Irenaeus: Against Heresies




Preview

  1. Preview
  2. How Do You Uphold Orthodoxy Without a NT?
  3. What Is Gnosticism?
  4. Examples of Irenaeus's Humor
  5. Book I
    1. Valentinus
    2. The Markians
    3. Saturnius and Basilades
    4. Carpocrates
    5. The Encraites
    6. The Cainites
    7. Marcion
  6. Book II
  7. Book III
  8. Book IV
  9. Book V
  10. What Are Some Other Things Irenaeus Wrote About?
  11. Review
  12. Sources
Preview of Coming Attractions [1 ↑ → ]
“Let those persons, therefore, who blaspheme the Creator, either by openly expressed words, such as the disciples of Marcion, or by a perversion of the sense [of Scripture], as those of Valentinus and all the Gnostics falsely so called, be recognised as agents of Satan by all those who worship God; through whose agency Satan now, and not before, has been seen to speak against God, even Him who has prepared eternal fire for every kind of apostasy.” V, 26


Remember [2 ← ↑ →]
Any Bible reference from Irenaeus (or just about anyone we study for many, many lessons to come) that contains a chapter and verse Scripture reference is a translator’s addition for clarification. Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, introduced chapter references around 1227. A Jewish rabbi named Nathan added verse divisions around 1448. Robert Estienne (aka Stephanus) introduced the New Testament verse divisions into the Geneva Bible of 1555.


How Do You Uphold Orthodoxy Without a NT?

How Do You Fight Christian Heresies Without A New Testament? [3 ← ↑ →]

  1. The Hebrew Scriptures

  2. The Rule of Faith
    handed down by Apostolic Succession

  3. The newer writings accepted as Scriptures:
    the four gospels, the letters of Paul, etc. (Irenaeus does quote the Shepherd of Hermas) were a major source of contention between the Gnostics and the Early Church. Irenaeus firmly came down on their being (1) truly from God and (2) for the Church.

  4. The Hebrew Scriptures



The Hebrew Scriptures [4 ← ↑ →]
The Hebrew Scriptures were a major source of contention between the Gnostics and the Early Church. Irenaeus firmly came down on their being (1) truly from God and (2) for the Church.


The Rule of Faith – the Earliest “Mere Christianity” [5 ← ↑ →]
“The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith:” The Rule of Faith WAS the Bible of the early church. It was the traditional teaching drawn from the Apostles and the men the Apostles instructed and led. It differed in particulars from place to place, but the core was universal. This Rule of Faith, tradition handed down by Christ to the Apostles and then to the Church, determined both (1) the Scriptural canon and the (2) Nicean creed.

Even illiterate, Scripture-less barbarians have Apostolic Truth - Book III, Chap 4 “To which course many nations of those barbarians who believe in Christ do assent, having salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit, without paper or ink, and, carefully preserving the ancient tradition, believing in one God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and all things therein, by means of Christ Jesus, the Son of God… If any one were to preach to these men the inventions of the heretics, speaking to them in their own language, they would at once stop their ears, and flee as far off as possible, not enduring even to listen to the blasphemous address.”


Newer Writings (The Four Gospels) [6 ← ↑ →]
“Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.” III, 1

These true Gospels are (1) traceably old and (2) connected to an Apostle.


What Is Gnosticism?

God and the Spirit World [7 ← ↑ →]
  1. Pleroma, the Fullness
  2. Aeons/Aions – Profound, Commixture, Undecaying, Union, Self-Originated, Plesure, Unmoved, Incorporation, Only-Begotten, Achamoth, etc. (The lesser deities of henotheism)
  3. Jehovah created last. Then Jehovah creates angels and uses them to create a world to worship him.


Dualistic and Docetic, The Material World Is Evil and Deceptive [8 ← ↑ →]
“All ancient Western cultures during the time of the early church were dualistic to some degree, due in part to the influence of Plato and his followers. Such dualism was so prevalent that the famous German scholar Hans Jonas once quipped that gnosis was the common bond of all religious cultures at that time. Gnostic dualism was distinguished by its absolute, radical character: All matter (the world and the body) is evil and has its source in an evil creator who fell from and betrayed the true God.” Scholer, “Know”, 14 This disgust with matter was expressed in Doceticism, the belief that Christ did not really have a human body, only the appearance of one.


