Summary

Portrait of Tertullian Tertullian Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III, Anti-Marcion… (1885)

We have all been born, and yet all of us have not either brothers or mother. He might with more probability have had even a father than a mother, and uncles more likely than brothers. Thus is the temptation about His birth unsuitable, for it might have been contrived without any mention of either His mother or His brethren. It is clearly more credible that, being certain that He had both a mother and brothers, they tested His divinity rather than His nativity, whether, when within, He knew what was without
Source: Wikisource

Portrait of Tertullian Tertullian Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III, Anti-Marcion… (1885)

If, however, He had meant to deny His own nativity, He would have found place, time, and means for expressing Himself very differently, [15] and not in words which might be uttered by one who had both a mother and brothers. When denying one’s parents in indignation, one does not deny their existence, but censures their faults. Besides, He gave others the preference; and since He shows their title to this favour—even because they listened to the word (of God) —He points out in what sense He denied His mother and His brethren.
Source: Wikisource

Portrait of Tertullian Tertullian Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III, Anti-Marcion… (1885)

No one tempts (another) in a way in which he knows that he may have himself to bear the shame of the temptation. There being, then, no suitable occasion for a temptation, the announcement that His mother and His brethren had actually turned up [9] recovers its naturalness. But there is some ground for thinking that Christ’s answer denies His mother and brethren for the present, as even Apelles might learn. “The Lord’s brethren had not yet believed in Him.” [10] So is it contained in the Gospel which was published before Marcion’s time
Source: Wikisource

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature