Then, too, the common people have now some knowledge of Christ, and think of Him as but a man, one indeed such as the Jews condemned, so that some may naturally enough have taken up the idea that we are worshippers of a mere human being. But we are neither ashamed of Christ—for we rejoice to be counted His disciples, and in His name to suffer—nor do we differ from the Jews concerning God. We must make, therefore, a remark or two as to Christ’s divinity.
[1]
We have been taught that He proceeds forth from God, and in that procession He is generated; so that He is the Son of God, and is called God from unity of substance with God. For God, too, is a Spirit. Even when the ray is shot from the sun, it is still part of the parent mass; the sun will still be in the ray, because it is a ray of the sun—there is no division of substance, but merely an extension. Thus Christ is Spirit of Spirit, and God of God, as light of light is kindled.
2 The material matrix remains entire and unimpaired, though you derive from it any number of shoots possessed of its qualities; so, too, that which has come forth out of God is at once God and the Son of God, and the two are one. In this way also, as He is Spirit of Spirit and God of God, He is made a second in manner of existence—in position, not in nature; and He did not withdraw from the original source, but went forth. This ray of God, then, as it was always foretold in ancient times, descending into a certain virgin, and made flesh in her womb, is in His birth God and man united
[2]
For two comings of Christ having been revealed to us: a first, which has been fulfilled in the lowliness of a human lot; a second, which impends over the world, now near its close, in all the majesty of Deity unveiled; and, by misunderstanding the first, they have concluded that the second—which, as matter of more manifest prediction, they set their hopes on—is the only one.
[3]
Search, then, and see if that divinity of Christ be true.
[4]
And
this species of the divine patience indeed being, as it were, at a distance, may perhaps be esteemed as among “things too high for us; “
4 but what is that which, in a certain way, has been grasped by hand
5 among men openly on the earth? God suffers Himself to be conceived in a mother’s womb, and awaits
the time for birth; and, when born, bears
the delay of growing up; and, when grown up, is not eager to be ecognized, but is furthermore contumelious to Himself, and is baptized by His own servant; and repels with words alone the assaults of the tempter; while from being” Lord” He becomes” Master,” teaching man to escape death, having been trained to the exercise of the absolute forbearance of offended patience.
6 [5]
But our Lord Christ has surnamed Himself Truth,
2 not Custom. If Christ is always, and prior to all, equally truth is a thing sempiternal and ancient.
[6]
But Christ’s Name is extending everywhere, believed everywhere, worshipped by all the above-enumerated nations, reigning everywhere, adored everywhere, conferred equally everywhere upon all. No king, with Him, finds greater favour, no barbarian lesser joy; no dignities or pedigrees enjoy distinctions of merit; to all He is equal, to all King, to all Judge, to all “God and Lord.”
6[7]
For the Hebrew sound, which is Emmanuel, has an interpretation, which is, God with us. Inquire, then, whether this speech, “God with us” (which is Emmanuel), be commonly applied to Christ ever since Christ’s light has dawned, and I think you will not deny it. For they who out of Judaism believe in Christ, ever since their believing on Him, do, whenever they shall wish to say
8 Emmanuel, signify that God is with us: and thus it is agreed that He who was ever predicted as Emmanuel is already come, because that which Emmanuel signifies is come—that is, “God with us.”
[8]
Christ Jesus our Lord …, whosoever He is, of what God soever He is the Son, of what substance soever He is man and God, of what faith soever He is the teacher, of what reward soever He is the Promiser, did, whilst He lived on earth, Himself declare what He was, what He had been, what the Father’s will was which He was administering, what the duty of man was which He was prescribing; (and this declaration He made,) either openly to the people, or privately to His disciples, of whom He had chosen the twelve chief ones to be at His side,
1 and whom He destined to be the teachers of the nations.
[9]
For God alone is without sin; and the only man without sin is Christ, since Christ is also God.
[10]
Now although Christ is God, yet, being also man, “He died according to the Scriptures,”
3 and “according to the same Scriptures was buried.”
4[11]
Has it, then, been permitted to angels, which are inferior to God, after they have been changed into human bodily form,
11 nevertheless to remain angels? and will you deprive God, their superior, of this faculty, as if Christ could not continue to be God, after His real assumption of the nature of man? Or else, did those angels appear as phantoms of flesh? You will not, however, have the courage to say this; for if it be so held in your belief, that the Creator’s angels are in the same condition as Christ, then Christ will belong to the same God as those angels do, who are like Christ in their condition.
[12]
For even in the Old Testament He had declared, “No man shall see me, and live.”
