St. Irenaeus handout (see below)
New Testament (Period 6 and 8)
Read page 32-35 in your textbook
Morality (Period 1 and 7)
Read page 26-31 in your textbook
Morality (Period 3)
Review for test
St. Iraenaeus
Against Heresies
c. 175 – 185 AD
Assignment: St. Irenaeus is
writing to refute the errors of a heresy known as Gnosticism that denied the
inspiration of some of the four gospels and claimed to have discovered others.
This led them to deny the humanity of Christ and to hold to other strange
doctrines. Please read the following passage and then answer these question:
1) Why does St. Irenaeus
believe that the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are authentic
witnesses to the life of Christ? Who wrote these gospels?
2) What are the heretics doing to reinterpret the gospels
according to their own views?
3) Why does St. Irenaeus say there must be four Gospels?
Book 3
Chapter 1
1. We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those
through whom the Gospel has
come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and,
at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in
the Scriptures,
to be the ground and pillar of our faith. For it is
unlawful to assert that they preached before they possessed perfect knowledge, as some do
even venture to say, boasting themselves as improvers of the apostles. For, after
our Lord rose from the dead, [the apostles] were invested
with power from on high when the Holy Spirit came down
[upon them], were filled from all [His gifts], and had perfect knowledge: they departed
to the ends of the earth, preaching the glad tidings of the good things [sent]
from God to us, and proclaiming the peace of heaven to men, who indeed do all
equally and individually possess the Gospel of God. 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 .
2. These have all declared to us that there is one God, Creator of heaven and
earth, announced by the law and the prophets; and
one Christ the Son of God. If any one do
not agree to these truths, he despises the companions of the
Lord; nay more, he despises Christ Himself the Lord; yea,
he despises the Father also, and stands self-condemned, resisting and
opposing his own salvation,
as is the case with all heretics.
Chapter 2
1. When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they 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.
And this wisdom each one of them alleges to be the fiction of his own
inventing, forsooth; so that, according to their idea, the truth properly
resides at one time in Valentinus, at another
in Marcion,
at another in Cerinthus,
then afterwards in Basilides,
or has even been indifferently in any other opponent, who could
speak nothing pertaining to salvation. For every one
of these men, being altogether of a perverse
disposition, depraving the system of truth, is not ashamed to
preach himself.
2. But, again, when we refer them to
that tradition which originates from the apostles, [and] which is
preserved by means of the succession of presbyters in
the Churches,
they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely
than the presbyters,
but even than the apostles,
because they have discovered the unadulterated truth. For [they maintain]
that the apostles intermingled
the things of the law with the words of the Saviour; and that
not the apostles alone,
but even the Lord Himself, spoke as at one time from
the Demiurge,
at another from the intermediate place, and yet again from the Pleroma, but
that they themselves, indubitably, unsulliedly, and purely, have knowledge of the
hidden mystery:
this is, indeed, to blaspheme their Creator after
a most impudent manner! It comes to this, therefore, that
these men do now consent neither to Scripture nor
to tradition.
3. Such are the adversaries with whom we have to deal, my
very dear friend, endeavouring like slippery serpents to escape at all points.
Where-fore they must be opposed at all points, if per-chance, by cutting off
their retreat, we may succeed in turning them back to the truth. For, though it is
not an easy thing for a soul under the
influence oferror to repent,
yet, on the other hand, it is not altogether impossible to escape from error when the truth is brought
alongside it.
Chapter 11
7. Such, then, are the first principles of the Gospel: that there
is one God,
the Maker of this universe; He who was also
announced by the prophets,
and who by Moses set
forth the dispensation of the law,— [principles] which proclaim the Father
of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and ignore any other God or Father except
Him. So firm is the ground upon which these Gospels rest, that the
very heretics themselves
bear witness to
them, and, starting from these [documents], each one of them endeavours to
establish his own peculiar doctrine. For the Ebionites, who use Matthew's Gospel only, are
confuted out of this very same, making false suppositions with regard
to the Lord.
But Marcion,
mutilating that according to Luke, is proved to be
a blasphemer of the only existing God, from those [passages]
which he still retains. Those, again, who
separate Jesus from Christ, alleging
that Christ remained impassible, but that it was Jesus who
suffered, preferring the Gospel by Mark,
if they read it with a love of truth, may have
their errors rectified.
Those, moreover, who follow Valentinus, making copious
use of that according to John, to illustrate their conjunctions, shall be proved to be totally
in error by
means of this very Gospel,
as I have shown in the first book. Since, then, our opponents do bear testimony
to us, and make use of these [documents], our proof derived from
them is firm and true.
8. It is not possible that the Gospels can be either
more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four zones of the
world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is scattered
throughout all the world, and the pillar and ground of the Church is the Gospel and
the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars,
breathing out immortality on
every side, and vivifying men afresh. From which fact, it is evident
that the Word, the Artificer of all, He that sits upon the cherubim, and contains all
things, He who was manifested to men, has given us
the Gospel under
four aspects, but bound together by one Spirit. As
also David says, when entreating His manifestation, You that
sits between the cherubim,
shine forth. For the cherubim, too,
were four-faced, and their faces were images of the dispensation of
the Son of God.
