Tertullian, Against Marcion 42

They began to heap charges on him once he was brought before Pilate, because he claimed to be the Christ, the King — and, beyond doubt, the Son of God, who will sit at God's right hand. They would have saddled him with a different title, unsure whether he had actually said he was the Son of God, unless, as you put it, he had declared that he is exactly what they were accusing him of being. When Pilate questioned him, 'Are you the Christ?' he answered, 'You say so,' so that he would not appear to have said more out of fear of authority. The Lord was therefore installed in judgment — and he takes his stand to judge his people; the Lord himself comes into judgment with the elders and rulers of his people, according to Isaiah (Isaiah) — and from that point on every scripture of his passion was fulfilled: the nations were in an uproar and the peoples plotted in vain; the kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers gathered as one against the Lord and against his Christ (Psalm). 'Nations' means the Romans who were with Pilate; 'peoples' means the tribes of Israel; 'kings' points to Herod; 'rulers' points to the chief priests.

Even Herod, sent by Pilate as if he were a gift, bore witness in the words of Hosea (Hosea). For the prophet had foretold about Christ: 'And they will lead him bound as a gift to the king.' Herod was delighted to see Jesus, yet he heard not a single word from him. Like a lamb before its shearer, he did not open his mouth, because the Lord had given him a tongue of discipline, so that he would know when he ought to speak — that tongue, I mean, which in the psalm he proved was stuck to his throat by not speaking (Psalm). Barabbas, a thoroughly guilty man, was granted life as if he were good, while Christ, the most righteous, was demanded for death as if he were a murderer. Two criminals were crucified alongside him, so that he would be counted among the wicked. His clothing was divided by the soldiers, partly by lot, but Marcion has stripped away the fact of the division, looking back at the psalm's prophecy: 'They divided my garments among themselves and cast lots for my clothing' (Psalm). So take away the cross itself as well, for the same psalm does not keep silent about it: 'They pierced my hands and my feet' (Psalm). The whole outcome is read there: 'Dogs surrounded me, a gang of evildoers encircled me' (Psalm). All who stared at me mocked me with their noses; they curled their lips and shook their heads: 'He trusted in God, let him rescue him' (Psalm). What testimony do the garments offer now? Take the spoils of your false ones: the entire psalm is Christ's garments.

Look, even the elements were shaken, for the Lord was suffering. But if the adversary had been wounded, heaven would have draped itself in shadows, the sun would have insulted with its rays, the day would have stood still, gladly watching Marcion's Christ hanging on the gibbet. These arguments would have sufficed for me even if they had not been foretold: 'The heavens,' says Isaiah, 'will become a garment of darkness' (Isaiah); this will be the day of which Amos also says: 'And on that day, says the Lord, the sun will set at noon' — you have the significance of the sixth hour as well — 'and it will grow dark over the land' (Amos). The temple veil was torn, and the angels, abandoning the daughter of Zion, left her like a watchtower in a vineyard and like a hut in a cucumber field (Isaiah). Oh, how thoroughly Christ himself fulfilled the thirtieth psalm! He cries out to the Father, so that even in dying he might fulfill the prophets with his last voice (Psalm 30). With those words he breathed his last. Who breathed his last? The Spirit himself, or the flesh the Spirit? But the Spirit could not breathe his last on his own. There is one who expires and another who is expired. If the Spirit is expired, he must be expired by another. And if he were only Spirit, it would be said that he departed rather than expired. Who, then, expires the Spirit, if not the flesh, which also breathes while it has him and so expires him when it loses him? Finally, if there was no flesh but a phantom of flesh, and the phantom was Spirit, and the Spirit expired himself and departed by expiring, then beyond doubt the phantom departed, since the Spirit, which was the phantom, departed, and the phantom appeared nowhere with the Spirit. So nothing remained on the wood, nothing hung even after the expiration, nothing was asked of Pilate, nothing was taken down from the cross, nothing was wrapped in a shroud, nothing was laid in a new tomb? But indeed, something did. What was it, then? If it was a phantom, then the Spirit was still in it. If the Spirit had departed, then he had taken the phantom away. All that remains for the heretic's impudence is to say that a phantom of a phantom remained there; but Joseph certainly knew it was a body, which he handled with all reverence — that Joseph, who did not consent to the crime of the Jews, a blessed man, who did not walk in the counsel of the impious, did not stand in the way of sinners, and did not sit in the seat of the pestilential (Psalm).