---
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: 98 of 199
url: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/98/
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 98. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/98/"
---

# 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.

## 98. General Reply to Sundry of Marcion's Heresies · 7 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/98/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/98/#p-N

[¶0] Of what created elements were made,

[¶1] Think ye, the bread and wine which were (He said)

[¶2] His body with its blood? and what must be

[¶3] 265 Confessed? Proved He not Himself the world’s

[¶4] Maker, through deeds? and that He bore at once

[¶5] A body formed from flesh and blood?

[¶6] This God

[¶7] This true Man, too, the Father’s Virtue ’neath

[¶8] An Image, with the Father ever was,

[¶9] 270 United both in glory and in age;

[¶10] Because alone He ministers the words

[¶11] Of the All-Holder; whom He upon earth

[¶12] Accepts; through whom He all things did create:

[¶13] God’s Son, God’s dearest Minister, is He!

[¶14] 275 Hence hath He generation, hence Name too,

[¶15] Hence, finally, a kingdom; Lord from Lord;

[¶16] Stream from perennial Fount! He, He it was

[¶17] Who to the holy fathers (whosoe’er

[¶18] Among them doth profess to have “seen God”)—

[¶19] 280 God is our witness—since the origin

[¶20] Of this our world, appearing, opened up

[¶21] The Father’s words of promise and of charge

[¶22] From heaven high: He led the People out;

[¶23] Smote through th’iniquitous nation; was Himself

[¶24] 285 The column both of light and of cloud’s shade;

[¶25] And dried the sea; and bids the People go

[¶26] Right through the waves, the foe therein involved

[¶27] And covered with the flood and surge: a way

[¶28] Through deserts made He for the followers

[¶29] 290 Of His high biddings; sent down bread in showers

[¶30] From heaven for the People; brake the rock;

[¶31] Bedewed with wave the thirsty; and from God

[¶32] The mandate of the Law to Moses spake

[¶33] With thunder, trumpet-sound, and flamey column

[¶34] 295 Terrible to the sight, while men’s hearts shook.

[¶35] After twice twenty years, with months complete,

[¶36] Jordan was parted; a way oped; the wave

[¶37] Stood in a mass; and the tribes shared the land,

[¶38] Their fathers’ promised boons! The Father’s word,

[¶39] 300 Speaking Himself by prophets’ mouth, that He

[¶40] Would come to earth and be a man, He did

[¶41] Predict; Christ manifestly to the earth

[¶42] Foretelling.

[¶43] Then, expected for our aid,

[¶44] Life’s only Hope, the Cleanser of our flesh,