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Apologetic
[1] Elucidation I.
[2] The notes of Dr. Holmes were bracketted, and I have been forced to remove this feature, as brackets are tokens in this edition of the contributions of American editors. The perpetual recurrence of brackets in his translations has led me to improve the page by parenthetical marks instead, which answer as well and rarely can be mistaken for the author’s parentheses, while these disfigure the printer’s work much less. I have sometimes substituted italics for brackets, where an inconsiderable word, like and or for, was bracketted by the translator. In every case that I have noted, an intelligent reader will readily perceive such instances; but a critic who may wish to praise, or condemn, should carefully compare the Edinburgh pages with our own. I found them so painful to the eye and so needlessly annoying to the reader, that I have taken the responsibility of making what seems to me a very great typographical improvement.
[3] (I.) Concerning Tertullian; (II.) Concerning his Work against Marcion, its date, etc.; (III.) Concerning Marcion; (IV.) Concerning Tertullian’s Bible; (V.) Influence of his Montanism on his writings.
[4] We quote Bishop Kaye’s translation of Jerome’s article; see his Account of the Writings of Tertullian, pp. 5–8.
[5] Adv. Parmenianum, i.
[6] Chap. ii.
[7] Eccl. Hist., ii. 2.
[8] Valesius, however, supposes the historian’s words τῶν μάλιστα ἐπὶ ῾Ρώμης λαμπρῶν to mean, that Tertullian had obtained distinction among Latin writers.
[9] See De Præscript. Hæretic. xxx.
[10] De Pœnitentia, i. Hoc genus hominum, quod et ipsi retro fuimus, cæci, sine Domini lumine, naturâ tenus norunt; De Fuga in Persecutione, vi. Nobis autem et via nationum patet, in quâ et inventi sumus; Adv. Marcionem, iii. 21. Et nationes, quod sumus nos; Apolog. xviii. Hæc et nos risimus aliquando; de vestris fuimus; also De Spectac. xix.
[11] [Kaye, p. 9. A fair view of this point.]
[12] These notes of Bishop Kaye may be found, in their fuller form, in his work on Tertullian, pp. 8–12.
[13] Book i., chap. xv.
[14] Jerome probably took this date as the central period, when Tertullian “flourished,” because of its being the only clearly authenticated one, and because also (it may be) of the importance and fame of the Treatise against Marcion.
[15] So Clinton, Fasti Romani, i. 204; or 208, Pamelius, Vita Tertull.
[16] In his treatise, De vera ætate ac doctrina script. Tertulliani, sections 28, 45.
[17] De Præscript. Hæret. xxx.
[18] Comp. Adv. Marcionem, iv. 4.
[19] I., Adv. Hæret. xlii. 1.
[20] Dr. Burton’s Lectures on Eccl. Hist. of First Three Centuries, ii. 105–109.
[21] Or versions.
[22] Tertullianus.
[23] Vincentius Lirinensis, in his celebrated Commonitorium, expresses the opinion of Catholic churchmen concerning Tertullian thus: “Tertullian, among the Latins, without controversy, is the chief of all our writers. For who was more learned than he? Who in divinity or humanity more practised? For, by a certain wonderful capacity of mind, he attained to and understood all philosophy, all the sects of philosophers, all their founders and supporters, all their systems, all sorts of histories and studies. And for his wit, was he not so excellent, so grave, so forcible, that he scarce ever undertook the overthrow of any position, but either by quickness of wit he undermined, or by weight of reason he crushed it? Further, who is able to express the praises which his style of speech deserves, which is fraught (I know none like it) with that cogency of reason, that such as it cannot persuade, it compels to assent; whose so many words almost are so many sentences; whose so many senses, so many victories? This know Marcion and Apelles, Praxeas and Hermogenes, Jews, Gentiles, Gnostics, and divers others, whose blasphemous opinions he hath overthrown with his many and great volumes, as it had been thunderbolts. And yet this man after all, this Tertullian, not retaining the Catholic doctrine—that is, the old faith—hath discredited with his later error his worthy writings,” etc.—Chap. xxiv. (Oxford trans. chap. xviii.)
[24] Neander’s introduction to his Antignostikus should be read in connection with this topic. He powerfully delineates the disposition of Tertullian and the character of Montanism, and attributes his secession to that sect not to outward causes, but to “his internal congeniality of mind.” But, inasmuch as a man’s subjective development is very much guided by circumstances, it is not necessary, in agreeing with Neander, to disbelieve some such account as Jerome has given us of Tertullian (Neander’s Antignostikus, etc. Bohn’s trans., vol. ii. pp. 200–207).
[25] Introductory Notice to the Anti-Marcion, pp. xiii., xiv.
[26] In the end of Chapter Second.
[27] Eccl. Hist. illust. from Tertullian’s Writings, p. 36 sqq. (ed. 3, Lond. 1845).
[28] See Kaye, as above.
[29] Antignostikus, p. 424 (Bohn’s tr., ed. 1851).
[30] See Judg. ix. 2 sqq.
[31] See 2 Kings 14.9.
[32] Here, again, our limits forbid a discussion; but the allusion to the Rhone having “scarcely yet lost the stain of blood” which we find in the ad. Natt. i. 17, compared with Apol. 35, seems to favour the idea of those who date the ad. Natt. earlier than the Apology, and consider the latter as a kind of new edition of the former: while it would fix the date of the ad. Natt. as not certainly earlier than 197, in which year (as we have seen) Albinus died. The fatal battle took place on the banks of the Rhone.
[33] In c. 7.
[34] Viz. in the de Monog.
[35] It looks strange to see Tertullian’s works referred to as consisting of “about thirty short treatises” in Murdock’s note on Moshiem. See the ed. of the Eccl. Hist. by Dr. J. Seaton Reid, p. 65, n. 2, Lond. and Bel. 1852.
[36] This last qualification is very specially observable in Dr. Kaye.
[37] In his article on Tertullian in Smith’s Dict. of Biog. and Myth.
[38] Referred to apparently in de Pudic. ad init.–Tr.
[39] The de Præscr. is ref. to in adv. Marc. i.; adv Prax. 2; de Carne Christi, 2; adv. Hermog. 1.
[40] Ref. to in de Res. Carn. 2, 14; Scorp. 5; de Anima, 21. The only mark, as the learned Bishop’s remarks imply, for fixing the date of publication as Montanistic, is the fact that Tertullian alludes, in the opening sentences, to B. i. Hence B. ii. could not, in its present form, have appeared till after B. i. Now B. i. contains evident marks of Montanism: see the last chapter, for instance. But the writer speaks (in the same passage) of B. ii. as being the treatise, the ill fate of which in its unfinished condition he there relates—at least such seems the legitimate sense of his words—now remodelled. Hence, when originally written, it may not have been Montanistic.—Tr.
[41] Ref. to in de Res. Carn. 2, 17, 45; comp. cc. 18, 21.
[42] Ref. to in de Carn. Chr. 7.
[43] Ref. to in de Res. Carn. 2.
[44] See the beginning and end of the de Carne Christi.—Tr. Ref. to in adv. Marc. v. 10.
[45] In c. 4 Tertullian speaks as if he had already refuted all the heretics.
[46] Ref. to in de Jej. c. 1.
[47] Ref. to in de Idolol. 13; in de Cult. Fem. i. 8. In the de Cor. 6 is a reference to the Greek tract de Spectaculis by our author.
[48] Archdeacon Evans, in his Biography of the Early Church (in the Theological Library), suggests that the success which the Apology met with, or at least the fame it brought its author, may have been the occasion of Tertullian’s visit to Rome. He rejects entirely the supposition that Tertullian was a presbyter of the Roman church; nor does he think Eusebius’ words, καὶ τῶν μάλιστα ἐπὶ ῾Ρώμης λαμπρῶν (Eccl. Hist. ii. 2. 47 ad fin., 48 ad init.), sufficiently plain to be relied on. One thing does seem pretty plain, that the rendering of them which Rufinus gives, and Valesius follows, “inter nostros” (sc. Latinos) “Scriptores admodum clarus,” cannot be correct. That we find a famous Roman lawyer Tertullianus, or Tertyllianus, among the writers fragments of whom are preserved in the Pandects, Neander reminds us; but (as he says) it by no means follows, even if it could be proved that the date of the said lawyer corresponded with the supposed date of our Tertullian, that they were identical. Still it is worth bearing in mind, especially as a similarity of language exists, or has been thought to exist, between the jurist and the Christian author. And the juridical language and tone of our author do seem to point to his having—though Mr. Evans regards that as doubtful—been a trained lawyer.—Tr.
[49] Kaye, as above. Pref. to 2d ed. pp. xxi. xxii. incorporated in the 3d ed., which I always quote.
[50] i.e., four years after Kaye’s third.
[51] See Pref. 2d ed. p. xix. n. 9.
[52] It being from that book that the quotations are taken which make up the remainder of the tract, as Semler, worthless as his theories are, has well shown.
[53] “Sæculi” or “of the world,” or perhaps “of heathenism.”
[54] Catal. Scrippt. Eccles. c. 18.
[55] P. 952, tom. iii. Opp. ed. Bened.
[56] De Ecclesiæ dogmatibus, c. 55.
[57] Referred to in Adv. Marc. iv. 22. So Kaye thinks; but perhaps the reference is doubtful. See, however, the passage in Dr. Holmes’ translation in the present series, with his note thereon.
[58] De Scriptt. Eccles. 53, 24, 40.
[59] i.e., Rome.
[60] Antistes.
[61] A Marcionite at one time: he subsequently set up a sect of his own. He is mentioned in the adv. omn. Hær. c. 6.
[62] Censu.
[63] Catal. Scrippt. Eccles. c. 58.
[64] Catal. Scrippt. Eccles. c. 70.
[65] Oehler speaks more decidedly than Kaye.
[66] Epist. ad Eustochium de Custodia Virginitatis, p. 37, tom. iv. Opp. ed. Bened.; adv. Jovin. i. p. 157, tom. iv. Opp. ed. Bened.
[67] In the Catal. Scrippt. Eccles.
[68] “Mendacem” is his word. I know not whether he intends to charge Pamelius with wilful fraud.
[69] Doctor of the Sorbonne, said by Bossuet to have proved himself “a semi-Pelagian and Jansenist!” born in 1603, in Normandy, died in 1678.
[70] Jer. de Vir. Illust. c. 74.
[71] B. 470, d. 560.
[72] He must not be confounded with the still more famous John Albert Fabricius of the next century, referred to in p. xv. above.
[73] Whole of these metrical fragments.
[74] Lardner, Credibility, vol. iii. p. 169, under “Victorinus of Pettaw,” ed. Kippis, Lond. 1838.
[75] See Lardner, as above.
[76] See Migne, who prefixes this judgment of Rig. to the de Judicio Domini.
[77] [Great diversity exists among the critics as to the date of this Apology; see Kaye, pp. xvi. 48, 65. Mosheim says, a.d. 198, Kaye a.d. 204.]
[78] Elucidation II.
[79] [For chronological dates in our author’s age, see Elucidation III. Tertullian places an interval of 115 years, 6 months, and 15 days between Tiberius and Antoninus Pius. See Answer to the Jews, cap. vii. infra.]
[80] Another reading is “ut Deo,” as God.
[81] [A reference in which Kaye sees no reason to doubt that the Apology was written during the reign under the emperor. See Kaye’s Tertullian, p. 49.]
[82] [Elucidation IV.]
[83] As = 2-1/8 farthings. Sestertium = £7, 16s. 3d.
[84] Slaves still bearing the marks of the scourge.
[85] Anubis.
[86] Fabulous monsters.
[87] [Another example of what Christianity was doing for man as man.]
[88] [See Elucidation VII., p. 58, infra in connection with usages in cap. xxxix.]
[89] [Inconsistent this with Gibbon’s minimizing theory of the number of the Christian martyrs.] Elucidation VIII.
[90] [Confirming the statement of Justin Martyr. See Vol. I., p. 187, note 1, and p. 193, this Series.]
[91] Phaethon.
[92] Atys or Attis.
[93] Paris.
[94] Pluto.
[95] [“Sacred hats and purple robes and incense fumes” have been associated with the same crimes, alas! in widely different relations.]
[96] [Caricatures of the Crucifixion are extant which show how greedily the heathen had accepted this profane idea.]
[97] [A premonition of the Labarum.]
[98] [As noted by Clement of Alexandria. See p. 535, Vol. II., and note.]
[99] Onocoites. If with Oehler, Onochoietes, the meaning is “asinarius sacerdos” (Oehler).
[100] Referring evidently to the Scriptures; and showing what the Bible was to the early Christians.
[101] [Kaye, p. 168. Remarks on natural religion.]
[102] [Though we are not by nature good, in our present estate; this is elsewhere demonstrated by Tertullian, as see cap. xviii.]
[103] [Kaye, p. 291. See Elucidation I. Also Vol. II., p. 334.]
[104] [That is, by the consummation of her marriage with Joseph.]
[105] [Language common among Christians, and adopted afterwards into the Creed.]
[107] Elucidation V.
[108] Proculus was a Roman senator who affirmed that Romulus had appeared to him after his death.
[109] [Chapter l. at close. “The blood of Christians is the seed of the Church.”]
[110] Herodotus, I. 47. [See Wilberforce’s Five Empires, p. 67.]
[111] [Castor and Pollux. Imitated in saint worship.]
[112] [This testimony must be noted as something of which Tertullian confidently challenges denial.]
[113] [Observe our author’s assertion that in its own nature, worship must be a voluntary act, and note this expression libertatem religionis.]
[114] [See Augustine’s City of God, III. xvii. p. 95, Ed. Migne.]
[115] Her image was taken from Pessinus to Rome.
[116] [Familiar reference to Virgil, Æneid, I. 15.]
[117] Heb. x. 22. [See cap. xlii. infra. p. 49.]
[118] [Once more this reflection on the use of material incense, which is common to early Christians, as in former volumes noted.]
[119] [A reference to kneeling, which see the de Corona cap. 3, infra. Christians are represented as standing at prayer, in the delineations of the Catacombs. But, see Nicene Canon, xx.]
[122] [Cap. xxxix. infra. And see Kaye, pp. 20, 348. A subject of which more hereafter.]
[123] [A familiar story of Alexander is alluded to.]
[124] [Note this reference to a shameless custom of the heathen in Rome and elsewhere.]
[125] [See cap. l. and Note on cap. xl. infra.]
[126] Commodus.
[127] To murder Pertinax.
[128] Tigerius and Parthenius were among the murderers of Commodus.
[129] [Cap. ix. p. 25, note 1 supra. Again, Christian democracy, “honouring all men.”]
[130] [Elucidation VI.]
[131] [Elucidation VII.]
[132] [Chap. xxxii. supra p. 43.]
[133] [An argument for Days of Public Thanksgiving, Fasting and the like.]
[134] [On ordinary Sundays, “they laid by in store,” apparently: once a month they offered.]
[135] [A precious testimony, though the caviller asserts that afterwards the heathen used this expression derisively.]
[136] [Or, perhaps—“One is prompted to stand forth and bring to God, as every one can, whether from the Holy Scriptures, or of his own mind”—i.e. according to his taste.]
[137] [Christianos ad leonem. From what class, chiefly, see cap. xxxv. supra. Elucidation VIII.]
[138] [Elucidation IX. See Kaye, p. 361.]
[139] [The occupation of a soldier was regarded as lawful therefore. But see, afterwards, the De Corona cap. xi.]
[140] [An interesting fact as to the burial-rites of Early Christians. As to incense, see cap. xxx. supra. p. 42.]
[141] An index of the growth of Christianity.
[142] [An appeal so defiant that its very boldness confirms this tribute to the character of our Christian fathers, p. 42.]
[143] [Tertullian’s exposition of this enigmatical fact (see the Phædo) is better than divers other ingenious theories.]
[144] [John xxi. 19. A pious habit which long survived among Christians, when learning that death was at hand: as in Shakespeare’s Henry IV., “Laud be to God, ev’n there my life must end.” See 1 Thess. v. 18.]
[145] [See Irenæus, vol. i. p. 377 this Series.]
[146] [Elucidation X.]
[147] True, in the sense that a shadow cannot be projected by a body not yet existent.
[148] [i.e., Caius, used (like John Doe with us) in Roman Law.]
[149] Know thyself. [Juvenal, xi. 27, on which see great wealth of reference in J.E.B. Mayor’s Juvenal (xiii. Satires), and note especially, Bernard, Serm. De Divers xl. 3. In Cant. Cantic. xxxvi. 5–7.]
[150] [Our author’s philosophy may be at fault, but his testimony is not to be mistaken.]
[151] [Vicimus cum occidimur.]
[152] [Elucidation XI.]
[153] [Elucidation XII.]
[154] Kaye, p. 36. Also, p. 8, supra.
[155] Kaye (following L’Art de verifier les Dates) pp. 11 and 456.
[156] My references are to the Third Edition, London, Rivingtons, 1845.
[157] In his edition of The Decline and Fall, Vol. I., p. 589, American reprint.
[158] pp. 85–88.
[159] Ep. ad Faust. xxxii. 13. and see Conybeare and Howson.
[160] Compare Kaye on Mosheim, p. 107.
[161] pp. 129–140.
[162] Even under Commodus, vol. ii. p. 598, this series.
