The Five Books Against Marcion — Book 5, Chapter 16

1

Circumferri.

2

Utriusque meriti: “of both the eternal sentences.”

3

2 Thess. i. 6–8.

4

2 Thess. i. 8, 9.

5

Crematoris Dei.

6

2 Thess. i. 8.

7

Non omnibus scibilis.

8

2 Thess. i. 9.

9

Isa. ii. 19. The whole verse is to the point.

10

2 Thess. ii. 3, 4.

11

The prophets of the Old and the New Testament.

12

1 John iv. 1–3.

13

Solventes Jesum. This expression receives some explanation from the Vulgate version of 1 John iv. 3: “Et omnis spiritus qui solvit Jesum Christum ex Deo non est.” From Irenæus, Vol. I., 443 (Harvey, ii. 89), we learn that the Gnostics divided Jesus from Christ: “Alterum quidem Jesum intelligunt, alterum autem Christum,”—an error which was met in the clause of the creed expressing faith in “One Lord Jesus Christ.” Grabe, after Socrates, Hist. Eccles. vii. 32, says that the oldest mss. of St. John’s epistle read πᾶν πνεῦμα ὅ λύει τὸν ᾽Ιησοῦν. If so, Tertullian must be regarded as combining the two readings, viz., that which we find in the received text and this just quoted. Thus Grabe. It would be better to say that T. read ver. 2 as we have it, only omitting ᾽Ιησοῦν; and in ver. 3 read the old lection to which Socrates refers instead of πᾶν πνεῦμα ὅ μὴ ὁμολογεὶ.

14

2 Thess. ii. 9.

15

Instinctum fallaciæ.

16

2 Thess. ii. 10–12.

17

Summissu erroris.

18

Marcion, or rather his Christ, who on the hypothesis absurdly employs the Creator’s Christ on the flagrantly inconsistent mission of avenging his truth, i.e. Marcionism.

19

Habens fungi…Creatori.

20

Angelum: the Antichrist sent by the Creator.

21

Æmulatio.

22

2 Thess. ii. 11.

23

Plagis: “heavy strokes,” in opposition to the previous “beneficiis.”

24

Prædicationibus: see Rom. i. 20.

25

Productus est.

26

Materia.

27

2 Thess. iii. 10.

28

Deut. xxv. 4.

Book 5 · Chapter 16

Notes