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| The Lateness of the Revelation of Marcion's God. The Question of the Place Occupied by the Rival Deities. Instead of Two Gods, Marcion Really (Although, as It Would Seem, Unconsciously) Had Nine Gods in His System. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XV.—The
Lateness of the Revelation of Marcion’s God. The Question of the
Place Occupied by the Rival Deities. Instead of Two Gods, Marcion
Really (Although, as It Would Seem, Unconsciously) Had Nine Gods in His
System.
After all, or, if you like,2502 before all, since you have said that he has
a creation2503 of his own, and his
own world, and his own sky; we shall see,2504
2504 Adv. Marcionem,
v. 12. |
indeed, about that third heaven, when we come to discuss even your own
apostle.2505
2505 For
Marcion’s exclusive use, and consequent abuse, of St.
Paul, see Neander’s Antignostikus (Bohn), vol. ii.
pp. 491, 505, 506. | Meanwhile, whatever is the (created)
substance, it ought at any rate to have made its appearance in company
with its own god. But now, how happens it that the Lord has been
revealed since the twelfth year of Tiberius Cæsar, while no
creation of His at all has been discovered up to the fifteenth of the
Emperor Severus;2506
2506 [This date not merely
settles the time of our author’s work against Marcion, but
supplies us with evidence that his total lapse must have been very late
in life. For the five books, written at intervals and marked by
progressive tokens of his spiritual decline, are as a whole, only
slightly offensive to Orthodoxy. This should be borne in mind.] | although, as being
more excellent than the paltry works2507
2507 Frivolis. Again in
reference to Marcion undervaluing the creation as the work of the
Demiurge. | of the
Creator, it should certainly have ceased to conceal itself, when its
lord and author no longer lies hid? I ask, therefore,2508 if it was unable to manifest itself in this
world, how did its Lord appear in this world? If this world received
its Lord, why was it not able to receive the created substance, unless
perchance it was greater than its Lord? But now there arises a question
about place, having reference both to the world above and to the God
thereof. For, behold, if he2509
2509 In this and the
following sentences, the reader will observe the distinction which is
drawn between the Supreme and good God of Marcion and his
“Creator,” or Demiurge. | has his own world
beneath him, above the Creator, he has certainly fixed it in a
position, the space of which was empty between his own feet and the
Creator’s head. Therefore God both Himself occupied local space,
and caused the world to occupy local space; and this local space, too,
will be greater than God and the world together. For in no case is that
which contains not greater than that which is contained. And
indeed we must look well to it that no small patches2510 be left here and there vacant, in which some
third god also may be able with a world of his own to foist himself
in.2511 Now, begin to reckon up your gods. There
will be local space for a god, not only as being greater than God, but
as being also unbegotten and unmade, and therefore eternal, and equal
to God, in which God has ever been. Then, inasmuch as He too has
fabricated2512 a world out of some
underlying material which is unbegotten, and unmade, and
contemporaneous with God, just as Marcion holds of the Creator, you
reduce this likewise to the dignity of that local space which has
enclosed two gods, both God and matter. For matter also is a god
according to the rule of Deity, being (to be sure) unbegotten, and
unmade, and eternal. If, however, it was out of nothing that he made
his world, this also (our heretic) will be obliged to
predicate2513 of the Creator, to
whom he subordinates2514 matter in the
substance of the world. But it will be only right that
he2515
2515 The Supreme and good
God. Tertullian here gives it as one of Marcion’s tenets, that
the Demiurge created the World out of pre-existent matter. | too should have made his world out of
matter, because the same process occurred to him as God which lay
before the Creator as equally God. And thus you may, if you please,
reckon up so far,2516 three gods as
Marcion’s,—the Maker, local space, and matter.
Furthermore,2517 he in like manner
makes the Creator a god in local space, which is itself to be appraised
on a precisely identical scale of dignity; and to Him as its lord he
subordinates matter, which is notwithstanding unbegotten, and unmade,
and by reason hereof eternal. With this matter he further associates
evil, an unbegotten principle with an unbegotten object, an unmade with
an unmade, and an eternal with an eternal; so here he makes a fourth
God. Accordingly you have three substances of Deity in the higher
instances, and in the lower ones four. When to these are added their
Christs—the one which appeared in the time of Tiberius, the other
which is promised by the Creator—Marcion suffers a manifest wrong
from those persons who assume that he holds two gods, whereas he
implies2518 no less than
nine,2519
2519 Namely, (1) the
supreme and good God; (2) His Christ; (3) the space in which He
dwells; (4) the matter of His creation; (5) the Demiurge
(or Marcion’s “Creator”); (6) his promised Christ;
(7) the space which contains him; (8) this world, his creation;
(9) evil, inherent in it. | though he knows it not.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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