Chapter I.—Wide Scope of the Word Idolatry.
[163] [This solemn sentence vindicates the place I have given to the De Idololatria in the order adopted for this volume. After this and the Apology come three treatises confirming its positions, and vindicating the principles of Christians in conflict with Idolatry, the great generic crime of a world lying in wickedness. These three are the De Spectaculis, the De Corona and the Ad Scapulam. The De Spectaculis was written after this treatise, in which indeed it is mentioned (Cap. xiii.), but logically it follows, illustrates and enforces it. Hence my practical plan: which will be concluded by a scheme (conjectural in part) of chronological order in which precision is affirmed by all critics to be impossible, but, by which we may reach approximate accuracy, with great advantage. The De Idololatria is free from Montanism. But see Kaye, p. xvi.]
[164] Lit., “has not perished,” as if the perishing were already complete; as, of course, it is judicially as soon as the guilt is incurred, though not actually.
[165] i.e., in idolatry.
[166] A play on the word: we should say, “an adulterator.”
[167] Oehler refers to Ezek. xxiii.; but many other references might be given—in the Pentateuch and Psalms, for instance.
Chapter II.—Idolatry in Its More Limited Sense. Its Copiousness.
Chapter III.—Idolatry: Origin and Meaning of the Name.
[173] “Boiled out,” “bubbled out.”
[174] Or, brass.
[175] i.e., a little form.
[176] Idolatry, namely.
[177] [Capitalized to mark its emphatic sense, i.e., the People of God = the Jews.]
[178] See Ex. xxxii.; and compare 1 Cor. x. 7, where the latter part of Ex. xxxii. 6 is quoted.
Chapter IV.—Idols Not to Be Made, Much Less Worshipped. Idols and Idol-Makers in the Same Category.
[179] Lev. xxvi. 1; Ex. xx. 4; Deut. v. 8. It must of course be borne in mind that Tertullian has defined the meaning of the word idol in the former chapter, and speaks with reference to that definition.
[180] Compare de Oratione, c. 23, and de Virg. Vel. c. 7.
[181] “Sanguinis perditionis:” such is the reading of Oehler and others. If it be correct, probably the phrase “perdition of blood” must be taken as equivalent to “bloody perdition,” after the Hebrew fashion. Compare, for similar instances, 2 Sam. xvi. 7; Ps. v. 6; xxvi. 9; lv. 23; Ezek. xxii. 2, with the marginal readings. But Fr. Junius would read, “Of blood and of perdition”—sanguinis et perditionis. Oehler’s own interpretation of the reading he gives—“blood-shedding”—appears unsatisfactory.
[182] “In fanis.” This is Oehler’s reading on conjecture. Other readings are—infamis, infamibus, insanis, infernis.
[183] Isa. xliv. 8 et seqq.
[184] Ps. cxv. 8. In our version, “They that make them are like unto them.” Tertullian again agrees with the LXX.
Chapter V.—Sundry Objections or Excuses Dealt with.
[185] Cf. chaps. viii. and xii.
[186] i.e., the Discipline of the house of God, the Church. Oehler reads, “eam disciplinam,” and takes the meaning to be that no artificer of this class should be admitted into the Church, if he applies for admittance, with a knowledge of the law of God referred to in the former chapters, yet persisting in his unlawful craft. Fr. Junius would read, “ejus disciplinam.”
[187] i.e., If laws of your own, and not the will and law of God, are the source and means of your life, you owe no thanks and no obedience to God, and therefore need not seek admittance into His house (Oehler).
[188] 1 Cor. vii. 20. In Eng. ver., “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.”
[189] 1 Thess. iv. 11; 2 Thess. iii. 6-12.
[190] i.e., thieves who frequented the public baths, which were a favorite resort at Rome.
[191] The Marcionites.
[192] [The argument amounts to this, that symbols were not idols: yet even so, God only could ordain symbols that were innocent. The Nehushtan of King Hezekiah teaches us the “peril of Idolatry” (2 Kings xviii. 4) and that even a divine symbol may be destroyed justly if it be turned to a violation of the Second Commandment.]
[193] [On which see Dr. Smith, Dict. of the Bible, ad vocem “Serpent.”]
[194] i.e., the Jewish people, who are generally meant by the expression “the People” in the singular number in Scripture. We shall endeavour to mark that distinction by writing the word, as here, with a capital.
[195] See 1 Cor. x. 6, 11.
[196] On the principle that the exception proves the rule. As Oehler explains it: “By the fact of the extraordinary precept in that particular case, God gave an indication that likeness-making had before been forbidden and interdicted by Him.”
[197] Ex. xx. 4, etc. [The absurd “brazen serpent” which I have seen in the Church of St. Ambrose, in Milan, is with brazen hardihood affirmed to be the identical serpent which Moses lifted up in the wilderness. But it lacks all symbolic character, as it is not set upon a pole nor in any way fitted to a cross. It greatly resembles a vane set upon a pivot.]
[198] [Elucidation I.]
Chapter VI.—Idolatry Condemned by Baptism. To Make an Idol Is, in Fact, to Worship It.
[199] i.e., Unless you made them, they would not exist, and therefore [would not be regarded as divinities; therefore] your diligence gives them their divinity.
[201] See chaps. v. and xii.
[202] See chap. ii., “The expansiveness of idolatry.”
[203] Abacum. The word has various meanings; but this, perhaps, is its most general use: as, for instance, in Horace and Juvenal.
[204] Alterius = ἑτέρον which in the New Testament is = to “neighbour” in Rom. xiii. 8, etc. [Our author must have borne in mind Cicero’s beautiful words—“Etenim omnes artes quæ ad humanitatem pertinent habent quoddam commune vinculum,” etc. Pro Archia, i. tom. x. p. 10. Ed. Paris, 1817.]
[205] Quæstum. Another reading is “questum,” which would require us to translate “plaint.”
[206] “Quorum manus non ignorantium,” i.e., “the hands of whom not unwitting;” which may be rendered as above, because in English, as in the Latin, in adjective “unwitting” belongs to the “whose,” not to the “hands.”
Chapter IX.—Professions of Some Kinds Allied to Idolatry. Of Astrology in Particular.
[207] “Ars” in Latin is very generally used to mean “a scientific art.” [See Titus iii. 14. English margin.]
[208] See Eph. v. 11, 12, and similar passages.
[209] i.e., by naming the stars after them.
[210] Comp. chap. iv., and the references there given. The idea seems founded on an ancient reading found in the Codex Alexandrinus of the LXX. in Gen. vi. 2, “angels of God,” for “sons of God.”
[211] See Tac. Ann. ii. 31, etc. (Oehler.)
[213] Because the names of the heathen divinities, which used to be given to the stars, were in many cases only names of dead men deified.
[214] Or, heathenish.
[215] Or, sect.
[216] See Exod. 7-8; 2 Tim. 3.8.
[217] See Acts viii. 9-24.
[218] See Acts xiii. 6-11.
[220] See Acts viii. 21.
[221] See 1 Cor. vii. 31, “They that use this world as not abusing it.” The astrologer abuses the heavens by putting the heavenly bodies to a sinful use.
Chapter X.—Of Schoolmasters and Their Difficulties.
[222] i.e., the seven planets.
[223] See 1 Cor. viii. 10.
[224] i.e., because “he does not nominally eat,” etc.
[225] [Note the Christian Schoolmaster, already distinguished as such, implying the existence and the character of Christian schools. Of which, learn more from the Emperor Julian, afterwards.]
[226] i.e., the name of gods.
[227] Ex. xxiii. 13; Josh. xxiii. 7; Ps. xvi. 4; Hos. ii. 17; Zech. xiii. 2.
[228] i.e., the name of God.
[229] i.e., on an idol, which, as Isaiah says, is “vanity.”
[232] Col. iii. 5. It has been suggested that for “quamvis” we should read “quum bis;” i.e., “seeing covetousness is twice called,” etc. The two places are Col. 3.5; Eph. 5.5.
[233] Matt. v. 34-37; Jas. v. 12.
[234] [The aversion of the early Christian Fathers passim to the ceremonial use of incense finds one explanation here.]
[235] i.e., the demons, or idols, to whom incense is burned.
[236] i.e., from one possessed.
[237] i.e., The demon, in gratitude for the incense which the man daily feeds him with, ought to depart out of the possessed at his request.
Chapter XII.—Further Answers to the Plea, How Am I to Live?
[238] i.e., in baptism.
[239] See above, chaps. v. and viii. [One is reminded here of the famous pleasantry of Dr. Johnson; see Boswell.]
[240] See Luke xiv. 28-30.
[242] Matt. 6.25,31; Luke 12.22-24.
[243] Matt. vi. 28; Luke xii. 28.
[244] Matt. xix. 21; Luke xviii. 22.
[245] Luke ix. 62, where the words are, “is fit for the kingdom of God.”
[246] Matt. vi. 24; Luke xvi. 13.
[247] Matt. xvi. 24; Mark viii. 34; Luke ix. 23; xiv. 27.
[248] Luke xiv. 26; Mark x. 29-30; Matt. xix. 27-30. Compare these texts with Tertullian’s words, and see the testimony he thus gives to the deity of Christ.
[249] i.e., any dear relations.
[250] Matt. iv. 21-22; Mark i. 19-20; Luke v. 10-11.
[251] Matt. ix. 9; Mark ii. 14; Luke v. 29.
[253] Matt. xix. 26; Luke i. 37; xviii. 27.
Chapter XIII.—Of the Observance of Days Connected with Idolatry.
[254] The treatise De Spectaculis [soon to follow, in this volume.]
[256] See 2 Cor. vi. 14. In the De Spect. xxvi. Tertullian has the same quotation (Oehler). And there, too, he adds, as here, “between life and death.”
[257] John xvi. 20. It is observable that Tertullian here translates κόσμον by “seculum.”
[258] i.e., Lazarus,Luke xvi. 19-31.
[259] “Apud inferos,” used clearly here by Tertullian of a place of happiness. Augustine says he never finds it so used in Scripture. See Ussher’s “Answer to a Jesuit” on the Article, “He descended into hell.” [See Elucid. X. p. 59, supra.]
[260] i.e., if you are unknown to be a Christian: “dissimulaberis.” This is Oehler’s reading; but Latinius and Fr. Junis would read “Dissimulaveris,” ="if you dissemble the fact” of being a Christian, which perhaps is better.
[261] So Mr. Dodgson renders very well.
[262] Matt. x. 33; Mark viii. 38; Luke ix. 26; 2 Tim. ii. 12.
Chapter XIV.—Of Blasphemy. One of St. Paul’s Sayings.
[263] Isa. lii. 5; Ezek. xxxvi. 20, 23. Cf. 2 Sam. xii. 14; Rom. ii. 24.
[264] [This play on the words is literally copied from the original—“quæ tunc me testatur Christianum, cum propter ea me detestatur.”]
[265] St. Paul. Gal. i. 10.
[269] i.e., by sinning (Oehler), for “the wages of sin is death.”
[270] There seems to be a play on the word “convivere” (whence “convivium,” etc.), as in Cic. de Sen. xiii.
[271] Isa. i. 14, etc.
[272] [This is noteworthy. In the earlier days sabbaths (Saturdays) were not unobserved, but, it was a concession pro tempore, to Hebrew Christians.]
[273] i.e., perhaps your own birthdays. [See cap. xvi. infra.] Oehler seems to think it means, “all other Christian festivals beside Sunday.”
[274] [“An Easter Day in every week.”—Keble.]
[275] i.e., a space of fifty days, see Deut. xvi. 10; and comp. Hooker, Ecc. Pol. iv. 13, 7, ed. Keble.
[277] See chap. ix. p. 152, note 4.
[278] Matt. xxii. 21; Mark xii. 17; Luke xx. 25.
[279] See Gen. i. 26-27; ix. 6; and comp. 1 Cor. xi. 7.
[280] The word is the same as that for “the mouth” of a river, etc. Hence Oehler supposes the “entrances” or “mouths” here referred to to be the mouths of fountains, where nymphs were supposed to dwell. Nympha is supposed to be the same word as Lympha. See Hor. Sat. i. 5, 97; and Macleane’s note.
[281] [He seems to refer to some Providential event, perhaps announced in a dream, not necessarily out of the course of common occurrences.]
[282] Rom. xiii. 1, etc.; 1 Pet. ii, 13, 14.
[286] Matt. v. 14; Phil. ii. 15.
[287] Ps. i. 1-3; xcii. 12-15.
Chapter XVI.—Concerning Private Festivals.
[288] Tertullian should have added, “and a man’s on a woman.” See Deut. xxii. 5. Moreover, the word “cursed” is not used there, but “abomination” is.
[289] Because it was called toga virilis—“the manly toga.”
[290] [1 Cor. viii. The law of the inspired apostle seems as rigorous here and in 1 Cor. x. 27-29.]
Chapter XVII.—The Cases of Servants and Other Officials. What Offices a Christian Man May Hold.
[291] This is Oehler’s reading; Regaltius and Fr. Junius would read “liberti” = freedmen. I admit that in this instance I prefer their reading; among other reasons it answers better to “patronis” ="patrons.”
[292] Majores. Of course the word may be rendered simply “ancients;” but I have kept the common meaning “forefathers.”
[293] “The judge condemns, the legislator fore-condemns.”—Rigaltius (Oehler.)
Chapter XVIII.—Dress as Connected with Idolatry.
[294] Or, “purpurates.”
[295] [Not us Christians, but us Roman citizens.]
[296] Or, “white-men.”
[297] Or, “consistency.”
[298] i.e., Official character.
[299] Or, “free” or “good” “birth.”
[300] Or, “during.”
[301] i.e., the dress was the sign that they had obtained it.
[302] I have departed from Oehler’s reading here, as I have not succeeded in finding that the “stola” was a boy’s garment; and, for grammatical reasons, the reading of Gelenius and Pamelius (which I have taken) seems best.
[303] See 1 Cor. ix. 19.
[304] St. Paul in his epistle glories in the title, “Paul, a slave,” or “bondman,” “of Christ Jesus.”
[305] Luke ix. 58; Matt. viii. 20.
[306] Matt. xi. 8; Luke vii. 25.
[308] See John xiii. 1-17.
[309] See John xviii. 36.
[311] In baptism.
[312] i.e., From your birth and means, you will be expected to fill offices which are in some way connected with idolatry.
[313] i.e., Martyrdom (La Cerda, quoted by Oehler). For the idea of being “a magistrate in the heavens,” [sitting on a throne] compare such passages as Matt. xix. 28; Luke xxii. 28, 30; 1 Cor. vi. 2-3; Rev. ii. 26-27; iii. 21.
Chapter XIX.—Concerning Military Service.
[314] Elucidation II.
[315] “Sacramentum” in Latin is, among other meanings, “a military oath.”
[316] “Virgam.” The vine switch, or rod, in the Roman army was a mark of the centurion’s (i.e., captain’s) rank.
[317] To fasten the ephod; hence the buckle worn by soldiers here referred to would probably be the belt buckle. Buckles were sometimes given as military rewards (White and Riddle).
[318] As soldiers with belts.
[319] Matt. xxvi. 52; 2 Cor. x. 4; John xviii. 36.
[320] See Luke iii. 12, 13.
[321] Matt. viii. 5, etc.; Luke vii. 1, etc.
Chapter XX.—Concerning Idolatry in Words.
[322] Neither Oehler nor any editor seems to have discovered the passage here referred to.
[324] Ex. xxiii. 13. [St. Luke, nevertheless, names Castor and Pollux, Acts xxviii. 2., on our author’s principle.]
[327] Because Scripture calls idols “vanities” and “vain things.” See 2 Kings xvii. 15, Ps. xxiv. 4, Isa. lix. 4, Deut. xxxii. 21, etc.
[328] Ps. xcvi. 5. The LXX. in whose version ed. Tisch. it is Ps. xcv. read δαιμόνια, like Tertullian. Our version has “idols.”
[329] Mehercule. Medius Fidius. I have given the rendering of the latter, which seems preferred by Paley (Ov. Fast. vi. 213, note), who considers it = me dius (i.e., Deus) fidius juvet. Smith (Lat. Dict. s.v.) agrees with him, and explains it, me deus fidius servet. White and Riddle (s.v.) take the me (which appears to be short) as a “demonstrative” particle or prefix, and explain, “By the God of truth!” “As true as heaven,” “Most certainly.”
Chapter XXI.—Of Silent Acquiescence in Heathen Formularies.
[330] i.e., for fear of being discovered to be a Christian (Oehler).
[331] See Matt. v. 44, 1 Pet. iii. 9, etc.
Chapter XXII.—Of Accepting Blessing in the Name of Idols.
[332] i.e., the precept which enjoins me to “do good and lend.”
[333] Elucidation III.
Chapter XXIII.—Written Contracts in the Name of Idols. Tacit Consent.
[334] Or, “mortgaged.”
