Patience both precedes and follows faith

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Tertullian is arguing that patience is inseparable from faith, proving it first from Abraham and then from Christ's new law.

Patience itself is what both follows faith and goes before it. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6); but his faith was proved by patience when he was commanded to sacrifice his son—not, I would say, as a temptation of his faith, but as a typical attestation. For God, who had counted him as righteous, knew how heavy the command was, and that it was not pleasing to him to have it carried out; yet Abraham heard it patiently, and if God had willed it, he would have fulfilled it. Rightly then was he blessed, because he was also faithful; rightly faithful, because he was also patient. So faith, illuminated by patience, when it was being sown among the pagans through the seed of Abraham, which is Christ, and was bringing grace in over the law, set patience before itself as its helper for the enlarging and fulfilling of the law, because patience alone had been lacking to the teaching of righteousness. For formerly they demanded an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (Exodus 21:24), and repaid evil for evil. Patience was not yet on the earth, because faith was not either. Meanwhile, impatience enjoyed the occasions the law provided. It was easy while the Lord and teacher of patience was absent. But after he came and composed grace of faith with patience, it is no longer permitted even to insult with a word, or even to say 'Fool,' without the danger of judgment (Matthew 5:22). Anger is forbidden, the spirit is restrained, wantonness of hand is checked, the tongue's poison is removed. The law has found more than it lost. As Christ says: Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray for your persecutors, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:44-45). You see what a father patience acquires for us.

Latin

Ipsa adeo est, quae fidem et subsequitur et antecedit. denique Abraham deo credidit et iustitiae deputatus ab illo est; sed fidem eius patientia probauit, cum filium immolare iussus ad fidei, non temptationem dixerim, sed typicam contestationem, - ceterum deus quem iustitiae deputasset sciebattam graue praeceptum, quod nec domino perfici placebat, patienter et audiuit et, si deus uoluisset, implesset. merito ergo benedictus, quia et fidelis; merito fidelis, quia et patiens. ita fides patientia inluminata, cum in nationes seminaretur per semen Abrahae, quod est Christus, et gratiam legi superduceret, ampliandae adimplendaeque legi adiutricem suam patientiam praefecit, quod ea sola ad iustitiae doctrinam retro defuisset. nam olim et oculum pro oculo et dentem pro dente repetebant et malum malo fenerabant. nondum enim patientia in terris, quia nec fides. scilicet interim impatientia occasionibus legis fruebatur. facile erat absente domino patientiae et magistro. qui postquam suqeruenit et gratiam fidei patientia composuit, iam nec uerbo quidem lacessere nec 'fatue' quidem dicere sine iudicii periculo licet. prohibita ira restricti animi, compressa petulantia manus, exemptum linguae uenenum. plus lex quam amisit inuenit. dicente Christo: diligite inimicos uestros et maledicentibus benedicite et orate pro persecutoribus uestris, ut filii sitis patris uestri caelestis. uides, quem nobis patrem patientia adquirat.

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.