For, [as the Scripture]
says, The first living creature was like a lion, symbolizing His
effectual working, His leadership, and royal power; the second [living
creature] was like a
calf, signifying [His] sacrificial and sacerdotal order;
but the third had, as it were, the face as of a man,— an evident
description of His advent as a human being; the
fourth was like a flying eagle, pointing out the gift of
the Spirit hovering with His wings over the Church. And therefore
the Gospels are
in accord with these things, among which Christ Jesus is seated.
For that according to John relates His original, effectual, and glorious generation
from the Father,
thus declaring, In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. Also, all things were made by Him, and
without Him was nothing made. For this reason, too, is that Gospel full of all
confidence, for such is His person. But that according to Luke,
taking up [His] priestly character,
commenced with Zacharias the priest offering sacrifice to God. For now was made
ready the fatted calf, about to be immolated for the finding again of the
younger son. Matthew, again, relates His generation as a man, saying, The book
of the generation of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham; and
also, The birth of Jesus Christ was on
this wise. This, then, is the Gospel of His
humanity; for which reason it is, too, that [the character of]
a humble and
meek man is kept up through the whole Gospel. Mark, on the
other hand, commences with [a reference to]
the prophetical spirit coming down from on high to men, saying, The
beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is
written in Esaias the prophet,— pointing to the
winged aspect of the Gospel;
and on this account he made a compendious and cursory narrative, for such is
the prophetical character. And the Word of God Himself
used to converse with the ante-Mosaic patriarchs, in accordance with His
divinity and glory;
but for those under the law he instituted
a sacerdotal and liturgical service. Afterwards, being
made man for us, He sent the gift of the celestial Spirit over
all the earth, protecting us with His wings. Such, then, as was the course
followed by the Son of God,
so was also the form of the living creatures; and such as was
the form of the living creatures, so was also
the character of the Gospel. For the
living creatures are quadriform, and the Gospel is quadriform,
as is also the course followed by the Lord. For this reason were four
principal (καθολικαί) covenants given to the human race: one, prior to
the deluge, under Adam; the second, that after the deluge,
under Noah;
the third, the giving of the law, under Moses; the fourth, that
which renovates man, and sums up all things in itself by means of
the Gospel,
raising and bearing men upon its wings into
the heavenly kingdom.
9. These things being so, all who destroy
the form of the Gospel are vain,
unlearned, and also audacious; those, [I mean,] who represent the aspects of
the Gospel as
being either more in number than as aforesaid, or, on the other hand, fewer.
The former class [do so], that they may seem to have discovered more than is of
the truth;
the latter, that they may set
the dispensations of God aside. For Marcion, rejecting the
entire Gospel,
yea rather, cutting himself off from the Gospel, boasts that he has
part in the [blessings of] the Gospel. Others, again
(the Montanists),
that they may set at nought the gift of the Spirit, which in the
latter times has been, by the good pleasure of the Father, poured out upon
the human race,
do not admit that aspect [of the evangelical dispensation]
presented by John's Gospel,
in which the Lord promised that He would send the Paraclete but
set aside at once both the Gospel and the prophetic Spirit. Wretched men indeed!
Who wish to be pseudo-prophets, forsooth, but who set aside
the gift of prophecy from
the Church; acting like
those (the Encratitæ) who,
on account of such as come in hypocrisy, hold themselves aloof from
the communion of the brethren. We must conclude, moreover, that
these men (the Montanists)
can not admit the Apostle Paul either.
For, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, he speaks expressly
of prophetical gifts, and recognises men and women prophesying in
the Church. Sinning,
therefore, in all these particulars, against the Spirit of God, they fall
into the irremissible sin. But those who are
from Valentinus,
being, on the other hand, altogether reckless, while they put forth their own
compositions, boast that they possess more Gospels than there
really are. Indeed, they have arrived at such a pitch of audacity, as to
entitle their comparatively recent writing the Gospel of Truth, though
it agrees in nothing with the Gospels of the Apostles,
so that they have really no Gospel which is not
full of blasphemy.
For if what they have published is the Gospel of truth, and yet is totally
unlike those which have been handed down to us from the apostles, any who please
may learn, as is shown from the Scriptures themselves,
that that which has been handed down from the apostles can no
longer be reckoned the Gospel of truth. But that
these Gospels alone
are true and
reliable, and admit neither an increase nor diminution of the aforesaid number,
I have proved by
so many and such [arguments]. For, since God made all things in due
proportion and adaptation, it was fit also that the outward aspect of the Gospel should be well
arranged and harmonized. The opinion of those men, therefore, who handed
the Gospel down
to us, having been investigated, from their very fountainheads, let us
proceed also to the remaining apostles, and inquire into
their doctrine with regard to God; then, in due course
we shall listen to the very words of the Lord.
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