Tertullian — Commentary on Scripture

Jeremiah 1:5

The embryo therefore becomes a human being in the womb from the moment that its form is completed. The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the one who shall cause an abortion, inasmuch as there exists already the rudiment of a human being that has imputed to it even now the condition of life and death, since it is already liable to the issues of both, although, by living still in the mother, it for the most part shares its own state with the mother.

ON THE SOUL 37

Jeremiah 1:5

Read the word of God that was spoken to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” God not only forms us in the womb; he also breathes on us as he did at the first creation, when “the Lord God formed man and breathed into him the breath of life.” And God could not have known a person in the womb, except in his entire nature: “And before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you.” Well, was it then a dead body at that early stage? Certainly not. For “God is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

ON THE SOUL 26

Jeremiah 1:9

The Scripture narrative goes on to explain in a popular manner that “they did not understand that he spoke to them about the Father,” although they ought certainly to have known that the Father’s words were uttered in the Son because they read in Jeremiah, “And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.’ ”

AGAINST PRAXEAS 22

Jeremiah 2:13

This “tree” is a mystery. In ancient times, Moses sweetened the bitter water with it. The people who were perishing of thirst in the desert drank and were revived because of it. We do this, too. We were drawn out from the calamities of the world in which we were lingering, perishing with thirst (that is, deprived of the divine Word). We drank “by the faith which is on him,” the baptismal water of the “tree” of the passion of Christ. We have revived the faith from which Israel has fallen away, as foretold through Jeremiah, who says, “Send, and continue to ask whether such things have been done, whether nations will change their gods (and these are not gods!). But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled at this, O heavens!”—and when were they appalled? Undoubtedly when Christ suffered—“and be shocked,” he says, “utterly desolate.”

AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 13

Jeremiah 4:4

This was God’s forethought: He gave circumcision to Israel, as a sign by which they might be identified when the time should arrive that their above-mentioned reward should prevent them from entering Jerusalem. This situation, because it would come to be, was announced. Because we see it accomplished, we recognize it. Just as the physical circumcision, which was temporary, was made to be “a sign” in a rebellious people, so spiritual circumcision has been given for salvation to an obedient people.The prophet Jeremiah says, “Renew yourselves, and do not sow among thorns. Be circumcised to God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart,” and in another place he says, “Behold, days shall come, the Lord says, when I will draw up for the house of Judah and for the house of Jacob a new testament; not such as I once gave their fathers in the day that I led them out from the land of Egypt.”

AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 3

Jeremiah 4:4

Paul mentioned “certain false brethren as having crept in secretly,” who wished to turn the Galatians to another gospel. He shows that that adulteration of the gospel was not meant to transfer them to the faith of another god and christ, but rather to perpetuate the teaching of the law. He blames them for maintaining circumcision and observing times, and days, and months and years, according to those Jewish ceremonies that they ought to have known were now abolished, according to the new dispensation willed by the Creator, who foretold in ancient times this very thing by his prophets. Thus he says by Isaiah: “Old things have passed away. Behold, I will do a new thing.” And in another passage: “I will make a new covenant, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” In the same he said by Jeremiah: Make to yourselves a new covenant, “circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart.” It is this circumcision, therefore, and this renewal, that the apostle insisted on when he forbade those ancient…

Paul mentioned “certain false brethren as having crept in secretly,” who wished to turn the Galatians to another gospel. He shows that that adulteration of the gospel was not meant to transfer them to the faith of another god and christ, but rather to perpetuate the teaching of the law. He blames them for maintaining circumcision and observing times, and days, and months and years, according to those Jewish ceremonies that they ought to have known were now abolished, according to the new dispensation willed by the Creator, who foretold in ancient times this very thing by his prophets. Thus he says by Isaiah: “Old things have passed away. Behold, I will do a new thing.” And in another passage: “I will make a new covenant, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” In the same he said by Jeremiah: Make to yourselves a new covenant, “circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart.” It is this circumcision, therefore, and this renewal, that the apostle insisted on when he forbade those ancient ceremonies concerning which their very founder announced that they were one day to cease.

