TRANSLATIONS OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
GENERAL EDITORS : W. J. SPARROW SIMPSON, D.D.
W. K. LOWTHER CLARKE, B.U.
SERIES IV
ORIENTAL TEXTS
ST IREN^EUS
ST IREN^EUS
THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
APOSTOLIC PREACHING
TRANSLATED FROM THE ARMENIAN
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
J. ARMITAGE ROBINSON, D.D.
DEAN OF WELLS
LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
1920
PRINTED IN GKEAT BRITAIN BY
RICHARD CLAY SONS, LIMITED,
BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E. I,
AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
PREFACE
EUSEBIUS in his Ecclesiastical History tells us
that in addition to his great work Against Heresies
St Irenseus wrote A Discourse in Demonstration of
the Apostolic Preaching. This work was entirely
lost sight of: no one seems ever to have quoted
a word of it. But it has quite recently reappeared
in an Armenian manuscript together with Books
IV and V of the greater work. The Armenian
translation proves to be a fairly close rendering
of the original Greek.
What Irenseus meant by the Apostolic Preach-
ing can be seen from his larger work. Although the
exact expression does not seem to occur there, we
have its equivalent, " the Preaching of the Apostles "
(III, iii. 2), and also the parallel phrases, "the
Tradition of the Apostles" (III, iii. 4) and "the
Preaching of the Truth'' (I, iii. I; III, iii. 4).
Moreover, in I, i. 20 we read that "he who holds
the canon (or rule) of the truth without deviation,
which he received through his baptism," will be
able to escape all the snares of heresy : and in the
Demonstration (c. 3.) we have closely'parallel words
which also refer to the baptismal faith. Although
it was not until much later that the baptismal
confession came to be called the Apostles' Creed,
vi PREFACE
it was already regarded as a summary of the
essential elements of the Apostolic message. Its
form varied in some details in different Churches,
but its structure was everywhere the same, for it
had grown up on the basis of the baptismal
formula.
What Irenaeus undertakes in the present work
is to set out the main points of this Apostolic
message, which, as he has explained in his greater
work (III, iii. i ff.), has been handed down in the
Church by the successions of the bishops and is
the same in substance in all parts of the world,
and to demonstrate its truth more especially from
the sacred scriptures of the Old Testament. This
argument from prophecy was the earliest form of
Christian evidence ; and though it does not appeal
to us with equal force to-day, and we find it hard
to be patient with some of the proofs which
seemed to be convincing in the earliest times, we
must yet recognize that it was a true instinct
which claimed the Jewish scriptures as the heri-
tage of the Christian Church, and surmounted by
means of allegorical interpretations those serious
difficulties which led many Christians to wish to
cast them aside altogether.
The words of Bishop Westcott in reference to
the methods of the schoolmen of the Middle
Ages, are applicable also to these earlier teachers :
" Many of the arguments which they use appear
to us frivolous and pointless. It requires a serious
effort to enter into them with a sympathetic in-
telligence. But the effort is worth making. Con-
clusions which rest upon arbitrary assumptions
PREFACE vii
as to the symmetries of things witness in an
imperfect fashion to a deep sense of a divine order
in creation ; and we do injustice to those who draw
them if we allow even the greatest errors of
expression and form to blind us to the nobility
of the conception which they embody most in-
adequately" (Epp. of St John, "The Gospel of
Creation," pp. 276 f.).
The wonder of Irenaeus is the largeness of his
outlook. No theologian had arisen since St Paul
and St John who had grasped so much of the
purpose of God for His world. " The Making of
Man," to borrow Tennyson's great phrase, is his
constant theme. Even though he was forced to
be controversial, he was never merely negative ;
and the last of his books Against Heresies ends
on the keynote of the whole that man shall at
length be made " after the image and likeness of
God." This is to him the meaning of all history ;
and for that reason the centre point of history is
the Incarnation. So Christ came " to link up the
end with the beginning," or in St Paul's words,
which Irenaeus never tires of repeating, " to gather
up into one all things " in Himself.
I have retained the chapter divisions of the first
editors and translators of the Armenian text. The
references to the work Against Heresies are to
Harvey's edition (Cambridge, 1857). Though I
have not everywhere reproduced the double render-
ings which are so frequent in the Armenian, I
have made the translation sufficiently literal to
serve the general needs of the patristic student,
a
/530
viii PREFACE
even at the cost of some clumsiness of expression.
In the Introduction and Notes I have been at some
pains to bring out the indebtedness of Irenaeus to
Justin Martyr ; and in pursuance of the same end
I have devoted a section of the Introduction -to
the teaching of both these writers in regard to the
Holy Spirit.
J. ARMITAGE ROBINSON.
The Deanery,
Wells, Somerset, Oct. 1919.
CONTENTS
I'AGB
PREFACE . . . . . . v
INTRODUCTION :
I. THE DOCUMENT AND ITS VALUE . . I
II. THE DEBT OF IREN^US TO JUSTIN MARTYR 6
III. THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN
JUSTIN AND IREN^US . . .24
THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE APOSTOLIC PREACHING 69
INDEX OF SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS . . . 152
GENERAL INDEX . . . . . . 154
ix
ST IREN^US
THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
APOSTOLIC PREACHING
INTRODUCTION
I
THE DOCUMENT AND ITS VALUE
IT is a remarkable fact, and much to be
regretted, that none of the works of St Irenaeus, the
greatest theologian of the second century, have
come down to us in the language in which they
were written. Of his chief work, the five books
Against Heresies, we have a very early Latin
translation, and a few fragments of the original
Greek preserved through quotation by other
writers. 1 The work now before us, The Demon-
stration of the Apostolic Preaching, has recently
been found in an Armenian translation, and no
portion of it seems to have survived in any other
language.
This new treatise does not come upon us entirely
as a surprise ; for Eusebius 2 had mentioned its
title, El$ snidsi^iv TOV anoorofanov xrjQvyjuaTos, and
had said that it was addressed to " a brother named
1 The Armenian translation of Bks. IV and V, found in the
same MS. with our treatise, is a valuable aid for the criticism
of these books.
2 Eccl. Hist., v. 26.
2 INTRODUCTION
Marcianus." This is all he tells us ; but we can
now add from the book itself that it was written
after the completion of the greater work, and
therefore somewhere about A.D. 190; and that
Marcianus was on intimate terms with the writer,
but absent from him at the time of writing. 1 The
work Against Heresies is, of course, controversial
from first to last : but the present treatise is a sort
of Vade mecum for an intelligent Christian,
explaining his faith, placing it in its historical
setting in relation to Judaism, and confirming it
by the citation and exposition of a great number
of Old Testament passages. It is in no sense
a manual for catechumens : it is a handbook of
Christian Evidence, though its form is not
controversial.
A tract of this kind from the pen of a great
teacher in any age must needs be of interest.
How was Christianity presented as a whole to an
educated believer ? What were the main points
of doctrine and of life on which stress was laid ?
What were the grounds of belief which appeared
to be most convincing then ? These are the things
which the historian of religious development wants
to know in each of the Christian centuries, and which
he finds it exceptionally difficult to get at. The
great events and the leading personalities have
left their mark on the records of the time : the
development of doctrine and the growth of
ecclesiastical institutions can be traced with
increasing clearness as the documents are tested
and studied and compared : but the religious sense
1 See chapters I and 99.
THE DOCUMENT AND ITS VALUE 3
of an age, the beliefs which affected life, and the
grounds of those beliefs, the ruling motives
of conduct, the things that to the best minds
seemed to matter most these escape us unless
we are insistent in our search for them ; and often,
search as we will, we find little to reward our
pains. We have special reason to be grateful for
a plain statement of the Christian religion as
it presented itself to a master mind at the end of
the second century. A long and varied experience
had qualified Irenaeus for such a task. As a boy
he had listened to St Polycarp at Smyrna, and he
may have conversed with others the Elders, as he
calls them who had seen the Apostles. He had
visited Rome on business of ecclesiastical moment,
and as Bishop of Lyons he had long presided over
the churches of Southern Gaul. Moreover he had
explored every maze of heresy, and had confronted
what we now call " Gnosticism," in all its divergent
forms, with the Christian truth as he had come to
conceive it in a long life of patient study and
practical ministry. He had given to the Church
his five books of The Exposure and Overthrow of
Knowledge (Gnosis) falsely so called. When such
a man lays controversy aside and takes up his pen
to talk, as he says, to his absent friend, and furnish
him with a summary statement of the Apostolic
message and the reasons for believing it in terms of
his own day, he deserves our close attention. We
shall make little of him if we insist on judging him
by modern standards : we shall miss the definite-
ness of post-Nicene doctrine ; we shall be
disappointed at finding nothing about ecclesiastical
4 INTRODUCTION
organization ; we shall be distressed at the quaint
conceits of his exposition of Old Testament
prophecies. But if we come to him fresh from the
study of Justin Martyr's First Apology, written
some thirty-five years before, we shall appreciate
the atmosphere in which he had grown up and
shall recognize the advance which he had made in
the thoughtful interpretation of the Faith.
The manuscript which contains our treatise was
found in December 1904, in the Church of the
Blessed Virgin at Eriwan in Armenia, by Dr
Karapet Ter-Mekerttshian, one of the most learned
of the Armenian clergy. It was edited by him
with a translation into German, in conjunction with
Dr Erwand Ter-Minassiantz, in 1907, in the Texte
und Untersuchungen (xxxi. i); and Dr Harnack
added a brief dissertation and some notes. Then
in 1912 Dr Simon Weber, of the Faculty of Catholic
Theology in the University of Freiburg in Breisgau,
being dissatisfied with this presentation of the work,
published a fresh translation with the help of some
Armenian scholars. Neither of these translations
satisfies the needs of English patristic students.
