Tertullian, Against Marcion 18

The centurion's faith deserves the highest praise. It would be incredible if he, having declared such faith, had not found its equal in Israel — especially since the faith of Israel was not even his concern. Nor could it have become his concern at that point: it was still raw, awaiting proof or comparison — or shall I say, still non-existent? If it had existed, he would have claimed that such faith had never appeared in Israel at all. Yet by saying he ought to have found such faith in Israel, and that he came precisely to find it, he implies that God, specifically the Christ of Israel, would not have begrudged it — unless he was its exactor and follower, an emulator who would rather have discovered such faith in order to weaken and destroy it than to confirm it.

He raised the widow's dead son. This is no new credential; the prophets of the Creator had done the same, so how much more the Son? In that moment Christ introduced no other God, with the result that everyone there gave glory to the Creator, declaring, 'A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people' (Luke 7:16). Which God? Obviously the one whose people they were and from whom the prophets came. If they glorified the Creator, and Christ heard and knew it yet did not correct them — indeed, in the face of such a stupendous proof, the resurrection of the dead, they were still praying to the Creator — then beyond doubt Christ either was not proclaiming any other God than the one he allowed to be honored in his own benefits and powers, or else what kind of savior would he be, letting them wander in error for so long when he came precisely to heal that error?

But John took offense at hearing of Christ's works, as if they belonged to another. I will first explain the reason for that offense, so that I can more easily demolish the heretic's exploitation of it. Since the Lord himself — by the word and Spirit of the Father — was working on earth and preaching, it was necessary that the portion of the Holy Spirit which had been operating in John in the form of a prophetic model should now withdraw from him, having been returned, as it were, to the Lord as its rightful master. Thus John, now just a common man, one of the crowd, took offense — but as a man, not as one who hoped for or understood another Christ, a Christ who had no ground for hope since he taught and did nothing new. No one hesitates over someone he knows does not exist and for whom he feels neither hope nor understanding; but John was certain that no God exists except the Creator, whether as a Jew or even as a prophet. It is easier to hesitate over someone you know exists but are unsure whether he is the one. That, then, was John's fear: 'Are you the one who comes, or should we expect another?' He was simply asking whether the one he expected had arrived. For he hoped, as everyone thought, that judging by the similarity of the signs a prophet might have been sent in the interim, from whom another — greater — one would come, the expected one, namely the Lord himself. And so John's offense was this: he doubted that the one they expected had come, the one he ought to have recognized from the predicted works. Or did the Lord intend to announce himself to be recognized through those very works? Since those predicted works are consistent with the Christ of the Creator, as we demonstrate case by case, it is thoroughly perverse to claim that Christ is not the Creator's through the very things that compel recognition of him as the Creator's. It is even more perverse if Christ bears witness to John — confirming him as a prophet, indeed as more than a prophet, an angel — and cites the scripture about him: 'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way' (Malachi 3:1), elegantly recalling the prophecy to settle the scruple of the offended John's question: 'Are you the one who comes, or should we expect another?' For once the forerunner has fulfilled his office, the Lord's way is prepared, and the one to whom the forerunner ministered is the one to be recognized. He is indeed greater than all born of women, but not therefore subject to the one who will be lesser in the kingdom of God, as if that kingdom belonged to another — a kingdom in which a lesser one would be greater than John, while another John is greater than all born of women. Whether he says this of anyone or of himself in humility, because he was regarded as lesser than John — since everyone flocked to John in the wilderness rather than to Christ — 'What did you go out into the wilderness to see?' — it amounts to the same thing: it belongs to the Creator that John is his, greater than all born of women, and that Christ — or any lesser figure who will be greater than John in the kingdom of God, equally the Creator's — will be greater than such a prophet because he was not offended by Christ, which is what diminished John.

We have spoken of the forgiveness of sins. The episode of that sinful woman bears on this: when she kissed the Lord's feet, drenched them with tears, wiped them with her hair, and anointed them with ointment, she handled the solid reality of his body, not an empty phantom; and the penitence of the sinful woman, according to the Creator, earned forgiveness, taking precedence over sacrifice. Even if the impulse to penitence sprang from faith, through penitence justified by faith she heard from him: 'Your faith has saved you' — from the one who had declared through Habakkuk: 'The righteous will live by his faith' (Habakkuk 2:4).