Tertullian — Against Marcion 4.19
That rich women clung to Christ who also ministered to him from their means—among them even the wife of a royal procurator—is from prophecy. For he was calling these through Isaiah: Rise, rich women, and hear my voice—to show them first as disciples, then as workers and ministers: Daughters in hope, hear my words; remember a day of a year with labor in hope—for with labor they followed and for hope they ministered.
Likewise about parables let it once suffice that this kind of speech was promised by the Creator. And now that pronouncement of his to the people too—With the ear you will hear and not hear—gave Christ frequent occasion to drive in: Who has ears, let him hear—not as if by diversity Christ permitted a hearing the Creator had taken away, but because exhortation followed the threat. For they were not hearing of themselves who had ears, but he was showing heart-ears necessary with which the Creator had said they would not hear—and therefore through Christ he adds: See how you hear—that is, lest with the ear you hear and not hear, not hearing with the heart of course but with the ear.
If you fit a worthy sense to the pronouncement for the sense of him who was rousing to hearing, even by saying See how you hear he was threatening those not about to hear. Of course the mildest god does not threaten, because he neither judges nor is angry. This the adjoining sense also proves: To him who has, it will be given; but from him who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken. What will be given? Addition of faith or understanding or salvation itself. What taken? Of course what will be given. By whom given and taken? If taken by the Creator, by him also given; if given by Marcion’s god, by him also taken. Yet by whatever name he threatens ablation, he will not be of that god who does not know how to threaten, who has not learned to be angry.
I wonder moreover that he who had hidden himself for so great an age denies a lamp is usually hidden—a greater and more necessary light—when he promises all from hidden into open who still overshadows his god until now, waiting I suppose for Marcion to be born.
We come to the steadiest argument of all who drag the Lord’s nativity into controversy. ‘He himself,’ they say, ‘attests he was not born by saying: Who is my mother and who are my brothers?’ So heretics always either snatch naked and simple voices by conjectures where they wish or again dissolve conditional and rational ones under a condition of simplicity. We on the contrary say first he could not have been announced that his mother and brothers were standing outside seeking to see him if he had no mother and no brothers—whom of course the announcer knew. Scripture does not say it was for testing. And with cause: faith-kin who hear and do his words are preferred to blood standing outside and pulling him from solemn work—he did not so much deny as disown by offense; no one transfers what he does not have; by making others mother and brothers he confessed those who were.
Latin
Quod diuites Christo mulieres adhaerebant, quae et de facultatibus suis ministrabant ei, inter quas et uxor regis procuratoris, de prophetia est. has enim uocabat per Esaiam: mulieres diuites, exsurgite et audite uocem meam. ut discipulas primo, dehinc ut operarias et ministras ostenderet: filiae in spe, audite sermones (meos.) diei anni mementote cum labore in spe; cum labore enim prosequebantur et ob spem ministrabant. Aeque de parabolis semel sufficiat probatum hoc genus eloquii a creatore promissum. at nunc illa quoque pronuntiatio eius ad populum: aure audietis et non audietis dedit Christo frequenter inculcare: qui habet aures audiat, non quasi ei diuersitate auditum permitteret Christus, quem ademisset creator, sed quia comminationem exhortatio sequebatur. [primo: aureaudietis et non audietis, dehinc: qui habet aures audiat.] non enim audiebant ultro qui aures habebant, sed ostendebant aures cordis necessarias, quibus illos audituros negarat creator, et ideo per Christum adicit: uidete, quomodo audiatis, id est: ne aure audiatis et non audiatis, non corde scilicet