The second, though it corrects some errors of the
first, is far less close to the original text. And
both are vitiated by a want of acquaintance with
the textual criticism of the Septuagint and the
Greek New Testament, and also with the larger
work of St Irenseus himself. The present trans-
lation is an attempt to remedy these defects, and
at the same time to bring the treatise to the know-
ledge of those who have hitherto been debarred
by linguistic difficulties from reading it. My own
THE DOCUMENT AND ITS VALUE 5
acquaintance with the Armenian language and
literature is so limited that I cannot hope to have
altogether avoided mistakes, and I shall be grateful
to those who will point them out. I owe very much
to the first of the translations into German, and
something also to the second : if I am sometimes
right where they were wrong, it is mainly because
I have sought to read the text in the light of what
Irenaeus has said elsewhere.
The same manuscript contains an Armenian'
version of Books IV and V of the great work
Against Heresies* These come immediately before
our treatise, and are embraced with them under
the single title, The Demonstration of the Apostolic
Preaching. We cannot say whether this error of
title goes back beyond the date of the manuscript,
which was probably written between 1270-1289,
that is in the time of the learned Archbishop John,
the brother of King Hetum of Cilicia. A note at
the end states that it was written for this arch-
bishop. The Armenian editors believe that the
same translator is responsible for the two books of
the larger work and for our treatise, and that the
translation was made at some date between 650
and 750. The version of Books IV and V is
of high value, as enabling us to check the Latin
version, the MSS. of which differ considerably
among themselves. It is useful also as illustrating
the fondness of the Armenian translator for a
double rendering of a single word of the original.
When we read the Armenian and the Latin side
1 Published with a translation by the same editors in Texte u.
Untersuchungen, xxxv. 2.
6 INTRODUCTION
by side, we gain the impression that the Greek
text has been very closely followed ; and thus we
are assured that for our present treatise also the
Armenian version is a faithful representative of
the lost original.
II
THE DEBT OF IREN^EUS TO JUSTIN MARTYR
IF we are to proceed with safety in forming a
judgment as to the relation between Justin and
Irenaeus in respect of the matter which they have
in common, it will be necessary not merely to
consider a number of selected parallels, but also
to examine the treatment of a particular theme in
the two writers. Let us set side by side, for
example, c. 32 of Justin's First Apology with
c. 57 of the Demonstration. Justin has been ex-
plaining to his Roman readers who the Jewish
prophets were, and then giving a list of the chief
things which they expressly foretold concerning
the coming of Christ. Then he proceeds thus :
Moses then, who was the first of the prophets, speaks
expressly as follows : There shall not fail a prince from
Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he shall come for
whom it is reserved : and he shall be the expectation of the
Gentiles ; binding his colt to the vine ; washing his robe in
the blood of the grape. It is your part then to make careful
enquiry and to learn up to what point the Jews had a prince
and king of their own. It was up to the appearing of Jesus
Christ, our teacher and the expounder of the prophecies
which were not understood, namely how it was foretold by
the divine holy prophetic Spirit through Moses that there
should not fail a prince from the Jews, until he should come
for whom is reserved the kingdom. For Judah is the
ancestor of the Jews, from whom also they obtained that
they should be called Jews. And you, after His appearance
THE DEBT TO JUSTIN MARTYR 7
took place, both ruled over the Jews and mastered their
land.
Now the words He shall be the expectation of the Gentiles
were meant to indicate that from among all the Gentiles men
shall expect Him to come again which you yourselves can
see with your eyes and believe as a fact : for men of all races
are expecting Him who was crucified in Judaea, immediately
after whose time the land of the Jews was conquered and
given over to you.
And the words Binding his colt to the vine and Washing
his robe in the blood of the grape were a sign to show what
was to happen to Christ, and what was to be done by Him.
For the colt of an ass was standing at the entrance to a
village, tied to a vine ; and this He commanded His disciples
at that time to bring to Him ; and when it was brought He
mounted and sat on it, and entered into Jerusalem, where
was that very great temple of the Jews, which afterwards
was destroyed by you. And after these things He was
crucified, that the remainder of the prophecy might be
accomplished. For Washing his robe in the blood of the
grape was the announcement beforehand of the passion
which He was to suffer, cleansing by blood those who be-
lieve on Him. For what is called by the divine Spirit through
the prophet (His) robe means the men who believe in Him,
those in whom dwells the seed from God, (that is) the Word.
And that which is spoken of as blood of the grape signifies
that He who is to appear has blood indeed^ yet not from
human seed, but from a divine power. Now the first power
after God, the Father and Lord of all, is the Son, the Word :
of whom we shall presently tell after what manner He was
made flesh and became man. For even as the blood of the
vine not man hath made, but God ; so also is it signified that
this blood shall not be of human seed, but of the power of
God, as we have said before.
Moreover Isaiah, another prophet, prophesying the same
things in other words said thus : There shall rise a star out
of Jacob, and a flower shall spring up from the root of
fesse,and^on his arm shall the Gentiles hope.
The points that strike us at once in this passage
are these :
(i) The well-known Blessing of Jacob is cited
as the prophecy of Moses, who is called the " first
of the prophets."
8 INTRODUCTION
(2) The quotation is abbreviated, and Justin
comments on it in its abbreviated form.
(3) The statement that Judah was the ancestor
of the Jews, and that from him they got their
name, is on a par with many such explanations
which Justin makes for the sake of his Roman
readers.
(4) That the Jews had no prince or king of their
own after the time of Christ, and that their land
was conquered and ruled by the Romans, was a
good point of apologetic and one which his readers
would fully appreciate.
(5) We are somewhat surprised that "the ex-
pectation of the Gentiles " should be referred to
the second coming of Christ.
(6) The statement that the ass's colt was tied
to a vine is not found in our Gospels.
(7) Washing his robe in the blood of the grape
easily suggested our Lord's passion ; but that His
robe should be those who believe on Him seems
to us far-fetched.
(8) Equally far-fetched is the explanation of the
blood of the grape as pointing to blood made not
by man, but by God.
(9) The combination of Balaam's prophecy with
words of Isaiah, and the attribution of the whole
to Isaiah, strikes us as a strange piece of
carelessness.
Now let us read c. 57 of the Demonstration.
After a few prefatory sentences in which he notes
certain points regarding Christ which are the
subject of prophecy, Irenaeus goes on :
THE DEBT TO JUSTIN MARTYR 9
Moses in Genesis says thus : There shall not fail a prince
fromjtidah, nor a leader from his loins, until he shall come
for whom it remaineth : and he shall be the expectation of the
Gentiles : washing his robe in wine* and his garment in the
blood of the grape. Now Judah was the ancestor of the Jews,
.the son of Jacob ; from whom also they obtained the name.
And there failed not a prince among them and a leader,
until the coming of Christ. But from the time of His coming
the might of the quiver was captured, the land of the Jews
was given over into subjection to the Romans, and they had
no longer a prince or king of their own. For He was come,
for whom remaineth in heaven the kingdom ; who also
washed his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the
grape: His robe as also His garment are those who believe
on Him, \vhom also He cleansed, redeeming us by His
blood. And His blood is said to be blood of the grape :
for even as the blood of the grape no man maketh, but
God produceth, and maketh glad them that drink thereof,
so also His flesh and blood no man wrought, but God made.
The Lord Himself gave the sign of the virgin, even that
Emmanuel which was from the virgin ; who also maketh
glad them that drink of Him, that is to say, who receive
His Spirit, (even) everlasting glcuiness. Wherefore also He
is the expectation of the Gentiles, of those who hope in him;
for we expect of Him that He will establish again the
kingdom.
We may now take our nine points one by one :
(1) Here again the Blessing of Jacob is cited as
the prophecy of Moses ; and a little earlier ( 43)
we find the words : " Moses, who was the first that
prophesied."
(2) The text of the quotation is the same as in
Justin : but the words about binding the colt to the
vine are omitted, and the remainder of the passage
is given without abbreviation, as in the LXX.
(3) That Judah is the ancestor of the Jews, who
got their name from him, is found in Irenaeus ; and
the actual words would seem to have been taken
over from Justin. The statement is somewhat
superfluous in a book written for a fairly well
io INTRODUCTION
instructed Christian, whereas it comes quite
naturally in Justin's Apology. Though several
parallels between Justin and Irenaeus might be
explained by the hypothesis of their both having
used a book of" Testimonies against the Jews," such
a solution could hardly be advanced in this case ;
for the statement in question would not be likely
to occur in such a book.
(4) Justin's words are : jueO'ov svOvQ 6oQi(tta)To<;
vjuiv r\ yfj ' lovdatcov naosdoOrj. The translation of
the first part of the parallel in Irenaeus is obscure:
but it is possible that the phrase " the might of the
quiver was captured " is no more than the transla-
tor's attempt to make something of doouttwros.
If so, it would appear certain that here also
Irenaeus was practically writing out a sentence of
Justin, only changing vfuv into xol<; f Pcojuatoi<;.
(5) The expectation of the Gentiles is here also
explained of the Second Advent ; and the word
" kingdom " is offered, as in Justin, as the unex-
pressed subject of & anoKEixai.
(6) The passage about the ass's colt is omitted
both from the quotation and from the interpreta-
tion. Irenaeus has it in IV, xx. 2, where he quotes,
again as from Moses, the whole section (Gen. xlix.
1012), ending with : Icetifici oculi ejus a vino, et
candidi denies ejus quam lac. He then goes on :
" Let these persons who are said to investigate all
things search out the time at which there failed
prince and leader from Judah, and who is the ex-
pectation of the Gentiles, and what the vine, and
what his colt, and what the robe, and what are eyes
and teeth and wine ; and search out every point ;
THE DEBT TO JUSTIN MARTYR n
and they shall find that none other is foretold,
than our Lord Jesus Christ." Here again Irenaeus
is very close to the passage in Justin, so far as the
general method of putting the argument goes.
(7) and (8) reappear in Irenaeus, and it is most
natural to suppose that he took them over from
Justin. He has a point of his own when he goes
on to add to the interpretation of the blood of
the grape the gladness produced by the wine. It
seems to be introduced without any obvious
reason, until we observe that the words which
follow in the passage in Genesis tell of the gladness
of the eyes produced by wine (Icetifici oculi, etc.
quoted above).
