Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Now, on the subject of pettinesses and malicious traits and the rest of these accusations, let me raise a matching set of counter-charges against Marcion myself. If my God did not know there was another god above him, then your god certainly did not know there was another below him either — for as that dark saying of Heraclitus goes, the road up and the road down are the same. Indeed, if he had not been ignorant of it, he would have run into it from the very beginning. Sin and death, and the devil himself, the author of sin, and every evil that my God allowed to exist — your god allowed too, since he allowed that God to suffer them. Our God changed his mind — well, so did yours. For the one who took so long to look with favor on the human race changed, by that very act, the mind he had held for so long an age in not favoring it. Our God repented of some evil — but so did yours. For in that he finally turned his attention to man's salvation, he made a repentance owed for his former neglect, a debt for a past wrong done. And that past wrong will be counted as neglect of human salvation, corrected in your god's case only by repentance. Our God commanded a fraud — but only of gold and silver. Yet the more precious man is than gold and silver, the more fraudulent your god is, since he steals man away from his own Lord and Maker. Our God demands an eye for an eye — but your god, by forbidding retaliation, actually makes injury worse, and repeatable. For who will not strike again if he is not struck back? Our God did not know what sort of men he was choosing. Well, neither did yours. He would not have chosen Judas the betrayer, if he had foreseen it. And if you say the Creator lied somewhere, a far greater lie is found in your Christ, whose body was not real. My God's severity has destroyed many. Your god, too, by failing to save some, is effectively consigning them to destruction. My God ordered someone put to death. Yours wanted to have himself put to death — no less a murderer against himself than against the one by whom he wished to be killed. But I will prove to Marcion that his god has killed many as well. For he made a betrayer — bound, of course, to perish — unless you say the people did nothing wrong against Christ. But the unadorned power of truth wins few friends; a lie needs a great deal of help.
29.