2 He means that the Father is invisible, in whose authority and in whose name was He God who appeared as the Son of God. But with us
3 Christ is received in the person of Christ, because even in this manner is He our
God. Whatever attributes therefore you require as worthy of God, must be found in the Father, who is invisible and unapproachable, and placid, and (so to speak) the God of the philosophers; whereas those qualities which you censure as unworthy must be supposed to be in the Son, who has been seen, and heard, and encountered, the Witness and Servant of the Father, uniting in Himself man and God, God in mighty deeds, in weak ones man, in order that He may give to man as much as He takes from God. What in your esteem is the entire disgrace of my God, is in fact the sacrament of man’s salvation God held converse with man, that man might learn to act as God. God dealt on equal terms
4 with man, that man might be able to deal on equal terms with God. God was found little, that man might become very great. You who disdain such a God, I hardly know whether you
ex fide believe that God was crucified. How great, then, is your perversity in respect of the two characters of the Creator!
[13]
Christ could not be described as being man without flesh, nor the Son of man without any human parent; just as He is not God without the Spirit of God, nor the Son of God without having God for His father. Thus the nature
12 of the two substances displayed Him as man and God,—in one respect born, in the other unborn, in one respect fleshly in the other spiritual; in one sense weak in the other exceeding strong; in one sense dying, in the other living.
[14]
We, however, as we indeed always have done (and more especially since we have been better instructed by the Paraclete, who leads men indeed into all truth), believe that there is one only God, but under the following dispensation, or οἰκονομία, as it is called, that this one only God has also a Son, His Word, who proceeded
4 from Himself, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. Him
we believe to have been sent by the Father into the Virgin, and to have been born of her—being both Man and God, the Son of Man and the Son of God, and to have been called by the name of Jesus Christ;
we believe Him to have suffered, died, and been buried, according to the Scriptures, and, after He had been raised again by the Father and taken back to heaven, to be sitting at the right hand of the Father,
and that He will come to judge the quick and the dead; who sent also from heaven from the Father, according to His own promise, the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete,
5 the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost.
[15]
Forasmuch, however, as it has been declared concerning the Son Himself, Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels”
2 how will it appear that He put on the nature of angels if He was made lower than the angels, having become man, with flesh and soul as the Son of man? As “the Spirit
3 of God.” however, and “the Power of the Highest,”
4 can He be regarded as lower than the angels,—He who is verily God, and the Son of God? Well, but as bearing human nature, He is so far made inferior to the angels; but as bearing angelic nature, He to the same degree loses that inferiority.
[16]
Now, it will first by necessary to show what previous reason there was for the Son of God’s being born of a virgin. He who was going to consecrate a new order of birth, must Himself be born after a novel fashion, concerning which Isaiah foretold how that the Lord Himself would give the sign. What, then, is the sign? “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”
5 Accordingly, a virgin did conceive and bear “Emmanuel, God with us.”
6 This is the new nativity; a man is born in God. And in this man God was born, taking the flesh of an ancient race, without the help, however, of the ancient seed, in order that He might reform it with a new seed, that is, in a spiritual manner, and cleanse it by the removal of all its ancient stains.
[17]
Is it then in a thing which is a stranger to salvation, in a substance which is perpetually dissolved, that the life of Christ will be manifested, which is eternal, continuous, incorruptible, and already the life of God?
[18]
That, however, which we have reserved for a concluding argument, will now stand as a plea for all, and for the apostle himself, who in very deed would have to be charged with extreme indiscretion, if he had so abruptly, as some will have it, and as they say, blindfold, and so indiscriminately, and so unconditionally, excluded from the kingdom of God, and indeed from the court of heaven itself, all flesh and blood whatsoever; since Jesus is still sitting there at the right hand of the Father,
4 man, yet God—the last Adam,
5 yet the primary Word—flesh and blood, yet purer than ours—who “shall descend in like manner as He ascended
into heaven”
6 the same both in substance and form, as the angels affirmed,
7 so as even to be recognised by those who pierced Him.
8 [19]
We who believe that God really lived on earth, and took upon Him the low estate of human form,
17 for the purpose of man’s salvation, are very far from thinking as those do who refuse to believe that God cares for
18 anything. Whence has found its way to the heretics an argument of this kind: If God is angry, and jealous, and roused, and grieved, He must therefore be corrupted, and must therefore die. Fortunately, however, it is a part of the creed of Christians even to believe that God did die,
19 and yet that He is alive for evermore.