(9) In c. 58 Irenaeus proceeds at once to the
quotation of Balaam's prophecy, as follows : " And
again Moses says : There shall rise a star out of
Jacob> and a leader shall be raised up out of Israel"
He does not make the combination with Isaiah
which we find in Justin ; nor does he attribute
Balaam's words to Isaiah. It is however to be
noted that in III, ix. 2, where he quotes the passage
as here, he does attribute it to Isaiah : " Cujus et
stellam Ysaias quidem sic prophetavit : Orietur
stella ex Jacob, et surget dux in Israel" On this
coincidence in error Dr Rendel Harris remarks
(Testimonies, I. p. n): " Justin shews us the
passage of Isaiah following the one from Numbers,
and the error lies in the covering of two passages
with a single reference. It is clear, then, that
Justin's mistake was made in a collection of
Testimonies from the prophets, and that the same
collection, or one that closely agreed with it, was
12 INTRODUCTION
in the hands of Irenaeus." In view, however, of
the intimate connexion which appears to exist
between Irenaeus and Justin we must not exclude
the alternative possibility that the mistake began
with Justin, and was at first reproduced by Irenseus,
but was afterwards corrected by him in his later
work.
Another example of a whole section drawn from
Justin Martyr will be found in cc. 44 f. Here it
is the Dialogue with Trypho the Jew to which
Irenseus is indebted. The whole of these two
chapters should be read consecutively : but the
chief parts must be given here. Irenaeus cites
Gen. xviii. I ff., to show that it was the Son of God
who spake with Abraham. This is Justin's view
also, but the nearest parallels come after the
quotation of Gen. xix. 24. At this point Irenaeus
says :
And then the Scripture says : And the Lord rained upon
Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out
of heaven : that is to say, the Son, who spake with Abraham,
being Lord, received power to punish the men of Sodom
from the Lord out of heaven, even from the Father who
rules (or is Lord) over all. So Abraham was a prophet and
saw things to come, which were to take place in human
form : even the Son of God, that He should speak with
men and eat with them, and then should bring in the
judgment from the Father, having received from Him who
rules over all the power to punish the men of Sodom.
Justin had said (Dial. 56 ad fin.) : " And He
is the Lord, who from the Lord who is in heaven,
that is, from the Maker of all things, received
(power) to bring these things on Sodom and
Gomorrah, which the narrative recounts, saying :
The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brim-
THE DEBT TO JUSTIN MARTYR 13
4
stone and fire from the Lord out of heaven (xal
KVQIQC, <m nCJLQa HVQiOV XOV SV TW OVQGLVO), TOVTSOTl
tov noirjTov TO>V cttcov, hafiwv TO ravra anevsyxelv
ZodojuoiQ K. T. A.)." And he then goes on to dis
cuss the question of the eating and drinking with
Abraham, but does not treat it as Irenaeus does
here.
The interpretation of the passage may already
have been common Christian apologetic : it is the
expression "received power (or authority)" to
punish the Sodomites that suggests a directiiterary
connexion ; and this expression is found again in
Irenaeus III, vi. I, quoted below in the note on
this passage.
After this Irenaeus goes on at once as follows
(Dem. c. 45) :
And Jacob, when he went into Mesopotamia, saw Him in
a dream, standing upon the ladder, that is, the tree, which
was set up from earth to heaven ; for thereby they that
believe on Him go up to the heavens. For His sufferings
are our ascension on high. And all such visions point to
the Son of God, speaking with men and being in their
midst. For it was not the Father of all, etc. (See below.)
This idea that Jacob's Ladder was "the tree"
(vkov\ that is to say, the cross, is found in Justin
(Dial. 86), among a number of other types equally
strange to us : " It says that a ladder was seen by
him ; and the Scripture has declared that God was
supported upon it; and that this was not the
Father we have proved from the Scriptures."
Irenaeus again expands the comment in his own
way, but he recurs to the theme "It was not the
Father."
For it was not the Father of all, who is not seen by the
i 4 INTRODUCTION
world, the Maker of all jwho said: Heaven is my throne,
and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me, or
what is the place of my rest ? and who comprehendeth the
earth with his hand, and with his span the heaven it was
not He that came and stood in a very small space and
spake with Abraham ; but the Word of God, etc.
Now the words " in a very small space " are
clearly reminiscent of Justin. For in Dial. 127 he
says : " Think not that the unbegotten God Him-
self came down or went up from anywhere. For
the unutterable Father and Lord of all has never
come any whither," etc. " How then should He
either speak to any one, or be seen by any, or
appear in some very small portion of earth (ev
eAa%loTq) jusosi yfjs) ? " Cf. Dial. 60 : ev oMyu* yrjg
jLiOQLCO necpdvQai.
These repeated coincidences, in large matters
and in small, make us feel that Irenaeus was very
familiar with Justin's writings. Everywhere he
goes beyond him : but again and again he starts
from him.
The advantage to be gained by the recognition
of the dependence of Irenaeus upon Justin may be
illustrated from c. 53 of our Treatise. The
Armenian text here presents several difficulties,
probably from corrupt transcription. The original
cannot have been very easy to understand ; but
when we read with it c. 6 of Justin's Second
Apology some points at any rate are cleared up.
Irenaeus has just quoted Isa. vii. 14 ff., following
the LXX with slight variations :
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign : behold,
the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and ye
shall call him Emmanuel : butter and honey shall he eat;
before he knoweth or selecteth the evil, he chooseth the good :
THE DEBT TO JUSTIN MARTYR 15
for, before the child knoiveth good or evil, he rejecteth wicked-
ness to choose the good. So he proclaimed His birth from a
virgin; and that He was truly man he declared beforehand
by His eating; and also because he called Him the child :
and further by giving Him a name ; for this is the custom
also for one that is born.
We must pause here for a moment to quote
some parallel words from Irenaeus himself (III,
xxv. 2). He has quoted the same Scripture, and
in commenting upon it he says : " Et manifestat
quoniam homo, in eo quod dicit : Butyrum et mel
manducabit ; et in eo quod infantem nominat eum ;
et priusquam cognoscat bonum et malum : hsec
enim omnia signa sunt hominis infantis."
In my translation I have written: "this is the
custom also for one that is born." But the Ar-
.menian text has: "this is the error also of one
that is born." I have accepted Mr F. C. Conybeare's
simple and attractive emendation sovoruthiun,
" custom," for moloruthinn, " error." - 1
We now return to our passage :
And His name is two-fold : in the Hebrew tongue
Messiah Jesus, and in ours Christ Saviour. And the 1 two
names are names of works actually wrought. For He was
named Christ, because through Him the Father anointed
and adorned all things ; and because on His coming as man
He was anointed with the Spirit of God and His Father.
As also by Isaiah He says of Himself: The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me : wherefore he hath anointed me to preach
good tidings to the poor. And (He was named) Saviour for
this, that He became the cause of salvation to those who at
1 I had at first thought that a comparison of the passage quoted
from III, xxv. 2 pointed to the loss of some words from our text,
and that we might emend thus : " [and in that he said : Before he
knoweth good or evil ;] for this is the uncertainty also of one that
is born." But I doubt whether moloruthiun could be toned down
to mean "uncertainty." Moreover in what follows it is the name
on which stress is laid.
16 INTRODUCTION
that time were delivered by Him from all sicknesses and
from death, and to those who afterwards believed on Him
the author of salvation in the future and for evermore.
The Armenian text reads : " in the Hebrew
tongue Messiah Christ, and in the Armenian Jesus
Saviour." I have adopted the emendation proposed
by the Armenian scholars who made the first
translation into German. No doubt XQLOTOQ ZCOTIJO
was what Irenaeus wrote as the rendering of
"Messiah Jesus": compare Just. M. Ap. I, 33,
" Now the name Jesus in the Hebrew speech
signifies Saviour in the Greek language."
Having disposed of these preliminary difficulties,
we note some curious matters that remain for
consideration. What is the point of saying,
" names of works actually wrought " ? Is there
any parallel to the explanation of " Christ " as " He
through whom the Father anointed " ? And why
does our author lay stress on the cure of the sick
as the explanation of the name " Jesus " ?
Let us now look at the passage of Justin to
which we referred at the outset (Ap. II, 6) :
Now a name imposed on the Father of all, unbegotten as
He is, is an impossibility. For he to whom a name is
applied must have one older than himself who has imposed
on him the name. Father and God and Creator and Lord
and Master are not names: they are appellations derived
from benefits and works (e/c r&v tviroi'itav /ecu ruv epyoiv).
Here we see the force of what Irenaeus had said
about the naming spoken of by Isaiah, as indicating
the manhood of the promised Child of the Virgin.
The Unbegotten has no name, in the strict sense :
there was none before Him to impose a name on
Him. The Begotten, when begotten as man, has
THE DEBT TO JUSTIN MARTYR 17
a name, though before that He has what is at
once an appellation and a name. Justin goes on :
But His Son, who alone is called Son in the full sense,
the Word who before all created things both was with Him
and was generated, when at the beginning He created and
ordered (or adorned) all things through Him, is called on
the one hand Christ, in respect of His being anointed and
of God's ordering (or adorning) all things through Him
a name which also in itself contains a signification beyond
our knowledge, just as the title God is not a name, but a
conception, innate in human nature, of a thing (or work)
too hard to be declared
Here Justin is explaining that "Christ" is a
name indeed, but more than a name. It is a
designation derived from a work, just as the
designation God is derived from a work' (cf. egywv
above, and nodyjuaro^. What then is this work ?
The anointing which made Him the Christ is
something which to Justin's mind occurred before
His coming as man. He was anointed that
through Him God might order (or adorn) the
universe. The sense of the words is fairly plain,
if it be somewhat surprising.
But the construction of the Greek at the crucial
point is at least awkward. The words are : XQIOTOQ
juev Kara TO xe%QioO(u Kal xoofifjoai TO. Tidvra dt
avrov TOV Oeov teyerai. Long ago Scaliger proposed
to read KOI %Qioai, instead of xe%QioOau. This
would mean : " in respect of God's both anointing
and ordering all things through Him." The
emendation found little favour with the editors of
Justin, until the discovery of the Demonstration.
