Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iii Pg 15
Gal. ii. 3, 4.
etc., he gives us an insight into his reason5281 5281 Incipit reddere rationem.
for acting in a clean contrary way,5282 5282 Contrarii utique facti. [Farrar, St. Paul, pp. 232 and 261.]
showing us wherefore he did that which he would neither have done nor shown to us, if that had not happened which induced him to act as he did. But then5283 5283 Denique.
I want you to tell us whether they would have yielded to the subjection that was demanded,5284 5284 See Conybeare and Howson, in loc.
if these false brethren had not crept in to spy out their liberty? I apprehend not. They therefore gave way (in a partial concession), because there were persons whose weak faith required consideration.5285 5285 Fuerunt propter quos crederetur.
For their rudimentary belief, which was still in suspense about the observance of the law, deserved this concessive treatment,5286 5286 The following statement will throw light upon the character of the two classes of Jewish professors of Christianity referred to by Tertullian: “A pharisaic section was sheltered in its bosom (of the church at Jerusalem), which continually strove to turn Christianity into a sect of Judaism. These men were restless agitators, animated by the bitterest sectarian spirit; and although they were numerically a small party, yet we know the power of the turbulent minority. But besides these Judaizing zealots, there was a large proportion of the Christians at Jerusalem, whose Christianity, though more sincere than that of those just mentioned, was yet very weak and imperfect…Many of them still only knew of a Christ after the flesh—a Saviour of Israel—a Jewish Messiah. Their minds were in a state of transition between the law and the gospel; and it was of great consequence not to shock their prejudices too rudely; lest they should be tempted to make shipwreck of their faith and renounce their Christianity altogether.” These were they whose prejudices required to be wisely consulted in things which did not touch the foundation of the gospel. (Conybeare and Howson’s St. Paul, People’s Edition, vol. ii. pp. 259, 260.)
when even the apostle himself had some suspicion that he might have run, and be still running, in vain.5287 5287
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iii Pg 10
Gal. ii. 4.
These persons went no further than to insist on a continuance of the law, retaining unquestionably a sincere belief in the Creator. They perverted the gospel in their teaching, not indeed by such a tampering with the Scripture5276 5276 Interpolatione Scripturæ.
as should enable them to expunge5277 5277 Qua effingerent.
the Creator’s Christ, but by so retaining the ancient régime as not to exclude the Creator’s law. Therefore he says: “Because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ, that they might bring us into bondage, to whom we gave place by subjection not even for an hour.”5278 5278
Anf-03 v.iv.ii.xx Pg 8
See Gal. i. 6, 7; and ii. 4.
he himself shows that that adulteration of the gospel was not meant to transfer them to the faith of another god and christ, but rather to perpetuate the teaching of the law; because he blames them for maintaining circumcision, and observing times, and days, and months, and years, according to those Jewish ceremonies which they ought to have known were now abrogated, according to the new dispensation purposed by the Creator Himself, who of old foretold this very thing by His prophets. Thus He says by Isaiah: Old things have passed away. “Behold, I will do a new thing.”2559 2559
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iii Pg 13
Gal. ii. 4, 5.
Let us only attend to the clear5279 5279 Ipsi.
sense and to the reason of the thing, and the perversion of the Scripture will be apparent. When he first says, “Neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised,” and then adds, “And that because of false brethren unawares brought in,”5280 5280
Npnf-201 iii.vii.ii Pg 21
Anf-02 vi.iv.i.xi Pg 20.1
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iv Pg 3
This apparent quotation is in fact a patching together of two sentences from Gal. iii. 15 and iv. 3 (Fr. Junius). “If I may be allowed to guess from the manner in which Tertullian expresseth himself, I should imagine that Marcion erased the whole of chap. iii. after the word λέγω in ver. 15, and the beginning of chap. iv., until you come to the word ὅτε in ver. 3. Then the words will be connected thus: ‘Brethren, I speak after the manner of men…when we were children we were in bondage under the elements of the world; but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son.’ This is precisely what the argument of Tertullian requires, and they are the very words which he connects together” (Lardner, Hist. of Heretics, x. 43). Dr. Lardner, touching Marcion’s omissions in this chap. iii. of the Epistle to the Galatians, says: “He omitted vers. 6, 7, 8, in order to get rid of the mention of Abraham, and of the gospel having been preached to him.” This he said after St. Jerome, and then adds: “He ought also to have omitted part of ver. 9, σὺν τῷ πιστῷ ᾽Αβραάμ, which seems to have been the case, according to T.’s manner of stating the argument against him” (Works, History of Heretics, x. 43).
