{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 182/1918-10-16/p039","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Tertullian stands before us as a Roman of no particularly high literary standing, but as a writer with a magnificent power of language at his command. It can truly be said that Tertullian was the one who in his writings forced the Latin language for the first time into doing justice to Christianity. He was the first who succeeded in imbuing this most prosaic, unpoetical language, this purely rhetorical Latin language, with such temperamental fire, such impassioned ardour, that intense vitality of soul is manifest in his works. This is especially so in his *De Carne Christi* (On the Flesh of Christ), and also in other works where he sets out to repudiate all the charges brought against the Christians. These works are written with a holy fervour and a magnificent eloquence. Although he was a Roman, Tertullian was absolutely unbiased by his own citizenship, as is clearly evident in De Came Christi. His defence of the Christians against the persecutions of the Romans is couched in words of tremendous forcefulness. With the utmost vehemence he condemns the tortures to which the Christians were subject in order to compel them to deny their adherence to Christ Jesus. Is not your behaviour as judges of the Christians, he wrote, proof enough of your injustice? You are obliged to alter the whole of your wonted judicial procedure when you judge the Christians. In the case of others you force a witness by torture, not to deny, but to avow the truth, to confess his real belief. With the Christian you do the reverse.—You torture him in order to make him deny his belief. As judges, your behaviour to the Christians is exactly contrary to your behaviour to others. In their case you try to get at the truth through torture; in the case of the Christians you try by torture to get at a lie.[^6]","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"How Do I Find the Christ?","site_heading":null,"date":"1918-10-16","location":null,"word_count":313,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/182/1918-10-16/p039","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"A. P. Shepherd, D.D. and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"Singles","book_title":"How Do I Find the Christ?","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA182/English/Singles/19181016p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/182/1918-10-16/p039"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/182/1918-10-16/p039","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1918-10-16","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 182/1918-10-16/p022","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/182/1918-10-16/p022"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":310,"en_words":313,"ratio":1.01,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 182/1918-10-16/p022","passage_number":22,"text":"Dieser Tertullian tritt einem von diesem Gesichtspunkt aus entgegen als ein Römer von einer nicht einmal besonders hohen literarischen Bildung, aber als ein Schriftsteller von großartiger Sprachkraft. Man kann geradezu sagen: Tertullian ist derjenige, welcher die lateinische Sprache dem Christentum erst gerecht gemacht hat. Er hat erst die Möglichkeit gefunden, diese prosaischeste, unpoetischeste Sprache, diese rein rhetorische Sprache, die lateinische Sprache, mit solchem Temperament und mit einer solchen heiligen Leidenschaft zu durchglühen, daß wirklich unmittelbar seelisches Leben in dem Werke des Tertullian lebt, insbesondere in «De carne Christi» zum Beispiel, oder auch in demjenigen Werk, in dem er alles abzuweisen versucht, wessen man die Christen beschuldigt. Sie sind mit einem heiligen Temperament geschrieben und mit einer großartigen Sprachkraft. - Und dieser Tertullian war als Römer und an «De carne Christi» kann man das zeigen - vorurteilslos gegenüber seinem eigenen Römertum. Er fand großartige Worte, indem er die Christen gegen die Verfolgung der Römer verteidigte. Die Mißhandlungen, die man den Christen zufügte, damit sie ableugnen sollten ihre Zugehörigkeit zu dem Christus Jesus, die verurteilte er temperamentvoll, so daé er sagte: Beweist nicht euer Verhalten als Richter gegenüber den Christen hinlänglich genug, daß ihr ungerecht seid? Ihr müßt euer ganzes richterliches Verfahren, wie ihr es sonst habt, ändern, es nicht anwenden, wenn ihr gegen die Christen richtet. Sonst zwingt ihr durch die Mißhandlungen einen Zeugen, daß er nicht ableugnet; ihr zwingt ihn, daß er bekennt, was wahr ist, was er wirklich meint. Bei dem Christen macht ihr es umgekehrt: Ihr foltert ihn, damit er leugnet, was er meint. Ihr benehmt euch als Richter den Christen gegenüber entgegengesetzt dem Falle, wie ihr euch sonst als Richter benehmt. Sonst wollt ihr die Wahrheit erfahren durch die Mißhandlung; bei den Christen wollt ihr die Lüge erfahren. - Und in ähnlicher Weise, in Worten, die wirklich den Nagel auf den Kopf trafen, sprach Tertullian über vieles.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":310,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/182/1918-10-16/p022"}],"english":["GA 182/1918-10-16/p039"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":310,"en_words":313,"ratio":1.01,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.13,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10541,"original_word_count":9326,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. P. Shepherd, D.D. and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"Singles","book_title":"How Do I Find the Christ?","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA182/English/Singles/19181016p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 182/1918-10-16/p022"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}