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To His Wife

Tertullian

Book 1 · Chapter 5

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Author: Tertullian

Chapter V.—Of the Love of Offspring as a Plea for Marriage.

Further reasons for marriage which men allege for themselves arise from anxiety

‹ Book 1 · Chapter 4 Book 1 · Chapter 6 ›

for

posterity

,

and

the

bitter

,

bitter

pleasure

of

children

.

To

us

this

is

idle

.

For

why

should

we

be

eager

to

bear

children

,

whom

,

when

we

have

them

,

we

desire

to

send

before

us

(

to

glory

)

(

in

respect

,

I

mean

,

of

the

distresses

that

are

now

imminent

)

;

desirous

as

we

are

ourselves

,

too

,

to

be

taken

out

of

this

most

wicked

world

,

and

received

into

the

Lord’s

presence

,

which

was

the

desire

even

of

an

apostle

?

To

the

servant

of

God

,

forsooth

,

offspring

is

necessary

!

For

of

our

own

salvation

we

are

secure

enough

,

so

that

we

have

leisure

for

children

!

Burdens

must

be

sought

by

us

for

ourselves

which

are

avoided

even

by

the

majority

of

the

Gentiles

,

who

are

compelled

by

laws

,

who

are

decimated

by

abortions

;

burdens

which

,

finally

,

are

to

us

most

of

all

unsuitable

,

as

being

perilous

to

faith

!

For

why

did

the

Lord

foretell

a

“

woe

to

them

that

are

with

child

,

and

them

that

give

suck

,

”

except

because

He

testifies

that

in

that

day

of

disencumbrance

the

encumbrances

of

children

will

be

an

inconvenience

?

It

is

to

marriage

,

of

course

,

that

those

encumbrances

appertain

;

but

that

(

“

woe

”

)

will

not

pertain

to

widows

.

(

They

)

at

the

first

trump

of

the

angel

will

spring

forth

disencumbered

—

will

freely

bear

to

the

end

whatsoever

pressure

and

persecution

,

with

no

burdensome

fruit

of

marriage

heaving

in

the

womb

,

none

in

the

bosom

.

Therefore, whether it be for the sake of the flesh, or of the world, or of posterity, that marriage is undertaken, nothing of all these “necessities” affects the servants of God, so as to prevent my deeming it enough to have once for all yielded to some one of them, and by one marriage appeased all concupiscence of this kind. Let us marry daily, and in the midst of our marrying let us be overtaken, like Sodom and Gomorrah, by that day of fear! For there it was not only, of course, that they were dealing in marriage and merchandise; but when He says, “They were marrying and buying,” He sets a brand upon the very leading vices of the flesh and of the world, which call men off the most from divine disciplines—the one through the pleasure of rioting, the other though the greed of acquiring. And yet that “blindness” then was felt long before “the ends of the world.” What, then, will the case be if God now keep us from the vices which of old were detestable before Him? “The time,” says (the apostle), “is compressed. It remaineth that they who have wives act as if they had them not.”

Notes

1
Comp. c. iv. above “præmissis maritis;” “when their husbands have preceded them (to glory).”
2
Sæculo.
3
Phil. i. 23; comp. de Pa., c. ix. ad fin.
4
i.e., to get children.
5
Expugnantur.
6
“Parricidiis.” So Oehler seems to understand it.
7
Luke xxi. 23; Matt. xxiv. 19.
8
Sæculi.
9
“Expiasse”—a rare but Ciceronian use of the word.
10
Luke xvii. 28, 29.
11
Denotat.
12
Sæculi.
13
Sæculi. Comp. 1 Cor. x. 11; but the Greek there is, τὰ τέλη τῶν αιώνων. By the “blindness,” Tertullian may refer to Gen. xix. 11.

14

Or, “short” (Eng. ver.); 1 Cor. vii. 29. ὁ καιρὸς συνεσταλμενος, “in collecto.”

15

“Matrimonia,” neut. pl. again for the fem., the abstract for the concrete. See c. ii., “to multiply wives,” and the note there. In the Greek (1 Cor. vii. 29) it is γυναῖκας: but the ensuing chapter shows that Tertullian refers the passage to women as well.