Marriage and the “Age of the
Paraclete”
One of Tertullian’s most
obviously New Prophecy-infuenced books is his De monogamia (On
Marriage), written ca. 210/11. Earlier, Tertullian merely preferred his
wife to remain unmarried after his death (Ad. ux. 1.7.4) but permitted
remarriage—as long as it was “in the Lord” (Ad ux. 2.1.2–4; 2.2.3–5; cf.
1 Cor 7:28–29). Following his involvement with the New Prophecy
movement, however, he came to take a strong position against remarriage. This
more stringent view was based on the logia of Montanus, Maximilla, and
Priscilla on the topic (De iei. 1.3; Adv. Marc. 1.29.4; cf. Fr.
Ecst., ap. Praedestinatus, De haer. 1.26; Fr.,
Apollonius, ap. Eusebius, H.E. 5.18.2). These “sayings,” in the
opinion of Tertullian, conveyed the latest revelation of the Holy Spirit
(Paraclete) on the subject.
Through the New Prophecy, the
“Montanists” believed, a new “era” or “dispensation” had been inaugurated (De
virg. vel. 1.3–7). The “age of the Paraclete” superseded that of “the
Father” and even that “of the Son,” clarifying, once and for all, what God’s
will was on matters such as permanent monogamy. During earlier eras, God had
been prepared to be more lax, allowing polygamy among the Hebrew patriarchs and
remarriage (under certain conditions) for Christians. None of this, however,
was what God had intended for humanity in the beginning (Gen. 2:24). In the
present era, the Paraclete had come to restore the ethical precepts to their
original intention, even if this appeared to be a change in what had been
allowed previously.
Tertullian’s very first
extant explicit reference to his own acceptance of the New Prophecy and the
Montanist view of the role of the Paraclete is made in the context of his
discussion of marriage and remarriage in book 1 of the final edition of the Adversus
Marcionem:
Now if at this present time a
limit of marrying is being imposed, as for example, among us, a
spiritual reckoning decreed by the Paraclete is defended, prescribing a
single matrimony in the faith, it will be his to tighten the limit who had
formerly loosened it. (Adv. Marc. 1.29.4)
The kind of monogamy mandated by
the discipline revealed by the Paraclete for Christians living in the present
age is not merely the opposite of bigamy or polygamy. It is also the opposite
of digamy. Remarriage, even if allowed legally after the death of one’s
spouse, is forbidden by the Paraclete’s new method of spiritual counting.
Whether a person had multiple spouses concurrently or successively is
irrelevant. The number is wrong because it is more than one! Remarriage is
“adultery-in-series” (De mon. 4.3; cf. De exh. cast. 4.5–6); it
is a “species of fornication” (De exh. cast. 9.1).
“The World to Come”
In making his Montanist-influenced
case against remarriage after the death of one’s spouse, Tertullian makes some
interesting observations in the De monogamia concerning life in the
world to come. He reiterates his earlier view that there will be no resumption
of sexual relations between husband and wife in the afterlife (De mon. 10.7,
cf. Ad ux. 1.1.2–6). This, however, is no reason, argues Tertullian, for
people not to remain bound to their departed spouses. In fact, because of their
belief in the resurrection of the dead, they should pray that the souls of
their beloved departed may have refreshment in their intermediate state and
look forward to their future reunion (De mon. 10.5–8).
Tertullian has no doubt that, in
the world to come, husbands and wives will recognize each other, have a
spiritual (rather than physical) relationship, and have their memories intact (De
mon. 10.8). Being in the presence of God does not exclude being in the
presence of each other. Husbands and wives will not be separated by God in the
world to come, just as God (as recently revealed by the Paraclete) demands that
they not be separated during their life on earth (De mon. 10.9). The
kind of “mansion” received in the afterlife (cf. John 14:2) depends upon the “wages”
earned in this life (10.9). (William Tabbernee, “The World to Come: Tertullian’s
Christian Eschatology,” in Tertullian & Paul, ed. Todd D. Still and
David E. Wilhite [Pauline and Patristic Scholars in Debate 1; New York:
Bloomsbury, 2013], 270-71)
