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| The Tables Turned Upon Marcion, by Contrasts, in Favour of the True God. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XXVIII.—The Tables
Turned Upon Marcion, by Contrasts, in Favour of the True
God.
Now, touching the weaknesses and malignities, and
the other (alleged), notes (of the Creator), I too shall advance
antitheses in rivalry to Marcion’s. If my God knew not of
any other superior to Himself, your god also was utterly unaware that
there was any beneath himself. It is just what Heraclitus “the
obscure”3069
3069 Tenebrosus.
Cicero, De finibus, ii. says: “Heraclitus qui
cognomento Σκοτεινὸς
perhibetur, quia de natura nimis obscure memoravit.” | said; whether it be
up or down,3070
3070 Sursam et deorsum. An
allusion to Heraclitus’ doctrine of constant change, flux and
reflux, out of which all things came. Καὶ τὴν
μεταβολὴν
ὁδὸν ἄνω
κάτω, τόν τε
κόσμον
γίνεσθαι
κατὰ ταύτην,
κ.τ.λ. “Change is the way up and down; the
world comes into being thus,” etc. (Diogenes Laertius, ix.
8). | it comes to the
same thing. If, indeed, he was not ignorant (of his position), it must
have occurred to Him from the beginning. Sin and death, and the author
of sin too—the devil—and all the evil which my God
permitted to be, this also, did your god permit; for he allowed Him to
permit it. Our God changed His purposes;3071 in
like manner yours did also. For he who cast his look so late in the
human race, changed that purpose, which for so long a period had
refused to cast that look. Our God repented Him of the evil in a
given case; so also did yours. For by the fact that he at last had
regard to the salvation of man, he showed such a repentance of his
previous disregard3072 as was due for a
wrong deed. But neglect of man’s salvation will be accounted a
wrong deed, simply because it has been remedied3073 by
his repentance in the conduct of your god. Our God you say
commanded a fraudulent act, but in a matter of gold and silver. Now,
inasmuch as man is more precious than gold and silver, in so far is
your god more fraudulent still, because he robs man of his Lord and
Creator. Eye for eye does our God require; but your god does even a
greater injury, (in your ideas,) when he prevents an act of
retaliation. For what man will not return a blow, without waiting
to be struck a second time.3074 Our
God (you say) knows not whom
He ought to choose. Nor does your god, for if he had foreknown the
issue, he would not have chosen the traitor Judas. If you allege that
the Creator practised deception3075 in any
instance, there was a far greater mendacity in your Christ, whose very
body was unreal.3076
3076 Non verum. An allusion
to the Docetism of Marcion. | Many were consumed
by the severity of my God. Those also who were not saved by your god
are verily disposed by him to ruin. My God ordered a man to be
slain. Your god willed himself to be put to death; not less a
homicide against himself than in respect of him by whom he meant to be
slain. I will moreover prove to Marcion that they were many who were
slain by his god; for he made every one a homicide: in other words, he
doomed him to perish, except when people failed in no duty towards
Christ.3077
3077 Nihil deliquit in
Christum, that is, Marcion’s Christ. | But the
straightforward virtue of truth is contented with few
resources.3078 Many things will be
necessary for falsehood.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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