One of the most extensive resources on the internet 
for the study of early Christianity
Tertullian on The Incarnation - Latin Text with English translation
From Apologeticus pro Christianis (Apology), 21: 10-14.
| 
 This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more about our use of cookies here. Click here to read at earlychurchtexts.com in the original Latin (with dictionary lookup links). The English translation below is from the ANF series. earlychurchtexts.com 
  
      Try out the feature 
      rich subscription version of the Early Church Texts website for just $5 
      for a trial period or $30 for a year ($15 student rate). Click
      
      here for more information. Check out the video demo of the site. Click here to go to the Early Church Texts Home Page 
    for the publicly available version of the site which has just the original Greek and Latin texts with dictionary lookup links.   | 
    
 
    Relevant 
    books Studies 
    Eric Francis Osborn -------------- 
    Tertullian: A Historical and Literary Study  -------------- 
    Early Christian Thinkers: The Lives and Legacies of Twelve Key Figures  -------------- 
    The Early Christian World -------------- 
    Tertullian and the Church  --------------  Ancient Rhetoric and the Art of Tertullian (Oxford theological monographs) Robert D. Sider -------------- David E. Wilhite -------------- Translations  Tertullian (The Early Church Fathers) --------------  Disciplinary, Moral And Ascetical Works --------------  Tertullian: Apologetical Works, & Minucius Felix: Octavius --------------  28. Tertullian: Treatises on Penance: On Penitence and On Purity (Ancient Christian Writers) --------------  13. Tertullian: Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage: To His Wife, An Exhortation to Chastity, Monogamy (Ancient Christian Writers) --------------  Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian (Selections from the Fathers of the Church) --------------  Tertullian, Cyprian, And Origen On The Lord's Prayer (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series) --------------  24. Tertullian: The Treatise against Hermogenes (Ancient Christian Writers)  | 
 We have already asserted that God made the world, and 
    all which it contains, by His Word, and Reason, and Power. It is abundantly 
    plain that your philosophers, too, regard the Logos—that is, the Word and 
    Reason—as the Creator of the universe. For Zeno lays it down that he is the 
    creator, having made all things according to a determinate plan; that his 
    name is Fate, and God, and the soul of Jupiter, and the necessity of all 
    things. Cleanthes ascribes all this to spirit, which he maintains pervades 
    the universe. And we, in like manner, hold that the Word, and Reason, and 
    Power, by which we have said God made all, have spirit as their proper and 
    essential substratum, in which the Word has in being to give forth 
    utterances, and reason abides to dispose and arrange, and power is over all 
    to execute. We have been taught that He proceeds forth from God, and in that 
    procession He is generated; so that He is the Son of God, and is called God 
    from unity of substance with God. For God, too, is a Spirit. Even when the 
    ray is shot from the sun, it is still part of the parent mass; the sun will 
    still be in the ray, because it is a ray of the sun—there is no division of 
    substance, but merely an extension. Thus Christ is Spirit of Spirit, and God 
    of God, as light of light is kindled. The material matrix remains entire 
    and unimpaired, though you derive from it any number of shoots possessed of 
    its qualities; so, too, that which has come forth out of God is at once God 
    and the Son of God, and the two are one. In this way also, as He is Spirit 
    of Spirit and God of God, He is made a second in manner of existence—in 
    position, not in nature; and He did not withdraw from the original source, 
    but went forth. This ray of God, then, as it was always foretold in ancient 
    times, descending into a certain virgin, and made flesh in her womb, is in 
    His birth God and man united. The flesh formed by the Spirit is nourished, 
    grows up to manhood, speaks, teaches, works, and is the Christ.  | 
    
  
Mac Users please note that the site may not work with Safari versions lower than version 4. (It has been tested with version 4.0.3.) It will work with Firefox, which can be downloaded from here.
Please note that for all features of the site to work correctly javascript must be enabled and the operation of "pop-up" windows must not be blocked. Click here for more information.
Migne Latin
Patrologiae Latinae Cursus Completus
Patrologia Latina