Adversus Marcionem, Preface (Contd)

6 He has also, as the reader will observe, endeavoured to distinguish, by the help of type, between the true God and Marcion's god, printing the initials of the former, and of the pronouns referring to Him, in capitals, and those of the latter in small letters. To do this was not always an easy matter, for in many passages the argument amalgamates the two. Moreover, in the earlier portion of the work the translator fears that he may have occasionaly neglected to make the distinction.

Adversus Marcionem I

1 [Written A.D. 207. See Chapter xv.infra. In cap. xxix. is the token of Montanism which denotes his impending lapse.]

2 Retro.

3 Jam hinc viderit.

4 Ex vetere.

5 Fratris.

6 Stilus.

7 De.

8 [Euxine=hospitable. One recalls Shakespeare: 

--"Like to the Pontick Sea 
Whose icy current and compulsive force 
Ne'er feels retiring ebb."-Othel.]

9 Cruda.

10 De jugo. See Strabo (Bohn's trans.), vol . ii. p. 247.

11 Duritia.

12 Libens.

13 Exaggerantur.

14 Calet.

15 [Iphigenia of Euripides.]

16 [See the Medea of Euripides.]

17 [Prometheus of Aeschylus.]

18 Hamaxobio. This Sarmatian clan received its name 9Amaco/bioi from its gypsy kind of life.

19 I fancy there is a point in this singular, the sky of Pontus being always overcast. Cowper says:

"There is but one cloud in the sky,
But that doth the welkin invest," etc.

20 Quidni.

21 Lancinatur.

22 Castrator carnis. See Pliny, N.H. viii. 47 (Bohn's trans. vol. ii. p. 297)

23 Ipsius litteris.

24 Jam.

25 Hinc.

26 Retro.

27 He alludes to his book De Praescriptione Haereticorum. [Was this work already written? Dr. Allix thinks not. But see Kaye, p. 47.]

28 Interdum. [Can it be that when all this was written (speaking of ourselves) our author had fully lapsed from Communion with the Catholic Church?]

29 Passus.

30 Instinctum.

31 St. Luke, vi. 43 sq.

32 Languens.

33 Isa. xlv. 7.

34 Mala.

35 [This purely good or goodish divinity is an idea of the Stoics. De Praescript. chap. 7.]

36 Hospitam.

37 Quendam. [See Irenaeus, Vol. 1. p. 352, this series.]

38 Integre.

39 Praestruendo.

40 Or sections.

41 Et exinde.

42 Si Forte.

43 Jam.

44 Of eternity.

45 We subjoin the original of this difficult passage: Hunc enim statum aeternitati censendum, quae summum magnum deum efficiat, dum hoc est in deo ipsa, atque ita et cetera. ut sit deus summum magnum et forma et ratione et vi et potestate.

46 Quid.

47 Unicus. [Alone of his kind.]

48 As its first principle.

49 Porro.

50 Forma.

51 Isa xl. 18, 25.

52 Denique.

53 Excidet.

54 Amittitur. "Tertullian" (who thinks lightly of the analogy of earthly monarchs) "ought rather to have contended that the illustration strengthened his argument. In each kingdom there is only one supreme power; but the universe is God's kingdom: there is therefore only one supreme power in the universe."- Bp. Kaye, On the Writings of Tertuillian, Third edition, p. 453, note 2.

55 Scilicet.

56 Graduum.

57 Culmen.

58 Minutalibus regnis.

59 Undique.

60 Substantiis.

61 Eliquetur.

62 Depth and silence.

63 See Virgil, Aeneid, viii. 43, etc.

64 Ipso termino.

65 Paria.

66 Jam.

67 Numeri sui.

68 Ecce.

69 Parilitatem.

70 Formam.

71 Alioquin.

72 Certi (sumus).

73 Tantummodo.

74 Vindicet.


This document (last modified February 03, 1998) from the Christian Classics Electronic Library server, at Wheaton College.  Corrected 13th April 2002 for the Tertullian Page.