views of the apologists[1], who, to take only one example, applied the term "Son of God" to the pre-existent Logos and did not comprehend that the historical Christ was even as the Son of God the beginner of a new humanity[2].
The western tradition, therefore, must be traced back to the very pre-apologetic views which gave birth to the tradition followed by Marcellus. And this connection is at least recognisable for us in one place; for we find that Tertullian was strongly influenced by Irenaeus and Melito, both natives of Asia Minor, and by the Montanistic movement which arose in the same country.
This is the line of tradition in which Nestorius, too, has his place. That has been proved by what I have said about his relation to Eustathius, Marcellus, and the Sardicense.
The old tradition shows in him, it is true, in many respects an altered face. Origen had strengthened the influence of the apologists; Nestorius, too, shows many signs of this influence. But the old tradition seems to have
- ↑ The influence of the apologists on Tertullian needs not to be proved; about the older traditions, which are clearly seen in him, comp. W. Macholz, Spuren binitarischer Denkweise im Abendlande, dissert. theol. Halensis, 1902, pp. 35–57.
- ↑ There are in Tertullian remains of the pre-apologetic understanding of the term "Son of God," e.g. adv. Praxeam, 26, ed. Kroymann, p. 277, 26: dicens (viz. the angel in Luke 1, 35) autem "Spiritus dei" portionem totius (viz. substantiae divinae) intelligi voluit, quae cessura erat in filii nomen.
