---
title: "Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen"
author: "Various Church Fathers"
translator: "S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.)"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Church Fathers"
section: 87 of 199
url: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/87/
cite: "Various Church Fathers, tr. S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.), Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen, section 87. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/87/"
---

# Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen

*Various Church Fathers, tr. S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.)*

Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian, and Origen's On First Principles and Against Celsus.

## 87. Of Marcion's Antitheses · 4 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/87/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/87/#p-N

[¶0] 130 Spake also, in the Gospel, telling how

[¶1] The kids are severed from the sheep, and stand

[¶2] On the left hand): that some indeed there are

[¶3] Who for the Lord’s Name’s sake have suffered: thus

[¶4] That fruit has veiled their former barrenness:

[¶5] 135 And such, the prophet teaches, on the ground

[¶6] Of that their final merit worthy are

[¶7] Of the Lord’s altar: others, cast away

[¶8] (As was th’ iniquitous rich man, we read,

[¶9] By Lazarus), are such as have remained

[¶10] 140 Exiled, persistent in their stubbornness.

[¶11] Now a veil, hanging in the midst, did both

[¶12] Dissever, and had into portions twain

[¶13] Divided the one shrine. The inner parts

[¶14] Were called “Holies of holies.” Stationed there

[¶15] 145 An altar shone, noble with gold; and there,

[¶16] At the same time, the testaments and ark

[¶17] Of the Law’s tablets; covered wholly o’er

[¶18] With lambs’skins dyed with heaven’s hue; within

[¶19] Gold-clad; and all between of wood. Here are so

[¶20] 150 The tablets of the Law; here is the urn

[¶21] Replete with manna; here is Aaron’s rod

[¶22] Which puts forth germens of the cross—unlike

[¶23] The cross itself, yet born of storax-tree—And over it—in uniformity

[¶24] 155 Fourfold—the cherubim their pinions spread,

[¶25] And the inviolable sanctities

[¶26] Covered obediently. Without the veil

[¶27] Part of the shrine stood open: facing it,

[¶28] Heavy with broad brass, did an altar stand;

[¶29] 160 And with two triple sets (on each side one)

[¶30] Of branches woven with the central stem,

[¶31] A lampstand, and as many lamps:

[¶32] The golden substance wholly filled with light

[¶33] The temple.

[¶34] Thus the temple’s outer face,

[¶35] 165 Common and open, does the ritual

[¶36] Denote, then, of a people lingering

[¶37] Beneath the Law; amid whose gloom there shone

[¶38] The Holy Spirit’s sevenfold unity

[¶39] Ever, the People sheltering. And thus

[¶40] 170 The Lampstand True and living Lamps do shine

[¶41] Persistently throughout the Law and Seers

[¶42] On men subdued in heart. And for a type

[¶43] Of earth, the altar—so tradition says—

[¶44] Was made. Here constantly, in open space,