TESTIMONY OF TERTULLIAN, A. D. 200.
This writer contradicts himself in the most extraordinary manner
concerning the Sabbath and the law of God. He asserts that the Sabbath
was abolished by Christ, and elsewhere emphatically declares that he
did not abolish it. He says that Joshua violated the Sabbath, and then
expressly declares that he did not violate it. He says that Christ
broke the Sabbath, and then shows that he never did this. He represents
the eighth day as more honorable than the seventh, and elsewhere states
just the reverse. He asserts that the law is abolished, and in other
places affirms its perpetual obligation. He speaks of the Lord's day
as the eighth day, and is the second of the early writers who makes
an application of this term to Sunday, if we allow Clement to have
really spoken of it. But though he thus uses the term like Clement he
also like him teaches a perpetual Lord's day, or, like Justin Martyr,
a perpetual Sabbath in the observance of every day. And with the
observance of Sunday as the Lord's day he brings in "offerings for the
dead" and the perpetual use of the sign of the cross. But he expressly
affirms that these things rest, not upon the authority of the
Scriptures, but wholly upon that of tradition and custom. And though he
speaks of the Sabbath as abrogated by Christ, he expressly contradicts
this by asserting that Christ "did not at all rescind the Sabbath,"
and that he imparted an additional sanctity to that day which from the
beginning had been consecrated by the benediction of the Father. This
strange mingling of light and darkness plainly indicates the age in
which this author lived. He was not so far removed from the time of the
apostles but that many clear rays of divine truth shone upon him; and
he was far enough advanced in the age of apostasy to have its dense
darkness materially affect him. He stood on the line between expiring
day and advancing night. Sometimes the law of God was unspeakably
sacred; at other times tradition was of higher authority than the law.
Sometimes divine institutions were alone precious in his estimation; at
others he was better satisfied with those which were sustained only by
custom and tradition.
Tertullian's first reference to Sunday is found in that part of
his Apology in which he excuses his brethren from the charge of
sun-worship. Thus he says:--
"Others, again, certainly with more information and greater
verisimilitude, believe that the sun is our God. We shall be
counted Persians, perhaps, though we do not worship the orb of day
painted on a piece of linen cloth, having himself everywhere in
his own disk. The idea, no doubt, has originated from our being
known to turn to the east in prayer. But you, many of you, also,
under pretense sometimes of worshiping the heavenly bodies, move
your lips in the direction of the sunrise. In the same way, if
we devote Sunday to rejoicing, from a far different reason than
sun-worship, we have some resemblance to those of you who devote
the day of Saturn to ease and luxury, though they, too, go far away
from Jewish ways, of which indeed they are ignorant."--_Thelwell's
Translation_, sect. 16.
Several important facts are presented in this quotation.
1. Sunday was an ancient heathen festival in honor of the sun.
2. Those Christians who observed the festival of Sunday were claimed by
the heathen as sun-worshipers.
3. The entrance of the Sunday festival into the church in an age
of apostasy when men very generally honored it, was not merely not
difficult to be effected, it was actually difficult to be prevented.
It would seem from the closing sentence that some of the heathen
used the seventh day as a day of ease and luxury. But Mr. Reeve's
Translation gives a very different sense. He renders Tertullian thus:--
"We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those
who call this day their Sabbath, and devote it to ease and eating,
deviating from the old Jewish customs, which they are now very
ignorant of."
The persons here mentioned so contemptuously could not be heathens,
for they do not call any day "their Sabbath." Nor could they be Jews,
as is plain from the form of expression used. If we accept Mr. Reeve's
Translation, these persons were Christians who observe the seventh day.
Tertullian does not say that the Sunday festival was observed by divine
authority, but that they might distinguish themselves from those who
call the seventh day the Sabbath.
Tertullian again declares that his brethren did not observe the days
held sacred by the Jews.
"We neither accord with the Jews in their peculiarities in regard
to food, nor in their sacred days."--_Apology_, sect. 21.