This, however, was not said “after the manner of men.” For there is no figure5323 5323 Exemplum.
here, but literal truth. For (with respect to the latter clause of this passage), what child (in the sense, that is, in which the Gentiles are children) is not in bondage to the elements of the world, which he looks up to5324 5324 Suspicit.
in the light of a god? With regard, however, to the former clause, there was a figure (as the apostle wrote it); because after he had said, “I speak after the manner of men,” he adds), “Though it be but a man’s covenant, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.”5325 5325
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iv Pg 6
Gal. iii. 15. This, of course, is consistent in St. Paul’s argument. Marcion, however, by erasing all the intervening verses, and affixing the phrase “after the manner of men” to the plain assertion of Gal. iv. 3, reduces the whole statement to an absurdity.
For by the figure of the permanency of a human covenant he was defending the divine testament. “To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. He said not ‘to seeds,’ as of many; but as of one, ‘to thy seed,’ which is Christ.”5326 5326
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iv Pg 9
So, instead of pursuing the contents of chap. iii., he proceeds to such of chap. iv. as Marcion reserved.
“But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son”5329 5329
Anf-01 ix.iv.vii Pg 28
Gal. iv. 8, 9.
has made a separation between those that were not [gods] and Him who is God. And again, speaking of Antichrist, he says, “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.”3352 3352
Anf-01 v.iii.i Pg 7
Comp. Gal. iv. 9.
in whom enduring, ye shall escape all the assaults of this world: for “He is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able.”637 637
Anf-02 vi.ii.v Pg 6.1
1486
Anf-03 iv.ix.iv Pg 4
Comp. Gal. v. 1; iv. 8, 9.
Whence we (Christians) understand that we still more ought to observe a sabbath from all “servile work”1188 1188
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iv Pg 23
Gal. iv. 9.
By the Romans, however, the rudiments of learning are wont to be called elements. He did not therefore seek, by any depreciation of the mundane elements, to turn them away from their god, although, when he said just before, “Howbeit, then, ye serve them which by nature are no gods,”5342 5342
Anf-03 v.iii.xxxiii Pg 16
Gal. iv. 9.
points us to some dogma of Hermogenes, who introduces matter as having no beginning,2205 2205 Non natam, literally, “as being unbegotten.”
and then compares it with God, who has no beginning.2206 2206 Deo non nato.
By thus making the mother of the elements a goddess, he has it in his power “to be in bondage” to a being which he puts on a par with2207 2207 Comparat.
God. John, however, in the Apocalypse is charged to chastise those “who eat things sacrificed to idols,” and “who commit fornication.”2208 2208
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iv Pg 9
So, instead of pursuing the contents of chap. iii., he proceeds to such of chap. iv. as Marcion reserved.
“But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son”5329 5329
Anf-02 vi.iv.vi.xvi Pg 57.2
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iv Pg 37
Gal. v. 1.
does not the very phrase indicate that He is the Liberator who was once the Master? For Galba himself never liberated slaves which were not his own, even when about to restore free men to their liberty.5356 5356 Tertullian, in his terse style, takes the case of the emperor, as the highest potentate, who, if any, might make free with his power. He seizes the moment when Galba was saluted emperor on Nero’s death, and was the means of delivering so many out of the hands of the tyrant, in order to sharpen the point of his illustration.
By Him, therefore, will liberty be bestowed, at whose command lay the enslaving power of the law. And very properly. It was not meet that those who had received liberty should be “entangled again with the yoke of bondage”5357 5357
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iv Pg 39
Gal. v. 1.
—that is, of the law; now that the Psalm had its prophecy accomplished: “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us, since the rulers have gathered themselves together against the Lord and against His Christ.”5358 5358
Anf-03 iv.ix.iv Pg 4
Comp. Gal. v. 1; iv. 8, 9.
Whence we (Christians) understand that we still more ought to observe a sabbath from all “servile work”1188 1188
Anf-02 ii.iii.viii Pg 4.1
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.iv Pg 50
Gal. v. 10.
From what God? From (Marcion’s) most excellent god? But he does not execute judgment. From the Creator? But neither will He condemn the maintainer of circumcision. Now, if none other but the Creator shall be found to execute judgment, it follows that only He, who has determined on the cessation of the law, shall be able to condemn the defenders of the law; and what, if he also affirms the law in that portion of it where it ought (to be permanent)? “For,” says he, “all the law is fulfilled in you by this: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’”5368 5368
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 11
VERSE (20) - 2Co 1:24 Ga 2:4; 4:3,9,25; 5:1,10; 6:12