[20]
This tree it is which Jeremiah likewise gives you intimation of, when he prophesies to the Jews, who should say, “Come, let us destroy the tree with the fruit, (the bread) thereof,”
7 that is, His body. For so did God in your own gospel even reveal the sense, when He called His body
bread; so that, for the time to come, you may understand that He has given to His body the figure of bread, whose body the prophet of old figuratively turned into bread, the Lord Himself designing to give by and by an interpretation of the mystery.
[21]
I will tell you how her faith was this above all:
3 it made her believe that her God preferred mercy even to sacrifice; she was certain that her God was working in Christ; she touched Him, therefore, nor as a holy man simply, nor as a prophet, whom she knew to be capable of contamination by reason of his human nature, but as very God, whom she assumed to be beyond all possibility of pollution by any uncleanness.
[22]
It was He who was seen by the king of Babylon in the furnace with His martyrs: “the fourth, who was like the Son of man.”
15 He also was revealed to Daniel himself expressly as “the Son of man, coming in the clouds of heaven” as a Judge, as also the Scripture shows.
16 What I have advanced might have been sufficient concerning the designation in prophecy of the Son of man. But the Scripture offers me further information, even in the interpretation of the Lord Himself. For when the Jews, who looked at Him as merely man, and were not yet sure that He was God also, as being likewise the Son of God, rightly enough said that a man could not forgive sins, but God alone, why did He not, following up their point
17 about
man, answer them, that He
18 had power to remit sins; inasmuch as, when He mentioned the Son of man, He also named a human being? except it were because He wanted, by help of the very designation “Son of man” from the book of Daniel, so to induce them to reflect
19 as to show them that He who remitted sins was God and man—that only Son of man, indeed, in the prophecy of Daniel, who had obtained the power of judging, and thereby, of course, of forgiving sins likewise (for He who judges also absolves); so that, when once that objection of theirs
20 was shattered to pieces by their recollection of Scripture, they might the more easily acknowledge Him to be the Son of man Himself by His own actual forgiveness of sins.
[23]
Now the work of healing or preserving is not proper to man, but to God. So again, in the law it says, “Thou shalt not do any manner of work in it,”
12 except what is to be done for any soul,
13 that is to say, in the matter of delivering the soul;
14 because what is God’s work may be done by human agency for the salvation of the soul. By God, however, would that be done which the man Christ was to do, for He was likewise God .… He was called “Lord of the Sabbath,”
19 because He maintained
20 the Sabbath as His own institution. Now, even if He had annulled the Sabbath, He would have had the right to do so,
21 as being its Lord, (and) still more as He who instituted it. But He did not utterly destroy it, although its Lord, in order that it might henceforth be plain that the Sabbath was not broken
22 by the Creator, even at the time when the ark was carried around Jericho.
[24]
There come to Him from Tyre, and from other districts even, a transmarine multitude. This fact the psalm had in view: “And behold tribes of foreign people, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians; they were there. Sion is my mother, shall a man say; and in her was born a man” (forasmuch as the God-man was born), and He built her by the Father’s will; that you may know how Gentiles then flocked to Him, because He was born the God-man who was to build the church according to the Father’s will—even of other races also.
[25]
Now, what is that “foolishness of God which is wiser than men,” but the cross and death of Christ? What is that “weakness of God which is stronger than men,”
1 but the nativity and incarnation
2 of God? If, however, Christ was not born of the Virgin, was not constituted of human flesh, and thereby really suffered neither death nor the cross, there was nothing in Him either of foolishness or weakness; nor is it any longer true, that “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;” nor, again, hath “God chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty;” nor “the base things” and the least things “in the world, and things which are despised, which are even as nothing” (that is, things which really
3 are not), “to bring to nothing things which are” (that is, which really are).
[26]
In this Christ the whole
substantia of the Spirit would have to rest, not meaning that it would be as it were some subsequent acquisition accruing to Him who was always, even before His incarnation, the Spirit of God;
18 so that you cannot argue from this that the prophecy has reference to that Christ who (as mere man of the race only of David) was to obtain the Spirit of his God.
[27]
But it will here be said that this Psalm has reference to Solomon. However, will not those portions of the Psalm which apply to Christ alone, be enough to teach us that all the rest, too, relates to Christ, and not to Solomon? “He shall come down,” says He, “like rain upon a fleece,
1 and like dropping showers upon the earth,”
2 describing His descent from heaven to the flesh as gentle and unobserved.
3 Solomon, however, if he had indeed any descent at all, came not down like a shower, because he descended not from heaven. But I will set before you more literal points.