But those Christians who would not keep the Sabbath because the
festival of Sunday was in their estimation more worthy of honor, or
more convenient to observe, were greatly given to the observance of
other days, in common with the heathen, besides Sunday. Thus Tertullian
charges home upon them this sin:--
"The Holy Spirit upbraids the Jews with their holy days. 'Your
sabbaths, and new moons, and ceremonies,' says he, 'my soul
hateth.' By us (to whom Sabbaths are strange, and the new
moons, and festivals formerly beloved by God) the Saturnalia
and New Year's and mid-winter's festivals and Matronalia are
frequented--presents come and go--New Year's gifts--games join
their noise--banquets join their din! Oh! better fidelity of
the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the
Christians for itself! Not the Lord's day, not Pentecost, even
if they had known them, would they have shared with us; for they
would fear lest they should seem to be Christians. _We_ are not
apprehensive lest we seem to be _heathens_! If any indulgence is
to be granted to the flesh, you have it. I will not say your own
days, but more too; for to the _heathens_ each festive day occurs
but once annually; _you_ have a festive day every eighth day."--_On
Idolatry_, chap. xiv.
These Sunday-festival Christians, "to whom Sabbaths" were "strange,"
could not have kept Sunday as a Sabbath. They had never heard that by
divine authority the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first
day of the week, and that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. Let any
candid man read the above words from Tertullian, and then deny, if he
can, that these strangers to the Sabbath, and observers of heathen
festivals, were not a body of apostatizing Christians!
Hereafter Tertullian will give an excellent commentary on his quotation
from Isaiah. It seems from him that the so-called Lord's day came once
in eight days. Were these words to be taken in their most obvious
sense, then it would come one day later each week than it did the
preceding week, and thus it would come successively on all the days of
the week in order, at intervals of eight days. He might in such case
well say:--
"However, _every_ day is the Lord's; every hour, every time, is apt
for baptism; if there is a difference in the _solemnity_, in the
_grace_, distinction there is none."--_On Baptism_, chap. xix.
But it seems that Tertullian by the eighth day intended Sunday. And
here is something from him relative to the manner of keeping it. Thus
he says:--
"In the matter of _kneeling_ also, prayer is subject to diversity
of observance, through the act of some few who abstain from
kneeling on the Sabbath; and since this dissension is particularly
on its trial before the churches, the Lord will give his grace that
the dissentients may either yield, or else indulge their opinion
without offense to others. We, however (just as we have received),
only on the day of the Lord's resurrection ought to guard not only
against kneeling, but every posture and office of solicitude;
deferring even our businesses, lest we give any place to the
devil. Similarly, too, in the period of Pentecost; which period
we distinguish by the same solemnity of exultation. But who would
hesitate _every_ day to prostrate himself before God, at least
in the first prayer with which we enter on the daylight."--_On
Prayer_, chap. xxiii.
A more literal translation of this passage would expressly connect the
term Lord's day with the day of Christ's resurrection, the original
being "die Dominico resurrexionis." The special weekly honor which
Tertullian would have men confer solely upon Sunday was to pray on that
day in a _standing_ posture. And somewhat to his annoyance, "some few"
would thus act with reference to the Sabbath. There is, however, some
reference to the deferral of business on Sunday. And this is worthy of
notice, for it is the first sentence we have discovered that looks like
abstinence from labor on Sunday, and we shall not find another before
the time of Constantine's famous Sunday law, A. D. 321.
But this passage is far from asserting that labor on Sunday was sinful.
It speaks of "deferring even our businesses;" but this does not
necessarily imply anything beyond its postponement during the hours
devoted to religious services. And we shall find nothing in Tertullian,
nor in his cotemporaries, that will go beyond this, while we shall find
much to restrict us to the interpretation of his words here given.