audientes, sed aure. si dignum sensum pronuntiationi accommodes pro sensu eius, qui auditui suscitabat, etiam dicendo: uidete, quomodo audiatis non audituris minabatur. sane non minatur mitissimus deus, quia nec iudicat nec irascitur. hoc probat etiam subiacens sensus: ei, qui habet, dabitur, ab eo autem, qui non habet, etiam quod habere se putat auferetur ei. quid dabitur? adiectio fidei uel intellectus uel salus ipsa. quid auferetur? utique quod dabitur. a quo dabitur auferetur? si a creatore auferetur, ab eo et dabitur; si a deo Marcionis dabitur, ab eo et auferetur. quoquo tamen nomine comminatur ablationem, non erit eius dei, qui nescit comminari, qui non nouit israci. miror autem, cum lucernam negat abscondi solere qui se tanto saeculo absconderat, maius et necessarius lumen, cum omnia de occulto in apertum repromittit qui deum suum usque adhuc obumbrat, expectans, opinor, nasci Marcionem. Venimus ad constantissimum argumentum omnium, qui domini natiuitatem in controuersiam deferunt. \'ipBe/ inquiunt, \'contestatur se non esse natum dicendo: quae mihi mater et qui mihi fratres\'? ita sem. per haeretici aut nudas et simplices uoces coniecturis quo uolunt rapiunt aut rursus condicionales et rationales simplicitatis condicione dissoluunt, ut hoc in loco. nos contrario dicimus primo non potuisse illi adnuntiari, quod mater et fratres eius foris starent quaerentes uidere eum, si nulla illi mater et fratres nulli fuissent, quos utique norat qui adnuntiarat, uel retro notos uel tunc ibidem compertos, dum eum uidere desiderant uel dum ipsi nuntium mandant. ad hanc primam propositionem nostram solet ex diuerso responderi: (quid enim, si temptandi gratia nuntiatum est ei\'? sed hoc scriptura non dicit, quae quanto significare solet ex temptatione quid factum, — ecce legis doctor adsurrexit temptans eum, et de tributi consultatione: et accesserunt ad eum Pharisaei temptantes eum — tanto, ubi non facit temptationis mentionem, non admittit temptationis interpretationem. et tamen ex abundanti causas temptationis expostulo, cui rei temptauerint illum per nominationem matris et fratrum. si, ut scirent, natusne esset an non, quando de hoc fuit quaestio, quam ex ist temptatione discuterent? quis autem dubitaret natum quem uideret hominem? quem audisset filium se hominis professum? quem de conspectu omnis humanae qualitatis dubitaret deum aut filium dei credere, propheten facilius existimans, licet magnum aliquem, utique tamen natum? etiam si in explorationem natiuitatis temptandus fuisset, quodcumque aliud argumentum temptationi competisset, quam per earum personarum mentionem, quas potuit etiam natus non habere. dic mihi, omnibus natis mater aduiuit? omnibus natis adgenerantur et fratres? non licet patres magis et sorores habere uel et neminem? sed et census constat actos sub Augusto tunc in Iudaea per Sentium Saturninum, apud quos genus eius inquirere potuissent. adeo nullo modo consistit ratio temptationis istius, et uere mater et fratres eius foris stabant, et superest dispicere sensum non simpliciter pronuntiantis: \'quae mihi mater aut fratres\'? quasi ad generis et natiuitatis negationem, sed [et] ex causae necessitate et condicione rationali. tam proximas enim personas foris stare, extra.. neis intus defixis ad sermones eius, amplius et auocare eum a sollemni opere t quaerentes merito indignatus est non tam negauit quam abdicauit. atque adeo cum praemisiss et: quis mihi mater et qui mihi fratres? Subiungens: nisi quiaudiunt uerba mea et faciunt ea, transtulit sanguinis nomina in alios, quos magis proximos prae fide iudicaret. nemo autem transfert quid, nisi [ab eo] qui habet id, quod transfert. si ergo matrem et fratres eos fecit, qui non erant, quomodo negauit eos, qui erant? ceterum ex boc magis matrem et fratres confitebatur, quod illos nolebat agnoscere, meritorum scilicet condicione, non ex proximorum negatione, in semet ipso docens qui patrem aut matrem aut fratres praeponeret uerbo dei non esse dignum discipulum. quod alios adoptabat, confirmabat quos ex offensa negauit, quibus non ut ueriores substituit, sed ut digniores. denique nihil magnum, si fidem sanguini praeposuit, quem non habebat.