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The Five Books Against Marcion

Tertullian

Book 1 · Chapter 2

About this work

A sustained refutation of Marcion’s theology and edited Scriptures, defending the unity of the Creator and Christ’s Father and reading the Gospel and Pauline letters against Marcionite claims.

Author: Tertullian
Date: Early 3rd century
Origin: Carthage, North Africa
Genre: Heresiology

Chapter II.—Marcion, Aided by Cerdon, Teaches a Duality of Gods; How He Constructed This Heresy of an Evil and a Good God.

The heretic of Pontus introduces two Gods,

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like

the

twin

Symplegades

of

his

own

shipwreck

:

One

whom

it

was

impossible

to

deny

,

i

.

e

.

our

Creator

;

and

one

whom

he

will

never

be

able

to

prove

,

i

.

e

.

his

own

god

.

The

unhappy

man

gained

the

first

idea

of

his

conceit

from

the

simple

passage

of

our

Lord’s

saying

,

which

has

reference

to

human

beings

and

not

divine

ones

,

wherein

He

disposes

of

those

examples

of

a

good

tree

and

a

corrupt

one

;

how

that

“

the

good

tree

bringeth

not

forth

corrupt

fruit

,

neither

the

corrupt

tree

good

fruit

.

”

Which

means

,

that

an

honest

mind

and

good

faith

cannot

produce

evil

deeds

,

any

more

than

an

evil

disposition

can

produce

good

deeds

.

Now

(

like

many

other

persons

now

-

a

-

days

,

especially

those

who

have

an

heretical

proclivity

)

,

while

morbidly

brooding

over

the

question

of

the

origin

of

evil

,

his

perception

became

blunted

by

the

very

irregularity

of

his

researches

;

and

when

he

found

the

Creator

declaring

,

“

I

am

He

that

createth

evil

,

”

inasmuch

as

he

had

already

concluded

from

other

arguments

,

which

are

satisfactory

to

every

perverted

mind

,

that

God

is

the

author

of

evil

,

so

he

now

applied

to

the

Creator

the

figure

of

the

corrupt

tree

bringing

forth

evil

fruit

,

that

is

,

moral

evil

,

and

then

presumed

that

there

ought

to

be

another

god

,

after

the

analogy

of

the

good

tree

producing

its

good

fruit

.

Accordingly

,

finding

in

Christ

a

different

disposition

,

as

it

were

—

one

of

a

simple

and

pure

benevolence

—

differing

from

the

Creator

,

he

readily

argued

that

in

his

Christ

had

been

revealed

a

new

and

strange

divinity

;

and

then

with

a

little

leaven

he

leavened

the

whole

lump

of

the

faith

,

flavouring

it

with

the

acidity

of

his

own

heresy

.

He had, moreover, in one Cerdon an abettor of this blasphemy,—a circumstance which made them the more readily think that they saw most clearly their two gods, blind though they were; for, in truth, they had not seen the one God with soundness of faith. To men of diseased vision even one lamp looks like many. One of his gods, therefore, whom he was obliged to acknowledge, he destroyed by defaming his attributes in the matter of evil; the other, whom he laboured so hard to devise, he constructed, laying his foundation in the principle of good. In what articles he arranged these natures, we show by our own refutations of them.

Notes

1
Passus.
2
Instinctum.
3
St. Luke vi. 43 sq.
4
Languens.
5
Isa. xlv. 7.
6
Mala.
7
[This purely good or goodish divinity is an idea of the Stoics. De Præscript. chap. 7.]
8
Hospitam.
9
Quendam. [See Irenæus, Vol. I. p. 352, this Series.]
10
Integre.
11
Præstruendo.
12
Or sections.