[335] This is, perhaps, the most obscure and difficult passage in the entire treatise. I have followed Oehler’s reading, and given what appears to be his sense; but the readings are widely different, and it is doubtful whether any is correct. I can scarcely, however, help thinking that the “se negant” here, and the “tamen non negavi” below, are to be connected with the “puto autem nec negare” at the end of the former chapter; and that the true rendering is rather: “And [by so doing] deny themselves,” i.e., deny their Christian name and faith. “Doubtless a time of persecution,” such as the present time is—or “of prosecution,” which would make very good sense—“and the place of the tribunal, and the person of the presiding judge, require them to know themselves,” i.e., to have no shuffling or disguise. I submit this rendering with diffidence; but it does seem to me to suit the context better, and to harmonize better with the “Yet I have not denied,” i.e., my name and faith, which follows, and with the “denying letters” which are mentioned at the end of the chapter.—Tr.
[336] Mr. Dodgson renders “conceiveth;” and the word is certainly capable of that meaning.
[337] See Matt. v. 28.
[338] Oehler understands “the lighter crime” or “charge” to be “swearing;” the “heavier,” to be “denying the Lord Christ.”
[339] See Luke i. 20, 22, 62, 63.
[340] This is how Mr. Dodgson renders, and the rendering agrees with Oehler’s punctuation. [So obscure however, is Dodgson’s rendering that I have slightly changed the punctuation, to clarify it, and subjoin Oehler’s text.] But perhaps we may read thus: “He speaks in his pen; he is heard in his waxen tablet: the hand is clearer than every sound; the letter is more vocal than every mouth.” [Oehler reads thus: “Cum manibus suis a corde dictat et nomen filii sine ore pronuntiat: loquitur in stilo, auditur in cera manus omni sono clarior, littera omni ore vocalior.” I see no difficulty here.]
[341] Elucidation IV.
Chapter XXIV.—General Conclusion.
[344] i.e., cease to be Christians (Rigalt., referred to by Oehler).
[345] [General references to Kaye (3d edition), which will be useful to those consulting that author’s Tertullian, for Elucidations of the De Idololatria, are as follows: Preface, p. xxiii. Then, pp. 56, 141, 206, 231, 300, 360, 343, 360 and 362.]
[346] See vol. II., p. 186, this series.
III. The Shows, or De Spectaculis.
[347] [It is the opinion of Dr. Neander that this treatise proceeded from our author before his lapse: but Bp. Kaye (p. xvi.) finds some exaggerated expressions in it, concerning the military life, which savour of Montanism. Probably they do, but had he written the tract as a professed Montanist, they would have been much less ambiguous, in all probability. At all events, a work so colourless that doctors can disagree about even its shading, must be regarded as practically orthodox. Exaggerated expressions are but the characteristics of the author’s genius. We find the like in all writers of strongly marked individuality. Neander dates this treatise circa a.d. 197. That it was written at Carthage is the conviction of Kaye and Dr. Allix; see Kaye, p. 55.]
[348] [He speaks of Catechumens, called elsewhere Novitioli. See Bunsen, Hippol. III. Church and House-book, p. 5.]
[349] [Here he addresses the Fideles or Communicants, as we call them.]
[350] [Kaye (p. 366), declares that all the arguments urged in this tract are comprised in two sentences of the Apology, cap. 38.]
[351] [For the demonology of this treatise, compare capp. 10, 12, 13, 23, and see Kaye’s full but condensed statement (pp. 201–204), in his account of the writings, etc.]
[353] Ps. i. 1. [Kaye’s censure of this use of the text, (p. 366) seems to me gratuitous.]
[354] [Neander argues with great force that in referring to Scripture and not at all to the “new Prophecy,” our author shows his orthodoxy. We may add “ that highest authority” to which he appeals in this chapter.]
[355] [Cybele.]
[356] [Very admirable reflections on this chapter may be found in Kaye, pp. 362–3.]
[357] [The authority of Tertullian, in this matter, is accepted by the critics, as of historic importance.]
[358] [Though this was probably written at Carthage, his reference to the Flavian theatre in this place is plain from the immediate comparison with the Capitol.]
[359] [To the infernal deities and first of all to Pluto. See vol. I. note 6, p. 131, this Series.]
[360] [Bunsen, Hippol. Vol. III. pp. 20–22.]
[363] Ps. xlix. 18. [This chapter bears on modern theatres.]
[364] [The ludi Atellani were so called from Atella, in Campania, where a vast amphitheatre delighted the inhabitants. Juvenal, Sat. vi. 71. The like disgrace our times.]
[365] [See Kaye, p. 11. This expression is thought to confirm the probability of Tertullian’s original Gentilism.]
[368] [De Cælo in Cænum: (sic) Oehler.]
[369] [The exorcism. For the exorcism in Baptism, see Bunsen, Hippol. iii. 19.]
[370] See Neander’s explanation in Kaye, p. xxiii. But, let us observe the entire simplicity with which our author narrates a sort of incident known to the apostles. Acts xvi. 16.]
[373] [Observe—“daily raised.” On this precarious condition of the Christians, in their daily life, see the calm statement of Kaye, pp. 110, 111.
[376] [See cap. 26, supra. On this claim to such powers still remaining in the church. See Kaye, p. 89.]
[377] [Kaye, p. 20. He doubtless looked for a speedy appearance of the Lord: and note the apparent expectation of a New Jerusalem, on earth, before the Consummation and Judgment.]
[378] [This New Jerusalem gives Bp. Kaye (p. 55) “decisive proof” of Montanism, especially as compared with the Third Book against Marcion. I cannot see it, here.]
[379] Viz., the theatre and amphitheatre. [This concluding chapter, which Gibbon delights to censure, because its fervid rhetoric so fearfully depicts the punishments of Christ’s enemies, “appears to Dr. Neander to contain a beautiful specimen of lively faith and Christian confidence.” See Kaye, p. xxix.]
IV. The Chaplet, or De Corona.
[380] [Kaye, apparently accepting the judgment of Dr. Neander, assigns this treatise to a.d. 204. The bounty here spoken of, then, must be that dispensed in honour of the victories over the Parthians, under Severus.]
[381] “Emperors.” The Emperor Severus associated his two sons with him in the possession of the imperial power; Caracalla in the year 198, Geta in 208.—Tr.
[382] [A touch of our author’s genius, inspired by the Phrygian enthusiasm for martyrdom. The ground on which a martyr treads begins to be holy, even before the sacrifice, and in loosing his shoe the victim consecrates the spot and at the same time pays it homage.]
[383] [The name of Christ: and the Antiochian name of Christians.]
[384] [Gibbon will have it that the De Corona was written while Tertullian was orthodox, but this reference to the Montanist notion of “New Prophecy” seems to justify the decision of critics against Gibbon, who, as Kaye suggests (p. 53) was anxious to make Christianity itself responsible for military insubordination and for offences against Imperial Law.]
[385] [Kaye (p. 231) notes this as a rare instance of classing Catechumens among “the Faithful.”]
[386] [This is said not absolutely but in contrast with extreme license; but it shows the Supremacy of Scripture. Compare De Monogam, cap. 4.]
[387] [Elucidation I., and see Bunsen’s Church and House Book, pp. 19–24.]
[388] [There is here an allusion to the Roman form of recognizing a lawful child. The father, taking up the new-born infant, gave him adoption into the family, and recognised him as a legitimate son and heir.]
[389] [Men and women, rich and poor.]
[390] i.e., of the Cross.
[391] Vulgate, Dan. xiii. 32. [See Apocrypha, Susanna 32.]
[392] [Observe it must (1.) be based on Apostolic grounds; (2.) must not be a novelty, but derived from a time “to which the memory of men runneth not contrary.”]
[393] [I slightly amend the translation to bring out the force of an objection to which our author gives a Montanistic reply.]
[396] [See luminous remarks in Kaye, pp. 371–373.]
[397] [This teacher, i.e., right reason, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. He is here foisting in a plea for the “New Prophecy,” apparently, and this is one of the most decided instances in the treatise.]
[398] Kaye [p. 187,] has some valuable remarks on this testimony to the senses in Christian Philosophy, and compares Cicero, I. Tusc. cap. xx. or xlvi.]
[402] [Plays were regarded as pomps renounced in Baptism.]
[405] 2 Tim. iv. 13. [This is a useful comment as showing what this φαιλόνη was. Our author translates it by pænula. Of which more when we reach the De Pallio.]
[407] [But see Eusebius, Hist. B. v., cap. 24, whose story is examined by Lardner, Cred., vol. iv., p. 448.]
[409] [Compare De Idololatria, cap. xv., p. 70, supra.]
[412] [He seems to know no use for incense except for burials and for fumigation.]
[414] [Kaye (p. 362) defends our author against Barbeyrac’s animadversions, by the maxim, “put yourself in his place” i.e. among the abominations of Paganism.]
[417] [He plays on this word Sacramentum. Is the military sacrament to be added to the Lord’s?]
[419] [Vexillum. Such words as these prepared for the Labarum.]
[420] “Outside of the military service.” By substituting ex militia for the corresponding words extra militiam, as has been proposed by Rigaltius, the sentence acquires a meaning such that desertion from the army is suggested as one of the methods by which a soldier who has become a Christian may continue faithful to Jesus. But the words extra militiam are a genuine part of the text. There is no good ground, therefore, for the statement of Gibbon: “Tertullian (de Corona Militis, c. xi.) suggests to them the expedient of deserting; a counsel which, if it had been generally known, was not very proper to conciliate the favour of the emperors toward the Christian sect.”—Tr.
[421] “The faithful,” etc.; i.e., the kind of occupation which any one has cannot be pleaded by him as a reason for not doing all that Christ has enjoined upon His people.—Tr.
[422] [He was not yet quite a Montanist.]
[423] i.e., Ilia.
[426] [Such considerations may account for our author’s abandonment of what he says in the Apology; which compare in capp. xlii. and xxxix.]
[427] [Et apud barbaros enim Christus. See Kaye’s argument, p. 87.]
[432] Rev. xviii. 4. [He understands this of Rome.]
[436] [A suggestive interpretation of the baptismal vow, of which see Bunsen, Hippol., Vol. III., p. 20.]
[437] 1 Cor. xi. 10. [Does he here play on the use of the word angels in the Revelation? He seems to make it = elders.]
[439] 1 Tim. ii. 9; 1 Pet. iii. 3.
[440] [A very striking collocation of Matt. 27.34; Luke 24.42.]
[441] Rev. ii. 10; Jas. i. 22.
[445] See Kaye, pp. 408–415.
[446] [See Elucidation I. Written late in our author’s life, this tract contains no trace of Montanism, and shows that his heart was with the common cause of all Christians. Who can give up such an Ephraim without recalling the words of inspired love for the erring?— Jer. xxxi. 20; Hos. xi. 8.]
[447] [Kaye points out our author’s inconsistencies on this matter. If Caractacus ever made the speech ascribed to him (Bede, or Gibbon, cap. lxxi.) it would confirm the opinion of those who make him a convert to Christ: “Quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus.” Elucidation II.]
[448] [On this sort of Demonology see Kaye, pp. 203–207, with his useful references. See De Spectaculis, p. 80, supra.]
[449] [An obvious play on the ambiguity of this word.]
[450] [Notes of the time when this was written. See Kaye, p. 57.]
[451] [Christians remembered Herod (Acts xii. 23) very naturally; but we may reserve remarks on such instances till we come to Lactantius. But see Kaye (p. 102) who speaks unfavourably of them.]
[452] [Notes of the time when this was written. See Kaye, p. 57.]
[453] [Our author uses the Greek (μὴ θεομαχεῖν) but not textually of Acts v. 39.]
[454] [Another note of time. a.d. 211. See Kaye, as before.]
[455] [Compare Vol. I., p. 187, this Series.]
[456] [Compare De Fuga, cap. xii. It is incredible that our author could exaggerate in speaking to the chief magistrate of Carthage.]
[457] [Mosheim’s strange oversight, in neglecting to include such considerations, in accounting for the growth of the church, is justly censured by Kaye, p. 124.]
[458] [As a recapitulation I insert this here to close this class of argument for the reasons following.] This treatise resembles The Apology, both in its general purport as a vindication of Christianity against heathen prejudice, and in many of its expressions and statements. So great is the resemblance that this shorter work has been thought by some to have been a first draft of the longer and perfect one. Tertullian, however, here addresses his expostulations to the general public, while in The Apology it is the rulers and magistrates of the empire whom he seeks to influence. [Dr. Allix conjectures the date of this treatise to be about a.d. 217. See Kaye, p. 50.]
[459] Compare The Apology, c. i.
[460] Revincit. “Condemnat” is Tertullian’s word in The Apology, i.
[461] Defendit. “Excusat” in Apol.
[462] Non licet rectius suspicari.
[463] Non lubet propius experiri.
[464] At quin.
[465] Nisi si.
[466] Emendari pudet.
[467] Excusari piget.
[468] Redundantiæ nostræ.
[469] Bona fide.
[470] Pro extremitatibus temporum.
[471] Or perhaps, “to maintain evil in preference to good.”
[472] Certe.
[473] Pristinorum. In the corresponding passage (Apol. i.) the phrase is, “nisi plane retro non fuisse,” i.e., “except that he was not a Christian long ago.”
[474] Cessat.
[475] Comp. c. ii. of The Apology.
[476] Ipsi.
[477] Gratis reum.
[478] Sane.
[479] Neque spatium commodetis.
[480] Quanquam confessis.
[481] Receptoribus, “concealers” of the crime.
[482] Porro.
[483] Elogia.
[484] Immo.
[485] We have for once departed from Oehler’s text, and preferred Rigault’s: “Perducerentur infantarii et coci, ipsi canes pronubi, emendata esset res.” The sense is evident from The Apology, c. vii.: “It is said that we are guilty of most horrible crimes; that in the celebration of our sacrament we put a child to death, which we afterward devour, and at the end of our banquet revel in incest; that we employ dogs as ministers of our impure delights, to overthrow the candles, and thus to provide darkness, and remove all shame which might interfere with these impious lusts” (Chevalier’s translation). These calumnies were very common, and are noticed by Justin Martyr, Minucius Felix, Eusebius, Athenagoras, and Origen, who attributes their origin to the Jews. Oehler reads infantariæ, after the Agobardine codex and editio princeps, and quotes Martial (Epigr. iv. 88), where the word occurs in the sense of an inordinate love of children.
[486] Nam et plerique fidem talium temperant.
Chapter III.—The Great Offence in the Christians Lies in Their Very Name. The Name Vindicated.
[487] Comp. The Apology, cc. i. and ii.
[488] Adeo si.
[489] Si accommodarent.
[490] Porro.
[491] Hæc ratio est.
[492] Reprobentur.
[493] Impunitate.
[494] i.e., the name “Christians.”
[495] By the “suo loco,” Tertullian refers to The Apology.
[496] Præscribitur vobis.
[497] Præsidi.
[498] Ego.
[499] Χρηστός means both “pleasant” and “good;” and the heathen founded this word with the sacred name Χριστός.
[500] Detinetis.
[501] Et utique.
[502] See The Apology, c. iii.
[503] Plectitur.
[504] Tradux.
[505] Retinere.
[506] At nunc.
[507] Elatrent.
[508] Libertatem suam, “their liberty of speech.”
[509] Denique.
[510] Porro.
[511] Gravem, “earnest.”
[512] Comp. The Apology, c. iii.
[513] Pro.
[514] i.e., the Christian.
[515] De commercio.
[516] Unum atque alium. The sense being plural, we have so given it all through.
[517] Captivitatis (as if theirs was a self-inflicted captivity at home).
[518] Omnem uxorem patientiam obtulisse (comp. Apology, middle of c. xxxix.).
[519] In ergastulum.
[520] Radiant.
[521] He means the religion of Christ, which he in b. ii. c. ii. contrasts with “the mere wisdom” of the philosophers.
[522] Compare The Apology, cc. ii. xliv. xlvi.
[523] Colata, “filtered” [or “strained”—Shaks.]
[524] Ut non alicujus nubiculæ flocculo resignetur. This picturesque language defies translation.
[525] Malitiæ.
[526] Dum retorquetis.
[527] Inter crimen et nomen.
[528] Inter dici et esse.
[529] Status nominis.
[530] Denuo.
[531] Compare The Apology, c. iv.
[532] Ad arulam quandam.
[533] Istam.
[534] Cessat, “loiters.”
[535] Requiratur.
[536] Lege.
[537] Ordo.
[538] Genus.
[539] Literally, “holding the inquiry makes for the laws.”
[540] Per defectionem agnoscendi.
[541] Sibi debet.
[542] Justitiæ suæ.
[543] Merito.
[544] Despuuntur.
[545] Comp. The Apology, cc. vii, viii.
[546] Æneid. iv. 174.
“Fame, than which never plague that runs
Its way more swiftly wins.”—Conington.
[547] “A plague” = malum.
[548] Quid? quod “Yea more.”
[549] Ambitione.
[550] Traduces.
[551] Prodigiam. The word is “indicem” in The Apology.
[552] Disciplina ejus illuxit.
[553] Damnatio invaluit.
[554] Æmula sibi.
[555] Divinitatem consecutæ.
[556] See above, c. ii. note.
[557] i.e., What is the value of such evidence?
[558] We have inserted this phrase as the sentence is strongly ironical.
[559] Deferre, an infinitive of purpose, of which construction of our author Oehler gives examples.
[560] Fructus.
[561] Si etiam sibi credat.
[562] Quidem.
[563] Talia factitare.
[564] We read “quo,” and not “quod,” because.
[565] Conversatio.
