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II.
The Five Books Against
Marcion.
[Translated by Dr. Holmes.]
Introductory Notes.
————————————
Dedication.
To the Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of
Chester.
My Dear Lord,
I am gratified to have your permission to dedicate this
volume to your Lordship. It is the fruit of some two years’
leisure labour. Every man’s occupation spares to him some
λείψανα
χρόνου; and thirty years ago you
taught me, at Oxford, how to husband these opportunities in the
pleasant studies of Biblical and Theological Science. For that
and many other kindnesses I cannot cease to be thankful to you.
But, besides this private motive, I have in your
Lordship’s own past course an additional incentive for resorting
to you on this occasion. You, until lately, presided over the
theological studies of our great University; and you have given great
encouragement to patristic literature by your excellent edition of the
Apostolic Fathers.2314
2314 [The name of Bishop
Jacobson was often introduced in our first volume, in notes to the
Apostolic Fathers. He has recently “fallen asleep,” after a
life of exemplary labour “with good report of all men and of the
Truth itself.” His learning and piety were adorned by a profound
humility, which gave a primitive cast to his character. At the Lambeth
Conference, having the honour to sit at his side, I observed his
extreme modesty. He rarely rose to speak, though he sometimes honoured
me with words in a whisper, which the whole assembly would have
rejoiced to hear. Like his great predecessor, Pearson, in many
respects, the mere filings and clippings of his thoughts were
gold-dust.] | To whom could I
more becomingly present this humble effort to make more generally known
the great merits of perhaps the greatest work of the first of the Latin
Fathers than to yourself?
I remain, with much respect,
My dear Lord,
Very faithfully yours,
Peter Holmes.
Mannamead,
Plymouth,2315
2315 [Dr. Holmes is
described, in the Edinburgh Edition, as “Domestic Chaplain to the
Rt. Hon. the Countess of Rothes.” He was B.A. (Oxon.) in 1840,
and took orders that year. Was Head-Master of Plymouth Grammar School
at one time, and among his very valuable and learned works should be
mentioned, as very useful to the reader of this series, his Translation
of Bull’s Defensio Fidei Nicænæ (two vols. 8vo.
Oxford, 1851), and of the same great author’s Judicium
Ecclesiæ Catholicæ, 8vo. Oxford, 1855.] |
March, 1868.
Preface by the Translator.2316
2316 [This preface and the
frequent annotations of our author relieve the American editor, save
very sparingly, from adding notes of his own.] |
The reader has, in this
volume a translation (attempted for the first time in English) of the
largest of the extant works of the earliest Latin Fathers. The
most important of Tertullian’s writings have always been highly
valued in the church, although, as was natural from their varied
character, for different reasons. Thus his two best-known treatises,
The Apology and The Prescription against Heretics, have
divided between them for more than sixteen centuries the admiration of
all intelligent readers,—the one for its masterly defence of the
Christian religion against its heathen persecutors, and the other for
its lucid vindication of the church’s rule of faith against its
heretical assailants. The present work has equal claims on the
reader’s appreciation, in respect of those qualities of vigorous
thought, close reasoning, terse expression, and earnest purpose,
enlivened by sparkling wit and impassioned eloquence, which have always
secured for Tertullian, in spite of many drawbacks, the esteem which is
given to a great and favourite author. If these books against Marcion
have received, as indeed it must be allowed they have, less attention
from the general reader than their intrinsic merit deserves, the
neglect is mainly due to the fact that the interesting character of
their contents is concealed by the usual title-page, which points only
to a heresy supposed to be extinct and inapplicable, whether in the
materials of its defence or confutation, to any modern circumstances.
But many treatises of great authors, which have outlived their literal
occasion, retain a value from their collateral arguments, which is not
inferior to that effected by their primary subject. Such is the case
with the work before us. If Marcionism is in the letter obsolete, there
is its spirit still left in the church, which in more ways than one
develops its ancient characteristics. What these were, the
reader will soon discover in this volume; but reference may be made
even here, in passing, to that prominent aim of the heresy which gave
Tertullian his opportunity of proving the essential coherence of the
Old and the New Testaments, and of exhibiting both his great knowledge
of the details of Holy Scripture, and his fine intelligence of the
progressive nature of God’s revelation as a whole. This
constitutes the charm of the present volume, which might almost be
designated a Treatise on the Connection between the Jewish and the
Christian Scriptures. How interesting this subject is to earnest
men of the present age, is proved by the frequent treatment of it in
our religious literature.2317
2317 Two works are
worth mentioning in connection with this topic for their succinct and
handy form, as well as satisfactory treatment of their argument: Mr.
