Tertullian — Against Marcion 4.37
Zacchaeus’s house also obtains salvation. By what merit? Had even he believed Christ came from Marcion’s god? Yet that blind man’s voice was still in everyone’s ears: Have mercy on me, Jesus, son of David—and all the people were referring praises to God, not Marcion’s, but David’s.
Indeed Zacchaeus, though a foreigner, yet perhaps touched by some notice of the Scriptures from Jewish commerce—more still if even ignorant of Isaiah—had fulfilled his precepts: Break your bread for the hungry and bring those without roof into your house—this he was doing most of all, receiving the Lord hosted in his house and feeding him—and if you see someone naked, cover him; this he was promising most of all, offering half his substance into all mercy’s works, loosing bonds of violent contracts and dismissing the oppressed into ease and scattering every unjust writing by saying: And if I have seized anything from anyone by calumny, I repay fourfold.
Therefore the Lord: Today, he says, salvation to this house. He bore witness that what the Creator’s prophet had commanded is saving. When moreover he says: For the Son of Man came to save what perished, I am not now contending that he came to save what had perished belonging to him and for whom it had perished that he had come to save—but I steer into another question’s grade.
That a human is at issue there is no doubt. Since this consists of two substances, body and soul, it must be asked from which species of substance he seems to have perished. If from body, then body had perished, not soul; what had perished the Son of Man saves: therefore flesh also has salvation. If he had perished from soul, the soul’s perdition is destined for salvation; flesh, which did not perish, is safe. If the whole human had perished from each substance, the whole human must necessarily be made safe—and the heretics’ sentence denying flesh’s salvation is crushed. Already also the Creator’s Christ is confirmed, who according to the Creator was promising salvation of the whole human.
The servants’ parable too, who are judged according to the reckoning of the Lord’s money put out at interest, shows your god a judge even from the side of severity—not only loading but also taking away what someone seems to have had. Or if he also fashioned these as the Creator—harsh, taking what he did not place and reaping what he did not sow—here too that one instructs me whose money he teaches me to put out at interest.
Latin
Consequitur et Zacchei domus salutem. quo merito? numquid uel ille crediderat Christum a (deo) Marcionis uenisse? atquin adhuc in auribus erat omnium uox illa caeci: miserere mei, Iesu, fili Dauid, et: omnis populus laudes referebant deo, non Marcionis, sed Dauid. enimuero Zaccheus, etsi allophylus, fortasse tamen aliqua notitia scripturarum ex commercio Iudaico adflatus, — plus est autem, (si) et ignorans Esaiam — praecepta eius impleuerat: confringito, inquit, panem tuum esurienti et non habentes tectum in domum tuam inducito — hoc cum maxime agebat, exceptum domo sua pascens dominum — et nudum si uideris, contegito; hoc cum maxime promittebat, in omnia misericordiae opera dimidium substantiae offerens, dissoluens uiolentiorum contractuum obnexus et dimittens conflictatos in laxamentum et omnem conscriptionem iniquam dissipans dicendo: et si cui quid per calumniam eripui, quadruplum reddo. itaque dominus: hodie, inquit, salus huic domui. testimonium dixit salutaria esse quae praeceperat prophetes creatoris. cum uero dicit: uenit enim filius hominis saluum facere quod periit, iam non contendo eum uenisse, ut saluum faceret quod perierat cuius fuerat et cui perierat quod saluum uenerat facere, sed in alterius quaestionis gradum dirigo. de homine agi nulla dubitatio est. hic cum ex duabus substantiis constet, ex corpore et anima, quaerendum est, ex qua substantiae specie perisse uideatur. si ex corpore, ergo corpus perierat, anima non. quod perierat saluum facit filius hominis: habet igitur et caro salutem, si ex anima perierat, animae perditio saluti destinatur: caro, quae non periit, salua est. si totus homo perierat ex utraque substantia, totus homo saluus fiat necesse est, et elisa est sententia haereticorum negantium carnis salutem. iam et Christus creatoris confirmatur, qui secundum creatorem totius hominis salutem pollicebatur. Seruorum quoque parabola, qui secundum rationem feneratae pecuniae dominicae diiudicantur, iudicem ostendit deum (tuum) etiam ex parte seueritatis, non tantum onerantem uerum et auferentem quod quis uideatur habuisse. aut si et haec creatorem finxerit, (austerum, tollentem quod non posuerit et metentem quod non seuerit,' hic quoque me ille instruit, cuius pecuniam ut fenerem edocet.