Three Types of Humanity [9 ← ↑ →]


First Appearance of The Elect [10 ← ↑ →]
First Appearance of Election: “When describing themselves, the Gnostics used phrases like ‘offspring of Seth,’ ‘the elect,’ ‘enlightened ones,’ ‘immovable race,’ and ‘the perfect.’ “ Scholor, “Know”, 13. (Election is a Biblical doctrine, but many scholars feel that Augustine’s 9 years as a Manichaean introduced a reworked, semi-Gnostic interpretation of election into the church, an interpretation which was given new life by Luther and Calvin. The Early Church universally held to libertarian free will. We will look at this in more detail when we study Augustine.)


Ascetics & Libertines [11 ← ↑ →]
What you know is more important than what you do. (Modern day Christians who stake much of their Christian identity on their “doctrinal purity” should take note!) Some Gnostics embraced asceticism because matter was evil, while a smaller number embraced a libertine lifestyle because their spirituality was greater than the material world. They were gold dropped in a pigsty; any contamination they experienced was only superficial, easily wiped away.


Upside Down Bible [12 ← ↑ →]
“Gnostic interpretation of Scripture, therefore, often made the villains into heroes and the heroes into villains. For example, Eve and the serpent in the garden were the ones really in touch with the knowledge of the ultimate God…it is Judas who delivers Jesus from his evil human body, thus achieving a major Gnostic goal. Just as with Eve and the serpent, a person who seems "evil" in the traditional texts is, in fact, the one in touch with the true Gnostic revelation. In the Gospel of Judas, the other disciples of Jesus are said to serve the lesser god, while Judas is open to the true God.“ Scholer,15-16


Examples of Irenaeus's Humor

Examples of Irenaeus's Humor [13 ← ↑ →]


Book I

Book I, Preface – Irenaeus Has Studied His Opponents [14 ← ↑ →]
“I have deemed it my duty (after reading some of the Commentaries, as they call them, of the disciples of Valentinus, and after making myself acquainted with their tenets through personal intercourse with some of them) to unfold to you, my friend, these portentous and profound mysteries, which do not fall within the range of every intellect, because all have not sufficiently spit out their brains.”



Gnostics Like Mushrooms, Not Monolithic [15 ← ↑ →]
“A multitude of Gnostics have sprung up, and have been manifested like mushrooms growing out of the ground.” I, 29


The Source and Root of All Heresies, Simon the Magician [16 ← ↑ →]
“He [Simon]…[Acts 8:9-11] set himself eagerly to contend against the apostles, in order that he himself might seem to be a wonderful being, and applied himself with still greater zeal to the study of the whole magic art, that he might the better bewilder and overpower multitudes of men. Such was his procedure in the reign of Claudius Cæsar, by whom also he is said to have been honoured with a statue, on account of his magical power. This man, then, was glorified by many as if he were a god; and he taught that it was himself who appeared among the Jews as the Son, but descended in Samaria as the Father while he came to other nations in the character of the Holy Spirit. He represented himself, in a word, as being the loftiest of all powers, that is, the Being who is the Father over all…The successor of this man was Menander, also a Samaritan by birth, and he, too, was a perfect adept in the practice of magic.” I, 23


Ropes of Sand (Ideas First, then Find Scriptures to Back Them) [17 ← ↑ →]
“Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which they boast that beyond all others they have a perfect knowledge. They gather their views from [1] other sources than the Scriptures; and, to use a common proverb, they strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavour to [2] adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth.” I, 8


Valentinus

Matter – Miscarriage, Abortion, Deformity [18 ← ↑ →]
“They say that she [Wisdom, one of the Aions generated by the Pleroma], having engaged in an impossible and impracticable attempt, brought forth an amorphous substance, such as her female nature enabled her to produce. When she looked upon it, her first feeling was one of grief, on account of the imperfection of its generation, and then of fear lest this should end her own existence. Next she lost, as it were, all command of herself, and was in the greatest perplexity while endeavouring to discover the cause of all this, and in what way she might conceal what had happened. …And hence they declare material substance had its beginning from ignorance and grief, and fear and bewilderment.” I, 2


