Bearing wrongs patiently as the Lord taught

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Tertullian is addressing Christians on how to endure wrongs and insults, after contrasting Christian and pagan attitudes toward loss.

We carry our very soul and body through this world exposed to every kind of wrong, and we take up patience of that wrong as the highest thing. Shall we be wounded by the tasting of lesser things? Far be it from a servant of Christ to have such a stain, that patience prepared for greater temptations should fail in trifles! If someone tries to provoke you with his hand, the Lord's admonition is ready: "If anyone strikes you on the face," he says, "turn the other cheek also" (Matthew 5:39). Let shamelessness be wearied by your patience; whatever blow he lands, let him be bound fast by pain and disgrace. You strike that shameless man more by enduring, and he will be beaten more severely by the Lord; for he will be beaten by the one for whose sake you endure. If the bitterness of a tongue bursts out in cursing or insult, look to the saying: "When they curse you, rejoice" (Matthew 5:11). The Lord himself was cursed in the law, and yet he alone is blessed. Therefore let us servants follow the Lord and be cursed patiently, so that we may be able to be blessed. If I hear some shameless or wicked word spoken against me with too little calm, I must either return bitterness in kind, or be tormented by silent impatience. So when I strike back with curses, how will I be found to have followed the Lord's teaching, by which it was handed down that a person is defiled not by the uncleanness of vessels but by the things that come out of the mouth (Matthew 15:11), and likewise that we remain guilty of every empty and idle word (Matthew 12:36)? It follows, then, that the very thing from which the Lord restrains us, he also warns us to endure calmly from another. Now see the pleasure of patience. For every wrong, whether inflicted by tongue or by hand, when it strikes against patience, will be settled with the same outcome as a weapon aimed at a rock of the firmest hardness and blunted. It will fall there, its work void and fruitless, and sometimes it will be driven back and rage with returning force against the one who sent it. Surely the reason someone harms you is so that you will grieve, because the fruit of the one who harms lies in the grief of the one harmed. Therefore when you overturn his fruit by not grieving, he himself must grieve at the loss of his fruit. Then you not only go away unharmed—which alone would be enough for you—but beyond that, you are delighted by the frustration of your adversary and defended by his grief. This is the usefulness and the pleasure of patience.

Latin

Ipsam animam ipsumque corpus in saeculo isto èXPOsitum omnibus ad iniuriam gerimus eiusque iniuriae patientiam summus: minorum delibatione laedemur? absit 'a seruo Christi tale inquinamentum, ut patientia maioribus temptationinus praeparata in friuolis excidat! si manu quis temptauerit prouocare, praesto est dominica monela: uerberanti te, inquit, in faciem etiam alteram genam obuerte. fatigetur improbitas patientia tua; quiuis ictus illi sit dolore et contumelia constrictus. plus improbum illum caedis sustinendo, grauius a domino uapulaturum; ab eo enim uapulabit, cuius gratia sustines. si linguae amaritudo maledicto siue conuicio eruperit, respice dictum: cum uos maledixerint, gaudete. dominus ipse maledictus in lege est et tamen solus est benedictus. igitur dominum serui consequamur et maledicamur patienter, ut benedicti esse possimus. si parum aequanimiter audiam dictum aliquod in me proteruum aut nequam, reddam et ipse amaritudinis uicem necesse est, aut cruciabor impatientia muta. cum ergo (re)percussero maledictis, quomodo secutus inueniar doctrinam domini, qua traditum est non uasculorum inquinamentis, sed eorum, quae ex ore promuntur, hominem communicari, item: manere nos omnis uani et superuacui dicti reatum? sequitur ergo, ut a quo nos dominus arcet, idem ab alio aequanimiter pati admoneat. hic iam uide patientiae uoluptatem. nam omnis iniuria, seu lingua seu manu incussa, cum patientiam offenderit, eodem exitu dispungetur, quo telum aliquod in petra constantissimae duritiae libratum et obtusum. concidet enim ibidem inrita opera et infructuosa et nonnumquam repercussum in eum, qui misit, reciproco impetu saeuiet. nempe idcirco quis te, laedit, ut doleas, quia fructus laedentis in dolore laesi est. ergo cum fructum eius euerteris non dolendo, ipse doleat necesse est amissione fructus sui. tunc tu non modo inlaesus abis, quod etiam solum tibi sufficit, sed insuper aduersarii tui et frustratione oblectatus et dolore defensus. haec est patientiae utilitas et uoluptas.

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.