AGAINST MARCION 1.20

Jeremiah 7:16

Just as God knows how to heal, so does he furthermore know how to smite. He knows how to make peace but likewise permits evils. He prefers repentance but moreover commands Jeremiah not to pray for the reversal of ills on behalf of the sinful people. He says, “If they will fast, I still will not listen to their plea.” And again: “Do not pray to me on behalf of the people, and do not request on their behalf in prayer and supplication, since I will not listen to them in the time when they shall have invoked me, in the time of their affliction.” And further he, the same One who prefers mercy above sacrifice, says, “And do not pray to me on behalf of this people, and do not request that they may obtain mercy, and do not approach me on their behalf, since I will not listen to them in the time wherein they shall have invoked me, in the time of their affliction.”

ON PURITY 2

Jeremiah 7:24-26

“Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people; and you will walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you.” This was God’s invitation. “But,” it says, “they did not listen, nor inclined their ear.” This was Israel’s refusal. “They departed, and walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart.” I have bought a field, I have purchased oxen, I have married a wife. So again he adds: “I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early even before daylight”—this would be the Holy Spirit who calls to those who are feasting—“Yet my people did not listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but stiffened their neck.”

AGAINST MARCION 4.31

Jeremiah 14:10-12

Although God is by nature good, yet he is also just, and as the case requires. He knows how to heal but also how to strike. He brings peace, but he brings about evil. He desires repentance, yet he commands Jeremiah not to intercede for the sinful people, since, he says, even if they fast, I will not hear their prayer.

ON PURITY 2

Jeremiah 17:7-8

For as it says in the psalm, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy,” so also in the gospel, those who sow in laughter, that is, because of joy, shall reap in tears. Long ago did the Creator set these things side by side: Christ, by not changing them but only giving them emphasis, has made them new. “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you.” That is what their ancestors used to do to the false prophets. No less does the Creator, by Isaiah, censure those who seek after the blessing and praise of people: “My people, those who call you blessed, lead you astray and upset the paths of your feet.” And in other terms he even forbids them to have any confidence in a person, and consequently not in human praise, as by Jeremiah, “Cursed is the one who trusts in humankind.”

AGAINST MARCION 4.16

Jeremiah 17:9

The Father, now that he has made him a little lower than the angels, will crown him with glory and honor and will put all things beneath his feet. Then those who pierced him will know who he is and will strike their breasts, tribe to tribe—because in fact they formerly failed to recognize him in the humility of human condition. “And he is man,” says Jeremiah, “and who shall know him?” Because also, Isaiah says, “His nativity, who shall tell of it?”

AGAINST MARCION 3.7

Jeremiah 17:9

For it is of him that Isaiah writes: “A man of suffering and acquainted with the bearing of weakness.” Jeremiah writes: “He is man, and who has known him?” And Daniel writes: “On the clouds he came as the son of man.” The apostle Paul likewise says: “The man Christ Jesus is the one mediator between God and humankind.”

ON THE FLESH OF CHRIST 15

Jeremiah 17:10

The Pharisees, by justifying themselves before people, were placing in people their hope of reward. His rebuke to them had the same bearing as that of the prophet Jeremiah, “Cursed is the one who trusts in humankind.” He says next, “But God knows your hearts.” This was a reference to the power of that God who declared himself a shining light, “searching the hearts and the seats of emotions.” If he turns with hostility toward their pride, “what is exalted among people is an abomination in the sight of God,” he sets Isaiah in front of their eyes, “For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high.”

AGAINST MARCION 4.33

Jeremiah 17:10

God has promised that Christ will be a light and has declared that he himself is a lantern, searching the hearts and seats of affections.