Tertullian could not say that Sabbaths were strange to him and his
brethren if they religiously refrained from labor on each Sunday. But
let us hear him again concerning the observance of Sunday and kindred
practices:--
"We take also, in meetings before daybreak, and from the hand of
none but the presidents, the sacrament of the Eucharist, which the
Lord both commanded to be eaten at meal-times, and enjoined to be
taken by all [alike]. As often as the anniversary comes round, we
make offerings for the dead as birth-day honors. We count fasting
or kneeling in worship on the Lord's day to be unlawful. We rejoice
in the same privilege also from Easter to Whit-sunday. We feel
pained should any wine or bread, even though our own, be cast upon
the ground. At every forward step and movement, at every going in
and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when
we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all
the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the
sign [of the cross].
"If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having
positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will
be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom, as their
strengthener, and faith, as their observer. That reason will
support tradition, and custom, and faith, you will either yourself
perceive, or learn from some one who has."--_De Corona_, sects. 3
and 4.
The things which he counted unlawful on Sunday he expressly names.
These are fasting and kneeling on that day. But ordinary labor does
not come into his list of things unlawful on that day. And now observe
what progress apostasy and superstition had made in other things also.
"Offerings for the dead" were regularly made, and the sign of the cross
was repeated as often as God would have men rehearse his commandments.
See Deut. 6:6-9. And now if you wish to know Tertullian's authority
for the Sunday festival, offerings for the dead, and the sign of the
cross, he frankly tells you what it is. He had no authority from the
Scriptures. Custom and tradition were all that he could offer. Modern
divines can find plenty of authority, from the Scriptures, as they
assert, for maintaining the so-called Lord's day. Tertullian knew of
none. He took the Sunday festival, offerings for the dead, and the sign
of the cross, on the authority of custom and tradition; if you take the
first on such authority, why do you not, also, the other two?
But Tertullian finds it necessary to write a second defense of his
brethren from the charge of being sun-worshipers, a charge directly
connected with their observance of the festival of Sunday. Here are his
words:--
"Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed,
suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a
well-known fact that we pray towards the east, or because we make
Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this? Do
not many among you, with an affectation of sometimes worshiping
the heavenly bodies likewise, move your lips in the direction of
the sunrise? It is you, at all events, who have even admitted the
sun into the calendar of the week; and you have selected its day
[Sunday], in preference to the preceding day, as the most suitable
in the week for either an entire abstinence from the bath, or for
its postponement until the evening, or for taking rest, and for
banqueting. By resorting to these customs, you deliberately deviate
from your own religious rites to those of strangers. For the Jewish
feasts are the Sabbath and 'the Purification,' and Jewish also are
the ceremonies of the lamps, and the fasts of unleavened bread, and
the 'littoral prayers,' all which institutions and practices are of
course foreign from your gods. Wherefore, that I may return from
this digression, you who reproach us with the sun and Sunday should
consider your proximity to us. We are not far off from your Saturn
and your days of rest."--_Ad Nationes_, b. i. chap. xiii.
Tertullian in this discourse addresses himself to the nations still in
idolatry. The heathen festival of Sunday, which was with some nations
more ancient, had been established among the Romans at a comparatively
recent date, though earlier than the time of Justin Martyr, the
first Christian writer in whom an authentic mention of the day is
found. The heathen reproached the early Sunday Christians with being
sun-worshipers, "because," says Tertullian, "we pray towards the east,
or because we make Sunday a day of festivity." And how does Tertullian
answer this grave charge? He could not say, We do it by command of God
to honor the first day of the week, for he expressly states in a former
quotation that no such precept exists. So he retorts thus: "What then?
Do you [heathen] do less than this?" And he adds: "You have selected
its day [Sunday] in preference to the preceding day" (Saturday), etc.
That is to say, Tertullian wishes to know why, if the heathen could
choose Sunday in preference to Saturday, the Christians could not have
the same privilege! Could there be a stronger incidental evidence that
Sunday was cherished by the early apostatizing Christians, not because
commanded of God, but because it was generally observed by their
heathen neighbors, and therefore more convenient to them?