[566] This refers to a calumny which the heathen frequently spread about the Christians.
[567] Detrectem or simply “treat of,” “refer to,” like the simple verb “tractare.”
[568] The irony of all this passage is evident.
[569] Diversum opus.
[570] Subjiciuntur “are stealthily narrated.”
[571] Inducunt.
[572] It is difficult to see what this “tacent igitur” means without referring to the similar passage in The Apology (end of c. viii.), which supplies a link wanted in the context. “At all events,” says he, “they know this afterward, and yet submit to it, and allow it. They fear to be punished, while, if they proclaimed the truth, they would deserve universal approbation.” Tertullian here states what the enemies of the Christians used to allege against them. After discovering the alleged atrocities of their secret assemblies, they kept their knowledge forsooth to themselves, being afraid of the consequences of a disclosure, etc.
[573] We have for convenience treated “protrahunt” (q.d. “nor do they report them”) as a neuter verb.
[574] Even worse than Thyestean atrocities would be believed of them.
[575] Miseræ atque miserandæ.
[576] Viderimus.
[577] See below, in c. xix.
[578] Animam.
[579] Rudem, “hardly formed.”
[580] Extraneam.
[581] Immo idcirco.
[582] Quanto constare.
[583] “An alii ordines dentium Christianorum, et alii specus faucium?” (literally, “Have Christians other sets of teeth, and other caverns of jaws?”) This seems to refer to voracious animals like the shark, whose terrible teeth, lying in several rows, and greediness to swallow anything, however incongruous, that comes in its way, are well-known facts in natural history.
[584] Positione.
[585] Compare The Apology, c. viii.
[586] Cynopæ. This class would furnish the unnatural “teeth,” and “jaws,” just referred to.
[587] Sciapodes with broad feet producing a large shade; suited for the “incestuous lust” above mentioned.
[588] Literally, “which come up from under ground.”
[589] Tertullian got this story from Herodotus, ii. 2.
[590] Ipsius animæ organo.
[591] Faucibus.
[592] Utpote linguatuli.
[593] This is one of the passages which incidentally show how widely spread was Christianity.
[594] De Superstitione.
[595] Comp. The Apology, cc. xl. xli. [And Augustine, Civ. Dei. iii.]
[596] By the “manceps erroris” he means the devil.
[597] Libitina.
[598] Christianorum meritum, which with “sit” may also, “Let the Christians have their due.” In The Apology the cry is, “Christianos ad leonem.”
[599] We insert this after Oehler. Tertullian’s words are, “Quasi modicum habeant aut aliud metuere qui Deum verum.”
[600] See above, c. vii.
[601] Sæculum digessit.
[602] Aliter vobis renuntiata.
[603] Absolutum est.
[604] Comp. The Apology, cc. xii. xiii. xiv. xv.
[605] See The Apology (passim), especially cc. xvi.–xxiv., xxx.–xxxvi., and xxxix.
[606] Admentationibus.
[607] Plane.
[608] Traditum.
[609] Vel.
[610] Perinde a vobis.
[611] Quibus est.
[612] Adsolaverunt, “thrown to the ground;” “floored.”
[613] Sectam. [Rather—“A Christian secession.”]
[614] Perhibetis.
[615] Domestica consecratione, i.e., “for family worship.”
[616] Addicitur.
[617] Conducitur.
[618] Eadem.
[619] Exactione, “as excise duty for the treasury.”
[620] Immo.
[621] “In money,” stipibus.
[622] “ Victims. ”
[623] Plus refigitur.
[624] Utut mortuos.
[625] Tensæ.
[626] Plane.
[627] Rigaltius has the name Proculus in his text; but Tertullian refers not merely to that case but to a usual functionary, necessary in all cases of deification.
[628] Oehler reads “ei” (of course for “ii”); Rigalt. reads “ii.”
[629] Denotatior ad.
[630] Gulæ, “Depraved taste.”
[631] Prope religionem convenire, “to have approximated to.”
[632] Quatenus.
[633] Credunt, one would expect “creduntur” (“are supposed”), which is actually read by Gothofredus.
[634] Or, “circumstances” (casibus).
[635] Fortasse periturum.
[636] Traducit, perhaps “degrades.”
[637] Ut dei præfarentur. Oehler explains the verb “præfari” to mean “auctorem esse et tanquam caput.”
[638] Denique.
[639] Stili.
[640] Tertullian gives the comic plural “Juppiteres.”
[641] Ingenia.
[642] Because appropriating to themselves the admiration which was due to the gods.
[643] Cujuslibet dei.
[644] Sustinetis modulari.
[645] It is best to add the original of this almost unintelligible passage: “Plane religiosiores estis in gladiatorum cavea, ubi super sanguinem humanum, supra inquinamenta pœnarum proinde saltant dei vestri argumenta et historias nocentibus erogandis, aut in ipsis deis nocentes puniuntur.” Some little light may be derived from the parallel passage of the Apology (c. xv.), which is expressed somewhat less obscurely. Instead of the words in italics, Tertullian there substitutes these: “Argumenta et historias noxiis ministrantes, nisi quod et ipsos deos vestros sæpe noxii induunt”—“whilst furnishing the proofs and the plots for (executing) criminals, only that the said criminals often act the part of your gods themselves.” Oehler refers, in illustration of the last clause, to the instance of the notorious robber Laureolus, who personated Prometheus; others, again, personated Laureolus himself: some criminals had to play the part of Orpheus; others of Mutius Scævola. It will be observed that these executions were with infamous perverseness set off with scenic show, wherein the criminal enacted some violent death in yielding up his own life. The indignant irony of the whole passage, led off by the “plane religiosiores estis,” is evident.
[646] Censentur.
[647] Factitant.
[648] i.e., the gods themselves.
[649] Redimitis.
[650] Redimitis.
Chapter XI.—The Absurd Cavil of the Ass’s Head Disposed of.
[651] Comp. The Apology, c. xvi.
[652] In The Apology (c. xvi.) the reference is to “the fifth book.” This is correct. Book v. c. 3, is meant.
[653] In vobis, for “in vos” ex pari transferendorum.
[654] Comp. The Apology, c. xvi.
[655] Crucis antistites.
[656] Erit.
[657] Consacraneus.
[658] Viderint.
[659] Viderit.
[660] Stipite crucis.
[661] Solo staticulo. The use of wood in the construction of an idol is mentioned afterward.
[662] Omne robur.
[663] Antemna. See our Anti-Marcion, p. 156. Ed. Edinburgh.
[664] De isto patibulo.
[665] Plasta.
[666] In primo.
[667] Statumini.
[668] Comp. The Apology, c. xii.: “Every image of a god has been first constructed on a cross and stake, and plastered with cement. The body of your god is first dedicated upon a gibbet.”
[669] Veneramini.
[670] Tropæum, for “tropæorum.” We have given the sense rather than the words of this awkward sentence.
[671] Suggestus.
Chapter XIII.—The Charge of Worshipping the Sun Met by a Retort.
[672] Comp. The Apology, c. xvi.
[673] Sunday.
[674] Saturday.
[675] Ex diebus.
[676] On the “Cœna pura,” see our Anti-Marcion, p. 386, note 4.
[677] See Lev. xxiv. 2; also 2 Chron. xiii. 11. Witsius (Ægyptiaca, ii. 16, 17) compares the Jewish with the Egyptian “ritus lucernarum.”
[678] Tertullian, in his tract de Jejun. xvi., speaks of the Jews praying (after the loss of their temple, and in their dispersion) in the open air, “per omne litus.”
Chapter XIV.—The Vile Calumny About Onocoetes Retorted on the Heathen by Tertullian.
[679] Comp. The Apology, c. xvi.
[680] In ista civitate, Rome.
[681] This is explained in the passage of The Apology (xvi.): “He had for money exposed himself with criminals to fight with wild beasts.”
[682] Decutiendus, from a jocular word, “decutire.”
[683] This curious word is compounded of ὅνος, an ass, and κοιᾶσθαι, which Hesychius explains by ἰερᾶσθαι, to act as a priest. The word therefore means, “asinarius sacerdos,” “an ass of a priest.” Calumnious enough; but suited to the vile occasion, and illustrative of the ribald opposition which Christianity had to encounter.
[684] We take Rigaltius’ reading, “seminarium.”
[685] Tanquam hesternum.
Chapter XV.—The Charge of Infanticide Retorted on the Heathen.
[686] Comp. The Apology, c. ix.
[687] Sacri.
[688] He refers in this passage to his Apology, especially c. ix.
[689] Tabellis.
[690] Unius ætatis. This Oehler explains by “per unam jam totam hanc ætatem.”
[691] Genere.
[692] Pignora, scil. amoris.
[693] See Apology, c. ix.
[694] Si forte.
[695] Parum scilicet?
[696] Elicitis.
[697] Infantem totum præcocum.
[698] Comp. The Apology, c. ix.
[699] Adulteram noctem.
[700] Ceterum.
[701] Plane.
[702] Trucidatus oculos.
[703] Errores.
[704] Sive stativo vel ambulatorio titulo.
[705] Compagines generis.
[706] Comitum.
[707] Græculus.
[708] “Aliquis” is here understood.
[709] Utitur Græco, i.e., cinædo, “for purposes of lust.”
[710] Or, “is sent into the country, and put into prison.”
[711] Aliquid recordantur.
[712] Publicæ eruptionis.
[713] Intentatis.
[714] Vestris non sacramentis, with a hyphen, “your non-mysteries.”
[715] Comp. The Apology, c. xxxv.
[716] Secunda.
[717] Severus, in a.d. 198.
[718] These titles were borne by Caracalla.
[719] Or, “topic”—hoc loco.
[720] i.e., whether among the Christians or the heathen.
[721] A cavil of the heathen.
[722] Sane.
[723] Galliæ.
[724] Vesaniæ.
[725] Conveniam.
[726] Recognoscam.
[727] Festivos libellos.
[728] A concilio.
[729] Ex fide.
[730] Literally, “we make faces.”
[731] Comp. The Apology, c. xxxiii., p. 37, supra, and Minucius Felix, Octavius, c. xxiii. [Vol. IV. this Series.]
[732] Comp., The Apology, c. 50 [p. 54, infra.]
[733] A virtute didicerunt.
[734] With the “piget prosequi” to govern the preceding oblique clause, it is unnecessary to suppose (with Oehler) the omission here of some verb like “erogavit.”
[735] Novitatem…dedicavit.
[736] Tertullian refers to Cleopatra’s death also in his tract ad Mart. c. iv. [See this Vol. infra.]
[737] This case is again referred to in this treatise (p. 138), and in ad Mart c. iv. [See this Volume, infra.]
[738] Eradicatæ confessionis. [See p. 55, supra.]
[739] Non invenitur.
[740] Eadem voce.
[741] Utique. The ironical tone of Tertullian’s answer is evident.
[742] Gladio ad lanistas auctoratis.
[743] We follow Oehler in giving the clause this negative turn; he renders it: “Tretet nicht aus Furcht vor dem Tode ins Kriegsheer ein.”
[744] Alicui.
[745] Jam evasit.
[746] Auctoravit.
[747] Vestiendum incendiale tunica.
[748] Inter venatorios: “venatores circi” (Oehler).
[749] “Doubtless the stripes which the Spartans endured with such firmness, aggravated by the presence of their nearest relatives, who encouraged them, conferred honour upon their family.”—Apology, c. 50. [See p. 55, supra.]
[750] Compare The Apology, cc. xlvii. xlviii. xlix. [This Vol., supra.]
[751] Præstruitur.
[752] Præsumimus.
[753] Est.
[754] Interim.
[755] Traditum.
[756] The heathen hell, Tartarus or Orcus.
[757] Reciprocatione.
[758] Distributione.
[759] Compingite oscula.
[760] Eunuchs (Rigalt.).
[761] As the Christians were held to be; coming after (1) the heathen, (2) the Jews. See above, c. viii., and Scorpiace, c. x.
[762] Eunuchs (Rigalt.).
[763] An oft-quoted proverb in ancient writers. It occurs in Hesiod (Opp. et Dies) 25.
[764] Literally, “cease henceforth, O, simulated confession.”
[765] Omnia ista.
[766] This seems to be the force of the “agnitione,” which Oehler renders “auditione.”
[767] Satisfacitis.
[768] Jactetis.
[769] Quorum reatum.
[770] Memineritis.
[771] Si potestis.
[772] Si putatis.
[773] In this part of his work the author reviews the heathen mythology, and exposes the absurdity of the polytheistic worship in the various classes of the gods, according to the distribution of Varro.
[774] Miserandæ.
[775] Literally, “unwilling to know.”
[776] i.e., it does not know that it is error.
[777] Nescit.
[778] Agnoscit.
[779] Liceret.
[780] Discuti, or, in the logical sense, “be tested.”
[781] Nunciatio (legally, this is “an information lodged against a wrong.”)
[782] Excidere, “falls through.”
[783] Sed enim.
[784] Quidni?
[785] Receptorum.
[786] Necessitatem, answering to the “leges dominantium.”
[787] Adulterinam.
[788] St. Augustine, in his de Civit. Dei, makes similar use of Varro’s work on the heathen gods, Liber Divinarum.
[789] Scopum, perhaps “mark.”
[790] Insinuatores.
[791] Volutetur.
[792] Adoptionibus.
[793] Adoptatio.
[794] Passiva, “a jumble.”
[795] Argumentationibus.
[796] Historia. This word seems to refer to the class of mythical divinity above mentioned. It therefore means “fable” or “absurd story” (see above).
[797] Adoptivum.
[798] Patrocinatur.
[799] Mancipium.
[800] Prov. ix. 10; Ps. cxi. 10.
[801] Porro.
[802] Deum omnium notititam et veritatem adsecutus, i.e., “following the God of all as knowledge and truth.”
[803] Nutat.
[804] Passivæ fidei.
[805] Solummodo.
[806] Otiosum.
[807] “A nobody.”
[808] Nisi ut sint expedire.
[809] Aliquot commeatus.
[810] Quasi certus.
[811] Istos deos.
[812] Non tenebat.
[813] De mundo deo didicimus.
[814] Istud.
[815] Ad præsentem speciem, the physical class.
[816] Or, classification.
[817] Ut jam hinc præjudicatum sit.
[818] Ad illam agnatorum speciem.
[819] Scitum.
[820] Non-deum.
[821] “Quod,” with a subj. mood.
[822] Mundus iste.
[823] Summaliter.
[824] Humanitas.
[825] Duritia.
[826] Censetur.
[827] i.e., “iste mundus.”
[828] Mundi, i.e., the universe; see above.
[829] The best reading is “vobis credi;” this is one of Tertullian’s “final infinitives.”
[830] Compare Augustine, de Civit. Dei, vii. 6, 23, 24, 28.
[831] Formam.
[832] Ratione.
[833] Motatorem.
[834] Alia sane vanitate.
[835] This seems to mean: “because θέειν has also the sense of σείεσθαι (motion as well as progression).”
[836] “Dominatione” is Oehler’s reading, but he approves of “denominatione” (Rigault’s reading); this would signify “designation of godhead.”
[837] Opinione.
[838] Rescinditur.
[839] Interpretatorium.
[840] Reprehensum.
[841] Docete.
[842] Sine capite.
[843] Scilicet.
[844] Aciem.
[845] Majorem orbem. Another reading has “majorem orbe,” q.d. “as larger than the world.”
[846] Morositatis.
[847] Cecidit turpiter.
[848] Scilicet.
[849] Habituros.
[850] Humaniorem.
[851] Conjectura.
[852] Suffragio.
[853] Sationem.
[854] Temperamento.
[855] Fœderata.
[856] Circulorum conditionibus.
[857] Tanquam.
[858] Jure.
[859] Domina.
[860] Scilicet.
[861] Vi suavitatis.
[862] Lanis.
[863] Caput facti.
[864] Invenitur.
[865] Servitutis artem. “Artem” Oehler explains by “artificiose institutum.”
[866] We subjoin Oehler’s text of this obscure sentence: “Non in ista investigatione alicujus artificis intus et domini servitutis artem ostendimus elementorum certis ex operis” (for “operibis,” not unusual in Tertullian) “eorum quas facis potestatis?”
[867] Aut.
[868] De licentia passivitatis libertas approbetur.
[869] Meminerunt.
[870] Num non.
[871] Universa negotiatio mundialis.
[872] Felicitas.
[873] These are the moon’s monthly changes.
[874] Tertullian refers to the Magian method of watching eclipses, the ἐνοπτρομαντεία.
[875] Instead of “non valet,” there is the reading “non volet,” “God would not consent,” etc.
[876] Viderint igitur “Let them look to themselves,” “never mind them.”
[877] Alias.
[878] Ista.
[879] Sedenim.
[880] Mortalitas.
[881] See above, c. i. [Note 19, p. 129.]
[882] See The Apology, especially cc. xxii. and xxiii.
[883] Pejerantes.
[884] Lancinatis.
[885] Repercutitus.
[886] Vulgo.
[887] Sapere. The infinitive of purpose is frequent in our author.
[888] Distribuendis.
[889] An allusion to Antinous, who is also referred to in The Apology, xiii. [“Court-page.” See, p. 29, Supra.]
[890] Inhoneste institutos.
