Re: Re:
jwfelix, 25/11/2007 0.02:
RIPETO: Di come ti sei procurato la citazione
Ti eri dimenticato questo:
a Deut., 33, 17.
Word, which is in truth his very own form and comeliness and
glory. But in his incorporate condition he is, according to the
same prophet, even a worm, and no man, the scorn of men, and
the contempt of the people.d It is no interior quality of his that
he proclaims is of that nature. For if the fullness of the Spirit
has come to rest upon him, I recognize a rod out of the root of
Jesse:e and its flower will be my Christ, upon whom, according
to Isaiah, has rested the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and god-
liness, the Spirit of the fear of God. For there is no one of mankind
in whom this diversity of spiritual testimonies has met together,
except Christ, who was equated with a flower because of the
grace of the Spirit, yet was accounted of the stem of Jesse, being
descended from it through Mary. But I challenge you to say
what you have in mind. If you grant that to him applies all this
humility and patience and non-resistance, and in view of these
he is to be Isaiah's Christ—a man in affliction, and knowing how
to bear weakness,f who has been brought as a sheep to sacrifice,
and as a lamb before the shearer he opened not his mouth: who
neither did strive nor cry, nor was his voice heard out of doors:
who did not break the bruised reed, which means the shaken
faith of the Jews, nor quench the burning flax, which was the
recently kindled ardour of the gentiles—he cannot be any other
than the one the prophet foretold. His activity needs to be re-
viewed by the canon of the scriptures, where, if I mistake not,
it is distinguished as a twofold series of acts, of preaching and of
power. But I shall arrange my treatment of both topics as follows.
Since I have thought it well that Marcion's own gospel should
be brought under discussion, I shall defer until then my treatment
of various aspects of his teaching and miracles, as for the matter
then in hand. Here however in general terms I shall complete the
course I have entered upon, explaining meanwhile that Christ is
announced by Isaiah as one who preaches: for he says, Who is
there among you who feareth God, and will hear the voice of his Son?g
and as a healer, for he says, He himself hath taken away our weak-
nesses and borne
wearinesses.h
18.1 At least in the manner of his death, I suppose, you try to
suggest a difference, alleging that the passion of the cross was
18. 1 This chapter runs parallel with adv. Jud. 10.
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III. 18 ADVERSUS MARCIONEM 225
never prophesied of the Creator's Christ, with a further argu-
ment that it is quite incredible that the Creator should have
exposed his Son to that form of death on which he himself had
laid a curse. Cursed, it says, is every one that hath hung on a tree.a
Now the meaning of this curse I leave for later consideration—
though it is in full keeping solely with that preaching of the cross
which is our present subject of inquiry—because on other occa-
sions also the proof of facts has preceded the explanation of
them. I shall first explain about the types. And certainly there
were most cogent reasons why this mystery could not escape
being prophesied by types and figures. The more incredible it
was, the more offensive it would become if it were prophesied in
plain terms: and the more marvellous it was, the more it needed
to be covered in obscurity, so that difficulty of understanding
might make request for the grace of God. And so Isaac, to begin
with, when delivered up by his father for a sacrifice, himself
carried the wood for himself,b and did at that early date set forth
the death of Christ, who when surrendered as a victim by his
Father carried the wood of his own passion.2 Joseph also, himself
to be a type of Christ—and not for this reason alone not my course> that he suffered persecution from his brethren be-
cause of God's grace, as Christ suffered from the Jews, his brethren
according to the flesh—when blessed by his father in these
precise terms, His glory is that of a bullock, his horns are the horns
of a unicorn: with them will he winnow the nations together, even to the
end of the earth,c was certainly not intended to be a rhinoceros
with one horn or a minotaur with two horns: rather in him
Christ was indicated, a bullock according to both accounts, to
some people stern as a judge, to others kind as a saviour, whose
horns were to be the extremities of the Cross.3 For in a yardarm,
which is part of a cross, the extreme ends are called horns, while
the unicorn is the upright middle post. So then by this virtue of
the Cross, and by being horned after this manner, he is even now
winnowing all the nations through faith, lifting them up from
earth into heaven, as he will afterwards winnow them by judge-
ment, casting them down from heaven to earth. He is also to be
found as a bullock in another place in the same scripture, where
18. 2 On Isaac carrying the wood, and on Joseph persecuted by his
brethren, Melito, de pascha 59.
3 On types of the Cross: Justin, dial. 91, 94, 112; Tertullian, ad nat. i. 12.
Visto che fai il sapientone ti mettiamo sia l'inglese che il latino
224 TERTULLIAN III. 18
argumentantes insuper non esse credendum ut in id genus mortis
exposuerit creator filium suum quod ipse maledixerat. Maledictus,
inquit, omnis qui pependerit in ligno. Sed huius maledictionis
sensum differo, dignae sola praedicatione crucis, de qua nunc
maxime quaeritur, quia et alias antecedit rerum probatio rationem.
De figuris prius edocebo. [2] Et utique vel maxime sacramentum
istud figurari in praedicatione oportebat, quanto incredibile,
tanto magis scandalo futurum si nude praedicaretur, quantoque
magnificum, tanto magis obumbrandum, ut difficultas intellectus
gratiam dei quaereret. Itaque inprimis Isaac, cum a patre in
hostiam deditus lignum sibi ipse portaret, Christi exitum iam
tunc denotabat, in victimam concessi a patre et lignum passionis
suae baiulantis. [3] Ioseph et ipse Christum figuraturus1 (nec hoc
solo, ne demorer cursum, quod persecutionem a fratribus passus
est ob dei gratiam, sicut et Christus a Iudaeis carnaliter fratribus)
cum benedicitur a patre etiam in haec verba, Tauri decor eius,
cornua unicornis cornua eius, in eis nationes ventilabit pariter
ad summum usque terrae: non utique rhinoceros destinabatur
unicornis nec minotaurus bicornis, sed Christus in illo significaba-
tur, taurus ob utramque dispositionem, aliis ferus ut iudex, aliis
mansuetus ut salvator, cuius cornua essent crucis extima. [4] Nam
et in antenna, quae crucis pars est, extremitates cornua vocantur;
unicornis autem medius stipitis palus. Hac denique virtute crucis
et hoc naore cornutus universas gentes et nunc ventilat per fidem,
auferens a terra in caelum, et tunc per iudicium ventilabit,
deiciens de caelo in terram. [5] Idem erit et alibi taurus apud eandem
18. 1 figuraturus Eng.: figuratus MR: vel Ursinum secutus scribere possis in Chri-
stum figuratus
18. a Deut. 21: 23; Gal. 3: 13 b cf. Gen. 22:6 c Deut. 33:17
Ma voi credete che siete i soli a fare gruppo ?? e visto che ci sei perchè non ci dimostri la tua bravura traducendo i pezzi più importanti dal latino ??