4 “He shall have dominion,” says the Psalmist, “from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”
5 To Christ alone was this given; whilst Solomon reigned over only the moderately-sized kingdom of Judah. “Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him.” Whom, indeed, shall they all thus worship, except Christ? “All nations shall serve Him.”
6 To whom shall all thus do homage, but Christ? “His name shall endure for ever.” Whose name has this eternity of fame, but Christ’s? “Longer than the sun shall His name remain,” for longer than the sun shall be the Word of God, even Christ. “And in Him shall all nations be blessed.”
7 In Solomon was
no nation blessed; in Christ
every nation. And what if the Psalm proves Him to be even God? “They shall call Him
blessed.”
8 (On what ground?) Because “
blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who only doeth wonderful things.”
9 “
Blessed also is His glorious name, and with His glory shall all the earth be filled.”
10 On the contrary, Solomon (as I make bold to affirm) lost even the glory which he had from God, seduced by his love of women even into idolatry.
[28]
They more readily supposed that the Father acted in the Son’s name, than that the Son acted in the Father’s; although the Lord says Himself, “I am come in my Father’s name;”
15 and even to the Father He declares, “I have manifested Thy name unto these men;”
1 whilst the Scripture likewise says, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,”
2 that is to say, the Son in the Father’s name. And as for the Father’s names, God Almighty, the Most High, the Lord of hosts, the King of Israel, the “One that is,” we say (for so much do the Scriptures teach us) that they belonged suitably to the Son also, and that the Son came under these designations, and has always acted in them, and has thus manifested them in Himself to men. “All things,” says He, “which the Father hath are mine.”
3 Then why not His names also? When, therefore, you read of Almighty God, and the Most High, and the God of hosts, and the King of Israel the “One that is,” consider whether the Son also be not indicated by these designations, who in His own right is God Almighty, in that He is the Word of Almighty God, and has received power over all; is the Most High, in that He is “exalted at the right hand of God,” as Peter declares in the Acts;
4 is the Lord of hosts, because all things are by the Father made subject to Him; is the King of Israel because to Him has especially been committed the destiny of that nation; and is likewise “the One that is,” because there are many who are called Sons, but
are not. As to the point maintained by them, that the name of Christ belongs also to the Father, they shall hear (what I have to say) in the proper place.
[29]
Therefore, (they argue,) as it was the flesh that was born, it must be the flesh that is the Son of God. Nay, (I answer,) this is spoken concerning the Spirit of God. For it was certainly of the Holy Spirit that the virgin conceived; and that which He conceived, she brought forth. That, therefore, had to be born which was conceived and was to be brought forth; that is to say, the Spirit, whose “name should be called Emmanuel which, being interpreted, is, God with us.”
10 Besides, the flesh is not God, so that it could not have been said concerning it, “That Holy Thing shall be called the Son of God,” but only that Divine Being who was born in the flesh, of whom the psalm also says, “Since God became man in the midst of it, and established it by the will of the Father.”
11 Now what Divine Person was born in it? The Word, and the Spirit which became incarnate with the Word by the will of the Father. The Word, therefore, is incarnate; and this must be the point of our inquiry: How the Word became flesh,—whether it was by having been transfigured, as it were, in the flesh, or by having really clothed Himself in flesh. Certainly it was by a real clothing of Himself in flesh. For the rest, we must needs believe God to be unchangeable, and incapable of form, as being eternal. But transfiguration is the destruction of that which previously existed. For whatsoever is transfigured into some other thing ceases to be that which it had been, and begins to be that which it previously was not. God, however, neither ceases to be what He was, nor can He be any other thing than what He is. The Word is God, and “the Word of the Lord remaineth for ever,”—even by holding on unchangeably in His own proper form.
[30]
[1]Tertullian. (1997). The Apology S. Thelwall, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (34).
2 [Language common among Christians, and adopted afterwards into the Creed.]
[2]Tertullian. (1997). The Apology S. Thelwall, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (34).
[3]Tertullian. (1997). The Apology S. Thelwall, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (35).
[4]Tertullian. (1997). The Apology S. Thelwall, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (36). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
4 So Mr. Dodgson; and La Cerda, as quoted by Oehler. See Ps. 131:1 in LXX., where it is Ps. 130.
5 1 John 1:1.
6 I have followed Oehler’s reading of this very difficult and much disputed passage. For the expression, “having been trained,” etc., compare Heb. 5:8.