[891] By the “legibus” Tertullian refers to the divine honours ordered to be paid, by decrees of the Senate, to deceased emperors. Comp. Suetonius, Octav. 88; and Pliny, Paneg. 11 (Oehler).
[892] Ultro siletur.
[893] Ejusmodi.
[894] Insuper.
[895] Denique.
[896] Ingenuitatis.
[897] Initiatricem.
[898] Sane.
[899] Fides.
[900] Polluuntur.
[901] Relationibus.
[902] Comp. The Apology, ix. [See, p. 25, Supra.]
[903] Comp. Minucius Felix, Octav. xxi.; Arnobius, adv. Nat. v. 6, 7; Augustine, Civ. Dei, vi. 7.
[904] This is the force of the subjunctive verb.
[905] By divine scandals, he means such as exceed in their atrocity even human scandals.
[906] See above, c. i. [p. 129.]
[907] Municipes. “Their local worshippers or subjects.”
[908] Perceperint.
[909] Literally, “Have men heard of any Nortia belonging to the Vulsinensians?”
[910] Deos decuriones, in allusion to the small provincial senates which in the later times spread over the Roman colonies and municipia.
[911] Privatas.
[912] Compare Suidas, s. v. Σαράπις; Rufinus, Hist. Eccl. ii. 23. As Serapis was Joseph in disguise, so was Joseph a type of Christ, according to the ancient Christians, who were fond of subordinating heathen myths to Christian theology.
[913] Tertullian is not the only writer who has made mistakes in citing from memory Scripture narratives. Comp. Arnobius.
[914] Suggestu.
[915] Modialis.
[916] Super caput esse, i.e., was entrusted to him.
[917] Canem dicaverunt.
[918] Compressa.
[919] Isis; comp. The Apology, xvi. [See p. 31, supra.]
[920] Consecrasse.
[921] Recontrans.
[922] Vitii pueritatem.
[923] Recipere (with a dative).
[924] Ignotis Deis. Comp. Acts xvii. 23.
[925] Ut bulbi. This is the passage which Augustine quotes (de Civit. Dei, vii. 1) as “too facetious.”
[926] Adventicii, “coming from abroad.”
[927] Touching these gods of the vanquished nations, compare The Apology, xxv.; below, c. xvii.; Minucius Felix, Octav. xxv.
[928] Diligentem.
[929] See Homer, Il. v. 300.
[930] Invenitur.
[931] Referred to also above, i. 18.
[932] The obscure “formam et patrem” is by Oehler rendered “pulchritudinem et generis nobilitatem.”
[933] The word is “eorum” (possessive of “principum”), not “suæ.”
[934] Dejerant adversus.
[935] What Tertullian himself thinks on this point, see his de Corona, xi.
[936] Cleobis and Biton; see Herodotus i. 31.
[937] See Valerius Maximus, v. 4, 1.
[938] We need not stay to point out the unfairness of this statement, in contrast with the exploits of Æneas against Turnus, as detailed in the last books of the Æneid.
[939] Usque in.
[940] We have thus rendered “quiritatem est,” to preserve as far as one could the pun on the deified hero of the Quirites.
[941] We insert the Latin, to show the pun on Sterculus; see The Apology, c. xxv. [See p. 40, supra.]
[942] Curaria quam consecrari.
[943] Bona Dea, i.e., the daughter of Faunus just mentioned.
[944] See Livy, viii. 20, xxxii. 1; Ovid, Fasti, vi. 213, etc. Compare also Augustine, de Civ. Dei, xviii. 19. [Tom, vii. p. 576.]
[945] Compare Augustine, de Civ. Dei, vi. 7. [Tom. vii. p. 184.]
[946] Æditum ejus.
[947] That is, when he mounted the pyre.
[948] Herculi functam. “Fungi alicui” means to satisfy, or yield to.
[949] The well-known Greek saying, ῎Αλλος οὗτος ῾Ηρακλῆς.
[950] Pluto; Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, is meant. Oehler once preferred to read, “Hebe, quæ mortuo placuit,” i.e., “than Hebe, who gratified Hercules after death.”
[951] Tertullian often refers indignantly to this atrocious case.
[952] Subigitis.
[953] Efflagitant cœlo et sanciunt, (i.e., “they insist on deifying.”)
[954] Comp. Augustine, de Civ. Dei, vi. 9.
[955] A name of Juno, in reference to her office to mothers, “quia eam sanguinis fluorem in conceptu retinere putabant.” Comp. August. de Civ. Dei, iii. 2.
[956] Comp. August. de Civ. Dei, vii. 2, 3.
[957] Comp. August. de Civ. Dei, iv. 11.
[958] Such as Lucina, Partula, Nona, Decima, Alemona.
[959] Or, Prorsa.
[960] “Quæ infantes in cunis (in their cradle) tuetur.” Comp. August. de Civ. Dei, iv. 11.
[961] Educatrix; Augustine says: “Ipse levet de terra et vocetur dea Levana” (de Civ. Dei, iv. 11).
[962] From the old word ruma, a teat.
[963] Comp. August. de Civ. Dei, iv. 9, 11, 36.
[964] See also Tertullian’s de Anima, xxxix.; and Augustine’s de Civ. Dei, iv. 21, where the god has the masculine name of Statilinus.
[965] See Augustine, de Civ. Dei, vi. 9 and vii. 3.
[966] Ibid. iv. 21, vii. 3.
[967] Ibid. iv. 21.
[968] Ibid. iv. 11, vii. 22.
[969] Ibid. iv. 11. [N.B.—Augustine’s borrowing from our author.]
[970] Arnobius, adv. Nationes, iv. 3.
[971] Augustine, de Civ. Dei. [iv. 11 and 16] mentions Agenoria.
[972] On Fortuna Barbata, see Augustine, de Civ. Dei, iv. 11, where he also names Consus and Juventa.
[973] Tertullian, in Apol. xxv. sarcastically says, “Sterculus, and Mutunus, and Larentina, have raised the empire to its present height.”
[974] Arnobius, adv. Nationes, iv. 7, 11; August. de Civ. Dei, vi. 9.
[975] For these three gods, see Augustine, de Civ. Dei, vi. 9; and Arnobius, adv. Nationes, iv. 7.
[976] Agrees with The Apology, c. x.
[977] Bona fide.
[978] Censum.
[979] There is here an omitted clause, supplied in The Apology, “but rather to recall it to your memory.”
[980] Ab ipsa ratione.
[981] Signatur.
[982] Undeunde.
[983] Tantam proceritatem.
[984] Insolescere, i.e., at the commencement of puberty.
[985] Lapilliscere, i.e., to indicate maturity.
[986] The nominative “cœlum” is used.
[987] It is not very clear what is the force of “sed et pepererit,” as read by Oehler; we have given the clause an impersonal turn.
[988] “Certe” is sometime “certo” in our author.
[989] Distulit.
[990] That is, to rain and cloud.
[991] Abalienato.
[992] The word is “cœlum” here.
[993] Eleganter.
[994] i.e., as representing Time.
[995] So Augustine, de Civ. Dei, iv. 10; Arnobius, adv. Nationes, iii. 29; Cicero, de Nat. Deor. ii. 25.
[996] As if from “sero,” satum.
[997] Translatio.
[998] Utrumque corporale.
[999] Mentitis argumentationibus.
[1000] Census.
[1001] See his Histories, v. 2, 4.
[1002] Antiquitatem canos, “hoary antiquity.”
[1003] Jano sive Jane.
[1004] Depalaverat, “marked out with stakes.”
[1005] Cœlitem.
[1006] Magis proximis quoniam illius ætatis.
[1007] Prosapia.
[1008] Qualitas. [n.b. Our author’s use of Præscriptio.]
[1009] Comparantur.
[1010] Monumenta liquent.
[1011] Comp. The Apology, c. xi. [p. 27. Supra.]
[1012] Allecti.
[1013] This is not so terse as Tertullian’s “nomen et numen.”
[1014] Præstare.
[1015] Mancipem.
[1016] In cunabulis temporalitatis.
[1017] The ill-fame of the Cretans is noted by St. Paul, Tit. i. 12.
[1018] Virgil, Georg. i. 125.
[1019] Sewell.
[1020] Ipsa.
[1021] Jupiter’s, of course.
[1022] The law which prescribed the penalty of the paracide, that he be sewed up in a sack with an ape, a serpent, and a cock, and be thrown into the sea.
[1023] In duos culleos dividi.
[1024] De quo.
[1025] De fugitivo.
[1026] Abusui nundinare.
[1027] The “operam ejus”=ingenia et artificia (Oehler).
[1028] Percontationi alienæ.
[1029] In the case of Europa.
[1030] In the case of Danäe.
[1031] Similitudines actuum ipsas.
[1032] In the case of Ganymede.
[1033] In the case of Leda.
[1034] Quos.
[1035] Plebs.
[1036] Morata.
[1037] Proseminatoribus.
[1038] Alibi.
[1039] Optimum.
[1040] There would seem to be a jest here; “æquus” is not only just but equal, i.e., “on a par with” others—in evil, of course, as well as good.
[1041] Inter nativos et factos. See above, c. ii., p. 131.
[1042] Summa responsionis.
[1043] Famulatoria mendicitas.
[1044] Vaccula.
[1045] Subegisse oculis, “reduced to his own eyesight.”
[1046] Byrsæ.
[1047] Magis obtinendus divinitati deputatur.
[1048] Fascias.
[1049] Hylas.
[1050] Rather murders of children and other kindred.
[1051] Æsculapius.
[1052] Tertullian does not correctly quote Pindar (Pyth. iii. 54–59), who notices the skilful hero’s love of reward, but certainly ascribes to him the merit of curing rather than killing: Αλλὰ κέρδει καὶ σοφία δέδεται ἔτραπεν καὶ κᾀκεῖνον ἁγάνορι μισθῷ χρυσὸς ἐν χερσὶν φανεὶς ἂνδῤ ἐκ θανάτου κομίσαι ἢδη ἀλωκότα· χερσὶ δ᾽ ἄρα Κρονίων ῥίψαις δἰ ἄμφοῖν ἀμπνοὰν στέρνων καθέλεν ὠκέως, αἴθων δὲ κεραυνὸς ἐνέσκιμψεν μόρον—“Even wisdom has been bound by love of gain, and gold shining in the hand by a magnificent reward induced even him to restore from death a man already seized by it; and then the son of Saturn, hurling with his hands a bolt through both, speedily took away the breath of their breasts, and the flashing bolt inflicted death” (Dawson Turner).
[1053] Tertullian does not follow the legend which is usually received. He wishes to see no good in the object of his hatred, and so takes the worst view, and certainly improves upon it. The “bestia” is out of reason. [He doubtless followed some copy now lost.]
[1054] Quasi non et ipsi.
[1055] Ariadne.
[1056] Amentia.
[1057] Deis ministratis.
[1058] The constellation Virgo.
[1059] Jovis exoletus, Ganymede, or Aquarius.
[1060] He makes a similar postponement above, in c. vii., to The Apology, cc. xxii. xxiii.
[1061] Divini.
[1062] Et tristitiæ arbitros.
[1063] Transvolem.
[1064] Diva arquis.
[1065] Perhaps another form of Diana.
[1066] Faciunt = ῥίζουσι.
[1067] This seems to be the meaning of an almost unintelligible sentence, which we subjoin: “Geniis eisdem illi faciunt qui in isdem locis aras vel ædes habent; præterea aliis qui in alieno loco aut mercedibus habitant.” Oehler, who makes this text, supposes that in each clause the name of some god has dropped out.
[1068] Numinum janitorum.
[1069] Ceteris.
[1070] Immo cum.
[1071] Proveniunt.
[1072] Prædes.
[1073] Sedenim.
[1074] We insert this clause at Oehler’s suggestion.
[1075] Ministerium.
[1076] The incident, which was closely connected with the third Punic war, is described pleasantly by Pliny, Hist. Nat. xv. 20.
[1077] Præconium.
[1078] Artifices.
[1079] “Antiquitas” is here opposed to “novitas,” and therefore means “the arts of old times.”
[1080] In æmulis. “In,” in our author, often marks the instrument.
[1081] Compare The Apology, xxv. xxvi., pp. 39, 40.
[1082] The verb is in the singular number.
[1083] Æneid, i. 16–20.
[1084] Conington.
[1085] Operati plerique.
[1086] Dediticius.
[1087] Apollo; comp. The Apology, c. xiv., p. 30.
[1088] See Herodot. i. 50.
[1089] Veluti tueri.
[1090] Religiositas.
[1091] Superstitio.
[1092] Frugi.
[1093] Temeraria.
[1094] Læsis.
[1095] Morabantur. We have taken this word as if from “mores” (character). Tertullian often uses the participle “moratus” in this sense.
[1096] Et depropitiorum.
[1097] Volutavit.
[1098] Compare The Apology, c. xxvi.
[1099] We have treated this “tanquam” and its clause as something more than a mere simile. It is, in fact, an integral element of the supremacy which the entire sentence describes as conferred on the Romans by the Almighty.
[1100] That is, the Christians, who are well aware of God’s purposes as declared in prophecy. St. Paul tells the Thessalonians what the order of the great events subsequent to the Roman power was to be: the destruction of that power was to be followed by the development and reign of Antichrist; and then the end of the world would come.
Appendix. A Fragment Concerning the Execrable Gods of the Heathen.
[1101] Dæmons. Gr. δαίμων, which some hold to = δαήμων, “knowing,” “skilful,” in which case it would come to be used of any superhuman intelligence; others, again, derive from δαίω, “to divide, distribute,” in which case it would mean a distributor of destinies; which latter derivation and meaning Liddell and Scott incline to.
[1102] Actum: or “career.”
[1103] Mundi.
[1104] i.e., till his time.
[1105] Pareretur. As the word seems to be used here with reference to his father, this, although not by any means a usual meaning, would seem to be the sense. [As in the equivalent Greek.]
[1106] A Cretibus, hominibus natis. The force seems to be in the absurdity of supposing that, 1st, there should be human beings (hominibus) born, (as Jupiter is said to have been “born,”) already existing at the time of the “birth” of “the highest god;” 2ndly, that these should have had the power to do him so essential service as to conceal him from the search of his own father, likewise a mighty deity, by the simple expedient of rattling their arms.
[1107] See Hom. Il. ii. 446–9; but Homer says there were 100 such tassels.
[1108] Oehler’s “virginis” must mean “virgines.”
[1109] So Scott: “He drave my cows last Fastern’s night.”—Lay of Last Minstrel.
[1110] See Acts xxvi. 26.
[1111] Latitatio.
[1112] i.e., Western: here=Italian, as being west of Greece.
[1113] Latina.
[1114] See Virg. Æn. viii. 319–323: see also Ov. Fast. i. 234–238.
[1115] Oehler does not mark this as a question. If we follow him, we may render, “this can find belief.” Above, it seemed necessary to introduce the parenthetical words to make some sense. The Latin is throughout very clumsy and incoherent.
[1116] Orbis.
[1117] Lex Cornelia transgressi fœderis ammissum novis exemplis novi coitus sacrilegum damnaret. After consulting Dr. Holmes, I have rendered, but not without hesitation, as above. “Fœdus” seems to have been technically used, especially in later Latin, of the marriage compact; but what “lex Cornelia” is meant I have sought vainly to discover, and whether “lex Cornelia transgressi fœderis” ought not to go together I am not sure. For “ammissum” (=admissum) Migne’s ed. reads “amissum,” a very different word. For “sacrilegus” with a genitive, see de Res. Carn, c. xlii. med.
[1118] Quid putatur (Oehler) putatus (Migne).
[1119] Or, “feeling”—“sensu.”
[1120] The Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux.
[1121] Perhaps Ægipana (marginal reading of the ms. as given in Oehler and Migne).
[1122] i.e., Bacchus.
[1123] Oehler reads “vide etem;” but Migne’s “viventem” seems better: indeed, Oehler’s is probably a misprint. The punctuation of this treatise in Oehler is very faulty throughout, and has been disregarded.
[1124] “Immensum,” rendered “incomprehensible” in the “Athanasian Creed.
[1125] See page 14, supra.
[1126] [This treatise was written while our author was a Catholic. This seems to me the best supported of the theories concerning it. Let us accept Pamelius, for once and date it a.d. 198. Dr. Allix following Baronius, will have it as late as a.d. 208. Neander thinks the work, after the quotation from Isaiah in the beginning of chapter ninth, is not our author’s, but was finished by another hand, clumsily annexing what is said on the same chapter of Isaiah in the Third Book against Marcion. It is only slightly varied. Bp. Kaye admits the very striking facts instanced by Neander, in support of this theory, but demolishes, with a word any argument drawn from thence that the genuine work was written after the author’s lapse. This treatise is sufficiently annotated by Thelwall, and covers ground elsewhere gone over in this Series. My own notes are therefore very few.]
Chapter I.—Occasion of Writing. Relative Position of Jews and Gentiles Illustrated.
[1127] Comp. Phil. iii. 5.
[1128] See Isa. xl. 15: “dust of the balance,” Eng. Ver.; ῥοπὴ ζυγοῦ LXX. For the expression “dust out of a threshing-floor,” however, see Ps. i. 4, Dan. ii. 35.
[1129] See Gen. xxii. 18; and comp. Gal. iii. 16, and the reference in both places.
