Church Fathers: Nicene Fathers Vol 04: 14.01.09 On Monogamy Part 1

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Church Fathers: Nicene Fathers Vol 04: 14.01.09 On Monogamy Part 1



TOPIC: Nicene Fathers Vol 04 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 14.01.09 On Monogamy Part 1

Other Subjects in this Topic:

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink

hyperlink



VI. On Monogamy.hyperlink

[Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.]

Chapter I.-Different Views in Regard to Marriage Held by Heretics, Psychic, and Spiritualists.

Heretics do away with marriages; Psychics accumulate them. The former marry not even once; the latter not only once. What dost thou, Law of the Creator? Between alien eunuchs and thine own grooms, thou complainest as much of the over-obedience of thine own household as of the contempt of strangers. They who abuse thee, do thee equal hurt with them who use thee not. In fact, neither is such continence laudable because it is heretical, nor such licence defensible because it is psychical. The former is blasphemous, the latter wanton; the former destroys the God of marriages, the latter puts Him to the blush. Among us, however, whom the recognition of spiritual gifts entitles to be deservedly called Spiritual, continence is as religious as licence is modest; since both the one and the other are in harmony with the Creator. Continence honours the law of marriage, licence tempers it; the former is not forced, the latter is regulated; the former recognises the power of free choice, the latter recognises a limit. We admit one marriage, just as we do one God. The law of marriage reaps an accession of honour where it is associated with shamefastness. But to the Psychics, since they receive not the Spirit, the things which are the Spirit's are not pleasing. Thus, so long as the things which are the Spirit's please them not, the things which are of the flesh will please, as being the contraries of the Spirit. "The flesh," saith (the apostle), "lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh."hyperlink But what will the flesh "lust" after, except what is more of the flesh? For which reason withal, in. the beginning, it became estranged from the Spirit. "My Spirit," saith (God), "shall not permanently abide in these men eternally,hyperlink for that they are flesh."hyperlink

Chapter II.-The Spiritualists Vindicated from the Charge of Novelty.

And so they upbraid the discipline of monogamy with being a heresy; nor is there any other cause whence they find themselves compelled to deny the Paraclete more than the fact that they esteem Him to be the institutor of a novel discipline, and a discipline which they find most harsh: so that this is already the first ground on which we must join issue in a general handling (of the subject), whether there is room for maintaining that the Paraclete has taught any such thing as can either be charged with novelty, in opposition to catholic tradition,hyperlink or with burdensomeness, in opposition to the "light burden"hyperlink of the Lord.

Now concerning each point the Lord Himself has pronounced. For in saying, "I still have many things to say unto you, but ye are not yet able to bear them: when the Holy Spirit shall be come, He will lead you into all truth,"hyperlink He sufficiently, of course, sets before us that He will bring such (teachings) as may be esteemed alike novel, as having never before been published, and finally burdensome, as if that were the reason why they were not published. "It follows," you say, "that by this line of argument, anything you please which is novel and burdensome may be ascribed to the Paraclete, even if it have come from the adversary spirit." No, of course. For the adversary spirit would be apparent from the diversity of his preaching, beginning by adulterating the rule of faith, and so (going on to) adulterating the order of discipline; because the corruption of that which holds the first grade, (that is, of faith, which is prior to discipline,) comes first. A man must of necessity hold heretical views of God first, and then of His institution. But the Paraclete, having many things to teach fully which the Lord deferred till He came, (according to the pre-definition,) will begin by bearing emphatic witness to Christ, (as being) such as we believe (Him to be), together with the whole order of God the Creator, and will glorify Him,hyperlink and will "bring to remembrance" concerning Him. And when He has thus been recognised (as the promised Comforter), on the ground of the cardinal rule, He will reveal those "many things" which appertain to disciplines; while the integrity of His preaching commands credit for these (revelations), albeit they be "novel," inasmuch as they are. now in course of revelation, albeit they be "burdensome," inasmuch as not even now are they found bearable: (revelations), however, of none other Christ than (the One) who said that He had withal "other many things" which were to be fully taught by the Paraclete, no less burdensome to men of our own day than to them, by whom they were then "not yet able to be borne."

