Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] Following the traces of my earlier work, which was lost and which I persevere in reconstructing, the order of the argument now turns to Christ — though this comes as a kind of surplus, after running the full course of the defense of the one Godhead. For it has already been sufficiently established beforehand that Christ is to be understood as belonging to no other god than the creator, since it has been determined that no other god is to be believed in besides the creator; that it was he, accordingly, whom Christ proclaimed; and that the apostles thereafter announced no other Christ than the one belonging to the God whom Christ proclaimed — that is, the creator — so that there was no mention of any other god, and hence of any other Christ, before Marcion's scandal arose. [2] This is most easily proved by a review of the apostolic churches and the heretical ones: it is there, obviously, that the corruption of the rule is to be pronounced, wherever a later origin is found. I wove this argument into my first book as well. But now too this engagement, examining Christ on his own separate ground, will certainly accomplish this much — that in proving Christ to belong to the creator, we thereby also exclude the god of Marcion. Truth does well to use all her own strength, not as one struggling for breath; still, in the shortcuts of prescription she wins outright. But since it is our decision to meet the adversary at every point where he is eager for a fight — so frenzied that he would sooner presume that the Christ who was never announced is the one who came, rather than the one who was always foretold —
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