Now it seems likely to find a wider acceptance in
view of these words of Irenaeus : " For He was
named Christ because through Him the Father
i8 INTRODUCTION
anointed and adorned all things." At any rate it
will not be doubted that Irenaeus so understood
the passage, whatever he may have actually read
in his copy of Justin. I have not myself ventured
to correct Justin's text : for it is intelligible as it
stands ; whereas to say "He was called Christ,"
not because He was anointed, but "because the
Father anointed all things through Him," is not
very intelligible, even though Irenaeus has said it.
Justin continues :
Jesus, on the other hand, offers both the name of a man
and the significance of Saviour. For, as we have already
said, He has become man, born in accordance with the
counsel of God the Father on behalf of the men that believe
on Him and for the overthrow of the demons : and this you
can learn at the present time from what takes place under
your eyes. For many possessed of demons, in the world
generally and in your own city, have been healed and are
still being healed by many of our men, the Christians, who
exorcise them by the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under
Pontius Pilate, though they could not be healed by all the
rest of the exorcists.
Jesus is a man's name, familiar enough to Greek
readers of the Bible from having been given by
Moses to his successor whom we call Joshua. It
also has a significance : for it means Saviour.
As ZcorrJQ to the Greeks suggested specially the
giving of health (ocoTrjQia), Justin finds a connexion
between 'Iqoovc; and 10.01$, "healing." You can
see this to-day, he says : for the Christians who
use the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under
Pontius Pilate, can heal when no one else can
(ytw) laOsvrag idoavro ual en vvv icovxai) .
Turning back to the last words of the passage
quoted above from Irenaeus, we note that the
same interpretation of " Jesus" is in his mind, even
THE DEBT TO JUSTIN MARTYR 19
if he does not play on the word taais. For
itself includes " healing " among its meanings : and
Irenaeus refers to our Lord's own acts of healing,
though he does not at this point follow Justin in
instancing the healing of the possessed by Christians
in the name of Jesus. 1
We have now to consider a passage in which the
help to be gained from Justin is not so clear. In
c.43 we read: "This Jeremiah the prophet also
testified, saying thus : Before the morning-star I
begat thee ; and before the sun (is) thy name ; and
that is, before the creation of the world ; for
together with the world the stars were made/'
Here we have a composite quotation, made up
from two different Psalms and attributed to the
prophet Jeremiah. The words of Ps. ex. 3, which
are familiar to us in the form " The dew of thy
youth is of the womb of the morning," were under-
stood by the LXX to mean " From the womb before
the morning-star I begat thee " (ex yaoTQOQ TIQO
ecoocpoQov eyevvrjod oe). In our passage the phrase
"from the womb" is dropped; and thus the text
can be the more easily applied to the pre-existent
Son of God. We feel the difficulty of combining
the two phrases when we find Tertullian (Adv.
Marcion. V. 9), who applies the passage to our
Lord's human birth, constrained to interpret
"before the morning-star" as meaning while it
was yet dark, and offering various proofs from the
Gospels that Christ was born in the night.
The second half of our quotation is a modifica-
1 He does so in the notable passage II, xlix. 3, of which
Eusebius has preserved the original Greek.
20 INTRODUCTION
tion of Ps. Ixxii. 17: "Before the sun his name
remaineth " (TTQO rov r\kiov dia^svei TO dvojLiaavwv),
or " shall remain " (dia^svel}.
It is obvious that the two texts have been drawn
together by a recollection of the parallel phrases
"before the morning-star" and "before the sun."
But again, in the neighbourhood of the latter, we
find " before the moon," in the difficult verse (Ps.
Ixxii. 5) : no! ovvnaQa^evsl TOJ rjfa'cp, nal TCQO rfjs
oefo'jvrjs ysva<; ysvsajv. We shall see that in other
writers this phrase also is drawn in.
We may now consider the use made of these
texts by Justin Martyr. In his Dialogue with
the Jew Trypho (c. 45) he speaks of Christ, as " the
Son of God, who was before the morning-star and
the moon' 1 and was incarnate and born of the
Virgin. This is not exactly a mixed quotation,
but we see how readily phrases from the two
Psalms are combined. Then in c. 63 he quotes
" that which was spoken by David : In the bright-
ness of thy holy ones, from the womb before the
morning- star I begat thee : " and he comments thus :
" Does this not show you that from of old (dva)0sv^)
and through a human womb the God and Father
of all was to beget Him ? " Here there is no com-
bination of texts : but in c. 76 we have the three
texts brought together, though " the morning-star "
is not mentioned: "And David proclaimed that
before sun (Ps. Ixxii. 17) and moon (Ps. Ixxii. 5)
He should be begotten from the womb (Ps. ex. 3),
according to the counsel of the Father."
If, as we may well believe, these passages of
Justin were familiar to Irenseus, it is not difficult
THE DEBT TO JUSTIN MARTYR 21
to understand that by a trick of memory he
should produce the quotation : " Before the
morning-star I begat thee and before the sun is
thy name." It was a more serious lapse to assign
the quotation to Jeremiah.
In a book of Testimonies against the Jews,
attributed to Gregory of Nyssa, 1 we have the
following quotation which combines all three texts :
" From the womb before the morning-star I begat
thee : and before the sun is his name, and before
the moon." This is not assigned to any particular
author ; and as we have " his name," not " thy name,"
it may be intended for two separate quotations. 2
It is possible that by this date the words " and
before the moon " had got into some MSS. of the
LXX. The Old Latin Psalter has : " Ante solem
permanebit nomen ejus in saecula, et ante
lunam sedes ejus ; " and some cursive MSS. of the
LXX have a Greek text which corresponds with
this.
Dr Rendel Harris also quotes from the Syriac
writer Bar Salibi: 3 " David said : Before the day-star
I begat thee. And before the sun is his name,
and before the moon." From these and other
parallels he concludes that Irenaeus made use of a
common body of proof texts contained in a very
ancient book of " Testimonies against the Jews."
1 Printed by Zacagni, Monumenta, p. 292 (Rome, 1698).
2 We have, " thy name " in Clem. Alex. Exc. ex Theodoto 20 :
Tb yap irpt> uff<p6pov fyevvijad <re ovrus e|a/couo/tiev enl TOV TrpcaroKTi-
arov OQV \6yov, Kal vpb y\iov Kal <reXij/7js Kal irpb ird<nt)s Krifffcas rb
UVO/J.O. (TOV.
8 Harris, Testimonies^ p. 15. See also on p. 45 a quotation
from an anti-Mohammedan tract : " His name endures before the
sun and moon throughout all ages."
22 INTRODUCTION
The existence of such a work has been suggested
more than once. Dr Rendel Harris has pro-
pounded it in a fresh and attractive form in a book
entitled " Testimonies," of which as yet only the
introductory portion has appeared (Cambridge,
1916). The body of evidence on which it
rests is promised us in a second volume ;
and judgment must necessarily be suspended
until this is available. So far as the Demon-
stration of Irenaeus is concerned, this is the only
passage in which there might conceivably be a
gain in calling in such a hypothesis. Direct
dependence on Justin, on the other hand, can be
demonstrated in various portions of our treatise ;
and this may be the true explanation here.
Irenseus goes on to attribute to Jeremiah a yet
more strange quotation : " Blessed is he who was,
before he became man." The German translations
render the last words differently : one of them has :
" before the coming into being of man (yor dem
Werden des Menschen): " the other has : " before
through him man was made (bevor durch ihn der
Mensch warde)." We have however an exact
parallel to the construction in the Armenian
rendering of the words " before he knoweth " in
c. 53. The Greek there is TiQivfj yvwvcu avtov (Isa.
vii. 15); and we may suppose that here it was
TIQIV i) yevrjOfjvai GLVTOV dvOoajnov.
No such text is to be found in any book now
known to us which is attributed to Jeremiah. Dr
Rendel Harris has been the first to point to its
occurrence in a slightly different form, and again
as quoted from Jeremiah, in Lactantius (Divin. Inst.
THE DEBT TO JUSTIN MARTYR 23
iv. 8). The whole passage must be given : " First
of all we affirm that He was twice born, first in
spirit, afterwards in flesh. Wherefore in Jeremiah
it is thus spoken : Before I formed thee in the
womb, I knew thee. Also : Blessed is he who
was, before he was born : which happened unto
none save Christ; who, being from the beginning
Son of God, was re-born anew according to the
flesh." The Latin, " Beatus qui erat antequam
nasceretur," may represent a Greek reading, nglv
f) yemjOrjvcu.
The words which follow in Lactantius : "qui,-
cum esset a principle filius dei, regeneratus est
denuo secundum carnem," appear to be taken from
Cyprian's Testimonies (II, 8), where a section is
headed : " Quod, cum a principio filius dei fuisset,
generari denuo haberet secundum carnem ; " but
the only O.T. quotation that there follows is
Ps. ii. 7 f.
So far, then, we have no clue to the source from
which either Irenaeus or Lactantius derived this
strange quotation. It is not likely that Lactantius
got it, directly at any rate, from the Demonstration
of Irenaeus, which does not appear to have had
a wide circulation. It is possible that this and
certain other passages which are attributed to
Jeremiah may be derived from some apocryphal
work bearing that prophet's name.
24 INTRODUCTION
III
THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN JUSTIN AND IREN^IUS
IF we are to do justice to the teaching of
Irenseus as to the Holy Spirit, it is imperative
that we should pay some attention first of all to
the view of Justin Martyr, whose First and Second
Apologies, as well as the Dialogue with Trypho
the Jew, were in his hands, and indeed must have
been very familiar to him.
I. The Holy Spirit in relation to Prophecy.
Justin first mentions the Holy Spirit under the
designation of "the prophetic Spirit" (Ap. I, 6) ;
and this designation frequently recurs. It is
noteworthy that prophecy itself is first introduced
in answer to the supposed objection, why should
not Christ have been a mere man, who by magic
performed the miracles attributed to him and so
was considered a Son of God ? No Christian
writer of that day would have been prepared to
answer this by denying the power of magic.
