Argumentatur … in leprosi purgationem … Tetigit leprosum … Et hoc opponit Marcion … Christum … verbo solo, et hoc semel functo, curationem statim repraesentasse. Quantam ad gloriae humanae aversionem pertinebat, vetuit eum divulgare. Quantum autem ad tutelam legis jussit ordinem impleri. Vade, ostende te sacerdoti, et offer munus quod praecepit Moyses…. Itaque adjecit: ut sit vobis in testimonium.
Luke v. 12-14: [12] Ecce vir plenus lepra: et videns Jesum … rogavit eum dicens, Domine, si vis, potes me mundare. [13] Et extendens manum tetigit illum dicens, Volo, mundare. Et confestim lepra discessit ab illo. [14] Et ipse praecepit illi ut nemini diceret, sed Vade ostende te sacerdoti, et offer pro emundatione tua sicut praecepit Moses, in testimonium illis.
For emundatione in ver. 14, a has purgatione; b as Vulg. Both a and b have the form offers (see Rönsch, It. u. Vulg. p. 294), b the plural sacerdotibus. Both codd. have a variation similar to that of Marcion, ut sit etc.; a inserts hoc.
Next follows the healing of the paralytic, which was done in fulfilment of Is. xxxv. 2. The miracle also itself in its details was a special and exact fulfilment of the prophecy contained in the next verse, Is. xxxv. 3. That the Messiah should forgive sins had been repeatedly prophesied, e.g. in Is. liii. 12, i. 18, Micah vii. 18. Not only were these prophecies thus actually sanctioned by Christ, but, in forgiving the sins of the paralytic, He was only doing what the Creator or Demiurge had done before Him. In proof of this Tertullian appeals to the examples of the Ninevites, of David and Nathan, of Ahab, of Jonathan the son of Saul, and of the chosen people themselves. Thus Marcion was doubly refuted, because the prerogative of forgiveness was asserted of the Messiah in the prophecies which he rejected and attributed to the Creator whom he denied. In like manner, when Jesus called Himself the 'Son of Man,' He did so in a real sense, signifying that He was really born of a virgin. This appellation too had been applied to Him by the prophet Daniel. (Dan. vii. 13, iii. 25). But if Jesus claimed to be the Son of Man, if, standing before the Jews as a man, He claimed as man the power of forgiving sins, He thereby showed that He possessed a real human body and not the mere phantasm of which Marcion spoke.
Curatur et paralyticus, et quidem in coetu, spectante populo… Cum redintegratione membrorum virium quoque repraesentationem pollicebatur: Exsurge et tolle grabatum tuum;—simul et animi vigorem ad non timendos qui dicturi erant: Qui dimittet peccata nisi solus deus?… Cum Judaei merito retractarent non posse hominem delicta dimittere sed deum solum, cur… respondit, habere eum potestatem dimittendi delicta, quando et filium hominis nominans hominem nominaret?
Luke v. 17-26: [17] Et factum est in una dierum et ipse sedebat docens…. [18] Et ecce viri portantes in lecto hominem, qui erat paralyticus, et quaerebant eum inferre… [19] et non invenientes qua parte illum inferrent prae turba,… per tegulas… summiserunt illum cum lecto in medium ante Jesum. [20] Quorum fidem ut vidit, dixit, Homo, remittuntur tibi peccata tua. [21] Et coeperunt cogitare Scribae et Pharisaei, dicentes, Quis est hic qui loquitur blasphemias? quis potest dimittere peccata nisi solus deus? [22] Ut cognovit autem Jesus cogitationes eorum, respondens dixit ad illos. … [23] Quid est facilius dicere, Dimittuntur tibi peccata, an dicere, Surge et ambula? [24] Ut autem sciatis quia filius hominis potestatem habet in terra dimittere peccata, ait paralytico, Tibi dico, surge, tolle lectum tuum et vade in domum tuam. [25] Et confestim surgens … abiit in domum suam.
Grabatum is the reading of a in ver. 25.
Marcion drew an argument from the calling of the publican (Levi)— one under ban of the law—as if it were done in disparagement of the law. Tertullian reminds him in reply of the calling and confession of Peter, who was a representative of the law. Further, when he said that 'the whole need not a physician' Jesus declared that the Jews were whole, the publicans sick.
Publicanum adlectum a domino … dicendo, medicum sanis non esse necessarium sed male habentibus…
Luke v. 27-32: [27] Et post hoc exiit et vidit publicanum … et ait illi, Sequere me…. [30] Et murmurabant Pharisaei et Scribae eorum… [31] et respondens Jesus dixit ad illos, Non egent qui sani sunt medico sed qui male habent.