Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] After this we shall say that we must also look to those scriptures which do not allow the resurrection, according to these people who are animal-minded — I will not say spiritual — to be presumed already now, in the recognition of the truth, or claimed at once upon departure from this life. [2] For since the very times of the whole hope are fixed by the most sacred pen, and it is not permitted to set that hope earlier, it will equally not be permitted to interpret the scriptures concerning it in such a way that it could be set earlier. Our vows, I think, sigh for the coming of Christ, for the close of this age, toward the great day of the Lord, the day of wrath and retribution, the last and hidden day known to none but the Father, and yet foretold by signs and portents and the shaking of the elements and the clashing of nations. [3] I would unroll the prophecies, if the Lord himself had kept silent — except that the prophecies too were the Lord's own voice — but it means still more that he seals them with his own mouth. Asked by his disciples when those things would come to pass which he had just then burst forth concerning the fall of the temple, he lays out the order of the times — first the Jewish times, down to the destruction of Jerusalem, then the times common to all, down to the closing of the age. [4] For after he declared, "And then shall Jerusalem be trodden down among the nations until the times of the nations are fulfilled" — meaning, of course, the nations to be gathered in and chosen by God together with the remnant of Israel — [5] from that point he goes on to foretell, for the whole world and the whole age, according to Joel and Daniel and the entire council of the prophets, the signs to come in sun and moon and stars, the closing-in of the nations amid the roar of the sea's astonishment, and men fainting for fear and for expectation of what is about to come upon the whole earth. [6] "For the powers of the heavens," he says, "shall be shaken, and then they shall behold the Son of Man arriving amid the clouds of the sky with great power and glory. But when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." [7] And yet he said that it "draws near," not that it is already present, and "when these things begin to happen," not "when they have already happened" — because when they have already happened, then our redemption will be present, which up to that point is only said to be drawing near, meanwhile rousing and stirring souls toward the fruit of hope now close at hand. [8] To this is attached the parable of trees growing tender in the branch, the forerunner of blossom and then of fruit. "So you too, when you see all these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Watch, then, at every season, that you may be worthy to escape all these things, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man" — through the resurrection, of course, once everything else has passed. So while it buds already in the recognition of the mystery, it flowers and comes to fruit only in the Lord's own appearing. [9] Who, then, has so untimely, so harshly, roused the Lord already from the right hand of God to shatter the earth, according to Isaiah — a text, I think, still untouched? Who has already put the enemies of Christ beneath his feet, according to David, faster even than the Father, while the whole crowd of the populace still cries out, "Christians to the lion"? Who has seen Jesus descending from heaven in the very form the apostles saw him ascending, according to the angels' own appointment? [10] To this day no tribe has beaten its breast, mourning before tribe in recognition of him whom they pierced; no one yet has welcomed Elijah; no one yet has fled the antichrist; no one yet has wept over the fall of Babylon; [11] and is there already one who has risen — unless he is a heretic? He has plainly already come out of the tomb of the body — while still, even now, subject to fevers and sores; and he has already trodden down his enemies — while still, even now, having to wrestle with the powers of this world; and of course he already reigns — while still, even now, owing to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.