Justin's answer is on quite a different line. Many
generations before the coming of Christ the main
events of His life on earth, including the wonders
of healing which He should perform, had been
foretold by the Jewish prophets. The verification
of these prophecies in the story contained in the
Gospels was the surest testimony to the truth of
what Christians claimed for Christ.
The expression "the prophetic Spirit," occurs
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 25
frequently both in the First Apology and in the
Dialogue with Trypho the Jew. Sometimes Justin
says "the holy prophetic Spirit," and once (Ap.
32) " the divine holy prophetic Spirit." Now
" the prophetic Spirit," means the Spirit oft the
prophets. So Athenagoras, who follows Justin,
interpreting and sometimes correcting him, says
that it is the Spirit "which works in those who
make prophetic utterances," and he adds that it is
" an effluence of God," as the ray is of the sun. 1
The prophets in question are the Jewish prophets :
and Justin's insistence on " the prophetic Spirit "
is understood when we remember the attempt that
was then being made to distinguish the God of the
Old Testament ("the Just God") from the God
of the New Testament (" the Good God "). This
was to cut off Christianity from the past, and to
destroy its historical background and its function
as the fulfilment of the age-long purpose of God.
There was, however, a further reason for emphasiz-
ing "the prophetic Spirit," a reason of even
greater importance from the standpoint of Christian
evidence. The correspondence between the Gospel
facts and the prophetic utterances proved two
things : namely, that the claim of Jesus to be the
Christ was valid, and that the Spirit of the
prophets was of God.
We do not in our apologetic today make this
use of the exact correspondence of Old Testament
texts with facts recorded in the Gospels. But the
deeper meaning of the argument deeper than
those who used it knew the preparation in Jewish
1 SuppL 10.
26 INTRODUCTION
history for the coming of the Christ, and the con-
tinuity of the self-revelation of God that is of the
essence of the Christian argument still. And
we must not forget how great a debt we owe to
those who, with a narrow and tiresome literalness
of exposition, claimed the Old Testament as the
sacred book of the early Christian Church. " Who
spake by the prophets" represents the primary
conception of the Holy Spirit in the writers of the
second century : just as the great sentence which
precedes it in the Creed "Who with the Father
and the Son together is worshipped and glorified"
goes beyond what they were able to say, and
represents the final pronouncement of the Church
after two more centuries of uncertainty and debate.
2. The Holy Spirit in relation to the Father and
the Son. The passage above alluded to as the first
in which Justin mentions the Holy Spirit will show
us how great a distance the Church had to travel
before the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity could
find adequate expression. Justin has been saying
to his Roman readers : You call us atheists and put
us to death, being urged thereto by the demons
who have contrived to get themselves called gods.
Socrates long ago by true Reason (Aqyog) exposed
them, and they got him slain, just as they get us
slain today. For today not only Greeks like
Socrates, but mere barbarians have cast them off,
being enlightened by the Reason Himself, who has
taken form and become man and is called Jesus
Christ. Yes, we are atheists in respect of your
pagan gods : but not in respect of the most true
God, the Father of justice and temperance and the
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 27
other virtues. "But" and here we must quote
the exact words " Him, and the Son who came
from Him and taught us these things, and the host
of the other good angels that attend Him and are
made like unto Him, and the prophetic Spirit, we
worship and adore, honouring them with reason
and with truth." 1 It would not be fair to say that
here Justin ranks the Holy Spirit after the angels :
other passages, to be quoted later, show that this is
not his meaning. It is rather that the angels are
brought into prominence as the escort of the Son,
to whom Justin again and again insists on applying
the title "Angel" in the sense of divine messenger, 2
especially when he is explaining various passages
in Genesis as manifestations of the divine Son to
the patriarchs. Justin's immediate purpose was to
show what a wealth of spiritual powers Christianity
could set out in contrast to the "many gods"
the demons of the heathen world : how absurd
therefore it was to call Christians atheists. The
same argument is handled thirty years later by
Athenagoras with Justin's language in mind, but
with more caution. Father, Son and Spirit he
mentions in due order : but he adds : Not that
our theology stops here, for it includes a multitude
of angels and ministrants to whom the heavenly
1 'AAA* e/ceZV<$i> re, Kal rbv Trap' avrov vlov e\d6j/ra Kal 8tScc|ai/TO
ravra, Kal T&P rwv &\\cav kiro^vtav Kal eo/j.oiov/j.ev<av ayadwv
arpar6v, Tfvv/j.d re T& Tfpo(pr]TiKbv (TejSo/tefla Kal TTpoffKV-
oycf) Kal a\r]8fia n^uivrfs, /c.r.A. (Just. M. Ap. I, 6).
2 E. g. Ap. I, 63 : <O \6yos 8e TOV 6eov iffTiv & vibs avrov, us
TrpoefprjfAev Kal ayye\os 5e /caAetrai Kal a.Tf6ffro\os avrbs yap
airayy(\\i K.T.A. ; Dial. 93 : (He who fulfils the First and Great
Commandment) ovSeva a\\ov rtyu^cret Qeov Kal ayye\ov e/ceZVov &v
Ti/trjerei, 0oG jSouAojueVou, r&f ayairwfji.evoi' uir' avrov TOV Kvpiov Kal
Oeov.
28 INTRODUCTION
bodies, the heavens themselves, and our world have
been entrusted by the Creator. 1 He has retained
Justin's argument, but he has carefully avoided the
imperfections of its expression.
A little later Justin returns to the charge of
atheism, and, having described the kind of worship
which Christians offer to the Creator of the universe,
he goes on to speak of Him who has taught them
this, even Jesus Christ, who was crucified 'under
Pontius Pilate, and whom they had learned to
know as the Son of the true God ; "having Him
in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in
the third rank." 2 Such language would have been
challenged in later times as unduly subordinating
the Son to the Father and the Holy Spirit to the
Son ; but it is of value as correcting the impression
which might have been derived from the earlier
passage in which the Holy Spirit was mentioned
after the angelic host.
Towards the end of the Apology Justin touches
again on this order of the three divine Powers.
He finds it in Plato, and gives it as one of several
proofs that Plato had read but not understood
Moses. Plato had read of the Brazen Serpent
which Moses set up "on a sign" (ev orjjustq)), but
had not understood that the sign was the cross :
he had taken it as the form of the Greek letter X,
a %laojua (i. e> " St. Andrew's cross," or a saltire, as
1 Kal ou5' eVl Tourots rb Oeo\oyiKbv yptav 'l<rrarni /xepos, a\\a Kal
TT\riOos ayye\d)V Kal XeirovpyS>v fya.iJ.ev, ovs 6 iroir]Tr)s KOI Sri/niovpybs
K6ff/j.ov 0ebs 8io rov Trap' avrov \6yov Sievei/j.e Kal Siera^ev Trepi re TO
(TToj^eTa elvai Kal rovs ovpavovs Kal rb/ K^ff^ov Kal TO sv avrtf Kal rr]V
TOVTUV fvTaiav (Athenag. Supplic. lo).
2 Ap. I, 13 : (y'Cbv 0eov) ev Sevrepa ^wpu ^xovrcs Trvevud re
ev rpirr) Toet.
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 29
we say in heraldry). Moreover he had read in the
first chapter of Genesis that the Spirit of God
moved upon the waters. Accordingly, says Justin,
"he gives the second place to the Word that is
from God, whom he declared to have been extended
saltire-wise (K%idoQaC) in the universe; and the
third to the Spirit who was said to move on the
water." *
In the closing chapters of his First Apology
Justin describes, in language such as his heathen
readers might understand, the Christian sacraments
of Baptism and Holy Communion. He gives a
paraphrase only of the baptismal formula, perhaps
with a view to lucidity, but possibly also through
unwillingness to give the actual words. 2 He does
not even use the terms " baptism " and " baptise,"
but only speaks of" making the washing " or " bath."
" For in the name of the Father of all and Lord God,
and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy
Spirit, they then make the washing in the water." 3
He uses similar words a little lower down, with
some additions : " There is named on him the name
of the Father of all, etc. . . . And in the name of
Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius
Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who by
1 Ap. I, 60. Athenagoras (Suppl. 23) treats the matter more
elaborately as usual. We shall find that Irenaeus has been influenced
by Justin's words about the xtaff^o. : see below, c. 34.
2 On the other hand he shows no unwillingness to give the Words
of Institution in describing the Last Supper. But there is no ground
for supposing that he attached to them a consecrating effect, nor
indeed is it known whether in his day they formed a part of the
Eucharistic Prayer.
3 'ETT' ovo/jLaros yap rov Trarpbs ra>v '6\<av KO.\ ScffTrdrov 0eoD, Kal rov
ffcarripos r/juwj/ 'ITJJTOU Xpio~Tov, Kal irvtv JJLO.TOS aytov, rb Iv r<p uScm
r6re \ovrpbv TTOIOVVTO.I (Aj>. I, 6l).
30 INTRODUCTION
the prophets announced beforehand all the things
concerning Jesus." l This last addition is of special
interest in view of the ultimate inclusion of " Who
spake by the prophets " in the Creed.
In describing the Eucharist which followed after
Baptism Justin speaks first of the people's prayers :
" We make prayers in common, for ourselves, for
the person baptized (lit. enlightened), and for all
men everywhere." These "common prayers" are
followed by the kiss of peace. Then he who pre-
sides over the brethren (Justin avoids any technical
term such as " bishop ") receives the Bread and the
Cup, and "he sends up praise and glory to the
Father of all through the name of the Son and the
Holy Spirit, and makes thanksgiving (' eucharist ')
for being accounted worthy of these gifts from
Him ; " and this he does " at some length."
"When he has completed the prayers and the
thanksgiving, all the people present respond
saying Amen." 2
We note that the Holy Spirit is only mentioned
in reference to the offering of praise to the Father
" through the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit."
When he goes on to describe the character of " this
food, which we call Eucharist," there is no reference
to the Holy Spirit, but only to the Word of God :
so far are we from that Invocation of the Holy
Spirit for the purpose of consecration which came
into the liturgies two hundred years later.
