Tertullian, Against Marcion 17

By the Church's own testimony, this letter was sent to the Ephesians, not the Laodiceans; yet Marcion sometimes tries to rewrite the title as if he were a meticulous investigator in this matter. But the title is of no consequence, because the apostle wrote to everyone even while addressing a specific group, certainly preaching the God who is revealed in Christ—to whom belong the very things that are preached. So to whom will it belong, according to the good purpose he set forth in the mystery of his will, in the administration of the fullness of times—to use a phrase that echoes the Greek sense of *anakephalaiōsasthai*, that is, to sum up all things in Christ, to bring them back to their starting point or recount them from the beginning—both things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians), if not to the one to whom all things belong from the beginning, and even the beginning itself, from which come the times and the administration of the fullness of times, on account of which all things are recounted in Christ? What beginning—that is, what source—does another god's work have? What times without a beginning? What fulfillment without times? What administration without fulfillment? Finally, what did he do on earth long ago, so that some long administration of fulfilling times could be credited with summing up all things in Christ, even those in heaven? Nor will we regard things done in heaven, whatever they are, as the work of another rather than the one from whom it is agreed all things on earth proceed. But if these things cannot be attributed from the beginning to anyone but the Creator, who will believe they are summed up in another's Christ, and not by their own Author and in his own Christ? If they are the Creator's, they must necessarily differ from those of a different god; if they differ, they are certainly contrary. How then can contrary things be summed up in him by whom they are finally destroyed? The following words also declare Christ, when he says: so that we might be to the praise of his glory, we who hoped beforehand in Christ. For who could have hoped beforehand—that is, hoped in God before he came—except the Jews, to whom Christ was announced from the beginning? Therefore the one who was announced was also the one hoped for beforehand. And so this refers to them, that is, the Jews, so that he draws a distinction, turning to the nations: in whom you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel, in which you believed and were sealed with the Holy Spirit of his promise (Ephesians). Whose promise? The one made through Joel: 'In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh' (Joel 2:28)—that is, also on the nations. Thus both the Spirit and the gospel will be in Christ, who was hoped for beforehand while he was being preached. But 'the Father of glory' is also he whose Christ, the King of glory, is sung in the psalm ascending: 'Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory' (Psalm 24:10); from him the 'Spirit of wisdom' is sought, with whom these kinds of spiritual gifts are also enumerated among the seven spirits through Isaiah; he will give 'enlightened eyes of the heart,' who also enriched the outer eyes with light, to whom the blindness of the people is displeasing—and who is blind, if not my children?