Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
For indeed, from the very origin of things, the Founder of them was known together with the things themselves, since the things themselves were brought forth for this very purpose — that God might be recognized. Nor, even if Moses appears somewhat later, the first to dedicate God in the temple of his own writings for the world's sake, should the birthdays of that recognition therefore be dated from the Pentateuch — since Moses' whole text does not initiate knowledge of the Creator but narrates it from the very beginning, tracing it back to Eden and to Adam, rather than to Egypt or to Moses. In short, the greater part of the human race, not even acquainted with the name of Moses, let alone his writings, nonetheless knows the God of Moses; even where idolatry casts its vast dominion over things, people still, all the same, speak of him apart, as if by his own proper name, as "god," and "god of gods," and "if God grants," and "what pleases God," and "I commend this to God." Notice — do they not know the one whom they themselves testify can do all things? And they owe none of this to any books of Moses. Soul comes before prophecy. For the soul's awareness of God is its dowry from the very beginning — the same awareness, no different, among Egyptians, Syrians, and the peoples of Pontus. For they call the God of the Jews the God of the soul. Do not, you barbarian heretic, set Abraham up as prior to the world. Suppose the Creator had been god of a single household alone: he would still not rank later than your god, for he was already known to the tribes of Pontus long before your god came along. Take, then, the pattern from your predecessor: uncertain compared to what is certain, unrecognized compared to what is known. God will never lie hidden, God will never be lacking. He will always be understood, always heard, even seen — in whatever way he wishes. God has his witnesses: this whole reality that we are, and the world in which we are. In this way both his existence and his oneness are proved, since he goes unquestioned, while the other still struggles to be proved at all.
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