[1130] This promise may be said to have been given “to Abraham,” because (of course) he was still living at the time; as we see by comparing Gen. 21.5; 25.7,26; Heb. 11.9.
[1131] Or, “nor did He make, by grace, a distinction.”
[1132] Or, “nor did He make, by grace, a distinction.”
[1133] See Gen. xxv. 21-23, especially in the LXX.; and comp.Rom. ix. 10-13.
[1134] Sæculi.
[1135] Ex. xxxii. 1, 23; Acts vii. 39-40.
[1136] Ex. xxxii. 4: comp. Acts vii. 38-41; 1 Cor. x. 7; Ps. cvi. 19-22.
[1137] Comp. 1 Kings xii. 25-33; 2 Kings xvii. 7-17 (in LXX. 3 and 4 Kings). The Eng. ver. speaks of “calves;” the LXX. call them “heifers.”
[1138] Comp. 1 Thess. i. 9, 10.
Chapter II.—The Law Anterior to Moses.
[1139] Mundi.
[1140] Comp. Jer. xxxi. 27 (in LXX. it is xxxviii. 27);Hos. ii. 23; Zech. x. 9; Matt. xiii. 31-43.
[1141] See Gen. ii. 16-17; iii. 2-3.
[1142] Condita.
[1143] Deut. vi. 4-5; Lev. xix. 18; comp. Matt. xxii. 34-40; Mark xii. 28-34; Luke x. 25-28; and for the rest, Ex. xx. 12-17; Deut. v. 16-21; Rom. xiii. 9.
[1144] Semetipsos. ? Each other.
[1145] Semetipsos. ? Each other.
[1146] Excidendo; or, perhaps, “by self-excision,” or “mutual excision.”
[1147] Or, “the Law written for Moses in stone-tables.”
[1148] Gen. vi. 9; vii. 1; comp. Heb. xi. 7.
[1149] See Isa. xli. 8; Jas. ii. 23.
[1150] Gen. 14.18; Psa. 110.4; Heb. 5.10; 7.1-3, 10, 15, 17.
[1151] Comp. Gen. xv. 13 with Ex. xii. 40-42 and Acts vii. 6.
[1153] Or, “credited him with.”
[1154] Gen. iv. 1-7, especially in the LXX.; comp.Heb. xi. 4.
[1155] Gen. vi. 18; vii. 23; 2 Pet. ii. 5.
[1156] See Gen. v. 22, 24; Heb. xi. 5.
[1157] Or, perhaps, “has not yet tasted.”
[1158] Æternitatis candidatus. Comp. ad Ux. l. i. c. vii., and note 3 there.
[1159] See above.
[1160] i.e., nephew. See Gen. xi. 31; xii. 5.
[1161] See Gen. xix. 1-29; and comp. 2 Pet. ii. 6-9.
Chapter III.—Of Circumcision and the Supercession of the Old Law.
[1162] See Gen. 12-15; 17; Rom. 4.
[1163] Acceperat. So Tertullian renders, as it appears to me, the ἔλαβε of St. Paul in Rom. iv. 11. q. v.
[1164] There is, if the text be genuine, some confusion here. Melchizedek does not appear to have been, in any sense, “subsequent” to Abraham, for he probably was senior to him; and, moreover, Abraham does not appear to have been “already circumcised” carnally when Melchizedek met him. Comp. Gen. 14; 17.
[1165] Tertullian writes Seffora; the LXX. in loco, Σεπφώρα Ex. iv. 24-26, where the Eng. ver. says, “the Lord met him,” etc.; the LXX ἄγγελος Κυρίου.
[1166] Isa. i. 7, 8. See c. xiii. sub fin.
[1167] Again an error; for these words precede the others. These are found in Isa. i. 2.
[1170] Jer. iv. 3, 4. In Eng. ver., “break up your fallow ground;” but comp. de Pu. c. vi. ad init.
[1171] So Tertullian. In Jer. ibid. “Israel and…Judah.”
[1172] Jer. xxxi. 31, 32 (in LXX. ibid. xxxviii. 31, 32); comp. Heb. viii. 8-13.
[1174] Perhaps an allusion to Phil. iii. 1, 2.
[1175] See Dan. ii. 34-35, 44, 45. See c. xiv. below.
[1177] i.e., of beating swords into ploughs, etc.
[1178] Comp. Ex. xxi. 24-25; Lev. xxiv. 17-22; Deut. xix. 11-21; Matt. v. 38.
[1179] Especially spiritually. Comp. 1 Cor. iii. 6-9; ix. 9-10, and similar passages.
[1180] Obsequia. See de Pa. c. iv. note 1.
[1181] See Ps. xviii. 43, 44 (xvii. 44, 45 in LXX.), where the Eng. ver. has the future; the LXX., like Tertullian, the past. Comp.2 Sam. 22.44-45; Rom. 10.14-17.
[1182] Comp. Isa. i. 2 as above, and Acts xiii. 17.
[1183] Sæculi.
[1184] Or, perhaps, “not affected, as a body, with human sufferings;” in allusion to such passages as Deut. viii. 4; xxix. 5; Neh. ix. 21.
[1185] Psa. 78.25; John 6.31-32.
[1186] See Hos. i. 10; 1 Pet. ii. 10.
Chapter IV.—Of the Observance of the Sabbath.
[1187] Comp. Gal. v. 1; iv. 8-9.
[1188] See Exod. 20.8-11; 12.16 (especially in the LXX.).
[1190] This is not said by Isaiah; it is found in substance in Ezek. xxii. 8.
[1191] Isa. lxvi. 23 in LXX.
[1192] I am not acquainted with any such passage. Oehler refers to Isa. xlix. in his margin, but gives no verse, and omits to notice this passage of the present treatise in his index.
[1193] Or, “temporal.”
[1195] See 1 Macc. ii. 41, etc.
[1196] See Ex. xx. 8; Deut. v. 12, 15: in LXX.
[1197] This tautology is due to the author, not to the translator: “sacrificia…spiritalium sacrificiorum.”
[1198] See Gen. iv. 2-14. But it is to be observed that the version given in our author differs widely in some particulars from the Heb. and the LXX.
[1199] See Lev. xvii. 1-9; Deut. xii. 1-26.
[1200] See Mal. i. 10, 11, in LXX.
[1201] Comp. Matt. xxviii. 19-20, Mark xvi. 15-16, Luke xxiv. 45-48, with Ps. xix. 4 (xviii. 5 in LXX.), as explained in Rom. x. 18.
[1202] Tollite = Gr. ἄρατε. Perhaps ="away with.”
[1203] See Psa. 96.7-8; 29.1-2.
[1204] See Ps. li. 17 (in LXX. l. 19).
[1207] Or, “foretold.”
[1208] Comp. Isa. i. 11-14, especially in the LXX.
Chapter VI.—Of the Abolition and the Abolisher of the Old Law.
[1211] Or, “sending forth”—promissio.
[1212] The tautology is again due to the author.
[1213] Comp. Luke i. 78-79, Isa. ix. 1-2, with Matt. iv. 12-16.
[1214] Comp. 1 Cor. ix. 16.
[1215] See ch. iii. above.
[1216] Here again the repetition is the author’s.
[1217] Cum suo sibi sabbato. Unless the meaning be—which the context seems to forbid—“together with a sabbath of His own:” the Latinity is plainly incorrect.
Chapter VII.—The Question Whether Christ Be Come Taken Up.
[1218] The reference is to Isa. xlv. 1. A glance at the LXX. will at once explain the difference between the reading of our author and the genuine reading. One letter—an “ι”—makes all the difference. For Κύρῳ has been read Κυρίῳ. In the Eng. ver. we read “His Anointed.”
[1220] See Acts 2.9-10,5.
[1221] See Isa. xlv. 1, 2 (especially in Lowth’s version and the LXX.).
[1222] See 1 Kings iv. 25. (In the LXX. it is 3 Kings iv. 25; but the verse is omitted in Tischendorf’s text, ed. Lips. 1860, though given in his footnotes there.) The statement in the text differs slightly from Oehler’s reading; where I suspect there is a transposition of a syllable, and that for “in finibus Judæ tantum, a Bersabeæ,” we ought to read “in finibus Judææ tantum, a Bersabe.” See de Jej. c. ix.
[1223] See Esth. i. 1; viii. 9.
[1224] [Dr. Allix thinks these statements define the Empire after Severus, and hence accepts the date we have mentioned, for this treatise.]
[1225] Comp. John xx. 28.
Chapter VIII.—Of the Times of Christ’s Birth and Passion, and of Jerusalem’s Destruction.
[1226] See Dan. ix. 26 (especially in the LXX.).
[1227] Comp. Isa. lv. 4.
[1228] Vir desideriorum; Gr. ἀνὴρ ἐπιθυμιῶν; Eng. ver. “a man greatly beloved.” Elsewhere Tertullian has another rendering—“miserabilis.” See de Jej. cc. vii, ix.
[1229] Or, “abbreviated;” breviatæ sunt; Gr. συνετμήθνσαν. For this rendering, and the interpretations which in ancient and modern days have been founded on it, see G. S. Faber’s Dissert. on the prophecy of the seventy weeks, pp. 5, 6, 109–112. (London, 1811.) The whole work will repay perusal.
[1230] These words are given, by Oehler and Rig., on the authority of Pamelius. The mss. and early editions are without them.
[1231] Also supplied by Pamelius.
[1232] See Dan. ix . 24-27. It seemed best to render with the strictest literality, without regard to anything else; as an idea will thus then be given of the condition of the text, which, as it stands, differs widely, as will be seen, from the Hebrew and also from the LXX., as it stands in the ed. Tisch. Lips. 1860, to which I always adapt my references.
[1233] Hebdomades is preferred to Oehler’s-as, a reading which he follows apparently on slender authority.
[1234] There is no trace of these last words in Tischendorf’s LXX. here; and only in his footnotes is the “pinnacle” mentioned.
[1235] Or, “speech.” The reference seems to be to Dan. 9.23, but there is no such statement in Daniel.
[1236] So Oehler; and I print all these numbers uniformly—as in the former part of the present chapter—exactly in accordance with the Latin forms, for the sake of showing how easily, in such calculations, errors may creep in.
[1237] Comp. Ps. xlix. 11 (in LXX. Ps. xlviii. 12).
[1238] Diluuntur. So Oehler has amended for the reading of the mss. and edd., “tribuuntur.”
[1239] Comp. Pusey on Daniel, pp. 178, 179, notes 6, 7, 8, and the passages therein referred to. And for the whole question of the seventy weeks, and of the LXX. version of Daniel, comp. the same book, Lect. iv. and Note E (2d thousand, 1864). See also pp. 376–381 of the same book; and Faber (as above), pp. 293–297.
[1240] Or rather, our Lord Himself. See Matt. xi. 13; Luke xvi. 16.
[1241] Comp. the very obscure passage in de Pu. c. vi., towards the end, on which this expression appears to cast some light.
[1242] Or, “in abscision from.”
[1243] And, without “unction”—i.e. without a priesthood, the head whereof, or high priest, was always anointed—no “sacrifices” were lawful.
[1244] See Ps. xxii. 16 (xxi. 17 in LXX.)
[1245] i.e., March 25.
[1246] Comp. Exod. 12.6; Mark 14.12; Luke 22.7.
[1247] See Matt. xxvii. 24, 25, with John xix. 12 and Acts iii. 13.
[1249] Comp. Luke xxiv. 44, etc.
Chapter IX.—Of the Prophecies of the Birth and Achievements of Christ.
[1250] “A virgin,” Eng. ver.; ἡ παρθένος, LXX.; “the virgin,” Lowth.
[1251] See Isa. vii. 13, 14.
[1252] See Matt. i. 23.
[1253] See Isa vii. 15.
[1254] See Isa. viii. 4. (All these passages should be read in the LXX.)
[1255] i.e., of the predicted name. [Here compare Against Marcion, Book III. (vol. vii. Edin. series) Cap. xii. p. 142. See my note (1) on Chapter First; and also Kaye, p. xix.]
[1256] In Isa. viii. 8, 10, compared with vii. 14 in the Eng. ver. and the LXX., and also Lowth, introductory remarks on ch. viii.
[1257] Or, “to call him.”
[1258] See adv. Marc. l. iii. c. xiii., which, with the preceding chapter, should be compared throughout with the chapter before us.
[1259] Comp. Judg. xiii. 12; Eng. ver. “How shall we order the child?”
[1260] Or, “accept.”
[1261] See Matt. ii. 1-12.
[1262] Of course he ought to have said, “they say.”
[1263] Zech. xiv. 14, omitting the last clause.
[1264] Ps. lxxii. 15 (lxxi. 15 in LXX.): “Sheba” in Eng. ver.; “Arabia” in the “Great Bible” of 1539; and so the LXX.
[1265] Ps. lxxii. 10, in LXX, and “Great Bible;” “Sheba and Seba,” Eng. ver.
[1266] Strictly, Tertullian ought to have said “they call,” having above said “Divine scriptures;” as above on the preceding page.
[1268] See Gen. xix. 23-29.
[1271] Orbis.
[1272] Oehler refers to Isa. xix. 1. See, too, Isa. 30; 31.
[1274] Or we may supply here [“Isaiah”].
[1275] Or, “he.”
[1276] Ps. xlv. 3, clause 1 (in LXX. Ps. xliv. 4).
[1277] See Ps. xlv. 2 (xliv. 3 in LXX.).
[1278] Ps. xlv. 4 (xliv. 5 in LXX.).
[1279] Comp. Heb. iv. 12; Rev. i. 16; ii. 12; xix. 15, 21; also Eph. vi. 17.
[1280] Comp. Ps. lxii. 12 (lxi. 13 in LXX.); Rom. ii. 6.
[1281] See Ps. xlv. 5 (xliv. in LXX.).
[1282] Ps. xlv. 5 (xliv. 6 in LXX.).
[1283] Traductionem (comp.Heb. iv. 13).
[1285] I can find no authority for “appellatus” as a substantive, but such forms are familiar with Tertullian. Or perhaps we may render: “in that He is found to have been likewise called Jesus.”
[1286] Auses; Αὐσή in LXX.
[1287] Nave; Ναυή in LXX.
[1288] Jehoshua, Joshua, Jeshua, Jesus, are all forms of the same name. But the change from Oshea or Hoshea to Jehoshua appears to have been made when he was sent to spy the land. See Num. xiii. 16 (17 in LXX., who call it a surnaming).
[1289] If Oehler’s “in sæculo desertæ” is to be retained, this appears to be the construction. But this passage, like others above noted, is but a reproduction of parts of the third book in answer to Marcion; and there the reading is “in sæculi desertis”="in the desert places of the world,” or “of heathendom.”
[1290] See Ex. iii. 8, and the references there.
[1291] See Josh. v. 2-9, especially in LXX. Comp. the margin in the Eng. ver. in ver. 2, “flint knives,” and Wordsworth in loc., who refers to Ex. iv. 25, for which see ch. iii. above.
[1292] See especially 1 Cor. x. 4.
[1293] Or, “Joshua.”
[1294] Comp. Num. xii. 5-8.
[1295] Comp. Ex. xxxiii. 20; John i. 18; xiv. 9; Col. i. 15; Heb. i. 3.
[1296] Oehler and others read “celavit”; but the correction of Fr. Junius and Rig., “celabit,” is certainly more agreeable to the LXX. and the Eng. ver.
[1298] Mal. iii. 1: comp. Matt. xi. 10; Mark i. 2; Luke vii. 27.
[1299] See Ps. cxxxii. 17 (cxxi. 17 in LXX.).
[1300] Matt. v. 17, briefly; a very favourite reference with Tertullian.
[1301] John v. 35, ὁ λύχνος ὁ καιόμενος καὶ φαίνων.
[1302] Comp. reference 8, p. 232; and Isa. xl. 3, John i. 23.
[1303] See John i. 29, 36.
[1304] Sacramentum.
[1305] See Isa. xi. 1, 2, especially in LXX.
[1306] See Luke i. 27.
[1307] See Luke ii. 1-7.
[1308] See Isa. liii. 3, 7, in LXX.; and comp. Ps. xxxviii. 17 (xxxvii. 18 in LXX.) in the “Great Bible” of 1539.
[1309] See Isa. xlii. 2, 3, and Matt. xii. 19, 20.
[1310] See Isa. lviii. 1, 2, especially in LXX.
[1311] See Isa. xxxv. 4, 5, 6.
[1312] See John 5.17-18; 10.31-33.
Chapter X.—Concerning the Passion of Christ, and Its Old Testament Predictions and Adumbrations.
[1313] Comp. Deut. xxi. 23 with Gal. iii. 13, with Prof. Lightfoot on the latter passage.
[1314] Deut. xxi. 22, 23 (especially in the LXX.).
[1315] See 1 Pet. ii. 22 with Isa. liii. 9.
[1316] Oehler’s pointing is disregarded.
[1318] Ps. lxix. 4 (lxviii. 5 in LXX.).
[1319] Ps. xxii. 16 (xxi. 17 in LXX.).
[1320] Ps. lxix. 21 (lxviii. 5 in LXX.).
[1321] Ps. xxii. 18 (xxi. 19 in LXX.).
[1322] See Matt. xxvi. 56; xxvii. 34-35; John xix. 23-24, 28, 32-37.