The Filthy Animal, Wisdom’s Brutish Son [19 ← ↑ →]
“And they say she [Achamoth/Sophia/Wisdom] first formed out of animal substance him who is Father and King of all things, both of these which are of the same nature with himself, that is, animal substances, which they also call right-handed, and those which sprang from the passion, and from matter, which they call left-handed. For they affirm that he formed all the things which came into existence after him, being secretly impelled thereto by his mother. From this circumstance they style him Metropator, Apator, Demiurge, and Father, saying that he is Father of the substances on the right hand, that is, of the animal, but Demiurge of those on the left, that is, of the material, while he is at the same time the king of all. “ I, 5


Jehovah Is Too Dimwitted to Realize He Isn’t God [20 ← ↑ →]
“They go on to say that the Demiurge imagined that he created all these things of himself, while he in reality made them in conjunction with the productive power of Achamoth. He formed the heavens, yet was ignorant of the heavens; he fashioned man, yet knew not man; he brought to light the earth, yet had no acquaintance with the earth; and, in like manner, they declare that he was ignorant of the forms of all that he made, and knew not even of the existence of his own mother, but imagined that he himself was all things…he (the Demiurge), being incapable of recognising any spiritual essences, imagined himself to be God alone, and declared through the prophets, I am God, and besides me there is none else. Isaiah 45:5-6, Isaiah 46:9” I, 5


Spurious Scriptures [21 ← ↑ →]
“Besides the above [misrepresentations], they adduce an unspeakable number of apocryphal and spurious writings, which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds of foolish men, and of such as are ignorant of the Scriptures of truth.” I, 20

For the record, most of these gnostic gospels were easily recognized as such because they lacked historical anchors. They were collections of Jesus’s supposed sayings and actions, but actions outside any historical context.


Recovered Gnostic Manuscripts [22 ← ↑ →]
“The Nag Hammadi collection is not the only discovery that has revolutionized our knowledge of Gnosticism. The Berlin Gnostic Codex, discovered in 1896, was not published until 1955 (after the Nag Hammadi discovery) due to the world wars. Its most famous unique text is the Gospel of Mary. In 2006 the Gnostic Gospel of Judas was published; it is one of four documents in the Codex Tchacos (found in the 1970s). Another previously unknown document from this codex, The Book of Allogenes, was published in 2007.

Before these discoveries, most of what we knew of Gnostic groups came from critiques of them in anti- heretical writings by the church fathers. Now anyone wishing to know what the Gnostics really believed has a wealth of material to read.” Scholor, “Secret”


The Markians

Markian Unashamed Immorality Regarding Idols [23 ← ↑ →]
“Thus, in the first place, they eat indifferently of things sacrificed to idols, not esteeming themselves at all stained thereby. And at every holiday amusement of the Gentiles, taking place in honor of the idols, they are first to assemble; some of them not even abstaining from that murderous spectacle, hated by God and man, of combats with wild beasts, and of single fight [gladiator matches].” I, 4


Markian Unashamed Sexually Immorality [24 ← ↑ →]

Their Justification for their Sins? Gold Not Injured By Filth [25 ← ↑ →]
“But as to themselves, they hold that they shall be entirely and undoubtedly saved, not by means of conduct, but because they are spiritual by nature. For, just as it is impossible that material substance should partake of salvation (since, indeed, they maintain that it is incapable of receiving it), so again it is impossible that spiritual substance (by which they mean themselves) should ever come under the power of corruption, whatever the sort of actions in which they indulged. For even as gold, when submersed in filth, loses not on that account its beauty, but retains its own native qualities, the filth having no power to injure the gold, so they affirm that they cannot in any measure suffer hurt, or lose their spiritual substance, whatever the material actions in which they may be involved.“ I,


“Golden Souls In a Filthy World” Mentality in the Early Church [26 ← ↑ →]
“Some Christians reasoned that bodily actions are irrelevant to spirituality and therefore going through the motions of sacrifice does not matter morally.” Ferguson, 9


