Tertullian, Apology 21
We have shown that the earliest Jewish writings back this sect, even though most people know it only dates to Tiberius’ reign and we ourselves claim it. Perhaps that is why its legal standing is challenged—as if, sheltering under the shade of a famous and certainly permitted religion, it were concealing some presumption of its own, or because, apart from its youth, we share none of the Jewish food restrictions, holy days, bodily sign, or common name that would be required if we served the same God. The public already knows Christ as a man—exactly the kind the Jews condemned—so it is easy to assume we worship a mere human. Yet we are not ashamed of Christ, since it serves us to be identified and condemned under his name, and we make no other presumption about God. We must therefore say a few things about Christ as God.
The Jews once enjoyed such grace with God that their founding fathers’ remarkable justice and faith produced national greatness, royal splendor, and immense prosperity; God’s own voices warned them how to merit his favor and avoid offending him. But see how far they fell: puffed up by ancestral pride to the point of madness, they abandoned discipline for profanity, and even if they will not admit it, their present condition proves the charge. Scattered, homeless, exiled from both heaven and their native sun, they wander the world without a leader, without a divine King, not even granted a stranger’s right to set foot in their homeland. When holy voices foretold this fate, those same voices almost always added that God would gather far more faithful worshippers from every nation, people, and place, transfer his grace to them, and give it in fuller measure because their discipline would have greater capacity. So the One who was to come to reform and illuminate, foretold by God, arrived—Christ the Son of God. Therefore the Son of God was proclaimed arbiter and master of this grace and discipline, illuminator and guide of the human race, not born in a way that would make him ashamed of the name Son or of the Father’s seed.
Latin
Sed quoniam edidimus, antiquissimis Judaeorum instrumentis sectam istam esse suffultam, quam aliquanto novellam, ut Tiberiani temporis, plerique sciunt, profitentibus nobis quoque; fortasse an hoc nomine de statu ejus retractetur, quasi sub umbraculo insignissimae religionis, certe licitae, aliquid propriae praesumptionis abscondat, vel quia praeter aetatem neque de victus exceptionibus, neque de solemnitatibus dierum, neque de ipso signaculo corporis, neque de consortio nominis cum Judaeis agimus, quod utique oporteret, si eidem Deo manciparemur? Sed et vulgus jam scit Christum, hominem utique aliquem, qualem Judaei judicaverunt, quo facilius quis nos hominis cultores existimaverit. Verum neque de Christo erubescimus, quum sub nomine ejus deputari et damnari juvat, neque de deo aliter praesumimus. Necesse est igitur pauca dicamus de Christo ut Deo. Tantum Judaeis erat apud Deum gratia, ubi et insignis justitia et fides originalium auctorum, unde illis et generis magnitudo et regni sublimitas floruit et tanta felicitas, ut Dei vocibus, quibus edocebantur, de promerendo Deo, et non offendendo, praemonerentur. Sed quanta deliquerint, fiducia patrum inflati [ad delirandum], derivantes a disciplina in profanum modum, etsi ipsi non confiterentur, probaret exitus hodiernus ipsorum. Dispersi, palabundi, et coeli et soli sui extorres, vagantur per orbem, sine homine, sine Deo rege, quibus nec advenarum jure terram patriam saltem vestigio salutare conceditur. Cum haec illis sanctae voces praeminarentur, eaedem fere semper omnes ingerebant fore, uti sub extimis curriculis saeculi ex omni jam gente, et populo, et loco cultores sibi allegeret Deus multo fideliores, in quos gratiam transferret, et pleniorem quidem ob disciplinae auctioris capacitatem. [Venit igitur, qui ad reformandam et illuminandam eam venturus a Deo praenuntiabatur, Christus ille Filius dei]. Hujus igitur gratiae disciplinaeque arbiter et magister, illuminator atque deductor generis humani, Filius Dei annuntiabatur, non quidem ita genitus, ut erubescat de filii nomine aut de patris semine;