[1323] Sacramentum.
[1324] See Rom. ix. 32, 33, with Isa. xxviii. 16; 1 Cor. i. 23; Gal. v. 11.
[1325] Lignum = ξύλον; constantly used for “tree.”
[1326] Comp. Gen. xxii. 1-10 with John xix. 17.
[1327] “Christum figuratus” is Oehler’s reading, after the two mss. and the Pamelian ed. of 1579; the rest read “figurans” or “figuravit.”
[1328] Manifested e.g., in his two dreams. See Gen. xxxvii.
[1329] Comp. Rom. ix. 5.
[1330] Or, “Judah.”
[1331] This is an error. It is not “his father,” Jacob, but Moses, who thus blesses him. See Deut. xxxiii. 17. The same error occurs in adv. Marc. 1. iii. c. xxiii.
[1332] Not strictly “the same;” for here the reference is to Gen. xlix. 5-7.
[1333] i.e., Simeon and Levi.
[1334] i.e., the scribes and Pharisees.
[1335] Perfecerunt iniquitatem ex sua secta. There seems to be a play on the word “secta” in connection with the outrage committed by Simeon and Levi, as recorded in Gen. xxxiv. 25-31; and for συνετέλεσαν ἀδικίαν ἐξαιρέσεως αὐτῶν (which is the reading of the LXX., ed. Tisch. 3, Lips. 1860), Tertullian’s Latin seems to have read, συνετέλεσαν ἀδικίαν ἐξ αἱρέσεως αὐτῶν.
[1336] See Gen. xlix. 5-7 in LXX.; and comp. the margin of Eng. ver. on ver. 7, and Wordsworth in loc., who incorrectly renders ταῦρον an “ox” here.
[1337] What the sense of this is it is not easy to see. It appears to have puzzled Pam. and Rig. so effectually that they both, conjecturally and without authority, adopted the reading found in adv. Marc. l. iii. c. xviii. (from which book, as usual, the present passage is borrowed), only altering illis to ipsis.
[1338] See Ex. xvii. 8-16; and comp. Col. ii. 14, 15.
[1340] Their sin was “speaking against God and against Moses” (Num. xxi. 4-9).
[1341] Comp. Col. ii. 14, 15, as before; also Gen. iii. 1, etc.; 2 Cor. xi. 3; Rev. xii. 9.
[1342] Comp. 2 Cor. xi. 14-15; Matt. xxv. 41; Rev. xii. 9.
[1343] Comp. de Idol. c. v.; adv. Marc. l. iii. c. xviii.
[1344] A ligno. Oehler refers us to Ps. xcvi. 10 (xcv. 10 in LXX.); but the special words “a ligno” are wanting there, though the text is often quoted by the Fathers.
[1345] Lignarium aliquem regem. It is remarkable, in connection herewith, that our Lord is not only called by the Jews “the carpenter’s son” (Matt. xiii. 55; Luke iv. 22), but “the carpenter” (Mark vi. 3).
[1346] See Isa. ix. 6.
[1347] Lignum.
[1348] See Jer. xi. 19 (in LXX.).
[1349] i.e., when they laid on Him the crossbeam to carry. See John xix. 17.
[1350] See John vi. passim, and the various accounts of the institution of the Holy Supper.
[1351] It is Ps. xxii. in our Bibles, xxi. in LXX.
[1352] Psa. 22.16 (17 in LXX.).
[1353] Ps. xxii. 21 (xxi. 22 in LXX., who render it as Tertullian does).
[1354] i.e., perhaps, because of the extreme ignominy attaching to that death, which prevented its being expressly named.
[1355] Isa. liii. 8, 9, 10, (in LXX.).
[1356] Isa. lvii. 2 (in LXX.).
[1357] Isa. liii. 12 (in LXX.). Comp., too, Bp. Lowth. Oehler’s pointing again appears to be faulty.
[1358] See Amos viii. 9, 10 (especially in the LXX.).
[1359] Oehler’s “esset” appears to be a mistake for “esse.”
[1360] The change from singular to plural is due to the Latin, not to the translator.
[1361] See Ex. xii. 1-11.
[1362] See Matt. xxvi. 17; Mark xiv. 12; Luke xxii. 7; John xviii. 28.
[1363] Comp. 1 Cor. v. 7.
Chapter XI.—Further Proofs, from Ezekiel. Summary of the Prophetic Argument Thus Far.
[1364] Sæculo.
[1365] Comp. Isa. lxi. 2.
[1366] Or possibly, simply, “sealed”—obsignatus.
[1367] Inter mediam elam et inter medium altaris: i.e., probably ="between the porch and the altar,” as the Eng. ver. has.
[1368] So Oehler points, and Tischendorf in his edition of the LXX. points not very differently. I incline to read: “Because they have filled up the measure of their impieties, and, behold (are) themselves, as it were, grimacing, I will,” etc.
[1369] Comp. Rev. i. 13.
[1370] “Quæ fuit super eam” (i.e. super domum) “in subdivali domûs” is Oehler’s reading; but it differs from the LXX.
[1371] The ms. which Oehler usually follows omits “Tau;” so do the LXX.
[1372] Et in his dixit ad audientem. But the LXX. reading agrees almost verbatim with the Eng. ver.
[1373] Ezek. 8.12-9.6 (especially in the LXX.). Comp. adv. Marc. l. iii. c. xxii. But our author differs considerably even from the LXX.
[1374] Or rather in Deuteronomy. See Deut. 28.65 sqq.
[1375] Or, “sole.”
[1376] In ligno. There are no such words in the LXX. If the words be retained, “thy life” will mean Christ, who is called “our Life” in Col. iii. 4. See also John i. 4; xiv. 6; xi. 25. And so, again, “Thou shalt not trust (or believe) thy life” would mean, “Thou shalt not believe Christ.”
[1377] Or, “in accordance with.”
[1378] i.e., Would they have happened? and, by happening, have been their own proof?
Chapter XII.—Further Proofs from the Calling of the Gentiles.
[1380] Dispositionem; Gr. διαθήκην.
[1381] Isa. 42.6-7; 61.1; Luke 4.14-18.
[1382] Comp. Luke ii. 25-33.
Chapter XIII.—Argument from the Destruction of Jerusalem and Desolation of Judea.
[1383] Mic. v. 2; Matt. ii. 3-6. Tertullian’s Latin agrees rather with the Greek of St. Matthew than with the LXX.
[1385] Comp. John v. 43; x. 37-38.
[1388] Comp. the “failing eyes” in the passage from Deuteronomy given in c. xi., if “eyes” is to be taken as the subject here. If not, we have another instance of the slipshod writing in which this treatise abounds.
[1389] As His name “Christ” or “Messiah” implies.
[1390] Comp. Ex. xxx. 22-33.
[1391] i.e., in Jerusalem or Judea.
[1392] The Jews.
[1393] Comp. 1 Kings 1.39, where the Eng. ver. has “an horn;” the LXX. τὸ κέρας, “the horn;” which at that time, of course, was in David’s tabernacle (2 Sam. 6.17,) for “temple” there was yet none.
[1395] See Isa. lxv. 2; Rom. x. 21.
[1396] Psa. 22.16-17; 69.21 (lxviii. 22 in LXX.).
[1397] i.e., displaced, dislocated.
[1398] See c. x. above.
[1399] See Psa. 67.6; 85.12 (lxxxiv. 13 in LXX.).
[1400] “Lignum,” as before.
[1401] See Joel ii. 22.
[1402] See c. xi. above, and the note there.
[1403] Sacramento.
[1404] See Ex. xv. 22-26.
[1405] Sæculi.
[1406] See Acts xxvi. 18, ad fin.
[1407] See Jer. ii. 10-12.
[1408] See Amos viii. 9, as before, in c.x.
[1409] See Matt. xxvii. 45, 50-52; Mark xv. 33, 37, 38, Luke xxiii. 44-45.
[1410] ὑδατος ζωῆς in the LXX. here (ed. Tischendorf, who quotes the Cod. Alex. as reading, however, ὑδατος ζῶντος). Comp. Rev. 22.1,17; 21.6; John 7.37-39. (The reference, it will be seen, is still to Jer. ii. 10-13; but the writer has mixed up words of Amos therewith.)
[1411] Comp. The τὴν διασπορὰν τῶν ῾Ελλήνων of John vii. 35; and see 1 Pet. i. 1.
[1412] See Isa. lxv. 13-16 in LXX.
[1413] Hujus ligni sacramentum.
[1414] Lignum.
[1415] Helisæo. Comp.Luke iv. 27.
[1416] The careless construction of leaving the nominative “Elisha” with no verb to follow it is due to the original, not to the translator.
[1417] See 2 Kings vi. 1-7 (4 Kings vi. 1–7 in LXX). It is not said, however, that the wood sank.
[1418] This conclusion they had drawn before, and are not said to have drawn, consequently, upon this occasion. See 2 Kings 2.16.
[1419] Sacramento.
[1420] “Sæculi,” or perhaps here “heathendom.”
[1421] For a similar argument, see Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo? l. i. c. iii. sub fin.
[1422] Sæculo.
[1423] Mortis necem.
[1424] Comp. Acts vii. 51-52; Heb. xi. 32-38.
[1425] Sacramenta.
[1426] See Gen. xxii. 1-14.
[1427] See Matt. xxvii. 11-14; Mark xv. 1-5; John xix. 8-12.
[1428] See Isa. liii. 7, 8.
[1429] Oehler refers to Hos. vi. 1; add 2 (ad init.).
[1430] See Luke i. 35.
[1431] For this sense of the word “approve,” comp. Acts ii. 22, Greek and English, and Phil. i. 10, Greek and English.
[1432] See Isa. ii. 20.
[1433] See Isa. iii. 1, 3; and comp. 1 Cor. iii. 10; Eph. ii. 20-21; 1 Pet. ii. 4-8, and many similar passages.
[1434] Comp. Isa. v. 2 in LXX. and Lowth.
[1435] Comp. Isa. v. 6, 7, with Matt. xxvii. 20-25, Mark xv. 8-15, Luke xxiii. 13-25, John xix. 12-16.
[1436] Matt. xi. 13; Luke xvi. 16.
[1437] See John v. 1-9; and comp. de Bapt. c. v., and the note there.
[1438] See Isa. lii. 5; Ezek. xxxvi. 20, 23; Rom. ii. 24. (The passage in Isaiah in the LXX. agrees with Rom. ii. 24.)
[1439] See Isa. lv. 6, 7.
[1440] See Luke xix. 41-44.
[1441] See Isa. i. 7-8, 4.
[1443] See Ps. lix. 11 (lviii. 12 in LXX.)
[1444] See Isa. l. 11 in LXX.
Chapter XIV.—Conclusion. Clue to the Error of the Jews.
[1445] See Isa. liii. 2 in LXX.
[1446] See Ps. xxxviii. 17 in the “Great Bible” (xxxvii. 18 in LXX.). Also Isa. liii. 3 in LXX.
[1447] See Isa. viii. 14 (where, however, the LXX. rendering is widely different) with Rom. ix. 32-33; Ps. cxviii. 22 (cxvii. 22 in LXX.); 1 Pet. ii. 4.
[1448] See Ps. viii. 5 (viii. 6 in LXX.) with Heb. ii. 5-9.
[1449] See Ps. xxii. 6 (xxi. 7 in LXX., the Alex. ms. of which here agrees well with Tertullian).
[1450] See reference 3 above, with Isa. xxviii. 16.
[1451] Comp. Eph. i. 10.
[1452] Or, “worldly kingdoms.” See Dan. ii. 34-35, 44, 45.
[1453] See Dan. vii. 13, 14.
[1454] See c. ix. med.
[1455] See c. ix. med.
[1456] See Ps. viii. 5, 6 (6, 7 in LXX.); Heb. ii. 6-9.
[1457] See Zech. xii. 10, 12 (where the LXX., as we have it, differs widely from our Eng. ver. in ver. 10); Rev. i. 7.
[1458] See Jer. xvii. 9 in LXX.
[1459] Sacramento.
[1460] The reading which Oehler follows, and which seems to have the best authority, is “verissimus sacerdos Patris, Christus Ipsius,” as in the text. But Rig., whose judgment is generally very sound, prefers, with some others, to read, “verus summus sacerdos Patris Christus Jesus;” which agrees better with the previous allusion to “the mystery of His name withal:” comp. c. ix. above, towards the end.
[1461] See Zech. iii. “The mystery of His name” refers to the meaning of “Jeshua,” for which see c. ix. above.
[1462] Comp. John 6.70 (especially in Greek, where the word διάβολος is used in each case).
[1463] Or “Josedech,” as Tertullian here writes, and as we find in Hag. i. 1, 12; ii. 2, 4; Zech. vi. 11, and in the LXX.
[1464] Or, “Jeshua.”
[1465] See Rev. i. 13.
[1466] See Psa. 110.4; Heb. 5.5-10.
[1468] Comp. Heb. xiii. 10-13. It is to be noted, however, that all this spitting, etc., formed no part of the divinely ordained ceremony.
[1469] This appears to be an error. See Lev. vi. 30.
[1470] Unless Oehler’s “fruerentur” is an error for “fruentur” ="will enjoy.”
[1471] Or, “ignore.”
[1472] See cc. xi. xii. above.
[1473] Orbem.
[1474] Or, “unto eternity.” Comp. 2 Sam. 7.13; 1 Chron. 17.12; Psa. 89.3-4,29,35-37 (in LXX. Ps. lxxxviii. 4-5, 30, 36, 37, 38).
[1475] See Isa. lv. 5 (especially in the LXX).
[1476] Oehler’s pointing is discarded. The whole passage, from “which you dare not assert” down to “ignorant,” appears to be parenthetical; and I have therefore marked it as such.
[1477] [The tract De Testimonio Animæ is cast into an apologetic form and very properly comes into place here. It was written in Orthodoxy and forms a valuable preface to the De Anima, of which we cannot say that it is quite free from errors. As it refers to the Apology, we cannot place it before that work, and perhaps we shall not greatly err if we consider it a sequel to the Apology. If it proves to others the source of as much enjoyment as it affords to me, it will be treasured by them as one of the most precious testimonies to the Gospel, introducing Man to himself.]
[1478] [The student of Plato will recall such evidence, readily. See The Laws, in Jowett’s Translation, vol. iv. p. 416. Also Elucidation I.]
[1479] [The existence of demoniacal possessions in heathen countries is said to be probable, even in our days. The Fathers unanimously assert the effectual exorcisms of their days.]
[1480] [e.g. Horace, Epodes, Ode V.]
[1481] [Satanan, in omni vexatione…pronuntias. Does he mean that they used this word? Rather, he means the demon is none other than Satan.]
[1482] [I have been obliged, somewhat, to simplify the translation here.]
[1483] [This whole passage is useful as a commentary on classic authors who use these poetical expressions. Cœlo Musa beat (Hor. Ode viii. B. 4.) but the real feeling comes out in such expressions as one finds in Horace’s odes to Sextius, (B. i. Ode 4.), or to Postumus, B. ii. Od. 14.]
[1484] [The tombs, by the roadside, of which the traveller still sees specimens, used to be scenes of debauchery when the dead were honoured in this way. Now, the funeral honours (See De Corona, cap. iii.) which Christians substituted for these were Eucharistic alms and oblations: thanking God for their holy lives and perpetuating relations with them in the Communion of Saints.]
[1485] [Butler, Analogy, Part I. chap. i.]
[1486] [Horace, Book III. Ode 30.]
[1487] [This appeal to the universal conscience and consciousness of mankind is unanswerable, and assures us that counter-theories will never prevail. See Bossuet, De la Connoisance de Dieu et de Soi-même. Œuvres, Tom. V. pp. 86 et. seqq. Ed. Paris, 1846.]
[1488] [Compare the heathen ideas in Plato: e.g. the story Socrates tells in the Gorgias, (near the close) about death and Judgment.]
[1489] [It is not safe to date this treatise before a.d. 203, and perhaps it would be unsafe to assign a later date. The note of the translator, which follows, relieves me from any necessity to add more, just here.]
Chapter I.—It is Not to the Philosophers that We Resort for Information About the Soul But to God.
[1490] In this treatise we have Tertullian’s speculations on the origin, the nature, and the destiny of the human soul. There are, no doubt, paradoxes startling to a modern reader to be found in it, such as that of the soul’s corporeity; and there are weak and inconclusive arguments. But after all such drawbacks (and they are not more than what constantly occur in the most renowned speculative writers of antiquity), the reader will discover many interesting proofs of our author’s character for originality of thought, width of information, firm grasp of his subject, and vivacious treatment of it, such as we have discovered in other parts of his writings. If his subject permits Tertullian less than usual of an appeal to his favourite Holy Scripture, he still makes room for occasional illustration from it, and with his characteristic ability; if, however, there is less of his sacred learning in it, the treatise teems with curious information drawn from the secular literature of that early age. Our author often measures swords with Plato in his discussions on the soul, and it is not too much to say that he shows himself a formidable opponent to the great philosopher. See Bp. Kaye, On Tertullian, pp. 199, 200.
[1491] Suggestu. [Kaye, pp. 60 and 541.]
[1492] Flatu “the breath.”
[1493] Utique.
[1494] Consternata.
