---
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: 97 of 199
url: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/97/
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 97. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/97/"
---

# 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.

## 97. General Reply to Sundry of Marcion's Heresies · 6 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/97/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/97/#p-N

[¶0] Him man, a body bodiless! and ah!

[¶1] 220 A various insanity of mind

[¶2] Sinks you; which him who hath presumed to hint

[¶3] You both do, sinking, sprinkle: for His deeds

[¶4] Will then approve Him man alike and God

[¶5] Commingled, and the world will furnish signs

[¶6] 225 No few.

[¶7] While then the Son Himself of God

[¶8] Is seeking to regain the flesh’s limbs,

[¶9] Already robed as King, He doth sustain

[¶10] Blows from rude palms; with spitting covered is

[¶11] His face; a thorn-inwoven crown His head

[¶12] 230 Pierces all round; and to the tree Himself

[¶13] Is fixed; wine drugged with myrrh, is drunk, and gall

[¶14] Is mixt with vinegar; parted His robe,

[¶15] And in it lots are cast; what for himself

[¶16] Each one hath seized he keeps; in murky gloom,

[¶17] 235 As God from fleshly body silently

[¶18] Outbreathes His soul, in darkness trembling day

[¶19] Took refuge with the sun; twice dawned one day;

[¶20] Its centre black night covered: from their base

[¶21] Mounts move in circle, wholly moved was earth,

[¶22] 240 Saints’ sepulchres stood ope, and all things joined

[¶23] In fear to see His passion whom they knew!

[¶24] His lifeless side a soldier with bare spear

[¶25] Pierces, and forth flows blood, nor water less

[¶26] Thence followed. These facts they agree to hide,

[¶27] 245 And are unwilling the misdeed to own,

[¶28] Willing to blink the crime.

[¶29] Can spirit, then,

[¶30] Without a body wear a robe? or is’t

[¶31] Susceptible of penalty? the wound

[¶32] Of violence does it bear? or die? or rise?

[¶33] 250 Is blood thence poured? from what flesh. since ye say

[¶34] He had none? or else, rather, feigned He? if

[¶35] ’Tis safe for you to say so; though you do

[¶36] (Headlong) so say, by passing over more

[¶37] In silence. Is not, then, faith manifest?

[¶38] 255 And are not all things fixed? The day before

[¶39] He then should suffer, keeping Passover,

[¶40] And handing down a memorable rite

[¶41] To His disciples, taking bread alike

[¶42] And the vine’s juice, “My body, and My blood

[¶43] 260 Which is poured for you, this is,” did He say;

[¶44] And bade it ever afterward be done.