Chapter III.-The Question of Novelty Further Considered in Connection with the Words of the Lord and His Apostles.

But (as for the question) whether monogamy be "burdensome," let the still shameless "infirmity of the flesh" look to that: let us meantime come to an agreement as to whether it be "novel." This (even) broader assertion we make: that even if the Paraclete had in this our day definitely prescribed a virginity or continence total and absolute, so as not to permit the heat of the flesh to foam itself down even in single marriage, even thus He would seem to be introducing nothing of "novelty; "seeing that the Lord Himself opens "the kingdoms of the heavens" to "eunuchs,"hyperlink as being Himself, withal, a virgin; to whom looking, the apostle also-himself too for this reason abstinent-gives the preference to continence.hyperlink ("Yes"), you say, "but saving the law of marriage." Saving it, plainly, and we will see under what limitations; nevertheless already destroying it, in so far as he gives the preference to continence. "Good," he says, "(it is) for a man not to have contact with a woman." It follows that it is evil to have contact with her; for nothing is contrary to good except evil. And accordingly (he says), "It remains, that both they who have wives so be as if they have not,"hyperlink that it may be the more binding on them who have not to abstain from having them. He renders reasons, likewise, for so advising: that the unmarried think about God, but the married about how, in (their) marriage, each may please his (partner).hyperlink And I may contend, that what is permitted is not absolutely good.hyperlink For what is absolutely good is not permitted, but needs no asking to make it lawful. Permission has its cause sometimes even in necessity. Finally, in this case, there is no volition on the part of him who permits marriage. For his volition points another way. "I will," he says, "that you all so be as I too (am)."hyperlink And when he shows that (so to abide) is "better," what, pray, does he demonstrate himself to "will," but what he has premised is "better? "And thus, if he permits something other than what he has "willed"-permitted not voluntarily, but of necessity-he shows that what he has unwillingly granted as an indulgence is not absolutely good. Finally, when he says, "Better it is to marry than to burn," what sort of good must that be understood to be which is better than a penalty? which cannot seem "better" except when compared to a thing very bad? "Good" is that which keeps this name per se; without comparison-I say not with an evil, but even-with some other good: so that, even if it be compared to and overshadowed by another good, it nevertheless remains in (possession of) the name of good. If, on the other hand, comparison with evil is the mean which obliges it to be called good; it is not so much "good" as a species of inferior evil, which, when obscured by a higher evil, is driven to the name of good. Take away, in Short, the condition, so as not to say, "Better it is to marry than to burn; "and I question whether you will have the hardihood to say, "Better (it is) to marry," not adding than what it is better. This done, then, it becomes not" better; "and while not "better," not "good" either, the condition being taken away which, while making it "better" than another thing, in that sense obliges it to be considered "good." Better it is to lose one eye than two. If, however, you withdraw from the comparison of either evil, it will not be better to have one eye, because it is not even good.

What, now, if he accommodatingly grants all indulgence to marry on the ground of his own (that is, of human) sense, out of the necessity which we have mentioned, inasmuch as "better it is to marry than to burn? "In fact, when he turns to the second case, by saying, "But to the married I officially announce-not I, but the Lord"-he shows that those things which he had said above had not been (the dictates) of the Lord's authority, but of human judgment. When, however, he turns their minds back to continence, ("But I will you all so to be,") "I think, moreover," he says, "I too have the Spirit of God; "in order that, if he had granted any indulgence out of necessity, that, by the Holy Spirit's authority, he might recall. But John, too, when advising us that "we ought so to walk as the Lord withal did,"hyperlink of course admonished us to walk as well in accordance with sanctity of the flesh (as in accordance with His example in other respects). Accordingly he says more manifestly: "And every (man) who hath this hope in Him maketh himself chaste, just as Himself withal is chaste."hyperlink For elsewhere, again, (we read): "Be ye holy, just as He withal was holy "hyperlink -in the flesh, namely. For of the Spirit he would not have said (that), inasmuch as the Spirit is without any external influence recognised as "holy," nor does He wait to be admonished to sanctity, which is His proper nature. But the flesh is taught sanctity; and that withal, in Christ, was holy.

