Reading Scripture: Types and Figures
Tertullian, Against Marcion 7
God himself will illuminate the hidden things of darkness, and he will do it through Christ, who promised Christ as a light to the nations and declared himself a lamp that examines kidneys and hearts. Praise will come from him to each person, and so will the opposite of praise, since he acts as a judge. You say, 'Surely he here interprets the God of the world by saying: We have become a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men.' But if he had meant 'world' as 'men of the world,' he would not have named men again afterwards. On the contrary, to keep you from arguing that way, the providence of the Holy Spirit demonstrated how he spoke: we have become a spectacle to the world, while angels, who minister to the world, and men, to whom they minister, look on. The man of such great constancy—or rather the Holy Spirit himself—feared to name the God of the world freely, especially when writing to sons he had generated in the Gospel; against that God he could not be seen to preach unless he did so openly. I am not defending the idea that, according to the Creator's law, it was displeasing to the one who had his father's wife—he was following the discipline of the common and public religion. But when he condemns that man to be handed over to Satan, he acts as a herald of the God who condemns. Let him explain how he says it: 'hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord' (1 Cor 5:5). While he judges both the destruction of the flesh and the salvation of the spirit, and commands 'take away the evil from your midst,' he recalls the Creator's most frequent sentence. 'Purge the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened' (1 Cor 5:7). Therefore, the unleavened bread was a figure of ours with the Creator. So also our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed. Why is Christ our Passover, if not because the Passover was a figure of Christ through the likeness of the saving blood of the victim and of Christ? What do the Creator's festival images mean to us and to Christ, if they were not ours? But by turning us away from fornication, he manifests the resurrection of the flesh. 'The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body' (1 Cor 6:13)—'so that it may be a temple of God and God a temple' (1 Cor 6:19). Will the temple of God then perish, and God the temple? But you see: the one whom God raised, and will raise us, he also raised in the body, because the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And he rightly adds: 'Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?' (1 Cor 6:15).
Latin
Et occulta tenebrarum ipse inluminabit, utique per Christum, qui Christum in lumen nationum repromisit quique se lucernam pronuntiauit scrutantem renes et corda. ab illo erit et laus unicuique, a quo et contrarium laudis, ut a iudice. certe, inquis, uel hic mundum deum mundi interpretatur dicendo: spectaculum facti sumus mundo, et angelis et hominibus, quia, si mundum homines mundi significasset, non etiam homines postmodum nominasset. immo, ne ita argumentareris, prouidentia spiritus sancti demonstrauit, quomodo dixisset: spectaculum facti sumus mundo, dum angelis, qui mundo ministrant, et hominibus, quibus ministrant. uerebatur nimirum tantae constantiae uir, ne dicam spiritus sanctus, praesertim ad filios scribens, quos in euangelio generauerat, libere deum mundi nominare, aduersus <quem) nisi exerte non posset uideri praedicare. non defendo secundum legem creatoris displicuisse illum, qui mulierem patris sui habuit — communis et publicae religionis secutus sit disciplinam —: sed cum eum damnat dedendum satanae, damnatoris dei praeco, est. uiderit et quomodo dixerit: in interitum carnis, ut spiritus saluus sit in die domini, dum et de carnis interitu et de salute spiritus iudicarit et 'auferri' iubens 'malum de medio' creatoris frequentissimam sententiam commemorauerit. Expurgate uetus fermentum, ut sitis noua consparsio, sicut estis azymi. ergo azymi figurae erant nostrae apud creatorem. sic et pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus. quare pascha Christus, si non pascha figura Christi per similitudinem sanguinis salutaris pecoris et Christi? quid nobis et Christo imagines induit sollemnium creatoris, si non erant nostrae? Auertens autem nos a fornicatione manifestat carnis resurrectionem. corpus, inquit, non fornicationi, sed domino, et dominus corpori, 'ut templum deo et deus templo'. templum ergo deo peribit et deus templo? atquin uides: quem deus suscitauit et nos suscitabit, in corpore quoque suscitauit, quia corpus domino et dominus corpori. et bene quod aggerat: nescitis corpora uestra membra esse Christi?