Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 3) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Conclude 'Against Praxeas'.
My summary
Today Tertullian finishes his work on the trinity which is directed against the heretic Praxeas.
Firstly Tertullian continues to show the unity of the Father and Son.
But then Tertullian spends most of today's reading demonstrating that the Father and Son are distinct persons, particularly by quoting from:
(i) John;
(ii) Matthew;
(iii) Luke;
(iv) Paul.
There is also a brief assertion of the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
What grabbed me
I appreciated Tertullian's affirmation that the Father did not suffer at the cross: 'Very well, say you; since we on our side affirm our doctrine in precisely the same terms which you use on your side respecting the Son, we are not guilty of blasphemy against the Lord God, for we do not maintain that He died after the divine nature, but only after the human. Nay, but you do blaspheme; because you allege not only that the Father died, but that He died the death of the cross. For “cursed are they which are hanged on a tree,”—a curse which, after the law, is compatible to the Son (inasmuch as “Christ has been made a curse for us,” but certainly not the Father); since, however, you convert Christ into the Father, you are chargeable with blasphemy against the Father. But when we assert that Christ was crucified, we do not malign Him with a curse; we only re-affirm the curse pronounced by the law: nor indeed did the apostle utter blasphemy when he said the same thing as we. Besides, as there is no blasphemy in predicating of the subject that which is fairly applicable to it; so, on the other hand, it is blasphemy when that is alleged concerning the subject which is unsuitable to it. On this principle, too, the Father was not associated in suffering with the Son.'
Amen.
Next week's reading
Read 'Scorpiace' and 'Against all heresies'
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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