Tertullian — Against Marcion 7

And the hidden things of darkness He will Himself bring to light, 1 Corinthians 4:5 even by Christ; for He has promised Christ to be a Light, Isaiah 42:6 and Himself He has declared to be a lamp, searching the hearts and reins. From Him also shall praise be had by every man, 1 Corinthians 4:5 from whom proceeds, as from a judge, the opposite also of praise. But here, at least, you say he interprets the world to be the God thereof, when he says: We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels , and to men. 1 Corinthians 4:9 For if by world he had meant the people thereof, he would not have afterwards specially mentioned men . To prevent, however, your using such an argument as this, the Holy Ghost has providentially explained the meaning of the passage thus: We are made a spectacle to the world, i.e.

both to angels , who minister therein, and to men , who are the objects of their ministration. Of course, a man of the noble courage of our apostle (to say nothing of the Holy Ghost ) was afraid, when writing to the children whom he had begotten in the gospel, to speak freely of the God of the world; for against Him he could not possibly seem to have a word to say, except only in a straightforward manner! I quite admit, that, according to the Creator's law, Leviticus 18:8 the man was an offender who had his father's wife. 1 Corinthians 5:1 He followed, no doubt , the principles of natural and public law. When, however, he condemns the man to be delivered unto Satan , 1 Corinthians 5:5 he becomes the herald of an avenging God.

It does not matter that he also said, For the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord, 1 Corinthians 5:5 since both in the destruction of the flesh and in the saving of the spirit there is, on His part, judicial process; and when he bade the wicked person be put away from the midst of them, 1 Corinthians 5:13 he only mentioned what is a very frequently recurring sentence of the Creator. Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. 1 Corinthians 5:7 The unleavened bread was therefore, in the Creator's ordinance, a figure of us ( Christians ). For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. 1 Corinthians 5:7 But why is Christ our passover, if the passover be not a type of Christ , in the similitude of the blood which saves, and of the Lamb, which is Christ?

Exodus 12 Why does (the apostle) clothe us and Christ with symbols of the Creator's solemn rites , unless they had relation to ourselves? When, again, he warns us against fornication, he reveals the resurrection of the flesh. The body, says he, is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body, 1 Corinthians 6:13 just as the temple is for God , and God for the temple. A temple will therefore pass away with its god, and its god with the temple. You see, then, how that He who raised up the Lord will also raise us up. 1 Corinthians 6:14 In the body will He raise us, because the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And suitably does he add the question: Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? 1 Corinthians 6:15 What has the heretic to say?