Chapter 2
SPECTACLES
stubbornness in a rule of life so strict as ours might well submit to a plan so apt.6
Chapter 2 (1) Moreover, there is no one of our adversaries who will not offer this excuse, too: that all things have been created by God and handed over to man—just as we
Christians teach—and that they are undoubtedly good, as coming from a good Creator; and among them we must count all the various components that make up the spec tacles, the horse, for instance, and the lion, the strength of body and the sweetness of voice.1 Accordingly, they say that a thing which exists by God's creation cannot be considered either foreign or opposed to God, nor must a thing which is not opposed to God, because it is not foreign to Him, be considered opposed to God's worshipers.
(2) Obviously, they continue, the very structures of the places—the squared stones, unhewn stones, marble slabs and columns2—also are all the handiwork of God who gave them to furnish the earth; indeed, the performances themselves take place under God's heaven.
6 For epigrammatic effect, Tertullian uses the rhetorical figure of oxymoron, a witty saying which is pointedly paradoxical (stubborn ness . . . might well submit) .
1 Tertullian mentions one example for each of the four kinds of spectacles in Roman antiquity: the horse for the circus with its horse-races; the lion for the amphitheater where, besides gladiatorial games, hunts of wild beasts (venationes) took place; the strength of body for the stadium with its athletic games; and the sweetness of voice for the theater where the effect depended especially on the actor's voice.
2 The squared and unhewn stones represent the raw material for the structure, while the marble slabs and columns are used for the facing of the walls and the adornment of the building respectively.
TERTULLIAN
How clever in adducing proofs does human ignorance think itself, especially when it is afraid of losing some of these delights and enjoyments of the world! (3) Accordingly, you will find more people turned away from our religion by the danger to their pleasures than by the danger to their lives. For of death even a fool is not particularly afraid, feeling that it is a debt he owes to nature; but pleasure, inasmuch as it is born with man, even a sage does not despise, since both fool and sage have no other gratification in life but pleasure. (4) No one denies— because everyone knows what nature of its own accord tells us—that God is the Creator of the universe, and that this universe is good and has been made over to man by its Creator. (5) But because they have no real knowledge of God—knowing Him only by natural law and not by right of friendship, knowing Him only from afar and not from intimate association—it is inevitable that they prove ignorant of His commands regarding the use of His crea tion. Likewise, must they be unaware of the rival power3 that by its hostile actions seeks to pervert to wrong uses the things of divine creation. For with such defective knowl edge of God one cannot know either His will or His adversary. (6) We must, then, consider not only by whom all things were created, but also by whom they were perverted. For in this way it will become clear for what use they were created, once it is evident for what use they were not. (7) The state of corruption differs vastly from that of innocence, because there is an enormous difference between the Creator and the perverter.
Why, every form of evil-doing—misdeeds which also the 3 The rival power is Satan, as Tertullian explains especially in the concluding section of this chapter.
SPECTACLES
heathens forbid and punish as such—comes from things created by God. (8) You see murder committed by iron dagger, poison, or magic incantation:4 but iron, poisonous herbs, demons are all equally creatures of God. Yet, did the Creator design those creatures of His for man's destruc tion? Certainly not. He forbids man-slaying by the one summary commandment: 'Thou shalt not kill.'5 (9) In like manner, gold, brass, silver, ivory, wood, and any other material used in the manufacture of idols—who has brought them into the world i£ not God, the Maker of the world?
Yet, has He done this that they may be made into objects of worship set up in opposition to Himself? Certainly not.
For the most grievous sin in His eyes is idolatry. What is there that offends God and is not His own? But, when it offends God, it has ceased to be His; and when it has ceased to be His, it offends Him. (10) Man himself, the perpetrator of every kind of villainy, is not only the work of God, but also His likeness6—yet, both in body and spirit he has fallen away from his Creator. For we did not receive the eyes for gratifying carnal appetite, the tongue for speak ing evil, the ears for listening to slander, the gullet for indulging in the sin of gluttony, the belly to be the gullet's partner, the organs of sex for immodest excesses, the hands
4 The idea that a person could be killed by the magic power of imprecations was very common in Graeco-Roman antiquity. This passage leaves no doubt that Tertullian, too, was convinced that a person could be destroyed by magic. As it is clear from the immediately following sentence, he thought that this could be accomplished with the help of demons (Tertullian says angeli, but it is clear from the context that these 'angels' are evil spirits, demons).
It must be borne in mind that early Christianity found itself in an environment in which demonism was widespread. Thus it is hardly surprising that some of the earliest ecclesiastical writers, among them
Tertullian, were not very happy in their treatment of this topic.
5 Exod. 20.13; Matt. 5.21.
6 Cf. Gen. 1.27.