Therefore, if all these (considerations) obliterate the licence of marrying, whether we look into the condition on which the licence is granted, or the preference of continence which is imposed. why, after the apostles, could not the same Spirit, supervening for the purpose of conducting disciplehoodhyperlink into "all truth" through the gradations of the times (according to what the preacher says, "A time to everything"hyperlink ), impose by this time a final bridle upon the flesh, no longer obliquely calling us away from marriage, but openly; since now more (than ever) "the time is become wound up,"hyperlink -about 160 years having elapsed since then? Would you not spontaneously ponder (thus) in your own mind: "This discipline is old, shown beforehand, even at that early date, in the Lord's flesh and will, (and) successively thereafter in both the counsels and the examples of His apostles? Of old we were destined to this sanctity. Nothing of novelty is the Paraclete introducing. What He premonished, He is (now) definitively appointing; what He deferred, He is (now) exacting." And presently, by revolving these thoughts, you will easily persuade yourself that it was much more competent to the Paraclete to preach unity of marriage, who could withal have preached its annulling; and that it is more credible that He should have tempered what it would have become Him even to have abolished, if you understand what Christ's "will" is. Herein also you ought to recognise the Paraclete in His character of Comforter, in that He excuses your infirmityhyperlink from (the stringency of) an absolute continence.

Chapter IV.-Waiving Allusion to the Paraclete, Tertullian Comes to the Consideration of the Ancient Scriptures, and Their Testimony on the Subject in Hand.

Waiving, now, the mention of the Paraclete, as of some authority of our own, evolve we the common instruments of the primitive Scriptures. This very thing is demonstrable by us: that the rule of monogamy is neither novel nor strange, nay rather, is both ancient, and proper to Christians; so that you may be sensible that the Paraclete is rather its restitutor than institutor. As for what pertains to antiquity, what more ancient formal type can be brought forward, than the very original fount of the human race? One female did God fashion for the male, culling one rib of his, and (of course) (one) out of a plurality. But, moreover, in the introductory speech which preceded the work itself, He said, "It is not good for the man that he be alone; let us make an help-meet for him." For He would have said "helpers" if He had destined him to have more wives (than one). He added, too, a law concerning the future; if, that is, (the words) "And two shall be (made) into one flesh"-not three, nor more; else they would be no more "two" if (there were) more-were prophetically uttered. The law stood (firm). In short, the unity of marriage lasted to the very end in the case of the authors of our race; not because there were no other women, but because the reason why there were none was that the first-fruits of the race might not be contaminated by a double marriage. Otherwise, had God (so) willed, there could withal have been (others); at all events, he might have taken from the abundance of his own daughters-having no less an Eve (taken) out of his own bones and flesh-if piety had allowed it to be done. But where the first crime (is found)homicide, inaugurated in fratricide-no crime was so worthy of the second place as a double marriage. For it makes no difference whether a man have had two wives singly, or whether individuals (taken) at the same time have made two. The number of (the individuals) conjoined and separate is the same. Still, God's institution, after once for all suffering violence through Lamech, remained firm to the very end of that race. Second Lamech there arose none, in the way of being husband to two wives. What Scripture does not note, it denies. Other iniquities provoke the deluge: (iniquities) once for all avenged, whatever was their nature; not, however, "seventy-seven times,"hyperlink which (is the vengeance which) double marriages have deserved.

But again: the reformation of the second human race is traced from monogamy as its mother. Once more, "two (joined) into one flesh" undertake (the duty of) "growing and multiplying,"-Noah, (namely), and his wife, and their sons, in single marriage.hyperlink Even in the very animals monogamy is recognised, for fear that even beasts should be born of adultery. "Out of all beasts," said (God),hyperlink "out of all flesh, two shall thou lead into the ark, that they may live with thee, male and female: they shall be (taken) from all flying animals according to (their) kind, and from all creepers of the earth according to their kind; two out of all shall enter unto thee, male and female." In the same formula, too, He orders sets of sevens, made up of pairs, to be gathered to him, consisting of male and female-one male and one femalehyperlink What more shall I say? Even unclean birds were not allowed to enter with two females each.