Again, Let Me Recommend “Evangelicalism’s Hidden Heresy” [27 ← ↑ →]
  1. Human Embodiment
  2. Intro-Definition
  3. Creation of the Body
  4. Gendered Body
  5. Sexual Body
  6. Disciplined Body
  7. Sanctification of the Body
  8. Clothing of the Body
  9. Worship and Body
  10. Suffering and Healing
  11. Death of the Body
  12. Future of the Body


Gnostic Gibberish Involving Numbers And Letters [28 ← ↑ →]
Irenaeus spends a lot of time covering in detail and then refuting Gnostic numerological and alphabetical claims --for instance saying the 12 original Aeons are pointed towards when Jesus talked to the elders of Israel when he was 12, by the 12 apostles, by the woman with the issue of blood suffering 12 years, etc.


Saturnius and Basilades

Concubines, Polygamy, Meat Sacrificed to Idols [29 ← ↑ →]
“Others, again, following upon Basilides and Carpocrates, have introduced promiscuous intercourse and a plurality of wives, and are indifferent about eating meats sacrificed to idols, maintaining that God does not greatly regard such matters. “ I, 28


Gnostics Give Simon of Cyrene the Shaft [30 ← ↑ →]
“[Jesus] did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead; so that this latter being transfigured by him, that he might be thought to be Jesus, was crucified, through ignorance and error, while Jesus himself received the form of Simon, and, standing by, laughed at them. For since he was an incorporeal power, and the Nous (mind) of the unborn father, he transfigured himself as he pleased, and thus ascended to him who had sent him, deriding them, inasmuch as he could not be laid hold of, and was invisible to all.” I, 24 This is another manifestation of Doceticism.


Carpocrates

The Black Arts [31 ← ↑ →]
“They practise also magical arts and incantations; philters, also, and love-potions; and have recourse to familiar spirits, dream-sending demons, and other abominations,” I, 25


Transmigration of Souls / Working Off Your Karma [32 ← ↑ →]
“Again, they interpret these expressions, You shall not go out thence until you pay the very last farthing, as meaning that no one can escape from the power of those angels who made the world, but that he must pass from body to body, until he has experience of every kind of action which can be practised in this world, and when nothing is longer wanting to him, then his liberated soul should soar upwards to that God who is above the angels, the makers of the world. In this way also all souls are saved, whether their own which, guarding against all delay, participate in all sorts of actions during one incarnation, or those, again, who, by passing from body to body, are set free, on fulfilling and accomplishing what is requisite in every form of life into which they are sent, so that at length they shall no longer be [shut up] in the body.“


Explain the Natural World; Then We’ll Believe Your Spiritual Insights [33 ← ↑ →]
“But if any lover of strife contradict what I have said, and also what the apostle affirms, that we know in part, and prophesy in part, 1 Corinthians 13:9 and imagine that he has acquired not a partial, but a universal, knowledge of all that exists, — being such an one as Valentinus, or Ptolemæus, or Basilides, or any other of those who maintain that they have searched out the deep things of God—let him not (arraying himself in vainglory) boast that he has acquired greater knowledge than others with respect to those things which are invisible, or cannot be placed under our observation; but let him, by making diligent inquiry, and obtaining information from the Father, tell us the reasons (which we know not) of those things which are in this world, — as, for instance, the number of hairs on his own head, and the sparrows which are captured day by day, and such other points with which we are not previously acquainted—so that we may credit him also with respect to more important points. But if those who are perfect do not yet understand the very things in their hands, and at their feet, and before their eyes, and on the earth, and especially the rule followed with respect to the hairs of their head, how can we believe them regarding things spiritual, and super-celestial, and those which, with a vain confidence, they assert to be above God?” II, 28

The Encraites

Ascetic Strands of Gnosticism [34 ← ↑ →]
“Springing from Saturninus and Marcion, those who are called Encratites (self- controlled) preached against marriage, thus setting aside the original creation of God, and indirectly blaming Him who made the male and female for the propagation of the human race. Some of those reckoned among them have also introduced abstinence from animal food, thus proving themselves ungrateful to God, who formed all things.” I, 28


The Cainites

Cain and Judas [35 ← ↑ →]
“Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves... They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas. “ I, 31 Judas is heroic in the modern works, Jesus Christ Superstar and in The Last Temptation of Christ.


