Humanitext Reader

Tertullian · On the Testimony of the Soul §6

The Universal Witness of the Soul and the Pagans' Self-Condemnation

Passage 5 of 5 · Latin

Summary

Tertullian concludes the work by arguing that the truths naturally spoken by the soul are a universal testimony of nature, leaving pagans who persecute Christians without excuse and self-condemned on the day of judgment by their own soul's testimony.

§6Crede itaque tuis et de commentariis nostris tanto magis crede diuinis, sed de animae iipsius arbitrio perinde crede naturae.
Believe, therefore, your own writings, and believe our divine writings all the more because they are from our records, but likewise believe nature on the judgment of the soul itself.
elige quam ex his fidelius sororem obserues ueritatis.
Choose which of these you will observe as the more faithful sister of truth.
si tu tuis litteris dubitas, neque deus neque natura mentitur.
If you doubt your own literature, neither God nor nature lies.
ut et naturae et deo credas c/ede animae, ita fiet ut et tibi credas.
In order that you may believe both nature and God, yield to the soul; thus it will happen that you also believe yourself.
illa certe est quam tanti facis, quantum illa te facit, cuius es totus, quae tibi omnia est, sine qua nec uiuere potes nec mori, propter quam deum neglegis.
She indeed is the one whom you value as highly as she makes you, to whom you belong entirely, who is everything to you, without whom you can neither live nor die, and for whose sake you neglect God.
cum enim times fieri Christianus, eam conueni.
For when you fear to become a Christian, consult her.
cur alium colens deum nominat? cur, cum maledicendo spiritus denotat, daemonia pronuntiat? cur ad caelum contestatur et ad terterram detestaturstatur? cur alibi seruit, alibi uindicem conuenit? cur de mortuis iudicat? cur uerba habet Christianorum, quos nec auditosditos uisosque uult? cur aut nobis dedit ea uerba, aut accepit a nobis? cur aut docuit aut didicit? suspectam habes conuenientiam prapraedicationis in tanta disconuenientia conuersationis.
Why, while worshipping another, does she name God? Why, when she designates spirits by cursing, does she pronounce the name of demons? Why does she swear by heaven as a witness and detest by earth? Why does she serve in one place, and call upon the avenger in another? Why does she judge concerning the dead? Why does she have the words of Christians, whom she wishes neither to hear nor to see? Why did she either give those words to us, or receive them from us? Why did she either teach or learn? You hold in suspicion the agreement of her preaching in such disagreement of her conduct.
uanus es, si huic linguae soli aut Graecae, quae propinquae inter se habentur, reputabis eiusmodi, ut neges naturae uniuersitatem.
You are foolish if you attribute things of this sort only to this language or to Greek, which are considered close to one another, so as to deny the universality of nature.
non Latinis nec Argiuis solis anima de caelo cadit.
Not upon Latins and Argives alone does the soul fall from heaven.
omnium gentium unus homo, uarium nomen est, una anima, uaria uox, unus spiritus, uarius sonus, propria cuique genti loquella, sed loquellae materia communis.
Of all nations man is one, though the name is various; the soul is one, though the voice is various; the spirit is one, though the sound is various; the language is proper to each nation, but the material of the language is common.
deus ubique et bonitas dei ubique, daemonium ubique et maledictio daemonii ubique, iudicii diuini inuocatio ubique, mors ubique et conscientia mortis ubique, et testimonium ubique.
God is everywhere and the goodness of God is everywhere; the demon is everywhere and the curse of the demon is everywhere; the invocation of the divine judgment is everywhere; death is everywhere and the consciousness of death is everywhere, and the testimony is everywhere.
omnis anima suo iure proclamat quae nobis nec mutirere conceditur.
Every soul by its own right proclaims those things which we are not even permitted to mutter.
merito igitur omnis anima et rea et testisis est, in tantum et rea erroris, in quantum et testis ueritatis, et stabit ante aulas dei die iudicii nihil habens dicere.
Deservedly, therefore, every soul is both defendant and witness, as much a defendant of error as she is a witness of truth; and she will stand before the courts of God on the day of judgment, having nothing to say.
deum praedicabas et non requirebas, daemonia abominabaris et illa adoraadorabas, iudicium dei appellabas nec esse credebas, inferna supplicia praesumebas et non praecauebas, Christianum nomen sapiebas et Christianum nomen persequebarisbaris.
You preached God and did not seek Him; you detested demons and adored them; you appealed to the judgment of God and did not believe it existed; you anticipated hellish punishments and did not guard against them; you understood the Christian name and persecuted the Christian name.

Notes

  1. 6Crede itaque tuis et de commentariis nostris tanto magis crede diuinis — Both tuis ("your own") and diuinis ("divine") modify an implied litteris ("writings"). tanto magis ("so much the more") establishes a comparative argument based on the antiquity and priority of Christian scriptures discussed in the previous chapter: if you believe your own literature, you have all the more reason to believe the divine ones.
  2. 6elige quam ex his fidelius sororem obserues ueritatis — quam is a feminine singular accusative interrogative pronoun referring to the choice among ex his (your writings, divine writings, or nature). obserues is in the present subjunctive in an indirect question. sororem ueritatis ("sister of truth") metaphorically describes whichever source is regarded as most faithfully representing and testifying to the truth.
  3. 6illa certe est quam tanti facis, quantum illa te facit — The genitive of value tanti and the relative adverb quantum form a correlative structure. Literally, "she indeed is the one whom you value as highly (tanti) as she makes you (te facit)", indicating that a human's self-preservation and high estimation of their own soul are inseparable from the fact that the soul gives them their very life and being.
  4. 6omnis anima suo iure proclamat quae nobis nec mutire conceditur — quae is a relative pronoun in the neuter plural accusative with an implied antecedent. mutire ("to mutter" or "to whisper") refers to the tense situation where Christians face persecution and are not even permitted to whisper these divine truths, contrasting with how "every soul" naturally and by its own right proclaims them.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, On the Testimony of the Soul §6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:stoa0275.stoa028.humanitext-lat2:6

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