Chapter V.-Connection of These Primeval Testimonies with Christ.

Thus far for the testimony of things primordial, and the sanction of our origin, and the prejudgment of the divine institution, which of course is a law, not (merely) a memorial inasmuch as, if it was." so done from the beginning," we find ourselves directed to the beginning by Christ: just as, in the question of divorce, by saying that that had been permitted by Moses on account of their hard-heartedness but from the beginning it had not been so, He doubtless recalls to "the beginning" the (law of) the individuity of marriage. And accordingly, those whom God "from the beginning" conjoined, "two into one flesh," man shall not at the present day separate.hyperlink The apostle, too, writing to the Ephesians, says that God "had proposed in Himself, at the dispensation of the fulfilment of the times, to recall to the head" (that is, to the beginning) "things universal in Christ, which are above the heavens and above the earth in Him."hyperlink So, too, the two letters of Greece, the first and the last, the Lord assumes to Himself, as figures of the beginning and end! which concur in Himself: so that, just as Alpha rolls on till it reaches Omega, and again Omega rolls back till it reaches Alpha, in the same way He might show that in Himself is both the downward course of the beginning on to the end, and the backward course of the end up to the beginning; so that every economy, ending in Him through whom it began,-through the Word of God, that is, who was made flesh,hyperlink -may have an end correspondent to its beginning. And so truly in Christ are all things recalled to "the beginning," that even faith returns from circumcision to the integrity of that (original) flesh, as "it was from the beginning; and freedom of meats and abstinence from blood alone, as "it was from the beginning; "and the individuality of marriage, as "it was from the beginning; "and the restriction of divorce, which was not "from the beginning; "and lastly, the whole man into Paradise, where he was "from the beginning." Why, then, ought He not to restore Adam thither at least as a monogamist, who cannot present him in so entire perfection as he was when dismissed thence? Accordingly, so far as pertains to the restitution of the beginning, the logic both of the dispensation you live under, and of your hope, exact this from you, that what was "from the beginning" (should be) in accordance with "the beginning; "Which (beginning) you find counted in Adam, and recounted in Noah. Make your election, in which of the twain you account your "beginning." In both, the censorial power of monogamy claims you for itself. But again: if the beginning passes on to the end (as Alpha to Omega), as the end passes back to the beginning (as Omega to Alpha), and thus our origin is transferred to Christ, the animal to the spiritual-inasmuch as "(that was) not first which is spiritual, but (that) which (is) animal; then what (is) spiritual,"hyperlink -let us, in like manner (as before), see whether you owe this very (same) thing to this second origin also: whether the last Adam also meet you in the selfsame form as the first; since the last Adam (that is, Christ) was entirely unwedded, as was even the first Adam before his exile. But, presenting to your weakness the gift of the example of His own flesh, the more perfect Adam-that is, Christ, more perfect on this account as well (as on others), that He was more entirely pure-stands before you, if you are willing (to copy Him), as a voluntary celibate in the flesh. If, however, you are unequal (to that perfection), He stands before you a monogamist in spirit, having one Church as His spouse, according to the figure of Adam and of Eve, which (figure) the apostle interprets of that great sacrament of Christ and the Church, (teaching that), through the spiritual, it was analogous to the carnal monogamy. You see, therefore, after what manner, renewing your origin even in Christ, you cannot trace down that (origin) without the profession of monogamy; unless, (that is), you be in flesh what He is in spirit; albeit withal, what He was in flesh, you equally ought to have been.

Chapter VI.-The Case of Abraham, and Its Bearing on the Present Question.

