the miracle of Elisha
tend to the disparagement of that prophet. True, Christ healed
with a word. So also with a word had the Creator made the world.
And, after all, the word of Christ produced no greater result than
a river which came from the Creator's hands. Further, the command
of Jesus to the leper when healed, showed His desire that the law
should be fulfilled. Nay, He added an explanation which conveyed
that He was not come to destroy the law, but Himself to fulfil it.
This He did deliberately, and not from mere indulgence to the man,
who, He knew, would wish to do as the law required.

Argumentatur ... _in leprosi purgationem ... Tetigit leprosum_ ...
Et hoc opponit Marcion ... Christum ... verbo solo, et hoc semel functo,
curationem statim repraesentasse. Quantam ad gloriae humanae aversionem
pertinebat, _vetuit eum divulgare_. Quantum autem ad tutelam legis
jussit ordinem impleri. _Vade, ostende te sacerdoti, et offer munus
quod praecepit Moyses_.... Itaque adjecit: _ut sit vobis in
testimonium_.

Luke v. 12-14: [12] Ecce vir plenus lepra: et videns Jesum ...
rogavit eum dicens, Domine, si vis, potes me mundare. [13] Et
extendens manum tetigit illum dicens, Volo, mundare. Et confestim
lepra discessit ab illo. [14] Et ipse praecepit illi ut nemini
diceret, sed Vade ostende te sacerdoti, et offer pro emundatione
tua sicut praecepit Moses, in testimonium illis.

For emundatione in ver. 14, a has purgatione; b as Vulg. Both a
and b have the form offers (see Roensch, It. u. Vulg. p. 294), b
the plural sacerdotibus. Both codd. have a variation similar to
that of Marcion, ut sit etc.; a inserts hoc.

Next follows the healing of the paralytic, which was done in
fulfilment of Is. xxxv. 2. The miracle also itself in its details
was a special and exact fulfilment of the prophecy contained in
the next verse, Is. xxxv. 3. That the Messiah should forgive sins
had been repeatedly prophesied, e.g. in Is. liii. 12, i. 18, Micah
vii. 18. Not only were these prophecies thus actually sanctioned
by Christ, but, in forgiving the sins of the paralytic, He was
only doing what the Creator or Demiurge had done before Him. In
proof of this Tertullian appeals to the examples of the Ninevites,
of David and Nathan, of Ahab, of Jonathan the son of Saul, and of
the chosen people themselves. Thus Marcion was doubly refuted,
because the prerogative of forgiveness was asserted of the Messiah
in the prophecies which he rejected and attribu