Tertullian — Commentary on Scripture

Jeremiah 2:13

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

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.”

Jeremiah 4:4 · 2 passages

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

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.”

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.

Jeremiah 7:16

Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

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.”

Jeremiah 7:24-26

But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

“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.”

Jeremiah 14:10-12

Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

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.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

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.”

Jeremiah 17:9 · 2 passages

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

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?”

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.”

Jeremiah 17:10 · 2 passages

I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

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.”

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.

Jeremiah 18:11

Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

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.

Jeremiah 31:1-8

At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

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.

Jeremiah 32:1-44

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.

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.

Jeremiah 32:19

Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:

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.

Jeremiah 51:15

He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.

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.

Joel 2:22

Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

David said that “the Lord would reign from the tree.” Elsewhere too the prophet predicts the fruit of this tree, saying, “The earth has given its blessings”6—of course that virgin earth, not yet irrigated with rains or fertilized by showers, out of which humanity was of old first formed, out of which now Christ through the flesh has been born of a virgin. “And the tree bears its fruit”—not that tree in paradise, which yielded death to the first humans, but the tree of the passion of Christ, whence life, hanging, you did not believe!

Joel 2:28-29 · 2 passages

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

We declare, then, that dreams are inflicted on us mainly by demons, although they sometimes turn out true and favorable to us. When, however, with the deliberate aim after evil, of which we have just spoken, they assume a flattering and captivating style, they show themselves proportionately vain, and deceitful, and obscure, and wanton, and impure. And no wonder that the images partake of the character of the realities. But from God—who has promised, indeed, “to pour out the grace of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh, and has ordained that his servants and his handmaids should see visions as well as utter prophecies”—must all those visions be regarded as emanating. [Those visions] may be compared with the actual grace of God, as being honest, holy, prophetic, inspired, instructive, inviting to virtue, the bountiful nature of which causes them to overflow even to the profane, since God, with grand impartiality, “sends his showers and sunshine on the just and on the unjust.”

You hold to the Scriptures in which the flesh is disparaged; receive also those in which it is ennobled. You read whatever passage abases it. Now direct your eyes also to that which elevates it. “All flesh is grass.” Well, but Isaiah was not content to say only this; he also declared, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Then notice what God says in Genesis: “My spirit shall not remain among these men, because they are flesh”; but then he is also heard saying by Joel, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.” Even the apostle ought not to be known for any one statement in which he is inclined to reproach the flesh. Admittedly he says that “in his flesh dwells no good thing” and “they who are in the flesh cannot please God,” because “the flesh lusts against the Spirit.” Yet in these and similar assertions that he makes, it is not the substance of the flesh, but its actions, which are censured. Moreover, we shall elsewhere take occasion to remark that no reproaches can fairly be cast upon the flesh without tending also to the castigation of the soul, which compels the flesh…

You hold to the Scriptures in which the flesh is disparaged; receive also those in which it is ennobled. You read whatever passage abases it. Now direct your eyes also to that which elevates it. “All flesh is grass.” Well, but Isaiah was not content to say only this; he also declared, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Then notice what God says in Genesis: “My spirit shall not remain among these men, because they are flesh”; but then he is also heard saying by Joel, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.” Even the apostle ought not to be known for any one statement in which he is inclined to reproach the flesh. Admittedly he says that “in his flesh dwells no good thing” and “they who are in the flesh cannot please God,” because “the flesh lusts against the Spirit.” Yet in these and similar assertions that he makes, it is not the substance of the flesh, but its actions, which are censured. Moreover, we shall elsewhere take occasion to remark that no reproaches can fairly be cast upon the flesh without tending also to the castigation of the soul, which compels the flesh to do its bidding. However, let me meanwhile add that in the same passage Paul “carries about in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” He also forbids our body to be profaned, since it is “the temple of God.” He makes our bodies “the members of Christ.” And he exhorts us to exalt and “glorify God in our body.” If, therefore, the humiliations of the flesh do not prevent its resurrection, why wouldn’t its high prerogatives avail to bringing it about? It better suits the character of God to restore to salvation what for a while he rejected, than to surrender to perditions what he once approved.

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Now if He too is God, according to John, (who says.) "The Word was God," then you have two Beings-One that commands that the thing be made.