But Tertullian next avows his faith in the ten commandments as "the
rules of our regenerate life," that is to say, the rules which govern
Christian men; and he gives the preference to the seventh day over the
eighth:--
"I must also say something about the period of the soul's birth,
that I may omit nothing incidental in the whole process. A
mature and regular birth takes place, as a general rule, at the
commencement of the tenth month. They who theorize respecting
numbers, honor the number ten as the parent of all the others,
and as imparting perfection to the human nativity. For my own
part, I prefer viewing this measure of time in reference to God,
as if implying that the ten months rather initiated man into the
ten commandments; so that the numerical estimate of the time
needed to consummate our natural birth should correspond to the
numerical classification of _the rules of our regenerate life_.
But inasmuch as birth is also completed with the seventh month, I
more readily recognize in this number than in the eighth the honor
of a numerical agreement with the Sabbatical period; so that the
month in which God's image is sometimes produced in a human birth,
shall in its number tally with the day on which God's creation was
completed and hallowed."--_De Anima_, chap. xxxvii.
This kind of reasoning is of course destitute of any force. But in
adducing such an argument Tertullian avows his faith in the ten
commandments as the rule of the Christian's life, gives the preference
to the seventh day as the Sabbath, and deduces the origin of the
Sabbath from God's act of hallowing the seventh day at creation.
Though Tertullian elsewhere, as we shall see, speaks lightly of the
law of God, and represents it as abolished, his next testimony most
sacredly honors that law, and while acknowledging the Sabbath as one of
its precepts, he recognizes the authority of the whole code. Thus he
says:--
"Of how deep guilt, then, adultery--which is likewise a matter
of fornication, in accordance with its criminal function--is to
be accounted, the law of God first comes to hand to show us; if
it is true [as it is], that after interdicting the superstitious
service of alien gods, and the making of idols themselves, after
commending [to religious observance] the veneration of the Sabbath,
after commanding a religious regard toward parents, second [only
to that] toward God, [that law] laid, as the next substratum in
strengthening and fortifying such counts, no other precept than
'Thou shalt not commit adultery.'"--_On Modesty_, chap. v.
And of this precept Tertullian presently tells us that it stands "in
the very forefront of _the most holy law_, among the primary counts of
_the celestial edict_."
In his treatise "On Fasting," chapter xiv., he terms "the Sabbath--a
day never to be kept as a fast except at the passover season, according
to a reason elsewhere given." And in chapter xv., he excepts from the
two weeks in which meat was not eaten "the Sabbaths" and "the Lord's
days."
But in his "Answer to the Jews," chapter ii., he represents the law as
variously modified from Adam to Christ; he denies "that the Sabbath
is still to be observed;" classes it with circumcision; declares
that Adam was "inobservant of the Sabbath," affirms the same of Abel,
Noah, Enoch, and Melchizedek, and asserts that Lot "was freed from
the conflagration of the Sodomites" "for the merits of righteousness,
without observance of the law." And in the beginning of chapter iii.,
he again classes the Sabbath with circumcision, and asserts that
Abraham did not "observe the Sabbath."
In chapter iv., he declares that "the observance of the Sabbath" was
"temporary." And he continues thus:--
"For the Jews say, that from the beginning God sanctified the
seventh day, by resting on it from all his works which he made;
and that thence it was, likewise, that Moses said to the people:
'Remember the day of the Sabbaths,'" etc.
Now see how Tertullian and his brethren disposed of this commandment
respecting the seventh day:--
"Whence we [Christians] understand that _we_ still more ought to
observe a Sabbath from all 'servile work' always, and not only
every seventh day, but through all time."
That is to say in plain language, they would, under pretense of keeping
every day as a Sabbath, not only work on the seventh day of the
week, but on all the days of the week. But this plainly proves that
Tertullian did not think the seventh day was superseded by the first.
And thus he proceeds:--
"And through this arises the question for us, _what_ Sabbath God
willed us to keep."
Our first-day friends quote Tertullian in behalf of what they call
the Christian Sabbath. Had he believed in such an institution he
would certainly have named it in answer to this question. But mark his
answer:--
"For the Scriptures point to a Sabbath eternal and a Sabbath
temporal. For Isaiah the prophet says, '_Your_ Sabbaths my soul
hateth.' And in another place he says, 'My Sabbaths ye have
profaned.' Whence we discern that the temporal Sabbath is human,
and the eternal Sabbath is accounted divine."
