Chapter 8
THE CHAPLET
for themselves by means of those idols whose names they intended to use, before provision had actually been made.
Chapter 8 (1) Now, cling to this explanation, while I examine a question hurled at me, for I already hear the following objection. There are a great many other things invented by those whom the world considers to be gods. Yet, we find these very things in our own present usages, in those of the early faithful, in sacred history, and in the life of Christ
Himself, who certainly performed His work as man by no other than the normal agencies of human life. Let us assume that to be so; I have no intention of inquiring any further back into the origin of these things.
(2) Let Mercury be the first who taught the use of letters;1 I admit they are necessary for both commercial intercourse and our relations to God. And if he also was the inventor of stringed instruments,2 I will not deny, when I listen to David, that his ingenious invention proved useful to the saints and served God. Let Aesculapius be the pioneer of the art of healing:3 Isaias mentions that he prescribed some medicine for Ezechias when he was sick,4 and so was Paul aware that a little wine was good for the stomach.5 And if Minerva is claimed to have built the first ship,6 then I recall that Jonas
1 Concerning Mercury (Hermes) as inventor of the art of writing, see Cicero, De natura deorum 3.22.56; Diodorus, Bibl. 1.16; Tertullian,
The Testimony of the Soul 5.
2 The 'Homeric' Hymn to Hermes (24ff.) recounts how little Hermes (Mercury) left his cradle and walked out of the cave where he lived with his mother. Meeting a tortoise at the entrance, he killed it and converted its shell into the sounding board of the first lyre.
3 Cf. Pindar, Pythian Odes 3.
4 Cf. Isa. 38.21.
5 Cf. 1 Tim. 5.23.
6 Homer (Iliad 15.411-412) says that the skillful shipbuilder knows well the whole art by the precepts of Athena (Minerva).
TERTULLIAN
and the Apostles traveled by sea. (3) There is even more than this: Christ puts on clothes,7 and Paul will have a cloak.8 If you claim that some one of the pagan gods was the inventor of every single piece of furniture or of our ordinary utensils, I will have to admit that Christ reclined on a dining couch,9 when He presented a basin to wash the feet of His disciples, when He poured water into it from a jug, and when he was girded with a linen cloth10—a garment sacred to Osiris.* 11 (4) I always give the same answer to this type of question, admitting, indeed, that we use along with others these articles, but stressing the distinction between their rational and irrational use, because the promiscuous employ ment of them conceals in a deceptive way the corruption of the creature, by which it has been made subject to vanity.
(5) We assert, then, that those things only which meet the necessities of human life by providing plain service, real assistance, and honorable comfort are fit for our own and our ancestors' use as well as for sacred history and for Christ
Himself. To that extent they are granted to us by the inspiration of God, who, before anyone else, provided for, and taught and ministered to the enjoyment, I should suppose, of man, His creature. On the other hand, things,
I assert, which are out of this class are not fit for our use— and I mean especially those things which, for the same reason, cannot be found either in sacred history or in the life of Christ.
7 According to his oppenents, Tertullian implies, Christ (in putting on clothes) used the invention of Minerva, the patroness of the art of weaving.
8 Cf. 2 Tim. 4.13.
9 Cf. Luke 22.14.
10 Cf. John 13.4,5.
II The garments of Osiris were woven by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. In Egypt the industry of weaving was brought to great perfection. Linen as fine as silk muslin was woven, and the Egyptians were very proud of their skill in its manufacture.
THE CHAPLET
Chapter 9 (1) No crown ever rested upon the head of a patriarch or prophet, levite, priest, or ruler;1 2 nor, in the new dis pensation, do we read of an Apostle, a preacher of the Gospel or bishop who wore a crown. Not even the Temple of God,
I believe, nor the Ark of the Covenant, nor the tabernacle of testimony," nor the altar of sacrifice, nor the [seven-branched] candlestick was ever adorned with a crown. Now, if a crown were worthy of God, these surely would fittingly have been so decorated both in the ceremony of their first dedication and in the jubilation of their restoration. (2) Yet, if all these were figures of ourselves—for we are, indeed, the temples of God,3 His altars and lights and sacred vessels—then they also foreshadowed this rule: that men of God should not wear the crown. The reality ought to correspond to the image.
If, perhaps, you object that Christ Himself was crowned, I will have a very simple answer for you: 'By all means, you may wear that kind of crown.' (3) But, remember, it was not the people that invented this crown of insolent wickedness.
It was an idea of the Roman soldiers—a custom of the [heathen] world such as the people of God never permitted either as a sign of public rejoicing or to gratify innate wantonness. They were the people who returned from the Babylonian captivity with timbrels and pipes and psalteries rather than with crowns. And after feasting and drinking, they rose to play,4 but not with crowns on their heads. (4)
1 Tertullian means a leader in the community, who sometimes could also be a member of the Sanhedrin. Cf. John 3.1 (Nicodemus, 'a ruler of the Jews'); Luke 8.41 (Jairus, 'a ruler of the synagogue').
2 Cf. Heb. 9.4; Num. 17.7,10.
3 Cf. 1 Cor. 3.16; 6.19; 2 Cor. 6.16.
4 Cf. Exod. 32.6; 1 Cor. 10.7.