Lord Almighty, is proclaimed as Jesus Christ. We, however, always, and now the more as being better instructed by the Paraclete, the guide into all truth, believe indeed in one only God, yet under this dispensation, which we call “economy”: that the one only God has also a Son, his own Word, who has proceeded from him, “through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made.” We believe that he was sent by the Father into the virgin and born of her, man and God, Son of Man and Son of God, and named Jesus Christ; that he suffered, died, and was buried according to the Scriptures, and was raised by the Father, and taken back into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead; who thereafter, according to his promise, sent from the Father the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. That this rule has come down from the beginning of the gospel, even before any of the earlier heretics, let alone before Praxeas, a man of yesterday, will be proved both by the lateness of all heretics and by the very novelty of Praxeas of yesterday. By this, against all heresies alike, let it be settled in advance from now on that whatever is first is true, and whatever is later is adulterated. But without prejudice to this prescription, room must still be given everywhere to discussion as well, for the instruction and protection of some; if only so that each perversity may not seem to be condemned without examination, by prejudgment; this one above all, which thinks it possesses the pure truth, since it thinks that the one only God cannot be believed in otherwise than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the very selfsame. As if in this way too the One were not all, since all are from the One, that is, through unity of substance; while nevertheless the mystery of the economy is guarded, which arranges the unity into a trinity, setting out three, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit: three, however, not in condition but in degree, not in substance but in form, not in power but in aspect; yet of one substance and one condition and one power, because there is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned under the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. How they admit of number without division, the following discussion will show.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is John 1:3; the allusions include John 16:13, 1 Cor 15:3-4, and the creedal articles. “Economy” (oikonomia, Latin dispensatio) is Tertullian's key term for the ordered distribution of the one Godhead into Father, Son, and Spirit; “dispensation” and “arrangement” (dispositio) are used of the same idea. Sacramentum oikonomiae is rendered “the mystery of the economy.” Status is rendered “condition,” species “aspect.”
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR error in the digital text (legum for Iesum)): cognominatum legum Christum → cognominatum Iesum Christum.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Prax. 2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praxean/2/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Prax. 2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-praxean/2/).
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