This temporal Sabbath is the seventh day; this eternal Sabbath is the
keeping of all days alike, as Tertullian affirms that he and those with
him did.
He next declares that Isaiah's prediction respecting the Sabbath in the
new earth (Isa. 66: 22, 23), was "fulfilled in the times of Christ,
when all flesh--that is, every nation--came to adore in Jerusalem
God the Father." And he adds: "Thus, therefore, before this temporal
Sabbath [the seventh day], there was withal an eternal Sabbath
foreshown and foretold," _i. e._, the keeping of all days alike. And
this he fortifies by the assertion that the holy men before Moses did
not observe the seventh day. And in proof that the Sabbath was one day
to cease, he cites the compassing of Jericho for seven days, one of
which must have been the Sabbath. And to this he adds the case of the
Maccabees who fought certain battles on the Sabbath. In due time we
shall see how admirably he answers such objections as these of his own
raising.
In chapter vi., he repeats his theory of the "Sabbath temporal" [the
seventh day], and the "Sabbath eternal" or the "Spiritual Sabbath,"
which is "to observe a Sabbath from all 'servile works' always, and
not only every seventh day, but through all time." He says that the
ancient law has ceased, and that "the new law" and the "Spiritual
Sabbath" have come.
In the twentieth chapter of his first book against Marcion, Tertullian
cites Hosea 2:11, and Isa. 1:13, 14, to prove that the Sabbath is
now abrogated. And in his fifth book against Marcion, chapter iv.,
he quotes Gal. 4:10; John 19:31; Isa. 1:13, 14; Amos 5:21, and Hosea
2:11, to prove that "the Creator abolished his own laws," and that he
"destroyed the institutions which he set up himself." These quotations
are apparently designed to prove that the Sabbath is abolished, but he
does not enter into argument from them. But in the nineteenth chapter
of this book he quotes Col. 2:16, 17, and simply says of the law:
"The apostle here teaches clearly how it has been abolished, even by
passing from shadow to substance--that is, from figurative types to the
reality, which is Christ." This remark is truthful and would justly
exclude the moral law from this abolition.
But in chapter xxi. of his second book against Marcion, he answers
the very objection against the Sabbath which himself has elsewhere
urged, as we have noticed, drawn from the case of Jericho. He says to
Marcion:--
"You do not, however, consider the law of the Sabbath: they are
human works, not divine, which it prohibits. For it says, 'Six days
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the
Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.'
What work? Of course your own. The conclusion is, that from the
Sabbath day he removes those works which he had before enjoined for
the six days, that is, your own works; in other words, human works
of daily life. Now, the carrying around of the ark is evidently
not an ordinary daily duty, nor yet a human one; but a rare and
a sacred work, and, as being then ordered by the direct precept
of God, a divine one.... Thus, in the present instance, there is
a clear distinction respecting the Sabbath's prohibition of human
labors, not divine ones. Accordingly, the man who went and gathered
sticks on the Sabbath day was punished with death. For it was his
own work which he did; and this the law forbade. They, however, who
on the Sabbath carried the ark round Jericho, did it with impunity.
For it was not their own work, but God's, which they executed, and
that, too, from his express commandment."
In the following chapter he again cites Isa. 1:11-14, as proof that the
Sabbath is abolished. He will, however, presently explain this text
which he has so many times used against the Sabbath, and show that it
actually has no such bearing. In the meantime he will again declare
that Joshua did not break the Sabbath, and having done this he will
find it in order again to assert that "the Sabbath was actually then
broken by Joshua." In his fourth book against Marcion, chapter xii., he
discusses the question whether Christ as Lord of the Sabbath had the
right to annul the Sabbath, and whether in his life he did actually
violate it. To do this he again cites the case of Jericho, and actually
affirms that the Sabbath was broken on that occasion, and at the same
time denies it. Thus he says:--
"If Christ interfered with the Sabbath, he simply acted after the
Creator's example; inasmuch as in the siege of the city of Jericho
the carrying around the walls of the ark of the covenant for eight
days running, and therefore on a Sabbath day, actually annulled
the Sabbath, by the Creator's command--according to the opinion of
those who think this of Christ [Luke 6:1-5] in their ignorance that
neither Christ nor the Creator violated the Sabbath, as we shall
by-and-by show. And yet the Sabbath was actually then broken by
Joshua, so that the present charge might be alleged also against
Christ."