AGAINST MARCION 5.7

Jeremiah 18:11

I affirm that “wickedness” in this context does not signify something that can be referred to the Creator’s nature, as though he were evil, but to his authority, because he is a judge. It was in view of this that he declared, “It is I who create evils,” and, “Behold, I send evils against you.” These are not evils of ill doing but evils of vengeance—and I have already cleared away the ill repute of these by showing them to be fit and proper for a judge. As then, though described as evils, they are no matter of disrepute in a judge, nor by being so described do they stigmatize the judge as evil, so also “wickedness” in this context must now be understood as that which, deriving from those judiciary evils, is along with them proper to a judge.… As then his purpose, being a just one, was not evil, he had decided on it for justice’s sake, not from wickedness. Yet the Scripture has described the punishment itself as “wickedness” because of the well-deserved evil of what they were to suffer.

AGAINST MARCION 2.24

Jeremiah 31:1-8

When Jeremiah says, “And I will gather them together from the extremities of the land in the feast day,” he signifies the day of the Passover and of Pentecost, which is properly a “feast day.” However, every day is the Lord’s. Every hour, every time, is apt for baptism. If there is a difference in the solemnity, there is no distinction in the grace.

ON BAPTISM 19

Jeremiah 32:1-44

Of course nothing is “too hard for the Lord.” But if we choose to apply this principle so extravagantly and harshly in our capricious imaginations, we may then make out God to have done anything we please, on the ground that it was not impossible for him to do it. We must not suppose, however, because he is able to do all things, that he has done what he has not done. But we must inquire whether he has really done it. God could, if he had liked, have furnished humankind with wings to fly with, just as he gave wings to kites. We must not, however, run to the conclusion that he did this because he was able to do it. He might also have extinguished Praxeas and all other heretics at once; it does not follow, however, that he did, simply because he was able. For it was necessary that there should be both kites and heretics; it was necessary also that the Father should be crucified. In one sense there will be something difficult even for God—namely, that which he has not done—not because he could not but because he would not do it. For with God, to be willing is to be able and to be unwill…

Of course nothing is “too hard for the Lord.” But if we choose to apply this principle so extravagantly and harshly in our capricious imaginations, we may then make out God to have done anything we please, on the ground that it was not impossible for him to do it. We must not suppose, however, because he is able to do all things, that he has done what he has not done. But we must inquire whether he has really done it. God could, if he had liked, have furnished humankind with wings to fly with, just as he gave wings to kites. We must not, however, run to the conclusion that he did this because he was able to do it. He might also have extinguished Praxeas and all other heretics at once; it does not follow, however, that he did, simply because he was able. For it was necessary that there should be both kites and heretics; it was necessary also that the Father should be crucified. In one sense there will be something difficult even for God—namely, that which he has not done—not because he could not but because he would not do it. For with God, to be willing is to be able and to be unwilling is to be unable; all that he has willed, however, he has both been able to accomplish and has displayed his ability.

AGAINST PRAXEAS 10

Jeremiah 32:19

You, as a person, know any other person from the way he appears outside. You think the way you see. And you see as far only as your eyes do. But the Scripture says, “The eyes of the Lord are lofty,” “People look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart,” “The Lord sees and knows his own,” and “the plant that my heavenly Father has not planted, he roots up,” and “the first shall,” as he shows, “be last,” and he carries “his fan in his hand to purge his threshing floor.” Let the chaff of a fickle faith fly off as much as it will at every blast of temptation; all the purer will be that heap of corn that shall be laid up in the garner of the Lord.

PRESCRIPTIONS AGAINST HERETICS 3

Jeremiah 51:15

For this is proved by Jeremiah when he says, “God has made the earth by his power; he has established the world by his wisdom and has stretched out the heavens by his understanding.” These are the energies by the exercise of which he made this universe. His glory is greater if he labored. At length on the seventh day he rested from his works. Both one and the other were after his manner.

AGAINST HERMOGENES 45