Relevant
books
available at Amazon
Studies
 
Eric Francis Osborn
Tertullian, First Theologian of the West --------------
 
Tertullian: A Historical and Literary Study
Timothy David Barnes --------------
 
Early Christian Thinkers: The Lives and Legacies of Twelve Key Figures
Paul Foster
(A helpful chapter) --------------
 
The Early Christian World
P.F. Esler, with a helpful chapter by David Wright
--------------
 
Tertullian and the Church
David Rankin -------------- Ancient Rhetoric and the Art of Tertullian (Oxford theological monographs)
Robert D. Sider --------------  
David E. Wilhite -------------- Translations Tertullian (The Early Church Fathers)
Geoffrey D. Dunn -------------- Disciplinary, Moral And Ascetical Works
R. Arbesmann, E.J. Daly, and E. A. Quain, eds. -------------- Tertullian: Apologetical Works, & Minucius Felix: Octavius
Emily J. Daly, trans. -------------- 28. Tertullian: Treatises on Penance: On Penitence and On Purity (Ancient Christian Writers)
W.P. Le Saint, trans. -------------- 13. Tertullian: Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage: To His Wife, An Exhortation to Chastity, Monogamy (Ancient Christian Writers)
W.P. Le Saint, trans. -------------- Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian (Selections from the Fathers of the Church)
Robert D. Sider, ed. -------------- Tertullian, Cyprian, And Origen On The Lord's Prayer (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series)
Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed. -------------- 24. Tertullian: The Treatise against Hermogenes (Ancient Christian Writers)
J.H. Waszink, trans.
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Chapter VI.—The Word of God is Also the Wisdom of God. The Going Forth of
Wisdom to Create the Universe, According to the Divine Plan.
This power and disposition of the Divine Intelligence is set forth also
in the Scriptures under the name of Σοφία, Wisdom; for what can be better
entitled to the name of Wisdom than the Reason or the Word of God? Listen
therefore to Wisdom herself, constituted in the character of a Second
Person: “At the first the Lord created me as the beginning of His ways, with
a view to His own works, before He made the earth, before the mountains were
settled; moreover, before all the hills did He beget me;” that is to say,
He created and generated me in His own intelligence. Then, again, observe
the distinction between them implied in the companionship of Wisdom with the
Lord. “When He prepared the heaven,” says Wisdom, “I was present with
Him; and when He made His strong places upon the winds, which are the clouds
above; and when He secured the fountains, (and all things) which are beneath
the sky, I was by, arranging all things with Him; I was by, in whom He
delighted; and daily, too, did I rejoice in His presence.” Now, as soon as
it pleased God to put forth into their respective substances and forms the
things which He had planned and ordered within Himself, in conjunction with
His Wisdom’s Reason and Word, He first put forth the Word Himself, having
within Him His own inseparable Reason and Wisdom, in order that all things
might be made through Him through whom they had been planned and disposed,
yea, and already made, so far forth as (they were) in the mind and
intelligence of God. This, however, was still wanting to them, that they
should also be openly known, and kept permanently in their proper forms and
substances.
Chapter VII.—The Son by Being Designated Word and
Wisdom, (According to the Imperfection of Human Thought and Language) Liable
to Be Deemed a Mere Attribute. He is Shown to Be a Personal Being.
Then, therefore, does the Word also Himself assume His own form and glorious
garb, His own sound and vocal utterance, when God says, “Let there
be light.” This is the perfect nativity of the Word, when He proceeds
forth from God—formed by Him first to devise and think out all
things under the name of Wisdom—“The Lord created or formed me
as the beginning of His ways;” then afterward begotten, to carry
all into effect—“When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him.”
Thus does He make Him equal to Him: for by proceeding from Himself He became
His first-begotten Son, because begotten before all things; and His
only-begotten also, because alone begotten of God, in a way peculiar to
Himself, from the womb of His own heart—even as the Father Himself
testifies: “My heart,” says He, “hath emitted my most excellent Word.”
The Father took pleasure evermore in Him, who equally rejoiced with a
reciprocal gladness in the Father’s presence: “Thou art my Son, to-day have
I begotten Thee;” even before the morning star did I beget Thee. The Son
likewise acknowledges the Father, speaking in His own person, under the name
of Wisdom: “The Lord formed Me as the beginning of His ways, with a view to
His own works; before all the hills did He beget Me.” For if indeed Wisdom
in this passage seems to say that She was created by the Lord with a view to
His works, and to accomplish His ways, yet proof is given in another
Scripture that “all things were made by the Word, and without Him was there
nothing made;” as, again, in another place (it is said), “By His word were
the heavens established, and all the powers thereof by His Spirit” —that
is to say, by the Spirit (or Divine Nature) which was in the Word: thus
is it evident that it is one and the same power which is in one place
described under the name of Wisdom, and in another passage under the
appellation of the Word, which was initiated for the works of God which
“strengthened the heavens;” “by which all things were made,” “and
without which nothing was made.” Nor need we dwell any longer on this
point, as if it were not the very Word Himself, who is spoken of under the
name both of Wisdom and of Reason, and of the entire Divine Soul and Spirit.
He became also the Son of God, and was begotten when He proceeded forth from
Him. Do you then, (you ask,) grant that the Word is a certain substance,
constructed by the Spirit and the communication of Wisdom? Certainly I do.
But you will not allow Him to be really a substantive being, by having a
substance of His own; in such a way that He may be regarded as an objective
thing and a person, and so be able (as being constituted second to God
the Father,) to make two, the Father and the Son, God and the Word. For
you will say, what is a word, but a voice and sound of the mouth, and (as
the grammarians teach) air when struck against, intelligible to the ear,
but for the rest a sort of void, empty, and incorporeal thing. I, on the
contrary, contend that nothing empty and void could have come forth from
God, seeing that it is not put forth from that which is empty and void; nor
could that possibly be devoid of substance which has proceeded from so great
a substance, and has produced such mighty substances: for all things which
were made through Him, He Himself (personally) made. How could it be, that
He Himself is nothing, without whom nothing was made? How could He who is
empty have made things which are solid, and He who is void have made things
which are full, and He who is incorporeal have made things which have body?
For although a thing may sometimes be made different from him by whom it is
made, yet nothing can be made by that which is a void and empty thing. Is
that Word of God, then, a void and empty thing, which is called the Son, who
Himself is designated God? “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
It is written, “Thou shalt not take God’s name in vain.” This for certain
is He “who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal
with God.” In what form of God? Of course he means in some form, not in
none. For who will deny that God is a body, although “God is a Spirit?”
For Spirit has a bodily substance of its own kind, in its own form. Now,
even if invisible things, whatsoever they be, have both their substance and
their form in God, whereby they are visible to God alone, how much more
shall that which has been sent forth from His substance not be without
substance! Whatever, therefore, was the substance of the Word that I
designate a Person, I claim for it the name of Son; and while I
recognize the Son, I assert His distinction as second to the Father.
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