One of the most extensive resources on the internet
for the study of early Christianity
Tertullian on TheTrinity - Latin Text with English translation
From Adversus Praxeam - Against Praxeas, chapters 2 and 3. Three Persons, one Substance
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more about our use of cookies here. Click here to read at earlychurchtexts.com in the original Latin (with dictionary lookup links). The English translation below is from the ANF series. earlychurchtexts.com
Try out the feature
rich subscription version of the Early Church Texts website for just $5
for a trial period or $30 for a year ($15 student rate). Click
here for more information. Check out the video demo of the site. Click here to go to the Early Church Texts Home Page
for the publicly available version of the site which has just the original Greek and Latin texts with dictionary lookup links. |
Relevant
books Studies
Eric Francis Osborn --------------
Tertullian: A Historical and Literary Study --------------
Early Christian Thinkers: The Lives and Legacies of Twelve Key Figures --------------
The Early Christian World --------------
Tertullian and the Church -------------- Ancient Rhetoric and the Art of Tertullian (Oxford theological monographs) Robert D. Sider -------------- David E. Wilhite -------------- Translations Tertullian (The Early Church Fathers)
-------------- Disciplinary, Moral And Ascetical Works
-------------- Tertullian: Apologetical Works, & Minucius Felix: Octavius
-------------- 28. Tertullian: Treatises on Penance: On Penitence and On Purity (Ancient Christian Writers)
-------------- 13. Tertullian: Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage: To His Wife, An Exhortation to Chastity, Monogamy (Ancient Christian Writers)
-------------- Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian (Selections from the Fathers of the Church) -------------- Tertullian, Cyprian, And Origen On The Lord's Prayer (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series)
-------------- 24. Tertullian: The Treatise against Hermogenes (Ancient Christian Writers)
|
2. In the course of time, then, the Father forsooth
was born, and the Father suffered, God Himself, the Lord Almighty, whom in their
preaching they declare to be Jesus Christ. We, however, as we indeed always have
done (and more especially since we have been better instructed by the Paraclete,
who leads men indeed into all truth), believe that there is one only God, but
under the following dispensation, or οἰκονομία , as it is called, that this one
only God has also a Son, His Word, who proceeded from Himself, by whom all
things were made, and without whom nothing was made. Him we believe to
have been sent by the Father into the Virgin, and to have been born of her—being
both Man and God, the Son of Man and the Son of God, and to have been called by
the name of Jesus Christ; we believe Him to have suffered, died, and been
buried, according to the Scriptures, and, after He had been raised again by the
Father and taken back to heaven, to be sitting at the right hand of the Father,
and that He will come to judge the quick and the dead; who sent also from
heaven from the Father, according to His own promise, the Holy Ghost, the
Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, and
in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost. That this rule of faith has come down to us
from the beginning of the gospel, even before any of the older heretics, much
more before Praxeas, a pretender of yesterday, will be apparent both from
the lateness of date which marks all heresies, and also from the absolutely
novel character of our new-fangled Praxeas. In this principle also we must
henceforth find a presumption of equal force against all heresies
whatsoever—that whatever is first is true, whereas that is spurious which is
later in date. But keeping this prescriptive rule inviolate, still some
opportunity must be given for reviewing (the statements of heretics), with a
view to the instruction and protection of divers persons; were it only that it
may not seem that each perversion of the truth is condemned without
examination, and simply prejudged; especially in the case of this heresy, which
supposes itself to possess the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe
in One Only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person. As if in this way also one were not
All, in that All are of One, by unity (that is) of substance; while the mystery
of the dispensation is still guarded, which distributes the Unity into a
Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons—the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost: three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in
substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect; yet of one substance, and
of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these
degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. How they are susceptible of number without
division, will be shown as our treatise proceeds. |
Mac Users please note that the site may not work with Safari versions lower than version 4. (It has been tested with version 4.0.3.) It will work with Firefox, which can be downloaded from here.
Please note that for all features of the site to work correctly javascript must be enabled and the operation of "pop-up" windows must not be blocked. Click here for more information.
Tertullian
The Trinity
Three in One
Adversus Praxeam
Adversus Praxean
Against Praxeas
three persons
one substance
Migne Latin
Patrologiae Latinae Cursus Completus
Patrologia Latina