Perowne’s Norrisian prize essay, entitled The Essential
Coherence of the Old and New Testaments (1858), and Sir William
Page Wood’s recent work, The Continuity of Scripture, as
declared by the Testimony of our Lord, and of the evangelists and
apostles. | In order to assist
the reader to a more efficient use of this volume, in reference to its
copiousness of Scripture illustration, a full Index of Scriptural
Passages has been drawn up. Another satisfactory result will, it is
believed, accompany the reading of this volume, in the evidence which
it affords of the venerable catholicity of that system of biblical and
dogmatic truth which constitutes the belief of what is called the
“orthodox” Christian of the present day. Orthodoxy
has been impugned of late, as if it had suffered much deterioration in
its transmission to us; and an advanced school of thinkers has demanded
its reform by a manipulation which they have called “free
handling.” To such readers, then, as prize the deposit of the
Christian creed which they have received, in the light of St.
Jude’s description, as “the faith once for all delivered
to the saints,” it cannot but prove satisfactory to be able
to trace in Tertullian, writing more than sixteen centuries ago, the
outlines of their own cherished convictions—held by one who
cannot be charged with too great an obsequiousness to traditional
authority, and who at the same time possessed honesty, earnestness, and
intelligence enough to make him an unexceptionable witness to facts of
such a kind. The translator would only add, that he has, in compliance
with the wise canon laid down by the editors of this series,
endeavoured always to present to the reader the meaning of the author
in readable English, keeping as near as idiomatic rules allowed to the
sense and even style of the original. Amidst the many well-known
difficulties of Tertullian’s writings (and his
Anti-Marcion is not exempt from any of these
difficulties,2318
2318 Bishop Kaye says of
Tertullian (page 62): “He is indeed the harshest and most obscure
of writers, and the least capable of being accurately represented in a
translation;” and he quotes the learned Ruhnken’s sentence
of our author: “Latinitatis certè pessimum auctorem esse aio
et confirmo.” This is surely much too sweeping. To the
careful student Tertullian’s style commends itself, by and by, as
suited exactly to his subject—as the terse and vigorous
expression of terse and vigorous thought. Bishop Butler has been often
censured for an awkward style; whereas it is a fairer criticism to say,
that the arguments of the Analogy and the Sermons of Human
Nature have been delivered in the language best suited to their
character. This adaptation of style to matter is probably in all great
authors a real characteristic of genius. A more just and favourable
view is taken of Tertullian’s Latin by Niebuhr, Hist. Rom.
(Schmitz), vol. v. p. 271, and his Lectures on Ancient Hist.
(Schmitz), vol. ii. p. 54. | ) the translator
cannot hope that he has accomplished his labour without mistakes, for
which he would beg the reader’s indulgence. He has, however,
endeavoured to obviate the inconvenience of faulty translation by
quoting in foot-notes all words, phrases, and passages which appeared
to him difficult.2319
2319 He has also, as the
reader will observe, endeavoured to distinguish, by the help of type,
between the true God and Marcion’s god, printing the initials of
the former, and of the pronouns referring to Him, in capitals, and
those of the latter in small letters. To do this was not always an easy
matter, for in many passages the argument amalgamates the two.
Moreover, in the earlier portion of the work the translator fears that
he may have occasionally neglected to make the distinction. | He has also added
such notes as seemed necessary to illustrate the author’s
argument, or to explain any obscure allusions. The translation has been
made always from Oehler’s edition, with the aid of his scholarly
Index Verborum. Use has also been made of Semler’s edition, and
the variorum reprint of the Abbé Migne, the chief result of
which recension has been to convince the translator of the great
superiority and general excellence of Oehler’s edition. When he
had completed two-thirds of his work, he happened to meet with the
French translation of Tertullian by Monr. Denain, in
Genoude’s series, Les Pères de
l’Eglise, published some twenty-five years ago. This
version, which runs in fluent language always, is very unequal in its
relation to the original: sometimes it has the brevity of an
abridgment, sometimes the fulness of a paraphrase. Often does it
miss the author’s point, and never does it keep his style. The
Abbé Migne correctly describes it: “Elegans potius quam
fidissimus interpres, qui Africanæ loquelæ asperitatem
splendenti ornavit sermone, egregiaque interdum et ad vivum expressa
interpretatione recreavit.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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