Voices and influences
Tertullian
The Carthaginian lawyer who gave the church the word Trinity and told Rome the blood of martyrs is seed.
Summary
This site quotes Tertullian 402 times across 40 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 220.
- Quoted here most in Luke: 65 of 402.
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Tertullian
- Lived
- died 220
- Tradition
- Early Church
5 of 402 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because Tertullian died in 220 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.
Why, even now the followers of Simon [Magus] are so confident of their art that they undertake to bring back the souls of the prophets from hell. And this, I believe, because their power lies in their ability to deceive.
The rest of the quotation
This power was actually granted to the witch of Endor, who brought back the soul of Samuel after Saul had consulted God in vain. Apart from that case, God forbid we should believe that any soul, much less a prophet, could be called forth by a demon.
1 Samuel 28:14 “What does he look like?” asked Saul. “An old man is coming up,” she replied. “And he is wearing a robe.” So Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed facedown in reverence. BSB
In a manner most germane to this parable, He said by Jeremiah: "Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and ye shall walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you."
The rest of the quotation
This is the invitation of God. "But," says He, "they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear." This is the refusal of the people. "They departed, and walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart." "I have bought a field-and I have bought some oxen-and I have married a wife."
Jeremiah 7:23–26 but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you. Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. From the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets again and again. Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers. BSB
Look here then, say you: I discover a self-incriminating case in the matter of the Ninevites, when the book of Jonah declares, "And God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not."
The rest of the quotation
In accordance with which Jonah himself says unto the Lord, "Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil."
Jonah 3:9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.” BSB
Such eye-witnesses the Lord in infancy found; no different ones had He in adult age. Peter alone do I find-through (the mention of) his "mother-in-law" ,-to have been married.
Mark 1:29 As soon as Jesus and His companions had left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. BSB
How, if there can be a threat without its accomplishment, can you have in a threatening god, one that executes also, and in both, one that is a judicial being?
The rest of the quotation
So, again, He commands that the dust be shaken off against them, as a testimony,-the very particles of their ground which might cleave to the sandal, not to mention any other sort of communication with them. But if their churlishness and inhospitality were to receive no vengeance from Him, for what purpose does He premise a testimony, which surely forbodes some threats?
Luke 10:11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off as a testimony against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Tertullian 402 times across 40 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus was born at Carthage around 155, trained in Roman law and rhetoric, and converted as an adult. Jerome says his father was an officer of the proconsul and that Tertullian himself became a presbyter; modern scholars doubt both details, and Tertullian never mentions either. What is beyond doubt is the training. Everything he wrote reads like a brief. He was the first major Christian author to write in Latin, and because he was first he had to build the vocabulary. He is the earliest writer known to use trinitas — Trinity — of God, and he supplied the formula the church has used ever since: one substance in three persons, substantia and persona, both terms taken straight out of Roman law where they meant an estate and a party to a case. Sacramentum, satisfaction, merit — a great deal of the working language of Western theology comes out of this one man's desk. His Apology, written about 197 and addressed to the governors of the empire, is the most aggressive defense of Christians ever written. He argues the trials are illegal on Rome's own terms, that Christians are convicted for a name and not an act, that the same magistrates enforce laws they privately despise. Then he turns it: kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to powder — your cruelty proves nothing except our innocence, and the more you mow us down the more we grow. The blood of Christians is seed. He wrote against Marcion, who had cut the Old Testament and most of the New out of the Bible, in five books. He wrote against Praxeas, who taught that the Father suffered on the cross. He wrote On the Prescription of Heretics, arguing that heretics had no right even to appeal to Scripture since the Scripture belonged to the churches the apostles founded — and asked the question that has been quoted ever since: what has Athens to do with Jerusalem, the Academy with the Church. He wrote on baptism, on prayer, on patience, on the dress of women, on the soldier's crown, on whether a Christian may run from persecution. His answer to that last one was no. Around 207 he joined the New Prophecy, the movement called Montanism, which held that the Spirit was still speaking and demanded a stricter discipline than the bishops would enforce. He never came back. The church that took his vocabulary never canonized him. He died about 220, an old man, still writing. Sources: Tertullian, Apology, Against Marcion, Against Praxeas, On the Prescription of Heretics (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vols. 3–4); Jerome, On Illustrious Men 53; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 2.
402 quotations across 40 books
Where this voice is quoted
And now you will be silent and unable to speak until the day this comes to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their…
“For Zacharias, when punished with a temporary privation of voice, holds colloquy with his mind, and, passing by his bootless tongue, with the help of his hands dictates from his heart, and without his mouth pronounces the name of his son.”
and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in a bodily form like a dove.