Presently Justin says : " And over all our food
1 /cal &T' 6v6/j.aros Trvev/Aaros ayiou, b bia TWV
ra Kara rbv 'Iryerow iroivTa (ibid.),
2 Ap. I, 65.
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 31
we bless the Maker of all things through His Son
Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit." l Once
again we observe that praise is directed to the
Father through the Son and Holy Spirit.
3. The Holy Spirit and the Incarnation of the
Word. We are so familiar with the part assigned
in our Creeds to the Holy Spirit in connexion with
our Lord's birth, that the passage now to be quoted
from Justin may at first sight seem very surprising.
It may be well to approach it by citing some words
from the learned and orthodox Waterland, who in
1734, in his book on The Trinity (c. vi : Works, III,
571 : Oxford, 1843), wrote as follows in reference
to a passage of St Irenaeus : " I may remark by
the way, that Irenaeus here [V, c. i] seems to
understand Spirit of God, and Holy Spirit before,
of the second Person, of the Logos himself coming
down upon the Virgin. So the earliest Fathers
commonly do, interpreting Luke i. 35, to that
sense: which I the rather note, because so their
asserting Christ's birth of a virgin^ and his pre-
existing as Spirit of God, and God, amounted to
the same thing." Waterland appends in a note a
catena of eight passages, the texts of which he cites
in full. Our passage from Justin is among them.
Justin mentions the subject in his First Apology
when he is interpreting Jacob's Blessing in
Gen. xlix. The passage is given in full above on
p. 7. "The blood of the grape," he says, "signifies
that He who is to appear has blood indeed, but not
of human seed, but of divine power. Now the
first power after the Father of all and Lord God
1 Ap. i, 67.
32 INTRODUCTION
... is the Word." x Later he says : " The power
of God came upon the Virgin and overshadowed
her." Then he quotes the angel's message in a
composite form : " Behold, thou shall conceive in
the womb, of (the) Holy Spirit, and shalt bear a
son, and he shall be called Son of the Most High,"
etc. (Luke i. 31, Matt. i. 20). These things, he
adds, have been taught us by those who recorded
them ; and we believe them because " the prophetic
Spirit" declared through Isaiah that so it should
be. Then he says : " But the Spirit and the Power
that is from God, it is not allowable to regard as
any other than the Word (the Logos), who also is
the first-begotten unto God. ... It was this
(Spirit) that came upon the Virgin and over-
shadowed her," etc. 2
This interpretation of the words " Holy Spirit " in
Matt. i. 20 and Luke i. 35 is all the more striking
because it follows immediately upon the reference
to the " prophetic Spirit," whose function it was to
announce the birth from the Virgin beforehand.
No further comment is necessary here on this
passage ; but it may be worth while to note that
the belief that the Word was Himself the agent
of His own Incarnation finds its natural place side
by side with the belief that it is through His direct
agency, and not through that of the Holy Spirit,
that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are made
the Body and Blood of the Incarnate Word : see
1 Ap. i, 32.
2 T& TTvevfta ovv Kal rfyv bvva.fji.iv rtyv Trapa TOV Oeov ouSej/ &\\o
voriffai BffjLis ^ rbv \6yov, t>s Kal irpwr^TOKos T$ 6ey ecm . . . Kal TOVTO
l T)]V TrapOevov Kal eTrurKidffav ov Sia <rvvou<rias a\\a Sia
eyKv/j-ova KaT^ffr^ffe (Ap, I, 33) c ^- Dial, IOO ad fin.
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 33
the well-known passage in Ap. i, 66, where however
Justin's intricate constructions make the exact
meaning of his words difficult to determine.
While "the prophetic Spirit" is thus expressly
excluded from the part in the mystery of the
Incarnation which a later interpretation of the
words of the Gospels assigned to Him, it is to be
noted that" Justin makes much of His descent upon
Christ at the Baptism. In Dial. 87 the Jew
Trypho is made to quote Isa. xi. 1-3 : "The Spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of
wisdom and understanding," etc. Conceding that
it is Christ on whom the Spirit is to rest in His
sevenfold power, Trypho proceeds to ask how, if
Christ be God, He should be in need of this gift.
Justin's answer is that He is in no such need :
that, when the prophet says that the Spirit shall
"rest" upon Him, he means that He will go no
further, that He will have reached a termination
so far as His prophetic work among the Jewish
people is concerned. This, he says, you yourselves
see to be true : you have had no prophet since.
The gifts enumerated were divided among your
prophets, some had one, some had another. But
they all met on Christ. " When He was come,
the Spirit rested, paused " (dvsnavoaro ovv,
rovreoTLv enavoaro, IhOovTog exeivov). 1 A new
1 It is interesting to compare with this the passage quoted from
the Gospel according to the Hebrews by St Jerome in his Commen-
tary on Isaiah (lib. iv. cap. 12) : "Now it came to pass, when the
Lord had come up from the water, the whole fount of the Holy
Spirit came down and rested upon him, and said to him : My
Son, in all the prophets was I wailing for thee, that thou mightest
come and I might rest in thee. For thou art my rest ; thou art
my Son, (my) first-born, which reignest for ever."
34 INTRODUCTION
era then began, in which Christ " having received
gifts," as was prophesied, "gives them, from the
grace of the power of that Spirit, to those who
believe on Him, according as He knows each to
be worthy." To-day " you can see among us both
women and men who have gifts of grace (%a.Qloi-
juara) from the Spirit of God " (c. 88). In'an earlier
chapter he had said (c. 82 : cf. also c. 39) : " Among
us at the present time there are gifts of prophecy
(prophetic charismata] ; " and he had just before
referred to the prophecies of St John's Apocalypse.
While Justin thus recognises the existence of
special gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church,
he does not expressly connect Him with the
ordinary graces of the Christian life. Even when
he is dealing with the interpretation of the prophe-
cies inspired by the Holy Spirit, he does not say,
as later writers do, that we need the enlightenment
of the same Holy Spirit to explain their meaning :
he says, again and again, that we need " the grace
of God " for this purpose. And just as he stops
short of saying that this "grace" is, .or proceeds
from, the Holy Spirit, so also he stops short of
saying that "the living water" given by Christ,
the true Rock, is the Holy Spirit (Dial. 114).
We pass now from Justin's teaching about the
Holy Spirit to that of Irenaeus in the Demonstra-
tion, to which we shall add illustrations taken from
his larger work Against Heresies. It will be
convenient at first at any rate to consider it under
the same headings as before.
I. The Holy Spirit in relation to Prophecy.
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 35
Justin's favourite term " the prophetic Spirit " does
not occur in the Demonstration : but the work of
the Holy Spirit in the ancient prophets is fre-
quently mentioned. Thus for Moses in Genesis
we have in c. 24: " God bare witness unto [Abraham]
by the Holy Spirit, saying in the Scripture : And
Abraham believed God" etc. So in c. 26, with
regard to the Tables written with the finger of
God, we have the curious explanation : " Now the
finger of God is that which is stretched forth from
the Father in the Holy Spirit." We shall see
presently that Irenaeus elsewhere regards the Holy
Spirit as one of the hands of God in the work
of creation. Here no doubt he is influenced
by the words of our Lord in St Luke, "If I by
the finger of God cast out devils," where in St
Matthew's Gospel the expression is changed to
"the Spirit of God." 1 Then, again, in c. 30 we
are told more generally that the prophets were
" sent by God through the Holy Spirit."
A fuller treatment is found in several passages.
Thus in c. 49 we read : " For it is not a man who
speaks the prophecies ; but the Spirit of God,
assimilating and likening Himself to the persons
represented, speaks in the prophets and utters the
words sometimes from Christ and sometimes from
the Father." The thought is found in Justin (Ap.
i, 36 ff.), where it is fully dealt with and illustrated
by examples.
Again, in c. 67 : " He took our infirmities" etc. :
" that is to say, He shall take, etc. For there are
passages in which the Spirit of God through the
1 See note on p. 53.
36 INTRODUCTION
prophets recounts things that are to be as having
taken place . . . and the Spirit, regarding and
seeing the time in which the issues of the
prophecy are fulfilled, utters the words (accord-
ingly)." This again is found in Justin (Dial. 114).
In his description of the third point of the Rule
of Faith (c. 6) he begins with the prophetic
function : " The Holy Spirit, through whom the
prophets prophesied, and the fathers learned the
things of God, and the righteous were led forth
into the way of righteousness ; and who in the
end of the times was poured out in a new way
upon mankind in all the earth, renewing man unto
God." Here we see the wider conception of the
Spirit's work, which marks the advance upon
Justin to which we shall refer presently.
So far all has been plain : but, in view of the
fact that "the Word of God" is so frequently
mentioned in Holy Scripture as coming to the
prophets, it was inevitable that difficulty should be
felt in distinguishing the functions of the Word
and the Spirit in this connexion. In c. 5 we read :
" Now the Spirit shows forth the Word, and there-
fore the prophets announced the Son of God ;
and the Word utters the Spirit, and therefore is
Himself the announcer of the prophets." A
passage in c. 73 illustrates this yet further :
" David said not this of himself . . . but the
Spirit of Christ, who (spake) also in other prophets
concerning Him, says here by David : / laid me
doivn and slept : I awoke, for the Lord received me"
A few illustrations may be appended from the
five books of the great treatise Against Heresies,
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 37
II, xli. i : Some Scriptures are too hard for us:
" but we know that the Scriptures are perfect,
seeing that they are spoken by the Word of God
and His Spirit ; whereas we are minores et
novissimi a verbo del et spiritu ejus" We are at
a great remove from the Word and the Spirit who
inspired them. He adds in striking words ( 3)
that " the Scriptures are spiritual : some things we
can interpret, others are left with God, and that
not only in this world but in that which is to come ;
that God may for ever be teacher, and man for
ever a learner."
Next we may note that Irenaeus extends the
work of the Holy Spirit to the evangelists : " The
Holy Spirit says by Matthew : Now the birth of
Christ ^vas on this wise" (III, xvii. i). And a
curious collocation is found in III, vi. i : " Neither
the Lord nor the Holy Spirit nor the apostles
would have definitely called any God, unless He
were truly God ; nor any Lord save the Ruler of
all, the Father, and His Son who received rule
from Him." Here perhaps the Holy Spirit is
referred to for the Old Testament, the Lord and
the apostles for the New. In III, vii. 2, however,
he recognizes the " impetus " of the Spirit in St
Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, especially in his
rapid questions and answers : " as though man
asked the question, and the Spirit gave the
answer."