But let us proceed with our inquiry into some eminent chief fathers of our origin: for there are some to whom our monogamist parents Adam and Noah are not pleasing, nor perhaps Christ either. To Abraham, in fine, they appeal; prohibited though they are to acknowledge any other father than God.hyperlink Grant, now, that Abraham is our father; grant, too, that Paul is. "In the Gospel," says he, "I have begotten you."hyperlink Show yourself a son even of Abraham. For your origin in him, you must know, iS not referable to every period of his life: there is a definite time at which he is your father. For if" faith" is the source whence we are reckoned to Abraham as his "sons" (as the apostle teaches, saying to the Galatians, "You know, consequently, that (they) who are of faith, these are sons of Abraham"hyperlink ), when did Abraham "believe God and it was accounted to him for righteousness? "I suppose when still in monogamy, since (he was) not yet in circumcision. But if afterwards. he changed to either (opposite)-to digamy through cohabitation with his handmaid, and to circumcision through the seal of the testament-you cannot acknowledge him as your father except at that time when he "believed God," if it is true that it is according to faith that you are his son, not according to flesh. Else, if it be the later Abraham whom you follow as your father-that is, the digamist (Abraham)-receive him withal in his circumcision. If you reject his circumcision, it follows that you will refuse his digamy too. Two characters of his mutually diverse in two several ways, you will not be able to blend. His digamy began with circumcision, his monogamy with uncircumcision.hyperlink You receive digamy; admit circumcision too. You retain uncircumcision; you are bound to monogamy too. Moreover, so true is it that it is of the monogamist Abraham that you are the son, just as of the uncircumcised, that if you be circumcised you immediately cease to be his son, inasmuch as you will not be "of faith," but of the seal of a faith which had been justified in uncircumcision. You bare the apostle: learn (of him), together with the Galatians.hyperlink In like manner, too, if you have involved yourself in digamy, you are not the son of that Abraham whose "faith" preceded in monogamy. For albeit it is subsequently that he is called "a father of many nations,"hyperlink still it is of those (nations) who, as the fruit of the "faith" which precedes digamy, had to be accounted "sons of Abraham."hyperlink

Thenceforward let matters see to themselves. Figures are one thing; laws another. Images are one thing; statutes another. Images pass away when fulfilled: statutes remain permanently to be fulfilled. Images prophesy: statutes govern. What that digamy of Abraham portends, the same apostle fully teaches,hyperlink the interpreter of each testament, just as he likewise lays it down that our "seed" is called in Isaac.hyperlink If you are "of the free woman," and belong to Isaac, he, at all events, maintained unity of marriage to the last.

These accordingly, I suppose, are they in whom my origin is counted. All others I ignore. And if I glance around at their examples-(examples) of some David heaping up marriages for himself even through sanguinary means, of some Solomon rich in wives as well as in other riches-you are bidden to "follow the better things; "hyperlink and you have withal Joseph but once wedded, and on this score I venture to say better than his father; you have Moses, the intimate eye-witness of God;hyperlink you have Aaron the chief priest. The second Moses, also, of the second People, who led our representatives into the (possession of) the promise of God, in whom the Name (of Jesus) was first inaugurated, was no digamist.

Chapter VII.-From Patriarchal, Tertullian Comes to Legal, Precedents.

