Tertullian Quote

I believe Tertullian was the first to realize a fundamental Trinitarian truth: "Father creates son, and son creates father." To be a father, one must have a son, and to be a son, one must have a father. Where in his writing can I find this? I tried to do a fuzzy search.

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Don Awalt

I don't think you have that quote right. No person of the trinitarian Godhead was created. God is eternal.

I did a search on all books and found lots of hits - try this: "The Father is in the Son" AND tertullian

This is a famous quote and writing you will find in the results among others:

A father must have a son in order to be a father. Likewise, a son must have a father in order to be a son. But it is one thing to have and quite another thing to be. For example, in order to be a husband, I must have a wife, though I can never be my own wife. Likewise, in order to be a father I must have a son, because I can never be a son to myself. Against Praxeas 10.⁵⁷

DMB

Also as a search tool, the new experimental search is not bad:

DMB

his is a famous quote and writing you will find in the results among others:

I know you're answering Christian's query (successfully; I couldn't find it directly).

But if he's going to use it for the Trinity, not a good idea; it was dated in his Montanist years, the 3 identified separately.

Don Awalt

Interesting. I guess that's where that quote came from, I didn't presume why Christian might want it. You are correct, that writing was the "Tertullian Trinity".

Christian Alexander

This is for a paper I have to write arguing against this quote as a Trinitarian description of the hierarchy of the Trinity. I was trying to find out a way to see where this quote was found, how it was based and other descriptive sources. My assignment is to "explain how can there be subordination / hierarchy in the Trinity using the abbreviated message of Tertullian." I do not understand.