Marcion

Marcion – The Gnostic We Still Remember [36 ← ↑ →]
Most Gnostics mentioned by Irenaeus have been forgotten by history, but even a casual study of Church History turns up the name Marcion. Marcion’s gutting of the Church’s unofficial New Testament pushed the church towards canonizing a New Testament so that no one else could pull off what Marcion attempted.


Marcion Rejects the God of the Old Testament [37 ← ↑ →]
“Marcion of Pontus succeeded him [Cerdo], and developed his doctrine. In so doing, he advanced the most daring blasphemy against Him who is proclaimed as God by the law and the prophets, declaring Him to be the author of evils, to take delight in war, to be infirm of purpose, and even to be contrary to Himself. ”


Marcion Edits the Scriptures [38 ← ↑ →]
“Besides this, he mutilates the Gospel which is according to Luke, removing all that is written respecting the generation of the Lord, and setting aside a great deal of the teaching of the Lord, in which the Lord is recorded as most dearly confessing that the Maker of this universe is His Father. He likewise persuaded his disciples that he himself was more worthy of credit than are those apostles who have handed down the Gospel to us, furnishing them not with the Gospel, but merely a fragment of it. In like manner, too, he dismembered the Epistles of Paul, removing all that is said by the apostle respecting that God who made the world, to the effect that He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and also those passages from the prophetical writings which the apostle quotes, in order to teach us that they announced beforehand the coming of the Lord.“ I, 27


Marcion Flip-Flops Heaven and Hell [39 ← ↑ →]
“Cain, and those like him, and the Sodomites, and the Egyptians, and others like them, and, in fine, all the nations who walked in all sorts of abomination, were saved by the Lord, on His descending into Hades, and on their running unto Him, and that they welcomed Him into their kingdom. But the serpent which was in Marcion declared that Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and those other righteous men who sprang from the patriarch Abraham, with all the prophets, and those who were pleasing to God, did not partake in salvation.” I, 27

Book II

The Gnostics Are Intellectual Thieves II, 14 [40 ← ↑ →]
  1. They steal their Theogeny (Creation of the Gods) from Antiphanes, a Comic Poet
  2. They steal the idea of Aeons from Democritus and Plato
  3. The steal their indifference to sin from the Cynics
  4. They steal their frivolous talk and disputation techniques from Aristotle
  5. Reincarnation and A Twist On the Rich Man in Hell
  6. We Baptists would reject probably Reincarnation / Transmigration of Souls using Hebrews 9:27: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Irenaeus offers a different take. The rich man in Hell recognizes Lazarus and Abraham. If Lazarus and Abraham had both had multiple bodies, how could the rich have recognized them? ” II, 34

Parallel Universes, Not a New Idea [41 ← ↑ →]
“Moreover, in addition to what has been said, Basilides himself will, according to his own principles, find it necessary to maintain not only that there are three hundred and sixty-five heavens made in succession by one another, but that an immense and innumerable multitude of heavens have always been in the process of being made, and are being made, and will continue to be made, so that the formation of heavens of this kind can never cease.” II, 35


God’s Multiple Names Means Multiple Gods? [42 ← ↑ →]
“The remainder of those who are falsely termed Gnostics, and who maintain that the prophets uttered their prophecies under the inspiration of different gods, will be easily overthrown by this fact, that all the prophets proclaimed one God and Lord, and that the very Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things which are therein; while they moreover announced the advent of His Son, as I shall demonstrate from the Scriptures themselves, in the books which follow. If, however, any object that, in the Hebrew language, diverse expressions [to represent God] occur in the Scriptures, such as Sabaoth, Eloë, Adonai, and all other such terms, striving to prove from these that there are different powers and gods, let them learn that all expressions of this kind are but announcements and appellations of one and the same Being.” II, 35


Book III

Gnostics: Real Truth Handed Down By Voice, Not Scripture [43 ← ↑ →]
Book III, Chap 2 “When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they [Gnostic teachers] turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition. For [they allege] that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but vivâ voce: wherefore also Paul declared, ‘But we speak wisdom among those that are perfect, but not the wisdom of this world.’ 1 Corinthians 2:6”


Apostolic Succession Assures We Have the Apostles’ Truth [44 ← ↑ →]
Book III, Chap 3 “Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; …by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops.” Irenaeus goes on to list the Bishops of Rome. He uses the succession in Rome to illustrate the point about faithful men carrying on the tradition they had been taught, NOT to elevate the Roman Bishopric.


