Frasi di Tertulliano

Quinto Settimio Fiorente Tertulliano , conosciuto semplicemente come Tertulliano, è stato uno scrittore romano, filosofo e apologeta cristiano, fra i più celebri del suo tempo.

Negli ultimi anni della sua vita entrò in contatto con alcune sette ritenute eretiche, come quella riconducibile al prete Montano; per questo motivo fu l'unico apologeta cristiano antico, insieme ad Origene Adamantio, a non ottenere il titolo di Padre della Chiesa. Wikipedia  

✵ 155 – 220   •   Altri nomi Tertullianus
Tertulliano photo
Tertulliano: 52   frasi 26   Mi piace

Tertulliano frasi celebri

“Il sangue (dei martiri) è il seme dei cristiani.”

Origine: Da Apologeticum, 50, 13.

“Il sepolto è risorto: è certo perché è impossibile.”

Origine: Da De carne Christi, 5, 4.

“La verità è una, l'errore si moltiplica.”

Origine: Citato in Giuliana Rotondi, Come nasce un'eresia, Focus Storia, n. 54, aprile 2011, p. 35.

“Credo perché è assurdo.”

Credo quia absurdum.
[Citazione errata] Frase attribuita erroneamente a Tertulliano, non appare in nessuno dei testi originali conosciuti, ma è stata intesa come riassuntiva del pensiero dell'autore. La frase corretta è «È credibile perché è sciocco» (Credibile est, quia ineptum est, da De carne Christi). La citazione viene erroneamente attribuita anche ad Agostino d'Ippona.
Attribuite
Origine: Robert D. Sider, Credo quia absurdum? http://www.tertullian.org/articles/sider_credo.htm, Classical world n. 73 dell'aprile-maggio 1980, pp. 417-9.
Origine: Citato in Giuseppe Fumagalli, Chi l'ha detto?, Hoepli, 1921, p. 487.

“Devo scacciare la vanità con la vanità.”

Origine: Da Adeversus Marcionem IV, 30, 3.

“La verità non arrossisce di nulla.”
Nihil veritas erubescit

Origine: Da Adversus Valentinianos III, 2.

Tertulliano Frasi e Citazioni

“La verità persuade per mezzo dell'insegnamento, ma non insegna persuadendo.”

Origine: Da Adversus Valentinianos, I, 4.

Tertulliano: Frasi in inglese

“Man is one name belonging to every nation upon earth. In them all is one soul though many tongues.”
Omnium gentium unus homo, uarium nomen est, una anima, uaria uox, unus spiritus, uarius sonus, propria cuique genti loquella, sed loquellae materia communis.

De Testimonio Animae (The Testimony of the Soul), 6.3
Contesto: Man is one name belonging to every nation upon earth. In them all is one soul though many tongues. Every country has its own language, yet the subjects of which the untutored soul speaks are the same everywhere.

“It is to be believed because it is absurd.”
Prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est. / Certum est, quia impossibile.

Variant translations
It is by all means to be believed, because it is absurd.
It is is entirely credible, because it is inept.
It is certain because it is impossible.
De Carne Christi 5.4
Often paraphrased or misquoted as "Credo quia absurdum."
Also paraphrased as "It is so extraordinary that it must be true."
Two lines from De Carne Christi have often become conflated into the statement: "Credo quia impossibile" (I believe it because it is impossible), which can be perceived as a distortion of the actual arguments that Tertullian was making.

“Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.”
Veritas autem docendo persuadet non suadendo docet.

Adversus Valentinianos (Against the Valentinians), 1.4

“Now if He too is God, according to John, (who says.) "The Word was God," then you have two, One that commands that the thing be made. and the Other that makes. In what sense, however, you ought to understand Him to be another I have already explained, on the ground of Personality, not of Substance, in the way of distinction, not of division.”

Adv. Prax. 12 http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0788/_P1.HTM
Originale: (la) Qui si ipse deus est secundum Ioannem - Deus erat sermo - habes duos, alium dicentem ut fiat, alium facientem. Alium autem quomodo accipere debeas iam professus sum, personae non substantiae nomine, ad distinctionem non ad divisionem.

“We worship unity in trinity, and trinity in unity; neither confounding the person nor dividing the substance.”

As quoted in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 285
Contesto: We worship unity in trinity, and trinity in unity; neither confounding the person nor dividing the substance. There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost; but the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

“You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.”