[5]Roberts, A., Donaldson, J., & Coxe, A. C. (1997). The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (708). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
2 John 14:6.
[6]Tertullian. (1997). On the Veiling of Virgins S. Thelwall, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. IV : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (27). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
6 Comp. John 20:28.
[7]Tertullian. (1997). An Answer to the Jews S. Thelwall, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (158). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
8 Or, “to call Him.”
[8]Tertullian. (1997). An Answer to the Jews S. Thelwall, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (161). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
1 Mark 4:34.
[9]Tertullian. (1997). The Prescription against Heretics P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (252). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
[10]Tertullian. (1997). A Treatise on the Soul P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (221). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
3 1 Cor. 15:3.
4 Ver. 4.
[11]Tertullian. (1997). A Treatise on the Soul P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (231). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
11 See below in chap. vi. and in the Anti-Marcion, iii. 9.
[12]Tertullian. (1997). On the Flesh of Christ P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (523). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
2 Ex. 33:20.
3 Penes nos. Christians, not Marcionites. [Could our author have regarded himself as formally at war with the church, at this time?]
4 Ex æquo agebat.
[13]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (319). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
12 Census: “the origin.”
[14]Tertullian. (1997). On the Flesh of Christ P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (525). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
4 The Church afterwards applied this term exclusively to the Holy Ghost. [That is, the Nicene Creed made it technically applicable to the spirit, making the distinction marked between the generation of the Word and the procession of the Holy Ghost.]
5 The “Comforter.”
[15]Tertullian. (1997). Against Praxeas P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (598). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
2 Ps. 8:5.
3 For this designation of the divine nature in Christ, see our Anti-Marcion, p. 247, note 7, Edin.
4 Luke 1:35.
[16]Tertullian. (1997). On the Flesh of Christ P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (534). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
5 Isa. 7:14.
6 Matt. 1:23.
[17]Tertullian. (1997). On the Flesh of Christ P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (536). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
[18]Tertullian. (1997). On the Resurrection of the Flesh P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (577). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
4 Mark 16:19.
5 1 Cor. 15:45.
6 Acts 1:9.
7 Ver. 10.
8 Zech. 12:10; John 19:37; Rev. 1:7.
[19]Tertullian. (1997). On the Resurrection of the Flesh P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (584). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
17 Habitus.
18 Curare.
19 [See Vol. II. p. 71 (this series), for an early example of this Communicatio idiomatum.]
[20]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (309). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
7 Jer. 11:19.
[21]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (337). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
3 Primo.
[22]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (380). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
15 Dan. 3:25.
16 Dan. 7:13.
17 Secundum intentionem eorum.
18 Eum: that is, man.
19 Repercutere.
20 Scandalo isto.
[23]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (359). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
12 Ex. 12:16.
13 The LXX. of the latter clause of Ex. 12:16 thus runs: πλὴν ὅσα ποιηθήσεται πάση ψυχη̂. Tertullian probably got this reading from this clause, although the Hebrew is to this effect: “Save that which every man (or, every soul) must eat,” which the Vulgate renders: “Exceptis his, quæ ad vescendum pertinent.”
14 Liberandæ animæ: perhaps saving life.
19 Luke 6:5.
20 Tuebatur.
21 Merito.
22 Destructum. We have, as has been most convenient, rendered this word by annul, destroy, break.
[24]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (363). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
[25]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (365). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
1 1 Cor. 1:25.
2 Caro.
3 Vere.
[26]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (440). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
18 We have more than one shown that by Tertullian and other ancient fathers, the divine nature of Christ was frequently designated “Spirit.”
[27]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (445). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
1 Super vellus: so Sept. ἐπὶ πόκον.
2 Ps. 72:6.
3 Similarly the Rabbis Saadias Gaon and Hadarsan, above mentioned in our note, beautifully applied to Messiah’s placid birth, “without a human father,” the figures of Ps. 110:3, “womb of the morning,” “dew of thy birth.”
4 Simpliciora.
5 Ps. 72:8.
6 Ps. 72:11.
7 Ps. 72:17.
8 Ps. 72:17.
9 Ps. 72:18.
10 Ps. 72:19.
[28]Tertullian. (1997). The Five Books against Marcion P. Holmes, Trans.). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (449). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
15 John 5:43.
1 John 17:6.
2 Ps. 118:26.
3 John 16:15.
4 Acts 2:22.
[29]Tertullian. (1997). Against Praxeas P. Holmes, Trans.). In
The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (612). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.
10 Matt. 1:23.
11 His version of Ps. 87:5.
[30]Tertullian. (1997). Against Praxeas P. Holmes, Trans.). In
The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III : Translations of the writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (623). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.