After the ancient examples of the patriarchs, let us equally pass on to the ancient documents of the legal Scriptures, that we may treat in order of all our canon. And since there are some who sometimes assert that they have nothing to do with the law (which Christ has not dissolved, but fulfilled),hyperlink sometimes catch at such parts of the law as they choose; plainly do we too assert that the law has deceased in this sense, that its burdens-according to the sentence of the apostles-which not even the fathers were able to sustain,hyperlink have wholly ceased: such (parts), however. as relate to righteousness not only permanently remain reserved, but even amplified; in order, to be sure, that our righteousness may be able to redound above the righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees.hyperlink If "righteousness" must, of course chastity must too. If, then, forasmuch as there is in the law a precept that a man is to take in marriage the wife of his brother if he have died without children,hyperlink for the purpose of raising up seed to his brother; and this may happen repeatedly to the same person, according to that crafty question of the Sadducees;hyperlink men for that reason think that frequency of marriage is permitted in other cases as well: it will be their duty to understand first the reason of the precept itself; and thus they will come to know that that reason, now ceasing, is among those parts of the law which have been cancelled. Necessary it was that there should be a succession to the marriage of a brother if he died childless: first, because that ancient benediction, "Grow and multiply,"hyperlink had still to run its course; secondly, because the sins of the fathers used to be exacted even from the sons;hyperlink thirdly, because eunuchs and barren persons used to be regarded as ignominious. And thus, for fear that such as had died childless, not from natural inability, but from being prematurely overtaken by death, should be judged equally accursed (with the other class); for this reason a vicarious and (so to say) posthumous offspring used to be supplied them. But (now), when the "extremity of the times" has cancelled (the command) "Grow and multiply," since the apostles (another command), "It remaineth, that both they who have wives so be as if they have not," because "the time is compressed;hyperlink and "the sour grape" chewed by "the fathers" has ceased "to set the sons' teeth on edge,"hyperlink for, "each one shall die in his own sin; "and "eunuchs" not only have lost ignominy, but have even deserved grace, being invited into "the kingdoms of the heavens: "hyperlink the law of succeeding to the wife of a brother being buried, its contrary has obtained-that of not succeeding to the wife of a brother. And thus, as we have said before, what has ceased to be valid, on the cessation of its reason, cannot furnish a ground of argument to another. Therefore a wife, when her husband is dead, will not marry; for if she marry, she will of course be marrying (his) brother: for "all we are brethren."hyperlink Again, the woman, if intending to marry, has to marry "in the Lord; "hyperlink that is, not to an heathen, but to a brother, inasmuch as even the ancient law forbidshyperlink marriage with members of another tribe. Since, moreover, even in Leviticus there is a caution, "Whoever shall have taken (his) brother's wife, (it) is uncleanness-turpitude; without children shall (he) die; "hyperlink beyond doubt, while the man is prohibited from marrying a second time, the woman is prohibited too, having no one to marry except a brother. In what way, then, an agreement shall be established between the apostle and the Law (which he is not impugning in its entirety), shall be shown when we shall have come to his own epistle. Meantime, so far as pertains to the law, the lines of argument drawn from it are more suitable for us (than for our opponents). In short, the same (law) prohibits priests from marrying a second time. The daughter also of a priest it bids, if widowed or repudiated, if she have had no seed, to return into her father's home and be nourished from his bread.hyperlink The reason why (it is said), "If she have had no seed," is not that if she have she may marry again-for how much more will she abstain from marrying if she have sons?-but that, if she have, she may be "nourished" by her son rather than by her father; in order that the son, too, may carry out the precept of God, "Honour father and mother."hyperlink Us, moreover, Jesus, the Father's Highest and Great Priest,hyperlink clothing us from His own storehyperlink -inasmuch as they "who are baptized in Christhyperlink have put on Christ"-has made "priests to God His Father,"hyperlink according to John. For the reason why He recalls that young man who was hastening to his father's obsequies,hyperlink is that He may show that we are called priests by Him; (priests) whom the Law used to forbid to be present at the sepulture of parents:hyperlink "Over every dead soul," it says, "the priest shall not enter, and over his own father and over his own mother he shall not be contaminated." "Does it follow that we too are bound to observe this prohibition? "No, of course. For our one Father, God, lives, and our mother, the Church; and neither are we dead who live to God, nor do we bury our dead, inasmuch as they too are living in Christ. At all events, priests we are called by Christ; debtors to monogamy, in accordance with the pristine Law of God, which prophesied at that time of us in its own priests.

Chapter VIII.-From the Law Tertullian Comes to the Gospel. He Begins with Examples Before Proceeding to Dogmas.