The Sabbath was not violated in the case of Jericho, and yet it
certainly was there violated! Tertullian adds that if Christ hated the
Sabbath he was in this like the Creator himself, who declares [Isa.
1:14] that he hates it. He forgets that the Creator has expressly
declared his great regard for the Sabbath by this very prophet
[chap. 58:13, 14], and overlooks the fact that what God hates is the
hypocritical conduct of the people as set forth in Isaiah 1. In his
fourth book against Marcion, chapter xvi., Christ is mentioned as
the Lord of the Sabbath, but nothing is said bearing upon Sabbatic
obligation. In chapter xxx., of this same book, he alludes to the cure
wrought by Christ upon the Sabbath day, mentioned in Luke 13:11-16,
and says, "When, therefore, he did a work according to the condition
prescribed by the law, he affirmed, instead of breaking, the law," etc.
In the twelfth chapter of this book, however, he asserts many things
relative to Christ. He says that the disciples in rubbing out the ears
of corn on the Sabbath "had violated the holy day. Christ excuses them
and became their accomplice in breaking the Sabbath." He argues that
as the Sabbath from the beginning, which he here places at the fall
of the manna though elsewhere dating it from the creation, had never
been designed as a day of fasting, the Saviour did right in justifying
the act of the disciples in the cornfield. And he terms the example of
David a "colorable precedent" to justify the eating of the corn. But
though he represents the Saviour as "annulling the Sabbath" at this
time, he also asserts that in this very case "he maintains the honor of
the Sabbath as a day which is to be free from gloom rather than from
work." He justifies the Saviour in his acts of healing on the Sabbath,
declaring that in this he was doing that which the Sabbath law did not
forbid. Tertullian next affirms precisely the reverse of many things
which he has advanced against the Sabbath, and even answers his own
objections against it. Thus he says:--
"In order that he might, whilst allowing that amount of work
which he was about to perform for a soul, remind them what works
the law of the Sabbath forbade--even human works; and what it
enjoined--even divine works, which might be done for the benefit of
any soul, he was called 'Lord of the Sabbath' because he maintained
the Sabbath as his own institution. Now, even if he had annulled
the Sabbath, he would have had the right to do so, as being its
Lord, [and] still more as he who instituted it. But lie did not
utterly destroy it, although its Lord, in order that it might
henceforth be plain that the Sabbath was not broken by the Creator,
even at the time when the ark was carried around Jericho. For that
was really God's work, which he commanded himself, and which he had
ordered for the sake of the lives of his servants when exposed to
the perils of war." Book iv. chap. xii.
In this paragraph Tertullian explains the law of God in the clearest
manner. He shows beyond all dispute that neither Joshua nor Christ ever
violated it. He also declares that Christ did not abolish the Sabbath.
In the next sentence he goes on to answer most admirably his own
repeated perversion of Isaiah 1:13, 14, and to contradict some of his
own serious errors. Listen to him:--
"Now, although he has in a certain place expressed an aversion of
Sabbaths, by calling them '_your Sabbaths_,' reckoning them as
men's Sabbaths, not his own, because they were celebrated without
the fear of God by a people full of iniquities, and loving God
'with the lip, not the heart,' he has yet put his own Sabbaths
(those, that is, which were kept according to his prescription) in
a different position; for by the same prophet, in a later passage,
he declares them to be 'true, delightful, and inviolable.' [Isa
58:13; 56:2.] Thus _Christ did not at all rescind the Sabbath_: he
kept the law thereof, and both in the former case did a work which
was beneficial to the life of his disciples (for he indulged them
with the relief of food when they were hungry), and in the present
instance cured the withered hand; in each case intimating by facts,
'I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it,' although
Marcion has gagged his mouth by this word."
