Tertullian — Against Marcion 9

But, you say, in whatever way the substance of the Creator is found to be susceptible of fault, when the afflatus of God , that is to say, the soul , offends in man, it cannot but be that that fault of the portion is refferible to the original whole. Now, to meet this objection, we must explain the nature of the soul . We must at the outset hold fast the meaning of the Greek scripture, which has afflatus , not spirit. Some interpreters of the Greek, without reflecting on the difference of the words, and careless about their exact meaning, put spirit for afflatus ; they thus afford to heretics an opportunity of tarnishing the Spirit of God , that is to say, God Himself, with default. And now comes the question.

Afflatus , observe then, is less than spirit, although it comes from spirit; it is the spirit's gentle breeze, but it is not the spirit. Now a breeze is rarer than the wind; and although it proceeds from wind, yet a breeze is not the wind. One may call a breeze the image of the spirit. In the same manner, man is the image of God , that is, of spirit; for God is spirit. Afflatus is therefore the image of the spirit. Now the image is not in any case equal to the very thing. It is one thing to be like the reality, and another thing to be the reality itself.

So, although the afflatus is the image of the spirit, it is yet not possible to compare the image of God in such a way, that, because the reality — that is, the spirit, or in other words, the Divine Being — is faultless, therefore the afflatus also, that is to say, the image, ought not by any possibility to have done wrong.

In this respect will the image be less than the reality, and the afflatus inferior to the spirit, in that, while it possesses beyond doubt the true lineaments of divinity, such as an immortal soul , freedom and its own mastery over itself, foreknowledge in a great degree, reasonableness, capacity of understanding and knowledge , it is even in these respects an image still, and never amounts to the actual power of Deity, nor to absolute exemption from fault — a property which is only conceded to God , that is, to the reality, and which is simply incompatible with an image. An image, although it may express all the lineaments of the reality, is yet wanting in its intrinsic power; it is destitute of motion.