Turning now to the law, which is properly ours-that is, to the Gospel-by what kind of examples are we met, until we come to definite dogmas? Behold, there immediately present themselves to us, on the threshold as it were, the two priestesses of Christian sanctity, Monogamy and Continence: one modest, in Zechariah the priest; one absolute, in John the forerunner: one appeasing God; one preaching Christ: one proclaiming a perfect priest; one exhibiting "more than a prophet,"hyperlink -him, namely, who has not only preached or personally pointed out, but even baptized Christ. For who was more worthily to perform the initiatory rite on the body of the Lord, than flesh similar in kind to that which conceived and gave birth to that (body)? And indeed it was a virgin, about to marry once for all after her delivery, who gave birth to Christ, in order that each title of sanctity might be fulfilled in Christ's parentage, by means of a mother who was both virgin, and wife of one husband. Again, when He is presented as an infant in the temple, who is it who receives Him into his hands? who is the first to recognise Him in spirit? A man "just and circumspect," and of course no digamist, (which is plain) even (from this consideration), lest (otherwise) Christ should presently be more worthily preached by a woman, an aged widow, and "the wife of one man; "who, living devoted to the temple, was (already) giving in her own person a sufficient token what sort of persons ought to be the adherents to the spiritual temple,-that is, the Church. Such eye-witnesses the Lord in infancy found; no different ones had He in adult age. Peter alone do I find-through (the mention of) his "mother-in-law"hyperlink ,-to have been married. Monogamist I am led to presume him by consideration of the Church, which, built upon him,hyperlink was destined to appoint every grade of her Order from monogamists. The rest, while I do not find them married, I must of necessity understand to have been either eunuchs or continent. Nor indeed, if, among the Greeks, in accordance with the carelessness of custom, women and wives are classed under a common name-however, there is a name proper to wives-shall we therefore so interpret Paul as if he demonstrates the apostles to have had wives?hyperlink For if he were disputing about marriages, as he does in the sequel, where the apostle could better have named some particular example, it would appear right for him to say, "For have we not the power of leading about wives, like the other apostles and Cephas? "But when he subjoins those (expressions)which show his abstinence from (insisting on) the supply of maintenance, saying, "For have we not the power of eating and drinking? "he does not demonstrate that "wives" were led about by the apostles, whom even such as have not still have the power of eating and drinking; but simply "women," who used to minister to them in the stone way (as they did) when accompanying the Lord.hyperlink But further, if Christ reproves the scribes and Pharisees, sitting in the official chair of Moses, but not doing what they taught,hyperlink what kind of (supposition). is it that He Himself withal should set upon His own official chair men who were mindful rather to enjoin-(but) not likewise to practise-sanctity of the flesh, which (sanctity) He had in all ways recommended to their teaching and practising?-first by His own example, then by all other arguments; while He tells (them) that "the kingdom of heavens" is "children's; "hyperlink while He associates with these (children) others who, after marriage, remained (or became)virgins; "hyperlink while He calls (them) to (copy) the simplicity of the dove, a bird not merely innocuous, but modest too, and whereof one male knows one female; while He denies the Samaritan woman's (partner to be) a husband, that He may show that manifold husbandry is adultery;hyperlink while, in the revelation of His own glory, He prefers, from among so many saints and prophets, to have with him Moses and Eliashyperlink -the one a monogamist, the other a voluntary celibate (for Elias was nothing else than John, who came "in the power and spirit of Elias"hyperlink ); while that "man gluttonous and toping," the "frequenter of luncheons and suppers, in the company of publicans and sinners,"hyperlink sups once for all at a single marriage,hyperlink though, of course, many were marrying (around Him); for He willed to attend (marriages) only so often as (He willed) them to be.



Footnotes



1 [Written against orthodoxy, say circa a.d. 208. But see Elucidation I.].

2 Gal. v. 17.

3 In aevum; eij ton aiwna (LXX.); in aeternum (Vulg.).

4 Gen. vi. 3.

5 Comp. 1 Cor. xi. 2; 2 Thess. ii. 15, iii. 6. Comp. the Gr. text and the Vulg. in locis.

6 See Matt. xi. 30.

7 John xvi. 12, 13. Tertullian's rendering is not verbatim.

8 See John xvi. 14.

9 See Matt. xix. 12. Comp. de. Pa., c. xiii.; de. Cult. Fem., l. ii. c. ix.

10 See 1 Cor. vii. 1, 7, 37, 40; and comp. de Ex. Cast., c. iv.

11 1 Cor. vii. 29.

12 1 Cor. vii. 32-34.

