True Christian patience versus the devil's counterfeit

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Tertullian is closing the treatise by contrasting the heavenly, true patience of Christians with the false, self-serving patience the devil has taught to pagans.

This is the principle of patience, this its discipline, this its work—heavenly and true. It is not, of course, the pagan patience of the peoples of the earth, which is false and shameful. For in this matter too the devil wanted to rival the Lord, as if on equal terms—except that the very difference between evil and good is matched by an equal greatness. He taught his own followers a patience of his own: the patience, I mean, that subjects husbands who are for sale by dowry, or who trade on their wives' prostitution, to the power of their wives; that endures every labor of forced obedience with feigned affection for the sake of hunting after childless estates; that binds workers of the belly to insulting patronage by surrendering their freedom to gluttony. Such are the pursuits of patience that the pagans know, and they occupy the name of so great a good with filthy practices. Patient toward rivals, toward the rich, toward those who are invited, they live impatient toward God alone. But let them look to their own affairs and their own patron, and to what patience the fire under the earth awaits. As for us, let us love the patience of God and the patience of Christ. Let us repay to him what he himself has paid out for us. Let us offer the patience of the spirit and the patience of the flesh, we who believe in the resurrection of flesh and spirit.

Latin

Haec patientiae ratio, haec disciplina, haec opera, — caelestis et uerae. scilicet Christiana non, ut illa patientia gentium terrae, falsa probrosa. nam ut in isto quoque domino diabolus aemularetur, quasi plane ex pari — nisi quod ipsa diuersitas mali et boni aequaliter magnitudinis par est — docuit et suos patientiam propriam, illam dico, quae maritos dote uenales aut lenociniis negotiantes uxorum potestatibus subicit, quae aucupandis orbitatibus omnem coacti obsequii laborem mentitis adfectionibus tolerat, quae uentris operarios contumeliosis patrociniis gulae subiectione libertatis addicit. talia nationes patientiae studia nouerunt et tanti boni nomen foedis operationibus occupant; patientes riualium et diuitum et inuitatorum, impatientes solius dei uiuunt. sed uiderint sua et sui praesidis, quam patientiam sub terra ignis expectat. ceterum nos amemus patientiam dei, patientiam Christi: rependamus illi quam pro nobis ipse dependit; offeramus patientiam spiritus, patientiam carnis, qui in resurrectionem carnis et spiritus credimus. -

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.