Reading Scripture: Types and Figures
Tertullian, Against Marcion 14
Our interpretation gains support when, elsewhere, you are forced by a comparison of the remaining senses to admit that Christ is a warrior simply because of certain military terms and similar language. 'Gird your sword upon your thigh,' says David (Psalm 45:3). But what does the preceding verse say about Christ? 'You are fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips' (Psalm 45:2). I laugh at the idea that the one he girded with a sword for war is the same one he flatters with timely beauty and gracious lips. So too, when the psalm adds, 'Ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness' (Psalm 45:4), who would wage war with a sword to accomplish these things and not rather their opposites—deceit, harshness, and injustice—which are the proper business of battles? Let us see, then, whether that sword is a different one, whose action is different. For the apostle John in the Apocalypse describes a sword proceeding from the mouth of God, two-edged and razor-sharp (Revelation 1:16), which must be understood as the divine Word—two-edged with the two testaments of Law and Gospel, sharp with wisdom, hostile to the devil, arming us against the spiritual enemies of wickedness and all lust, even severing us from our dearest for the sake of God's name. If you refuse to accept John, you have the common teacher Paul, who girds our loins with truth and the breastplate of righteousness, and orders us to put on the preparation of the gospel of peace, not war; to take up the shield of faith, with which we can extinguish all the fiery darts of the devil; and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is, he says, the word of God (Ephesians 6:14-17). The Lord himself came to send this sword into the earth, not peace. If your Christ is that Lord, then he is also a warrior. If he is not a warrior, but intends an allegorical sword, then it was also permitted for Christ, the Creator, to be girded in the psalm with a figured sword of speech, to whom the aforementioned timeliness and grace of lips are fitting—girded upon the thigh by David when he was about to send it into the earth. For this is what the psalm means: 'Ride out victoriously and reign': extending the word into all the earth for the calling of all nations, prospering through the success of faith by which he was received, and reigning from then on, by which he conquered death through resurrection. 'Your right hand will lead you wonderfully,' it says—the power, namely, of spiritual grace, by which the knowledge of Christ is led. 'Your arrows are sharp'—the precepts and threats and heart-piercing words flying everywhere, pricking and transfixing every conscience. 'The peoples fall under you'—certainly worshiping. Thus Christ the Creator is mighty in war and a bearer of arms, and now also receiving spoils—not only of Samaria but of all nations. Recognize the figured spoils as well, since you have learned the allegorical arms. Therefore, since the Lord speaks in such a figured way and the apostle writes accordingly, we do not use these interpretations rashly—examples that even our adversaries admit—and so Christ who comes will belong to Isaiah only insofar as he was not a warrior. For such a warrior is not predicted by Isaiah.
Latin
Adiuuabitur haec nostra interpretatio, dum et alibi bellatorem existimans Christum ob armorum quorundam uocabula et eiusmodi uerba ex reliquorum quoque sensuum comparatione conuinceris. accingere, inquit Dauid, ensem super ++ femur. sed quid supra legis de Christo? tempestiuus decore praeter filios hominum, effusa est gratia in labiis tuis. rideo, si, quem ad bellum ense cingebat, ei de tempestiuitate decoris et labiorum gratia blandiebatur. sic item subiungens: et extende et prosperare et regna, adiecit: propter ueritatem et lenitatem et iustitiam. quis enim ense (ea) operabitur et non contraria potius, dolum et asperitatem et iniustitiam, propria scilicet negotia proeliorum? uideamus ergo, an alius sit ensis ille, cuius alius est actus. nam et apostolus Iohannes in Apocalypsi ensem describit ex ore dei prodeuntem, bis acutum, praeacutum, quem intellegi oportet sermonem diuinum, bis acutum duobus testamentis legis et euangelii, acutum sapientia, infestum diabolo, armantem nos aduersus hostes spiritales nequitiae et concupiscentiae omnis, amputantem etiam a carissimis ob dei nomen. quodsi Iohannem agnitum non uis, habes communem magistrum Paulum, praecingentem lumbos nostros ueritate et lorica iustitiae et calciantem nos praeparationem euangelii pacis, non belli, adsumere iubentem scutum fidei, in quo possimus omnia diaboli , ignita tela extinguere, et galeam salutaris et gladium spiritus, quod est, inquit, dei sermo. hanc et dominus ipse machaeram uenit mittere in terram, non pacem. si tuus Christus est, ergo et ipse bellator est. si bellator non est, machaeram intentans allegoricam, licuit ergo et Christo creatoris in psalmo sine bellicis rebus ense sermonis praecingi figurato, cui supradicta tempestiuitas congruat et gratia labiorum, quem tunc iam cingebatur super femur apud Dauid, quandoque missurus in terram. hoc est enim, quod ait: et extende et prosperare et regna: extendens sermonem in omnem terram ad uniuersarum gentium uocationem, prosperaturus successu fidei, qua est receptus, et regnans exinde, qua mortem resurrectione deuicit. et deducet te, inquit, mirifice dextera tua, uirtus scilicet gratiae spiritalis, qua Christi agnitio deducitur. sagittae tuae acutae, peruolantia ubique praecepta et minae et traductiones cordis, compungentes et transfigentes conscientiam quamque. populi sub te concident, utique adorantes. sic bellipotens et armiger Christus creatoris, sic et nunc accipiens spolia, non solius Samariae uerum et omnium gentium. agnosce et spolia figurata, cuius et arma allegorica didicisti. figurate itaque et domino eiusmodi loquente et apostolo scribente, non temere interpretationibus eius utimur, quarum exempla etiam aduersarii admittunt, atque ita in tantum Esaiae erit Christus qui uenit, in quantum non fuit bellator. quia non talis ab Esaia praedicatur.