Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Hold on to this conclusion for the moment, while I shake out the assault of the objection. For I already hear it said — and much else besides — brought forward by those whom the age believed to be gods, yet found today, all the same, in our own uses, and in the affairs of the saints of old, and in the things of God, and in Christ himself, since he too, once he lived as a man, could function in no other way than through these common instruments of human existence. Granted, let it be so; I will not now go arguing further back into origins. Mercury, they say, was the first to devise letters: I will grant they are necessary, both for the business of the world and for our own service of God. And if the same god was the first to draw strings taut into sound, I will not deny that this skill of his has served holy men too, and ministered to God — witness David. Aesculapius, they say, was the first to explore remedies: Isaiah too, remember, prescribed a medicinal remedy for the ailing Hezekiah, and Paul knew that a little wine is good for the stomach. Minerva, they say, was the first to build a ship: I shall picture Jonah sailing, and the apostles too. More than that — Christ wears clothing; Paul too shall have his cloak. If you name some god of the age as the inventor of each piece of furniture and of every single vessel, then I am bound to recognize the same in Christ reclining on a couch, and in his offering a basin to his disciples' feet, and in his pouring water from a pitcher, and in his being girded round with a towel — Osiris's own garment. To a question of this kind I make the same answer everywhere: I grant, indeed, a common use of such implements, but I call it to account by distinguishing the rational use from the irrational, since mere passive sharing deceives, veiling the corruption of a condition that has been subjected to vanity. For we say that only those things have suited — our own uses, and those of our forebears, and the things of God, and Christ himself — which supply plain utilities, sure resources, and honest comforts for the necessities of human life, given, as they are, by the inspiration of God himself, who first foresaw, equipped, and, where fitting, delighted his own creature, man; but that whatever has overstepped this order does not suit our uses — especially since it is precisely for that reason that it is to be recognized as belonging to no saint, nor to the things of God, nor to the conduct of Christ's life.