re the first chapter Book V of
Adversus Marcionem
Would Tertullian really have desired or required to know
from Marcion?
[the origin of the Apostle
]| ... I must, with the best of reasons, approach this inquiry with uneasiness when I find one affirmed to be an apostle, of whom, in the list of the apostles in the gospel, I find no trace. | ... I have the best reason possible for bringing this inquiry to a most careful solution, since a man is affirmed to me to be an apostle whom I do not find mentioned in the Gospel in the catalogue of the apostles ... |
- "affirmed to be an apostle" ... not in the gospels ... but, it seems, by Marcion
As a subsequent, but not immediately-following passage confirms:
| So then, shipmaster out of Pontus...will you please tell us under what bill of lading you accepted Paul as apostle, who had stamped him with that mark of distinction, who commended him to you, and who put him in your charge? Only so may you with confidence disembark him | Wherefore, O shipmaster of Pontus...I should be glad if you would inform us under what bill of lading you admitted the Apostle Paul on board, who ticketed him, what owner forwarded him, who handed him to you, so you may land him 'without any misgiving' |
Tertullian continues to have a dig at the situation:
| only so can he avoid being proved to belong to him who has put in evidence all the documents that attest his apostleship. | lest he should turn out to belong to him who can substantiate his claim to him by producing all his apostolic writings. |
| He himself, says Marcion, claims to be an apostle, and that not from men nor through any man, but through Jesus Christ. | He professes himself to be "an apostle" — to use his own, words — "not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ" [Galatians 1:1]. |
| Clearly any man can make claims for himself: but his claim is confirmed by another person's attestation. One person writes the document, another signs it, a third attests the signature, and a fourth enters it in the records. | Of course, any one may make a profession concerning himself; but his profession is only rendered valid by the authority of a second person. One man signs, another countersigns; one man appends his seal, another registers in the public records. |
| No man is for himself both claimant and witness. | No one is at once a proposer and a seconder to himself. |
But, in amongst that^ was this:
| So, when I am told that he was subsequently promoted by our Lord, by now at rest in heaven, I find some lack of foresight in the fact that Christ did not know beforehand that he would have need of him, but, after setting in order the office of apostleship and sending them out upon their duties, considered it necessary, on an impulse and not by deliberation to add another, by compulsion (so to speak), and not by design. | Indeed, when I hear that this man was chosen by the Lord after He had attained His rest in heaven, I feel that a kind of improvidence is imputable to Christ for not knowing before[hand] that this man was necessary to Him; and because He thought that he must be added to the apostolic body in the way of a fortuitous encounter rather than a deliberate selection; by necessity (so to speak), and not voluntary choice, although the members of the apostolate had been duly ordained; and were now dismissed to their several missions. |
And after all that^^ is this -
Besides this, you have found it written that
......"many will come and say, 'I am Christ'." | Besides, you have read, no doubt, that
......"many shall come saying, 'I am Christ.'" [Luke 21:8]. |
| If there is one that makes a false claim to be Christ, much more can there be one who professes that he is an apostle of Christ. | Now if anyone can pretend that he is Christ, how much more might a man profess to be an apostle of Christ! |
- in which Tertullian questions Paul's and thus Marcion's legitimacy
Tertullian continues attacking Marcion:
| Thus far my converse has been in the guise of a disciple and an inquirer: from now on I propose to shatter your confidence, for you have no means of proving its validity, and to shame your presumption, since you make claims but reject the means of establishing them. | But still, for my own part, I appear in the character of a disciple and an inquirer so I may both refute your belief, [which has] nothing to support it, and confound your shamelessness, who make claims without possessing the means of establishing them. |
|
- while claiming to be both a disciple and an inquirer
Then some more interesting rhetoric:
| Let Christ, let the apostle, belong to your other god | Let there be a Christ, let there be an apostle, although of another god |
Then a blatant claim by Tertullian for Paul:
| yet you have no proof of it except from the Creator's archives. Even Genesis long ago promised Paul to me. | but what matter? since they are only to draw their proofs out of the Testament of the Creator. Because even the book of Genesis so long ago promised me the Apostle Paul. |
Statistics: Posted by MrMacSon — Fri Sep 13, 2024 3:13 pm