[1495] Consternata.
[1496] Externata. “Externatus = ἐκτὸς φρενῶν. Gloss. Philox.
[1497] Pietatis.
[1498] Fidei sacramento.
[1499] The allusion is to the inconsistency of the philosopher, who condemned the gods of the vulgar, and died offering a gift to one of them.
[1500] Vivicomburio.
Chapter II.—The Christian Has Sure and Simple Knowledge Concerning the Subject Before Us.
[1501] Mentioned below, c. xxxiii.; also Adv. Valent. c. xv.
[1502] See his Phædrus, c. lix. (p. 274); also Augustin, De. Civ. Dei, viii. 11; Euseb. Præp. Evang. ix. 3.
[1503] Or spurious; not to be confounded with our so-called Apocrypha, which were in Tertullian’s days called Libri Ecclesiastici.
[1504] Here is a touch of Tertullian’s Montanism.
[1505] Subornant.
Chapter III.—The Soul’s Origin Defined Out of the Simple Words of Scripture.
[1508] Compare Tertullian’s Adv. Hermog. c. viii.
[1510] Linguatam civitatem. Comp. Acts xvii. 21.
[1512] Honor.
[1513] Vigor. Another reading has “rigor” (ακληρότης), harshness.
[1514] Tenor.
[1515] Stupor.
[1516] Mœror.
[1517] Furor.
[1519] Flatu.
[1521] Titulus.
Chapter IV.—In Opposition to Plato, the Soul Was Created and Originated at Birth.
[1522] See his Phædrus, c. xxiv.
[1523] Capit itaque et facturam provenisse poni.
[1524] Or, “inspiration.”
Chapter V.—Probable View of the Stoics, that the Soul Has a Corporeal Nature.
[1525] Ex quinta nescio qua substantia. Comp. Cicero’s Tuscul. i. 10.
[1526] Consitum.
[1527] De Nat. Rer. i. 305.
[1528] Animale, “having the nature of soul.”
[1529] Inanimale.
[1530] Accedit.
[1531] We follow Oehler’s view of this obscure passage, in preference to Rigaltius’.
[1532] See Tertullian’s Ad Nationes (our translation), p. 33, Supra..
[1533] Quinionem.
Chapter VII.—The Soul’s Corporeality Demonstrated Out of the Gospels.
[1535] Ad inferna. [See p. 59, supra.]
[1536] Diversorio.
[1537] Compare De Resur. Carnis, xvii. There is, however, some variation in Tertullian’s language on this subject. In his Apol. xlviii. he speaks as if the soul could not suffer when separated from the body. See also his De Testimonio Animæ, ch. iv., p. 177, supra; and see Bp. Kaye, p. 183.
Chapter VIII.—Other Platonist Arguments Considered.
Chapter IX.—Particulars of the Alleged Communication to a Montanist Sister.
[1540] Habitum.
[1541] Illud trifariam distantivum (Τριχῶς διαστηματικόν) Fr. Junius.
[1542] Effigiem.
[1543] See his Phædo, pp. 105, 106.
[1544] Structile.
[1545] Sacramenta.
[1546] 1 Cor. xii. 1-11. [A key to our author’s
[1547] Cerauniis gemmis.
[1548] Tradux.
[1549] Dupliciter unus.
Chapter X.—The Simple Nature of the Soul is Asserted with Plato. The Identity of Spirit and Soul.
[1552] See his Phædo, p. 80; Timæus, § 12, p. 35 (Bekker, pp. 264, 265).
[1553] We have here combined two readings, effigies (Oehler’s) and hæreses (the usual one).
[1554] Aliam.
[1555] This is the force of the subjunctive fiat.
[1556] Arterias.
[1557] Aliunde spirabit, aliunde vivet. “In the nature of man, life and breath are inseparable,” Bp. Kaye, p. 184.
[1558] Sexcentos.
[1559] Odit.
[1560] Aurium cæci.
[1561] Proprie “by reason of its nature.”
[1562] See the tract Adv. Valentin., c. xxv. infra.
[1563] Compare Adv. Hermog. xxxii. xxxiii.; also Irenæus, v. 12, 17. [See Vol. I. p. 527, this Series.]
[1564] Tertullian’s reading of Isa. lvii. 16.
Chapter XII.—Difference Between the Mind and the Soul, and the Relation Between Them.
[1571] Suggestum.
[1572] Comp. The Apology, c. xlviii.; August. De Civ. Dei, xiii. 17.
[1573] Comp. Adv. Valentin. vii. infra.
[1574] Addicit.
[1575] Alterum animi genus.
[1576] Concretum.
[1577] Substantiæ officium.
Chapter XIII.—The Soul’s Supremacy.
[1578] Substantiæ massa.
[1579] Faciem operis.
[1580] Fontem materiæ.
[1581] This is Oehler’s text; another reading has twelve, which one would suppose to be the right one.
[1582] Ubique ipsa.
Chapter XV.—The Soul’s Vitality and Intelligence. Its Character and Seat in Man.
[1583] Sapientialis.
[1584] Consecratum.
[1585] Wisd. i. 6.
[1593] In eo thesauro.
[1594] Not Suidas’ philosopher of that name, but a renowned physician mentioned by Galen and Pliny (Oehler).
[1595] Lorica.
[1596] The Egyptian hierophants.
[1597] The original, as given in Stobæus, Eclog. i. p. 1026, is this hexameter: Αἶμα γὰρ ἀνθρώποις περικάρδιόν ἐστι νόημα.
[1598] Or probably that Praxagoras the physician who is often mentioned by Athenæus and by Pliny (Pamel.).
Chapter XVI.—The Soul’s Parts. Elements of the Rational Soul.
Chapter XVII.—The Fidelity of the Senses, Impugned by Plato, Vindicated by Christ Himself.
[1606] Academici.
[1607] Coimplicitam “entangled” or “embarrassed.” See the Timæus pp. 27, 28.
[1608] Vel.
[1609] Sensus istos.
[1610] Deliberetur.
[1615] Matt. xxvi. 27-28; Luke xxii. 19-20; 1 Cor. xi. 25.
Chapter XVIII.—Plato Suggested Certain Errors to the Gnostics. Functions of the Soul.
[1620] Said ironically, as if rallying Plato for inconsistency between his theory here and the fact.
[1621] Supermundiales “placed above this world.”
[1622] Imaginibus.
[1623] See above, c. xii. p. 192.
[1624] Above, c. xi. p. 191.
[1625] Intelligere sentire est.
[1626] Oehler has “anima;” we should rather have expected “animo,” which is another reading.
[1627] “Animo” this time.
[1628] Subjunctive verb, “fuerit.”
[1629] Dementit.
[1630] The opposite opinion was held by Tertullian’s opponents, who distinguished between the mind and the soul. They said, that when a man was out of his mind, his mind left him, but that his soul remained. (Lactantius, De Opif. xviii.; Instit. Div. vii. 12; La Cerda).
[1631] See his treatise, Against Marcion.
[1633] Facies.
[1634] Timæus, pp. 29, 30, 37, 38.
[1635] His De Anima, ii. 2, 3.
[1636] Innixa et innexa.
[1637] Amabit.
[1638] Animationem. The possession and use of an “anima.”
[1639] Intellectuam.
[1640] Spiritu. The mental instinct, just mentioned.
[1641] Ps. viii. 2; Matt. xxi. 16.
[1642] Hebetes.
[1645] Sæpe noster.
[1646] Licebit.
[1647] Fetu.
[1648] Tertullian perhaps mentions this “demus” of Athens as the birthplace of Plato (Oehler).
[1650] Si et alia.
[1651] Tertullian wrote a work De Fato, which is lost. Fulgentius, p. 561, gives a quotation from it.
Chapter XXI.—As Free-Will Actuates an Individual So May His Character Change.
[1652] i.e., the carnal, the animal, and the spiritual. Comp. Adv. Valentin. xxv., and De Resur. Carnis, lv.
[1655] See Adv. Hermog. xiii.
[1656] See Adv. Valentin. xxix.
[1662] See our Anti-Marcion, ii. 5–7.
[1663] In his work against this man, entitled De Censu Animæ, not now extant.
Chapter XXII.—Recapitulation. Definition of the Soul.
[1664] Tertullian had shown that “the soul is the breath or afflatus of God,” in ch. iv. and xi. above. He demonstrated its “immortality” in ch. ii.–iv., vi., ix., xiv.; and he will repeat his proof hereafter, in ch. xxiv., xxxviii., xlv., li., liii., liv. Moreover, he illustrates the soul’s “corporeity” in ch. v.–viii.; its “endowment with form or figure,” in ch. ix.; its “simplicity in substance” in ch. x. and xi.; its “inherent intelligence,” in ch. xii.; its varied development, in ch. xiii.–xv. The soul’s “rationality,” “supremacy,” and “instinctive divination,” Tertullian treated of in his treatise De Censu Animæ against Hermogenes (as he has said in the text); but he has treated somewhat of the soul’s “rational nature” in the sixteenth chapter above; in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters he referred to the soul’s “supremacy or hegemony;” whilst we have had a hint about its “divining faculty,” even in infants, in ch. xix. The propagation of souls from the one archetypal soul is the subject of the chapter before us, as well as of the five succeeding ones (La Cerda).
[1665] Nihil Deo appendimus.
[1666] Exorbitationis.
[1667] In his, now lost, treatise, De Censu Animæ.
[1668] Above, in ch. xix. xx. pp. 200, 201.
[1669] Or, “which has been too short for calculation.”
[1670] “Inhaled” is Bp. Kaye’s word for adduci, “taken up.”
[1671] Educi.
[1672] Vivacitas.
[1673] Ciborum vanitates.
[1674] Rapiens.
[1675] Anima.
[1676] Anulocultro. [To be seen in the Museum at Naples.]
[1677] Or, “the whole business (totem facinus) is despatched.”
[1678] So Plato, Cratylus, p. 399, c. 17.
[1679] Censentur.
[1680] Liberi aliqui.
[1681] See Pliny, Natural History, vii. 9.
[1682] See above, ch. x.
[1685] See above, ch. v.
Chapter XXVI.—Scripture Alone Offers Clear Knowledge on the Questions We Have Been Controverting.
[1686] Of the Scriptures.
Chapter XXVII.—Soul and Body Conceived, Formed and Perfected in Element Simultaneously.
[1694] Comp. De Resurr. Carnis, xlv.
[1695] So Plato, Phædo, p. 64.
[1696] Materiæ.
[1698] Lupanaria.
[1699] See above, c. xxv. p. 206.
Chapter XXVIII.—The Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration Sketched and Censured.
[1703] Phædo, p. 70.
[1704] [Hermes. See Bacon, De Aug. i. p. 99.]
[1705] De posteris defunctis.
[1706] De posteris defunctis.
[1707] From καταβάλλειν, to knock down.
[1708] From πάρεδος, sitting by one.
[1709] From πυθωνικός, an attribute of Pythius Apollo; this class were sometimes called ἐγγαστρίμυθοι, ventriloquists.
[1710] Visualitatis.
[1711] Insipientiam. “Imbecility” is the meaning here, though the word takes the more general sense in the next clause.
[1712] Deferatur.
Chapter XXX.—Further Refutation of the Pythagorean Theory. The State of Contemporary Civilisation.
[1713] A probable allusion to Varro’s work, De Antiqq. Rerum Humanarum.
[1714] An allusion to Plato’s notion that, at the end of a thousand years, such a restoration of the dead, took place. See his Phædrus, p. 248, and De Republ. x. p. 614.
Chapter XXXI.—Further Exposure of Transmigration, Its Inextricable Embarrassment.
[1715] Signatur. Rigaltius reads “singulatur,” after the Codex Agobard., as meaning, “The single origin of the human race is in principle maintained,” etc.
[1716] Temere.
[1717] Recensentur.
[1718] Hujus.
[1719] Alias.
[1720] This is the force of the objective nouns, which are all put in the plural form.
Chapter XXXIII.—The Judicial Retribution of These Migrations Refuted with Raillery.
[1722] Or, “that he may be punished even in his sepulture.”
[1724] In administratione.
[1726] Acts viii. 18-21. [Vol. I. pp. 171, 182, 193, 347.]
[1727] For Carpocrates, see Irenæus, i. 24; Eusebius, H. E. iv. 7; Epiphan. Hær. 27.
[1729] Ver. 25.
[1735] Morâ resurrectionis. For the force of this phrase, as apparently implying a doctrine of purgatory, and an explanation of Tertullian’s teaching on this point, see Bp. Kaye on Tertullian, pp. 328, 329. [See p. 59, supra.]
[1736] Spero.
Chapter XXXVI.—The Main Points of Our Author’s Subject. On the Sexes of the Human Race.
[1742] In ch. xxviii. at the beginning.
[1743] See above, ch. xxiii. [Also p. 246, infra.]
[1744] Causa hominis.
[1745] The ogdoad, or number eight, mystically representing “heaven,” where they do not marry.
[1746] Beyond the hebdomad comes the resurrection, on which see Matt. xxii. 30.
[1747] See above, in ch. xx.
[1748] See above, in ch. xxiv.
Chapter XXXIX.—The Evil Spirit Has Marred the Purity of the Soul from the Very Birth.
[1751] Fata Scribunda.
Chapter XL.—The Body of Man Only Ancillary to the Soul in the Commission of Evil.
[1760] Deo commendo = God be wi’ ye. De Test. c. ii. p. 176, supra.
[1761] Decurrat.
[1762] So Bp. Kaye, p. 195.
[1763] Marcorem, “the decay.”
[1764] Adulatur.
Chapter XLV.—Dreams, an Incidental Effect of the Soul’s Activity. Ecstasy.
[1766] We had better give Tertullian’s own succinct definition: “Excessus sensûs et amentiæ instar.”
[1768] Prudentes.
[1769] Sapere.
[1770] See the Odyssey, xix. 562, etc. [Also, Æneid, vi. 894.]
[1771] See i. 107, etc.
[1772] See an account of her vision and its interpretation in Herodot. iv. 124.
[1775] Dan. ii. 1, etc.
Chapter XLVIII.—Causes and Circumstances of Dreams. What Best Contributes to Efficient Dreaming.
[1776] Conresupinatis.
[1777] See his Timæus, c. xxxii. p. 71.
Chapter XLIX.—No Soul Naturally Exempt from Dreams.
[1780] Who mentions this story of the Atlantes in iv. 184.
[1781] In ch. xliv. p. 223.
[1782] Gen. ii. 17. [Not ex natura, but as penalty.]
[1783] Scaturigo dæmonica.
[1784] It is difficult to say what Tertullian means by his “comicum credo.” Is it a playful parody on the heretic’s name, the same as the comic poet’s (Menander)?
[1785] Gen. v. 24; Heb. xi. 5.
Chapter LI.—Death Entirely Separates the Soul from the Body.
[1789] See below, ch. liv.
[1790] Ch. x. p. 614.
[1791] Vernaculam ecclesiæ.
[1792] Ex accidentia.
[1793] In mortem directo institutus est. [See p. 227, supra.]
[1794] We have made Tertullian’s “cervicum messis” include both these modes of instantaneous death.
[1795] Phædo, p. 62, c. 6.
[1796] 1 Cor. iii. 16; vi. 19; 2 Cor. vi. 16.
[1797] An Alexandrian philosopher in great repute with the Emperor Augustus.
[1798] Phædo, pp. 112–114.
[1803] See Irenæus, adv. Hæres. v. [Vol. I. p. 566, this Series.]
[1805] 1 Cor. 15.52; 1 Thess. 4.16.
[1809] Paracletus.
[1811] The souls of the martyrs were, according to Tertullian, at once removed to Paradise (Bp. Kaye, p. 249).
[1812] De Paradiso. [Compare, p. 216, note 9, supra.]
[1813] Ab inferis.
[1814] Iliad, xxiii. 72, etc.
[1815] Enormitate.
[1816] We have treated this particle as a conjunction but it may only be an intensive particle introducing an explanatory clause: “even those which were pure,” etc. [a better rendering.]
Chapter LVII.—Magic and Sorcery Only Apparent in Their Effects. God Alone Can Raise the Dead.
[1817] Litteratura.
[1818] Oehler takes these descriptive clauses as meant of Satan, instead of being synonymes of magic, as the context seems to require.
[1819] Æque.
[1820] Above, in ch. xxxix. p. 219.
[1821] Aliquem ex parentibus.
[1822] One who fought with wild beasts in the public games, only without the weapons allowed to the gladiator.
[1825] See above in ch. xxviii. p. 209, supra.
[1830] Si forte.
[1831] Non frustra.
[1832] In iv. 172.
[1833] Luke xvi. 26. [Compare note 15, p. 231. supra.]
[1834] Nescio quid.
[1835] “Operienda” is Oehler’s text; another reading gives “opperienda,” q.d., “the soul must wait for the restored body.”
[1836] This “etiam” is “otium” in the Agobardine ms., a good reading; q.d. “a most iniquitous indifference to justice,” etc.
[1837] Comp. The Apology, last chapter.
[1838] Xen. Cyropæd. p. 6.
[1840] Quid nunc si.
[1841] Conscientia.
[1844] Morâ resurrectionis. See above, on this opinion of Tertullian, in ch. xxxv.
[1845] [A symptom of Montanism.]
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