Patience as God's agent and its beautiful form

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Tertullian has just shown Job as the supreme example of patience and now turns to describe how patience makes God a debtor to the patient person and what patience itself looks like.

So God is a fully sufficient trustee of patience. If you deposit a wrong with him, he is the avenger; if a loss, the restorer; if pain, the physician; if death, the raiser-up. How much patience is allowed, to have God as a debtor! And not without reason. For patience guards all his good pleasure, and comes between us and all his commands. It fortifies faith, governs peace, assists love, instructs humility, waits for repentance, marks out confession, rules the flesh, preserves the spirit, bridles the tongue, restrains the hand, tramples temptations, drives away scandals, consummates martyrdom, consoles the poor, tempers the rich, does not crush the weak, does not stretch the strong, delights the faithful, invites the pagan, commends the servant to his master and the master to God, adorns the woman, approves the man. It is loved in the boy, praised in the young man, looked up to in the old man. In every sex, in every age, it is beautiful.

Come now, let us also grasp its appearance and bearing. Its face is tranquil and calm, its brow pure, contracted by no wrinkle of sorrow or anger. Its eyebrows are relaxed in a measured way, its eyes cast down with humility, not with misery. Its mouth is sealed with the honor of silence. Its color is that of the carefree and innocent. Its head moves often toward the devil with a threatening laugh. For the rest, its clothing is white, pressed close around the chest and body, as of one who is neither puffed up nor defiled. For it sits on the throne of that most gentle and mild spirit, who is not whirled up in a storm, nor dark with cloud, but is of tender serenity, open and simple, whom Elijah saw third (1 Kings 19:12). For where God is, there also is his foster child, patience, of course. When the Spirit of God descends, then patience accompanies him inseparably. If we do not admit it along with the Spirit, will it remain in us always? No, I do not know whether it will persist longer. Without its companion and minister, it must be distressed at every place and time. Whatever its enemy inflicts, it will not be able to endure alone, lacking the instrument of endurance.

Latin

Adeo satis idoneus patientiae sequester deus: si iniuriam deposueris penes eum, ultor est; si damnum, restitutor est; si dolorem, medicus est; si mortem, resuscitator est quantum patientiae licet, ut deum habeat debitorem! nec inmerito [enim. omnia enim placita eius tuetur, omnibus mandatis eius interuenit: fidem munit, pacem gubernat, dilectionem ådiuuat, humilitatem instruit, paenitentiam expectat, exhomolo. gesin adsignat, carnem regit, spiritum seruat, linguam frenat, manum continet, temptationes inculcat, scandala pellit, martyria consummat, pauperem consolatur, diuitem temperat, infirmum non consumit, ualentem non extendit, fidelem delectat. gentilem inuitat, seruum domino, dominum deo commendat. feminam exornat. uirum adprobat; amatur in puero, laudatur in iuuene, suspicitur in sene; in omni sexu, in omni aetate, formosa est. age iam, sis. et effigiem habitumque eius comprehendamus. uultus illi tranquillus et placidus, frons pura, nulla maeroris aut irae rugositate contracta; remissa aeque is laetum modum supercilia, oculis humilitate, non infelicitate deiectis; os taciturnitatis honore signatum; color, qualis securis et innoxiis; motus frequens capitis in diabolum et minax risus; ceterum amictus circum pectora candidus et corpori impressus, ut qui nec inflatur nec inquinatur. sedet! enim in throno spiritus eius mitissimi et mansuetissimi, qui non turbine glomeratur, non nubilo liuet, sed est tenerae serenitatis, apertus et simplex, quem tertio uidit Helias. nam ubi deus, ibidem et alumna eius, patientia scilicet. cum ergo spiritus dei descendit, indiuidua patientia comitatur eum. si non cum spiritu admiserimus, in nobis morabitur semper? immo nescio, an diutius perseueret- BKM sua comite ac ministra omni loco ae tempore angatur necesse est. quodcumque inimicus eius inflixerit, solus sustinere non poterit, carens instrumento sustinendi.

About this text

Tertullian, who admits he is short of patience himself, praises it as the virtue every Christian duty needs, after the pattern of God and Christ.

Tertullian (c. 155–c. 220) was a Christian writer from Carthage in North Africa, and one of the earliest Christian authors to write in Latin. He wrote this treatise for fellow Christians, though he names no particular person or church. He opens by confessing that he himself is weak in patience, and says he writes because no command of God or work pleasing to him can be performed without it.

The work presents patience as the central discipline of Christian life. Tertullian argues that patience is God's own nature, shown in his forbearance toward the wicked and supremely in Christ's passion. Its opposite, impatience, began with the devil and is the root of every sin, from the fall of Adam and Eve to the crimes of Cain and Israel. A reader will meet God and Christ as the supreme examples of patience, the devil as the origin of impatience, and figures such as Adam, Eve, Cain, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, Job, Isaiah, Stephen, Elijah, and Malchus. The words of Christ, the apostle Paul, and God in scripture are quoted and argued from.

The treatise contrasts true Christian patience with the false patience taught by the devil to his own followers. Patience governs every Christian duty: bearing loss, enduring wrong, accepting death, renouncing revenge, forgiving others, and practicing bodily self-denial. The translation renders patientia as patience and impatientia as impatience throughout. Old Latin Bible names are given in their familiar English forms, so Esaias is Isaiah, Helias is Elijah, Moyses is Moses, Iob is Job, Stephanus is Stephen, and Eua is Eve. Malchus is the high priest's servant whose ear was cut off at Jesus' arrest and healed by him.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 47 (1900) (Latin)
Also checked Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Quae Supersunt Omnia Tertullian Franz Oehler T. O. Weigel Leipzig 1853 (Latin · comparison witness (not aligned to the sections))

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.