Here Tertullian shows that God did not hate his own Sabbath, but only
the hypocrisy of those who professed to keep it. He also expressly
declares that the Saviour "did not at all rescind the Sabbath." And now
that he has his hand in, he will not cease till he has testified to a
noble Sabbatarian confession of faith, placing its origin at creation,
and perpetuating the institution with divine safeguards and additional
sanctity. Moreover he asserts that Christ's adversary [Satan] would
have had him do this to some other days, a heavy blow as it happens
upon those who in modern times so stoutly maintain that he consecrated
the first day of the week to take the place of the Creator's rest-day.
Listen again to Tertullian, who continues as follows:--
"For even in the case before us he fulfilled the law, while
interpreting its condition; [moreover,] he exhibits in a clear
light the different kinds of work, while doing what the law excepts
from the sacredness of the Sabbath, [and] while imparting to the
Sabbath day itself, which _from the beginning_ had been consecrated
by the benediction of the Father, an additional sanctity by
his own beneficent action. For he furnished to this day divine
safeguards,--a course which his adversary would have pursued for
some other days, to avoid honoring the Creator's Sabbath, and
restoring to the Sabbath the works which were proper for it.
Since, in like manner, the prophet Elisha on this day restored to
life the dead son of the Shunammite woman, you see, O Pharisee,
and you too, O Marcion, how that it was [proper employment] for
the Creator's Sabbaths of old to do good, to save life, not to
destroy it; how that Christ introduced nothing new, which was not
after the example, the gentleness, the mercy, and the prediction
also of the Creator. For in this very example he fulfills the
prophetic announcement of a specific healing: 'The weak hands are
strengthened,' as were also 'the feeble knees' in the sick of the
palsy."--_Tertullian against Marcion_, b. iv. chap. xii.
Tertullian mistakes in his reference to the Shunammite woman. It was
not the Sabbath day on which she went to the prophet. 2 Kings 4:23. But
in the last three paragraphs quoted from him, which in his work form
one continuous statement, he affirms many important truths which are
worthy of careful enumeration. They are as follows:--
1. Christ, in determining what should, and what should not, be done on
the Sabbath, "was called 'Lord of the Sabbath,' because he maintained
the Sabbath as his own institution."
2. "The Sabbath was not broken by the Creator, even at the time when
the ark was carried around Jericho."
3. The reason why God expressed his aversion to "your Sabbaths," as
though they were "men's Sabbaths, not his own," was "because they were
celebrated without the fear of God, by a people full of iniquities."
See Isa. 1:13, 14.
4. "By the same prophet [Isa. 58:13; 56:2], he declares them [the
Sabbaths] to be 'true and delightful and inviolable.'"
5. "Thus Christ did not at all rescind the Sabbath."
6. "He kept the law thereof."
7. "The Sabbath day itself, which from the beginning had been
consecrated by the benediction of the Father." This language expressly
assigns the origin of the Sabbath to the act of the Creator at the
close of the first week of time.
8. Christ imparted to the Sabbath "an additional sanctity by his own
beneficent action."
9. "He furnished to this day divine safeguards,--a course which his
adversary would have pursued for some other days, to avoid honoring the
Creator's Sabbath, and restoring to the Sabbath the works which were
proper for it."
This last statement is indeed very remarkable. Christ furnished "the
Creator's Sabbath," the seventh day, with "divine safeguards." His
adversary (THE adversary of Christ is the devil) would have had this
course "pursued for some other days." That is to say, the devil would
have been pleased had Christ consecrated some other day, instead of
adding to the sanctity of his Father's Sabbath. What Tertullian says
that the devil would have been pleased to have Christ do, that our
first-day friends now assert that he did do in the establishment of
what they call the Christian Sabbath! Such an institution, however,
was never heard of in the days of the so-called Christian fathers.
Notwithstanding Tertullian's many erroneous statements concerning the
Sabbath and the law, he has here borne a noble testimony to the truth,
and this completes his words.