Before the Son and the Spirit Could Be Recognized as God, [45 ← ↑ →]
The Father had to be recognized as God! I had been wrestling with this material for months before I recognized Gnostic theology in this light, that the Gnostic Demiurge who created matter and the universe being just a Technician, and not the real Creator, is an attack on the divinity of the Father. The Apostles couldn’t expose the Demiurge to the Jews because they would have hindered them from receiving Jesus. Book III, Chap 12 “But as some of these men impudently assert that the apostles, when preaching among the Jews, could not declare to them another god besides Him in whom they believed.”


Gnostic Arrogance [46 ← ↑ →]
Book III, Chap 15 “But if any one do yield himself up to them like a little sheep, and follows out their practice, and their redemption, such an one is puffed up to such an extent, that he thinks he is neither in heaven nor on earth, but that he has passed within the Pleroma; and having already embraced his angel, he walks with a strutting gait and a supercilious countenance, possessing all the pompous air of a cock.”


Jews and Ebionites Attacking the Virgin Birth [47 ← ↑ →]
Book III, Chap 21 “God, then, was made man, and the Lord did Himself save us, giving us the token of the Virgin. But not as some allege, among those now presuming to expound the Scripture, [thus:] Behold, a young woman shall conceive, and bring forth a son, Isaiah 7:14 as Theodotion the Ephesian has interpreted, and Aquila of Pontus, both Jewish proselytes. The Ebionites, following these, assert that He was begotten by Joseph; thus destroying, as far as in them lies, such a marvellous dispensation of God, and setting aside the testimony of the prophets which proceeded from God.” To this day, Jews deny the Virgin Birth by affirming that he Hebrew Scriptures say ‘young woman,’ not “virgin.” They are correct; however, the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, says she will be a “virgin.”


Book IV

If God Is Unknowable? [48 ← ↑ →]
“[T]hey set their teaching in opposition, and have the daring to preach an unknown God. But they ought to hear [this] against themselves: How is it that He is unknown, who is known by them? For, whatever is known even by a few, is not unknown.”


Moses Reveals the Father AND the Son [49 ← ↑ →]
Many Gnostic sects downplayed the importance and relevance of the Old Testament. Irenaeus responds: "For if you had believed Moses, you would also have believed Me; for he wrote of Me; John 5:46 [saying this,] no doubt, because the Son of God is implanted everywhere throughout his writings: at one time, indeed, speaking with Abraham, when about to eat with him; at another time with Noah, giving to him the dimensions [of the ark]; at another; inquiring after Adam; at another, bringing down judgment upon the Sodomites; and again, when He becomes visible, and directs Jacob on his journey, and speaks with Moses from the bush. Exodus 3:4, etc. And it would be endless to recount [the occasions] upon which the Son of God is shown forth by Moses.”


Book V

Theosis/Deification = Sanctification Seen From the Other End [50 ← ↑ →]
“[W]hat we had lost in Adam, i.e., our being in the image and likeness of God, that we might recover in Christ Jesus.” III, 18

“[O]ur Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” V, Preface


The Eucharist Affirms the Incarnation [51 ← ↑ →]
“But vain in every respect are they who despise the entire dispensation of God, and disallow the salvation of the flesh, and treat with contempt its regeneration, maintaining that it is not capable of incorruption. But if this indeed do not attain salvation, then neither did the Lord redeem us with His blood, nor is the cup of the Eucharist the communion of His blood, nor the bread which we break the communion of His body. 1 Corinthians 10:16 For blood can only come from veins and flesh, and whatsoever else makes up the substance of man, such as the Word of God was actually made. By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle declares, In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins.“ V, 2


What Are Some Other Things Irenaeus Wrote About?