Enough has been said to show that Irenaeus
goes beyond Justin's expressions, and widens the
function of the Holy Spirit in relation to Scripture.
But before we leave the topic we may note that
38 INTRODUCTION
the designation "prophetic Spirit" does occur
in Irenaeus, only with another or a modified
connotation. In III, xi. 12 we are told that certain
heretics, "in order to frustrate the gift of the
Spirit," which in the last days has been poured
forth, reject St John's Gospel with its account of
the Paraclete : " they reject at once the Gospel and
the prophetic Spirit ' n ; and, as he says again, " they
reject from the Church the grace of prophecy."
So also in IV, xxxiv. 6: "Some of the prophets
beheld the prophetic Spirit and His operations in
all manner of charismata " or gifts of grace. The
context shows that it is the working of the Spirit
in the Christian Church which was foreseen by
some of the prophets. We may compare two
passages from the end of the Demonstration
(cc. 99 f.). " Others receive not the gifts of the
Holy Spirit, and cast away from themselves the
prophetic grace, watered whereby man bears the
fruit of life unto God : " and again : " Or else
they receive not the Spirit, that is, they reject
prophecy."
2 . The Holy Spirit in relation to the Father and
the Son. Under this heading we began by con-
sidering Justin's remarkable words, in which he
declares that " we worship and adore the Father, and
the Son who came from Him and taught us these
things, and the host of the other good angels that
attend Him and are made like unto Him, and the
prophetic Spirit." Hardly less remarkable, though
in a very different way, is the following passage
from the Demonstration (c. 10) ; and it has a special
1 Cf. also III, xi. ii.
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 39
interest from the fact that here also we have a
reference to the functions of angels.
" Now this God is glorified by His Word who is
His Son continually, and by the Holy Spirit who
is the Wisdom of the Father of all : and the powers
of these, (namely) of the Word and Wisdom, which
are called Cherubim and Seraphim, with unceasing
voices glorify God ; and every created thing that
is in the heavens offers glory to God the Father of
all. He by His Word has created the whole world,
and in the world are the angels ; " etc.
The liturgical ring of this passage is unmis-
takable. We saw that Justin spoke of Eucharistic
praise as being offered to the Father " through the
name of the Son and the Holy Spirit." But this
hardly prepares us for such a passage as we have
just read. Two interesting parallels, however, may
prove suggestive. The first is from the Eucharistic
Prayer of Bishop Serapion (c. A.D. 350) :
" May the Lord Jesus speak in us, and (the)
Holy Spirit, and hymn thee through us. For
thou art far above all rule and authority and power
and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world but also in that which is
to come. Beside thee stand thousand thousands
and myriad myriads of angels, archangels, thrones,
dominions, principalities, powers : beside thee stand
the two most honourable six-winged Seraphim,
with two wings covering," etc., leading up to the
Ter Sanctus}-
1 Wobbermin's edition, Texte u. Untersuch. xvii, 3 b, p. 5 : Aa-
/"\7)<raT eV T]fitv 6 nvpios 'Iqffovs KQ.I ayiov TryeO/xa, Kal v/j.vr,(rdT(i) af <5t
40 INTRODUCTION
This Prayer comes to us from Egypt. When
we look at the Liturgy of Alexandria, known as
that of St Mark, we find that the reference to the
praise offered to the Father by the Son and the
Spirit is absent. And in the place of "the two
most honourable Seraphim " we read : " the two
most honourable living creatures (=Hab. iii. 2,
LXX), the many-eyed Cherubim, and the six-
winged Seraphim." l In the other Greek Liturgies
" the two living creatures " are not found, but
Cherubim and Seraphim remain ; and we in the
West are familiar with this combination in the
words of the TeDeum: "Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim
incessabili voce proclamant : Sanctus, sanctus,
sanctus," etc. 2
The second parallel is not less remarkable. It
comes from the Eucharistic Preface of the so-called
Clementine Liturgy contained in the Apostolic
Constitutions (viii. 12). But it does not appear in
the ordinary texts. Mr C. H. Turner has recently
called attention to a MS. in the Vatican (Vat. Gr.
1506), as offering a more original text of this work
and presenting Arian features no longer to be found
in the current recension. This early text contains
the following words towards the close of the
Preface :
"Thee every incorporeal and holy order (of
beings) worshippeth ; [thee the Paraclete worship-
1 It is curious to notice that each of these pairs (Living Creatures,
Cherubim, Seraphim) is in turn interpreted by the Alexandrian
Origen as signifying the Son and the Holy Spirit : see the note
to c. 10 below.
2 In the Slavonic Secrets of Enoch (cc. xix f.), in both recensions,
Cherubim and Seraphim are mentioned, by themselves and in this
order. Where did the combination first arise?
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 41
peth] and, before all, thy holy Servant Jesus the
Christ, our Lord and God and thy angel and
captain of the host and eternal and unending high
priest : thee the well-ordered hosts of angels and
archangels worship/' etc. 1
When now we look back to the passage in the
Demonstration, with its reference to Cherubim and
Seraphim who " with unceasing voices " glorify God,
we feel that there is matter here which deserves
the attention of students of the earliest forms of
the Liturgy.
But a yet earlier witness must be called before
we leave this passage. There are several places in
the Demonstration which suggest that Irenaeus was
acquainted with the splendid vision &{&& Ascension
of Isaiah, a Christian apocryphal writing which
probably belongs to the first half of the second
century. A brief outline of that vision must be
given here. 2
Isaiah is taken (c. 7) by an angel, whose name he may
not know, because he is to return to his mortal body, first
up into the firmament, where he finds perpetual warfare
between Satanic powers. Next he ascends into the first
heaven, where he sees a throne with angels on either side ;
* Journal of Theological Studies, Oct. 1914, p. 59: 2e
irav afftafj-arov Kal ayiov ra.yp.a, [<re irpoffKvvf'i 6 Trapa/cATjros,] 7rpJ> 5e
iravriav 6 ayi6s ffov ircus 'lycrovs 6 Xpiffros, 6 Kvpios /cat 0eby rip.
aov 8e &yye\os /cal TTJS Si'va^uecos apxurTpaTi)yi>s /cat dpX' 6 P 6 ^ s aicbvtos
KO.I areAejrrTjTos, (re irpo(TKvvov(n e{jpvd/j.oi (TTpaTtal dyyeAcov, /c.T.A.
Mr Turner says : "The bracketed words are by the second hand
over an erasure according to Funk : but I do not doubt that it was
some close connexion in the original of the Holy Spirit with angelic
spirits which was the motive of the erasure."
2 I may be allowed to refer to my article (Isaiah, Ascension of)
in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible for an account of this document.
I have borrowed from it the outline here given. The book has since
been edited with much care by Dr Charles.
42 INTRODUCTION
they chant a hymn of praise, which he learns is addressd to
the Glory of the seventh heaven and to His Beloved. In the
second heaven he finds also a throne with angels, but more
glorious ; he would fain fall down and worship, but is not
permitted. In the third heaven he finds the like ; there is
there no mention of the deeds of the vain world from which
he has come, but he is assured that nothing escapes
observation. In the fourth heaven he again sees angels on
either side of a throne, the glory of those on the right being,
as before, greater than of those on the left ; and all are more
glorious than those below. The same in yet greater degree
is true of the fifth heaven. But in the sixth heaven (c. 8)
there is no throne, and no left hand, but all are alike in
splendour : it is in close connexion with the seventh heaven,
and its glory makes the glory of the five heavens below
seem but darkness. At length he comes (c. 9) to the
seventh heaven, where his entry is challenged, but per-
mitted. Here he sees the just clothed in their heavenly
robes, but not yet having received their thrones and crowns.
These they cannot have until the descent and the return of
the Beloved has been accomplished. He is shown also the
books which contain the transactions of the world below,
and learns that all is known in the seventh heaven. He
beholds the Lord of Glory, and is bidden to worship Him.
He then beholds a second most glorious one, like unto Him,
and again is bidden to worship ; and then again a third,
who is the angel of the Holy Spirit, the inspirer of the pro-
phets. These two latter worship the ineffable Glory ; and
the chant of praise (c. 10) sounds up from the sixth heaven.
Then the voice of the Most High is heard speaking to the
Lord the Son, bidding Him descend through the heavens to
the firmament, and to the world, and even to the angel of
the infernal regions ; He is to assimilate Himself to those
who dwell in each region in turn, so that He may not be
recognized as He passes down. He will ascend at length
with glory and worship from all. The prophet now beholds.,
the descent of the Beloved. In the sixth heaven there is
no change of His appearance, and the angels glorify Him.
But in the fifth He is changed, and not recognized, and so in
each of the lower heavens, down to the firmament, where
He passes through the strife that rages there, still unrecog-
nized. At this point the angel calls the prophet's special
attention to what follows (c. n).
Here follows a description of the Birth from a Virgin, and
a notice of the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord,
and the sending forth of the Twelve (n 2 - 22 ).
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 43
Then the prophet beholds the ascent through the firma-
ment and the six heavens : the Lord is recognized and
glorified as He ascends : at length He reaches the seventh
heaven, and takes His seat on the right hand of the great
Glory ; and the angel of the Holy Spirit sits on the left
hand. The prophet is then sent back to his mortal clothing.
On his return he warns Hezekiah that these things will come
to pass, but that they may not be communicated to the
people of Israel.
Now it is to be observed that in c. 9 of the
Demonstration Irenaeus gives us an account of the
Seven Heavens ; in c. 10 he speaks of God as
being glorified by His Word and by the Holy
Spirit ; and in c. 84 he says that the Lord in His
descent was not recognized by any created beings,
and he thus explains the dialogue with the
heavenly powers in Ps. xxiv : " Lift up your gates,
ye rulers . . . Who is the King of Glory?" and so
forth. We cannot therefore reasonably doubt that
Irenaeus was acquainted with the vision in the
Ascension of Isaiah.