The Prescriptions Against the Heretics as translated by Stanley Lawrence Greenslade, in Early Latin Theology: Selections from Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, and Jerome (1956), p. 63
Contesto: Notorious, too, are the dealings of heretics with swarms of magicians and charlatans and astrologers and philosophers — all, of course, devotees of speculation. You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.

“If we rejoice with the world, there is reason to fear that with the world we shall grieve too. But when the world rejoices, let us grieve; and when the world afterward grieves, we shall rejoice.”

Origine: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_III/Apologetic/On_Idolatry/Of_the_Observance_of_Days_Connected_with_Idolatry Chapter 13, On Idolatry

“The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment, is idolatry.”

Origine: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_III/Apologetic/On_Idolatry/Wide_Scope_of_the_Word_Idolatry, Chapter 1

“Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason — nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world.”
Quippe res dei ratio quia deus omnium conditor nihil non ratione providit disposuit ordinavit, nihil [enim] non ratione tractari intellegique voluit. [3] Igitur ignorantes quique deum rem quoque eius ignorent necesse est quia nullius omnino thesaurus extraneis patet. Itaque universam vitae conversationem sine gubernaculo rationis transfretantes inminentem saeculo procellam evitare non norunt.

De Paenitentia (On Repentance), 1.2-3

“We are but of yesterday, and yet we have filled all the places that belong to you — cities, islands, forts, towns, exchanges; the military camps themselves, tribes, town councils, the palace, the senate, the market-place; we have left you nothing but your temples.”
Esterni sumus, & vestra omnia implevimus, Vrbes, Insulas, Castella, Municipia, Conciliabula, Castra ipsa, Tribus, Decurias, palatium, Senatum, Forum, sola vobis relinquimus Templa.

Tertullian's Plea For Allegiance, A.2

“He who flees will fight again.”
Qui fugiebat, rursus sibi proeliabitur.

De Fuga in Persecutione, 10

“We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.”
Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis christianorum.

Tertullian libro Apologeticus

Apologeticus, 50, s. 13
Often quoted as ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.’
Variant translation: As often as we are mown down by you, the more we grow in numbers; the blood of the Christians is the seed. Another common translation is "The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of Christians."
Apologeticus pro Christianis

“When God's Spirit descends, then Patience accompanies Him indivisibly.”
Cum ergo spiritus Dei descendit, indiuidua patientia comitatur eum.

De Patientia, 15:7

“Christians are made, not born.”
Fiunt non nascuntur Christiani

A variant on “One is not born wise, but becomes wise” from Seneca the Younger On Anger 2.10.6; see: Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: the witness of Tertullian, by Tertullian, Robert Dick Sider, p. 38 http://books.google.com/books?id=-qezxQeuutYC&pg=PA38&dq=%22Christians+are+made,+not+born%22, footnote 79
Variante: Many variants on this exist, notably “Great lovers are made, not born.” and “(Great) leaders are made, not born.”
Origine: Apologeticus pro Christianis, Chapter 18

“I shall dispel one empty story by another.”
Itaque et ego vanitatem vanitate depellam.

Variant translation: I must dispel vanity with vanity.
Adversus Marcionem, IV.30.3

“Of little worth is the recommendation which has for its prop the defamation of another.”
Infirma commendatio est quae de alterius destructione fulcitur.

Adversus Marcionem, IV.15.5

“One man's religion neither harms nor helps another man.”
Nec alii obest aut prodest alterius religio.

Ad Scapulam, 2.2

“See, they say, how they love one another, for themselves are animated by mutual hatred; how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves will sooner put to death.”
Vide, inquiunt, ut invicem se diligant; ipsi enim invicem oderunt: et ut pro alterutro mori sint parati; ipsi enim ad occidendum alterutrum paratiores erunt.

Origine: Apologeticus pro Christianis, Chapter 39, describing how Christianity is mocked by its enemies.

“Out of the frying pan into the fire.”
De calcaria in carbonarium.

De Carne Christi, 6; "The Roman version of the proverb is more literally translated "Out of the lime-kiln into the coal-furnace."

“Truth does not blush.”
Nihil veritas erubescit

Adversus Valentinianos, 3.2

“The Son of God was crucified: I am not ashamed--because it is shameful. The Son of God died: it is immediately credible--because it is silly. He was buried, and rose again: it is certain--because it is impossible. (Evans translation). z Tertullianus - De carne Christi”
Crucifixus est dei filius; non pudet, quia pudendum est. Et mortuus est dei filius; credibile prorsus est, quia ineptum est. Et sepultus resurrexit; certum est, quia impossibile.

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