Apologeticus

aka Apologeticus pro Christianis; Apology for the Christians

Apology

Author

Tertullian

Language

Late Latin

Year

c. 197

Country

Roman Empire

Genre

Nonfiction / Essays / Treatise

ancient worldchristianitygraeco-romanroman empire

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Apologeticus is a text attributed to Tertullian according to Christian tradition, consisting of apologetic and polemic. In this work Tertullian defends Christianity, demanding legal toleration and that Christians be treated like all other sects of the Roman Empire. It is in this treatise that one finds the sentence "Plures efficimur, quotiens metimur a vobis: semen est sanguis Christianorum," which has been liberally and apocryphally translated as "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church". Alexander Souter translated this phrase as "We spring up in greater numbers the more we are mown down by you: the blood of the Christians is the seed of a new life," but even this takes liberties with the original text. "We multiply when you reap us. The blood of Christians is seed," is perhaps a more faithful, if less poetic, rendering. Tertullian says Christians, ends deliberately on the single open word semen — seed — and leaves the reader to complete the image themselves. The simplest and most faithful rendering remains: We multiply when you reap us. The blood of Christians is seed.Earlychurchtexts.com