“Over the waters of baptism, recognising as it were His primeval seat, He reposes: (He who) glided down on the Lord "in the shape of a dove," in order that the nature of the Holy Spirit might be declared by means of the creature (the…”
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in Your hometown what we have heard that You did in Capernaum.’”
“But Christ will be (the Christ) of the prophets, wheresoever He is found in accordance with the prophets.”
They were astonished at His teaching, because His message had authority.
“" "They were mightily astonished at His doctrine; for He was teaching as one who had power." And again: "Therefore, my people shall know my name in that day.”
At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place, and the crowds were looking for Him. They came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving.
“"He departed, and went into a desert place." This was, indeed, the Creator's customary region. It was proper that the Word should there appear in body, where before he had appeared in a cloud.”
and so were his partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus said to Simon. “From now on you will catch men.”
“Do you hesitate about arts, and trades, and about professions likewise, for the sake of children and parents?”
Then Jesus declared, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
“Wishing, therefore, to initiate them into this meaning of the law by the restoration of the withered hand, He requires, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath-days to do good, or not? to save life, or to destroy it?”
Simon, whom He named Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew;
“Again, He changes the name of Simon to peter, inasmuch as the Creator also altered the names of Abram, and Sarai, and Oshea, by calling the latter Joshua, and adding a syllable to each of the former.”
Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers treated the false prophets in the same way.
“"Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets."”
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
“So that, whatever was the ampler scope of His teaching, He received it all in His heritage of the nations. "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."”
And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.
“And now, on the subject of a loan, when He asks, "And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye?”
For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be made known and brought to light.
“I am, moreover, astonished when he says that "a candle is not usually hidden," who had hidden himself-a greater and more needful light-during so long a time; and when he promises that "everything shall be brought out of its secrecy and made manifest," who hitherto…”
Pay attention, therefore, to how you listen. Whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.”
“He, however, was teaching them that it was the ears of the heart which were necessary; and with these the Creator had said that they would not hear.”
When Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, he was perplexed. For some were saying that John had risen from the dead,
“Again, that it was no new god which recommended by Christ, was dearly attested by the opinion of all men, because some maintained to Herod that Jesus was the Christ; others, that He was John; some, that He was Elias; and others, that He was…”
“The Son of Man must suffer many things,” He said. “He must be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and He must be killed and on the third…
“It was, however, a different reason which He assigned for the silence, even because "the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and scribes, and priests, and be slain, and be raised again the third day."”
If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the…
“Whatsoever is unworthy of God, is of gain to me. I am safe, if I am not ashamed of my Lord. "Whosoever," says He, "shall be ashamed of me, of him will I also be ashamed."”
“O unbelieving and perverse generation!” Jesus replied. “How long must I remain with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
“Let Marcion's Christ stand forth, and exclaim, "O faithless generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?”
Then Jesus declared, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
“Yet I must necessarily prescribe you a law, not to stretch out your hand after the old things, not to look backwards: for "the old things are passed away," according to Isaiah; and "a renewing hath been renewed," according to Jeremiah; and "forgetful of former…”
Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’
“That the kingdom of God was neither new nor unheard of, He in this way affirmed, whilst at the same time He bids them announce that it was near at hand.”
‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off as a testimony against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’
“How, if there can be a threat without its accomplishment, can you have in a threatening god, one that executes also, and in both, one that is a judicial being?”
One day Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. And when the demon was gone, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowds were amazed,
“In like manner, it is He who will give the Holy Spirit, at whose command is also the unholy spirit.”
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and blessed are the breasts that nursed…
“Now, as Marcion was apprehensive that a belief of the fleshly body would also involve a belief of birth, undoubtedly He who seemed to be man was believed to be verily and indeed born.”
There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.
“Since, then, He had censured their hypocrisy, which covered the secrets of the heart, and obscured with superficial offices the mysteries of unbelief, because (while holding the key of knowledge) it would neither enter in itself, nor permit others to enter in, He therefore adds…”
But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear the One who, after you have been killed, has authority to throw you into hell.
“"But I will show you whom ye shall fear: fear Him who, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell" (meaning, of course, the Creator); "yea, I say unto you, fear Him."”
For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.
“We who carry about our very soul, our very body, exposed in this world to injury from all, and exhibit patience under that injury; shall we be hurt at the loss of less important things?”