Tertullian — Against Marcion 35

Then, turning to His disciples , He says: Woe unto him through whom offenses come! It were better for him if he had not been born, or if a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones, Luke 17:1-2 that is, one of His disciples . Judge, then, what the sort of punishment is which He so severely threatens. For it is no stranger who is to avenge the offense done to His disciples . Recognise also in Him the Judge, and one too, who expresses Himself on the safety of His followers with the same tenderness as that which the Creator long ago exhibited: He that touches you touches the apple of my eye. Zechariah 2:8 Such identity of care proceeds from one and the same Being. A trespassing brother He will have rebuked.

Luke 17:3 If one failed in this duty of reproof, he in fact sinned , either because out of hatred he wished his brother to continue in sin , or else spared him from mistaken friendship, although possessing the injunction in Leviticus: You shall not hate your brother in your heart; your neighbor you shall seriously rebuke, and on his account shall not contract sin . Nor is it to be wondered at, if He thus teaches who forbids your refusing to bring back even your brother's cattle, if you find them astray in the road; much more should you bring back your erring brother to himself. He commands you to forgive your brother, should he trespass against you even seven times.

Luke 17:4 But that surely, is a small matter; for with the Creator there is a larger grace , when He sets no limits to forgiveness, indefinitely charging you not to bear any malice against your brother, Leviticus 19:18 and to give not merely to him who asks, but even to him who does not ask. For His will is, not that you should forgive an offense, but forget it. The law about lepers had a profound meaning as respects the forms of the disease itself, and of the inspection by the high priest . The interpretation of this sense it will be our task to ascertain. Marcion's labour, however, is to object to us the strictness of the law, with the view of maintaining that here also Christ is its enemy — forestalling its enactments even in His cure of the ten lepers .

These He simply commanded to show themselves to the priest ; and as they went, He cleansed them Luke 17:11-19 — without a touch, and without a word, by His silent power and simple will. Well, but what necessity was there for Christ , who had been once for all announced as the healer of our sicknesses and sins , and had proved Himself such by His acts, to busy Himself with inquiries into the qualities and details of cures; or for the Creator to be summoned to the scrutiny of the law in the person of Christ?