13 Comp. ad Ux., l. i. c. iii.; de Cult. Fem., l. ii. c. x. sub fin.; and de Ex. Cast., c. iii., which agrees nearly verbatim with what follows.

14 1 Cor. vii. 7, only the Greek is qelw, not boulomai.

15 1 John ii. 6.

16 1 John iii. 3.

17 There is no such passage in any Epistle of St. John. There is one similar in 1 Pet. i. 15.

18 Disciplinam.

19 Eccles. iii. 1.

20 1 Cor. vii. 29.

21 Comp. Rom. viii. 26.

22 Septuagies. See Gen. iv. 19-24.

23 Comp. Gen. vii. 7 with 1 Pet. iii. 20 ad fin.

24 Comp. Gen. vi. 19, 20.

25 See Gen. vii. 3.

26 See Matt. xix. 6.

27 Eph. i. 9, 10. The Latin of Tertullian deserves careful comparison with the original Greek of St. Paul.

28 See John i. 1-15.

29 1 Cor. xv. 46.

30 See Matt. xxiii. 9.

31 1 Cor. iv. 15, where it is dia tou euaggeliou.

32 Gal. iii. 7.

33 This is an error. Comp. Gen. xvi. with Gen. xvii.

34 See Gal. iii. iv. and comp. Rom. iv.

35 See Gen. xvii. 5.

36 See Rom. iv. 11, 12, Gal. iii. 7; and comp. Matt. iii. 9; Joh viii. 39.

37 See Gal. iv. 21-31.

38 See vers. 28, 31.

39 See Ps. xxxvii. 27 (in LXX. xxxvi. 27); 1 Pet. iii. 11; 3 John 11.

40 Dei de proximo arbitrum. See Num. xii. 6-8; Deut. xxxiv. 10.

41 See Matt. v. 17.

42 See Acts xv. 10.

43 Matt. v. 20.

44 Deut. xxv. 5, 6.

45 See Matt. xxii. 23-33; Mark xii. 18-27; Luke xx. 26-38. Comp. ad Ux., l. i.

46 Gen. i. 28. Comp. de Ex. Cast., c. vi.

47 See Ex. xx. 5; and therefore there must be sons begotten from whom to exact them.

48 Comp. de Ex. Cast., c. vi.

49 See Jer. xxxi. 29, 30 (in LXX. xxxviii. 29, 30); Ezek. xviii. 1-4.

50 Matt. xix. 12, often quoted.

51 Matt. xxiii. 8.

52 1 Cor. vii. 39.

53 "Adimit;" but the two mss. extant of this treatise read "admittit" = admits.

54 Lev. xx. 21, not exactly given.

55 Lev. xxii. 13, where there is no command to her to return, in the Eng. ver.: in the LXX. there is.

56 Ex. xx. 12 in brief.

57 Summus sacerdos et magnus patris. But Oehler notices a conjecture of Jos. Scaliger, "agnus patris," when we must unite "the High Priest and Lamb of the Father."

58 De suo. Comp. de Bapt., c. xvii., ad fin.; de Cult. Fem., l. i. c. v., . ii. c. ix.; de Ex. Cast., c. iii. med.; and for the ref. see Rev. iii. 18.

59 Gal. iii. 27; where it is eij Xriston, however.

60 See Rev. i. 6.

61 Matt. viii. 21, 22; Luke ix. 59, 60.

62 Lev. xxi. 11.

63 See Matt. xi. 9; Luke vii. 26.

64 See Mark i. 29, 30.

65 See Matt. xvi. 13-19. Comp. de Pu., c. xxi.

66 See 1 Cor. ix. 1-5.

67 See Luke viii. 1-3; Matt. xxvii. 55, 56.

68 Matt. xxiii. 1-3.

69 See Matt. xviii. 1-4, xix. 13-15; Mark x. 13-15.

70 Alios post nuptias pueros. The reference seems to be to Matt. xix. 12.

71 See John iv. 16-18.

72 See Matt. xvii. 1-8; Mark ix. 2-9; Luke ix. 28-36.

73 See Luke i. 17.

74 See Matt. xi. 19; Luke vii. 34.

75 See John ii. 1-11.