Tertullian — Against Marcion 4.8
Christ of the Creator had to be called Nazarene according to prophecy—whence Jews also name us Nazarenes through him; for we are those of whom it is written: Nazarenes are whitened above snow, who before were smeared with delinquency’s stains and blackened with ignorance’s dark.
The Nazarene title was to fit Christ from infancy’s hiding into which he descended at Nazareth avoiding Archelaus; Marcion’s Christ ought to have forsworn every commerce even of places familiar to the Creator’s Christ—yet wherever he is found according to the prophets he will be the prophets’ Christ.
Noting first that hands were laid on him I must already settle his bodily substance: he cannot be believed a phantom who admitted touch—and indeed violence-full—when detained, seized, and dragged even to the precipice; and though he passed through their midst, he had already suffered force and was afterward released—not escaped by a mist that would have yielded to no touch if it had been one; to touch and be touched nothing can unless a body.
Soon he also touched others, laying on hands surely to be felt, conferring healing benefits as true and not imaginary as the hands through which he conferred them; he is therefore Isaiah’s Christ, remover of weaknesses: he takes away our infirmities and bears our diseases—whatever Jesus cured is mine.
To free from demons is also a health cure; unclean spirits went out crying You are the Son of God—of which God let it here appear; they were rebuked and ordered silent because Christ wanted himself recognized as Son of God by humans not by unclean spirits—the Christ who had sent worthier heralds; demons yielded by fear, therefore confessing the Son of a God to be feared—Marcion denies his god is feared, defending that the good is not feared but the Judge; and by command and rebuke not by persuasion as the merely good he showed himself to be feared—or else he fell into needing to act unlike his nature and into letting himself be feared as the Creator’s Son.
Latin
Nazaraeus uocari habebat secundum prophetiam Christus creatoris. unde et ipso nomine nos Iudaei Nazarenos appellant per eum. nam et sumus de quibus scriptum est: Nazaraei exalbati sunt super niuem, qui scilicet retro luridati delinquentiae maculis et nigrati ignorantiae tenebris. Christo autem appellatio Nazaraei competitura erat ex infantiae latebris, (in) quas apud Nazareth descendit, uitando Archelaum, filium Herodis. hoc propterea non omisi, quia Christum Marcionis oportuerat omne commercium eierasse etiam locorum familiarium Christi creatoris, habentem tanta Iudaeae oppida non ita Christo creatoris per -prophetas emancipata. ceterum prophetarum erit Christus, ubicumque secundum prophetas inuenitur. et tamen apud Nazareth quoque nihil noui notatur praedicasse, dum alio merito [unius prouerbii] eiectus refertur. hic primum manus ei iniectas animaduertens necesse habeo iam de substantia eius corporali praefinire, quod non possit phantasma credi qui contactum et quidem uiolentia plenum detentus et captus et ad praecipitium usque protractus admiserit. nam etsi per medios euasit, sed ante iam uim expertus et postea dimissus, scilicet soluto, uti adsolet, tumultu, uel etiam inrupto, non tamen per caliginem eluso, quae nulli omnino tactui succidisset, si fuisset. tangere enim et tangi nisi corpus nulla potest res etiam saecularis sapientiae digna sententia est. ad summam: et ipse mox tetigit alios, quibus manus imponens, utique sentiendas, beneficia medicinarum conferebat, tam uera, tam non imaginaria, quam erant per quas conferebat. ipse igitur est Christus Esaiae, remediator ualitudinum: hic, inquit, imbecillitates nostras aufert et langores portat. portare autem Graeci etiam pro eo solent ponere, quod est tollere. sufficit interim mihi generalis repromissio. quodcumque curauerit Iesus, meus est. ueniemus tamen et ad species curationum. Ceterum et a daemoniis liberare curatio est ualitudinis. itaque spiritus nequam quasi ex forma iam prioris exempli cum testimonio excedebant uociferantes: tu es filius dei. cuius dei, uel hic pareat. (sed proinde increpabantur et iubebantur tacere\'. proinde enim Christus ab hominibus, non ab spiritibus inmundis uolebat se filium dei agnosci, ille Christus dumtaxat, cui hoc congruebat, quia praemiserat per quos posset agnosci, et utique digniores praedicatores. illius erat praeconium inmundi spiritus respuere, cui sancti abundabat. porro qui numquam fuerat adnuntiatus, si tamen uolebat agnosci, — frustra autem uenerat, si nolebat — non esset aspernatus testimonium alienae et cuiuscumque substantiae, quia propriae non habebat qui in aliena descenderat. iam nunc et qua destructor creatoris nihil magis gestisset quam a spiritibus ipsius agnosci et diuulgari prae timore; nisi quod Marcion deum suum timeri negat, defendens bonum non timeri, sed iudicem, apud quem sint materiae timoris, ira saeuitia iudicia uindicta damnatio. sed et daemonia timore utique cedebant, — ergo timendi dei filium confitebantur, occasionem habitura non cedendi, si non timendi — et ille iussu et increpitu ea expellens, non suasu, qua bonus, timendum se exhibebat. aut numquid ideo increpabat, quia timebatur, nolens timeri? et quomodo ea uolebat excedere, quod nisi timore non facerent? cecidit ergo in necessitatem, qua disparem se naturae suae ageret, cum posset ut bonus semel eis parcere, cecidit et in aliam praeuaricationis notam, cum se a daemoniis quasi filium creatoris sustineret timeri, ut iam non propria potestate expelleret daemonia, sed per creatoris auctoritatem. In solitudinem procedit. sollemnis et huiusmodi regio creatoris. oportebat sermonem illic quoque uideri in corpore, ubi egerat aliquando et in nube. competebat et euangelio habitus loci, qui placuerat et legi. capiat itaque iocunditatem solitudo; hoc Esaias promiserat. detentus a turbis: oportet me, inquit, et aliis ciuitatibus adnuntiare regnum dei. ostenderat iam alicubi deum suum? non puto adhuc usque. sed [de] his loquebatur, qui alium quoque deum nouerant? nec hoc credo. ergo si nec ille alium deum ediderat nec illi nouerant praeter creatorem, eiusdem dei regnum portendebat, quem solum sciebat notum eis, qui audiebant.