Irenaeus Argues Adam Was Redeemed Book III, Chap 23 [52 ← ↑ →]
  1. He was fearful and ashamed at his sin, not surly like Cain
  2. Adam is Self-Mortifying: "For [Adam] showed his repentance by his conduct, through means of the girdle [which he used], covering himself with fig-leaves, while there were many other leaves, which would have irritated his body in a less degree.“
  3. God Shows Mercy
    1. “And he would no doubt have retained this clothing for ever, thus humbling himself, if God, who is merciful, had not clothed them with tunics of skins instead of fig-leaves.”
    2. “He [God] cursed not Adam himself, but the ground”
    3. God kept him from the Tree of Life so he wouldn’t spend eternity as a sinner

Free Will to Become Wheat or Chaff [53 ← ↑ →]
“But the wheat and the chaff, being inanimate and irrational, have been made such by nature. But man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect like to God, having been made free in his will, and with power over himself, is himself the cause to himself, that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff.“


The “Sign Gifts” Still Active in 180 AD [54 ← ↑ →]

Paul Had the Hardest Job – He Was Starting From Scratch [55 ← ↑ →]
“Wherefore also Paul, since he was the apostle of the Gentiles, says, I laboured more than they all. 1 Corinthians 15:10 For the instruction of the former, [viz., the Jews,] was an easy task, because they could allege proofs from the Scriptures, and because they, who were in the habit of hearing Moses and the prophets, did also readily receive the First-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the life of God, — Him who, by the spreading forth of hands, did destroy Amalek, and vivify man from the wound of the serpent, by means of faith which was [exercised] towards Him.“ Quote continued on next page

“As I have pointed out in the preceding book, the apostle did, in the first place, instruct the Gentiles to depart from the superstition of idols, and to worship one God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and the Framer of the whole creation; and that His Son was His Word, by whom He founded all things; and that He, in the last times, was made a man among men; that He reformed the human race, but destroyed and conquered the enemy of man, and gave to His handiwork victory against the adversary. But although they who were of the circumcision still did not obey the words of God, for they were despisers, yet they were previously instructed not to commit adultery, nor fornication, nor theft, nor fraud; and that whatsoever things are done to our neighbours' prejudice, were evil, and detested by God.”


God Has No Need of Man [56 ← ↑ →]
“In the beginning, therefore, did God form Adam, not as if He stood in need of man, but that He might have [some one] upon whom to confer His benefits...Thus, also, service [rendered] to God does indeed profit God nothing, nor has God need of human obedience; but He grants to those who follow and serve Him life and incorruption and eternal glory, bestowing benefit upon those who serve [Him], because they do serve Him, and on His followers, because they do follow Him; but does not receive any benefit from them: for He is rich, perfect, and in need of nothing. But for this reason does God demand service from men, in order that, since He is good and merciful, He may benefit those who continue in His service. For, as much as God is in want of nothing, so much does man stand in need of fellowship with God. For this is the glory of man, to continue and remain permanently in God's service.“


The Eucharist [57 ← ↑ →]
“For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity.”


Allegorical Interpretation [58 ← ↑ →]
“Thus also did Rahab the harlot, while condemning herself, inasmuch as she was a Gentile, guilty of all sins, nevertheless receive the three spies, who were spying out all the land, and hid them at her home; [which three were] doubtless [a type of] the Father and the Son, together with the Holy Spirit.”


Fresh Analogies from the Fathers [59 ← ↑ →]
“Righteously also do we, possessing the same faith as Abraham, and taking up the cross as Isaac did the wood, follow Him.”

Book III, Chap 24 “For this gift of God [the Holy Spirit] has been entrusted to the Church, as breath was to the first created man.”


Fresh Analogies from the Fathers - Eve and Mary [60 ← ↑ →]
Book III, Chap 22 “But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin… the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.” The first mention of sex between Adam and Eve was after the Fall, Gen 4:1

Book V, Chap 19 “And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin [Eve], so is it rescued by a virgin [Mary]; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience.”


Sources