The words which immediately concern us here
are at the end of the ninth chapter of that book :
" I saw that my Lord worshipped, and the angel of
the Spirit, and that both of them together glorified
God. And immediately all the saints approached
and worshipped : and all the saints and angels
approached and worshipped, and all the angels
glorified."
We see then that Irenaeus by no means stands
alone in his statement that the God and Father of
all is glorified by the Son and by the Holy Spirit.
Strange as the conception is to us it was not
strange to the religious mind of the second
Christian century. It would appear to have found
44 INTRODUCTION
a place in an early form of the Liturgy, and to
have been retained by the Arian compiler of
the so-called Clementine Liturgy of the Apostolic
Constitutions : for the Arians not infrequently
could claim to be conservative in points of detail.
Possibly we may even trace it, in a form modified
into harmony with a later orthodoxy, in the
Liturgy of Serapion ; but it is cast out altogether
in the Greek Liturgies of the subsequent period,
and by the orthodox reviser of the Apostolic
Constitutions.
As the Demonstration starts from the Rule
of Faith the "three points" of the Creed it
necessarily has something to say of the relation
of the Spirit to the Father and the Son : but
at once we feel that Irenaeus finds difficulty
in drawing a clear distinction between the
functions of the Word and the Spirit. In c. 5 he
says : God is rational (koyiKo^ ; therefore He
creates by the Word (Aovog) : God is Spirit ;
therefore He orders all by the Spirit. Here
Ps. xxxiii. 6 comes to his aid : " By the word of the
Lord were the heavens established, and by his
spirit all their power." Then, having identified the
Word with the Son, he identifies the Spirit with
the Wisdom of God. After this he takes refuge
in St Paul : " One God, the Father? etc. But the
passage must be given in full.
" Since God is rational, therefore by (the) Word
[or Reason] He created the things that were
made ; and God is Spirit, and by (the) Spirit He
adorned all things : as also the prophet says : By
the word of the Lord were the heavens established >
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 45
and by his spirit all their power. Since then the
Word establishes, that is to say, gives body and
grants the reality of being, and the Spirit gives
order and form to the diversity of the powers ;
rightly and fittingly is the Word called the Son,
and the Spirit the Wisdom of God. Well also
does Paul His apostle say : One God, the Father,
who is over all and through all and in us all. For
over all is the Father ; and through all is the Son,
for by means of Him all things were made by the
Father ; and in us all is the Spirit, who cries Abba
Father, and fashions man into the likeness of God. 1
Now the Spirit shows forth the Word," etc. 2
Here we have moved a long way from Justin, who
does not connect the Holy Spirit with the work of
creation, nor quote Ps. xxxiii. 6 ; and who
expressly tells us more than once that it is the
Son who is called Wisdom by Solomon (Dial. 62
and 126). It is to other writings of Irenaeus
himself that we must look for illustration of these
words of the Demonstration.
We begin with IV, xxxiv. I ff., a passage which
contains so many illustrations of the language of
the Demonstration that we must quote it at some
length. The translation is made from a compari-
son of the Latin and Armenian versions : where
it does not accord with the Latin, it is to be
assumed that the Armenian is followed.
V, xviii. I he gives a like interpretation, though in a different
don : " Over all is the Father, and He is the head of Christ ;
UnV,
connexion
and throttgh all the Word, and He is the head of the Church ; and
in us all the Spirit, and He is the living water which the Lord
bestows," etc.
2 As quoted above, p. 36.
46 INTRODUCTION
(1) "So then according to His greatness it is not
possible to know God ; for it is impossible that
the Father should be measured. But according
to His love for love it is which leads us to God
through His Word as we obey Him we ever
learn that He is so great a God, and that it is
He who by Himself created and made and adorned
and contains all things. Now in all things are both
we and this world of ours : x therefore we also were
made together with those things that are contained
by Him. And it is this concerning which the
Scripture says: And the Lord God formed man,
dust of the earth ; and breathed in his face the breath
of life (Gen. ii. 7). Angels therefore made us not,
nor formed us : for neither could angels make the
image of God, nor could any other except the true
God, nor any power standing remote from the
Father of all. For of none of these was God in
need to make whatsoever He of Himself had fore-
ordained should be made : as though He Himself
had not His own Hands. For ever with Him is
the Word and Wisdom the Son and the Spirit
through whom and in whom freely and of His
own power He made all things ; unto whom also
the Father speaks, 2 saying : Let us make man after
our image and likeness: taking from Himself the
substance of the things created, and the pattern
of those made, and the form of those adorned.
(2) "Well then spake the Scripture which
says : First of all believe that there is one God, who
1 Cf. c, 4 : " Now among all things is this world of ours," etc.,
and the note there.
2 Cf. c. 55: "The Father speaking to the Son" (the same
quotation, Gen. i. 26).
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 47
created and fashioned all things, and made all things
to be from that which was not ; and containeth
all things, and alone is uncontained^- Well also in
the prophets says the Angel : 2 Hath not one God
created us? Is there not one Father of us all
(Mai. ii. 10) ? And agreeably with this the Apostle
says : One God and Father, above all and through
all and in us all (Eph. iv. 6). In like manner also
the Lord says : All things have been delivered unto
me by my Father (Matt. xi. 27) ; plainly by Him who
made all things : for He gave Him not the things
of another, but His own. 3
"And in all things there is nothing excepted.
And for this cause He is Judge of quick and dead ;
having the key of David, opening and none shall
1 Cf. c. 4 : " And therefore it is right first of all to believe that
there is One God, the Father, who created what was not that it
should be, and who, containing all things, alone is uncontained. "
See note there, where the Greek is given from the Shepherd of
Hermas.
? The Latin has " Malachias," both here and in IV, xxix. 5, where
again the Armenian has "the Angel": these are the only places
where Irenaeus quotes the prophet by name. The name Malachi
only occurs as the heading of the prophecy, and in the first verse
of it, where the LXX however give ayy4\ov avrov instead. There
was uncertainty about the authorship, which was sometimes attri-
buted to Ezra. In 4 Esdras i. 40 a list of the twelve prophets ends
with " Malachise, qui et angelus Domini vocatus est." Hippolytus
(de Antichr. 46) writes : itaQ&s 5ta MaAa^toi/ rov (ryyeAou tyi\v{v.
Cf. Clem. Al. Strom. I, 122, 127, 129, 135 (6 eV rots 5wSe/ca
&yye\os). In the Latin fragment of the Didascalia (Hauler, p. 68)
we find : "per Malachiam loquens, qui nuncupatur et angelus ; " so
again in the Syriac (ed. Achelis-Flemming, p. 129): "Malachi
the Angel." Jerome says that Origen regarded the writer actually
as an angel. Twice Justin assigns quotations from him to Zachariah
(Dial. 29 and 49). I have adopted " the Angel " in the translation
here to call attention to the reading. I think it not unlikely to be
what Irenseus wrote : but it is right to add that the Armenian Bible
follows the LXX in reading " his angel " in Mai. i. I.
3 Cf. c. 3 : "For God is not ruler and Lord over the things of
another, but over His own."
48 INTRODUCTION
shut, and He sHall shut and none shall open (Rev.
iii. 7). For none other was able, neither in heaven
nor on earth nor beneath the earth to open the
Father's book, nor to look thereon, save the Lamb
that was slain and redeemed us by his blood (Rev.
v. 2) ; having received all power from Him, who
by the Word made and by Wisdom adorned all
things, when the Word was made flesh (John i. 14) :
that as in heaven He had the preeminence, 1 because
He was the Word of God, so also on earth He should
have the preeminence, because He was a just man, 2
who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth
(i Pet. ii. 22} ; and that He should have the
preeminence also over those who are beneath the
earth, being made the first-begotten from the dead
(Rev. i. 5) : and that all things should behold, as
we have said, their King : and that the Father's
light should come upon the flesh of our Lord,
and from His flesh sparkling and flashing back
should come to us, and so man should be drawn
and caught into the incorruption of the Father's
light.
(3) " Now that the Word, that is, the Son, was
always with the Father, 3 we have shown by many
proofs. And that Wisdom, which is the Spirit,
was with Him before all creation, He says by
Solomon, thus : God by wisdom founded the earth,
and he prepared the heaven by understanding : by
1 Cf. c. 40 : " Thus then the Word of God in all things hath the
preeminence," and note there.
2 Cf. c. 39 : "A just and holy man . . . the first begotten of the
dead."
8 Cf. c. 52 : " Christ, being Son of God before all the world, is.
always with the Father," etc.
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 49
his knowledge the depths were broken up, and the
clouds dropped down the dew (Prov. iii. 19 f.). And
again : The Lord created me (in Arm.) the beginning
of his ways, for his works" etc. (Prov. viii. 22-25).
(4) "There is therefore one God, who by the
Word and Wisdom made and fashioned all
things . . ."
So the great passage runs on : later portions
of it describe the work of the Holy Spirit among
men. The footnotes have shown how much of
it is repeated in almost the same words in the
Demonstration, apart from the particular section
which we have called it in to illustrate. To
that section we must return ; for we are now
concerned with the Spirit's work in connexion
with Creation.
First we must deal with the quotation, By the
word of the Lord were the heavens established, and by
his spirit all their power. This is quoted more cor-
rectly "by the spirit (or 'breath') of his mouth"
in I, xv and also in III, viii. 3. In the latter
place he makes no comment ; but in the former,
after having quoted this text to prove that God
made all things by His Word, he presently adds a
reference to the Spirit : " By His Word and Spirit
making all things, and disposing and governing
them, and granting existence to them all." Here
the Word and the Spirit seem to be brought
together merely because they have occurred in the
quotation, and there is no further reference to the
Holy Spirit in the context. It might therefore
appear that they are no more distinguished from
one another than they are in the parallelism of
50 INTRODUCTION
the Hebrew poet, to whom " the word " and " the
breath of his mouth " are but one and the same.
But Irenaeus has no eye for such parallelisms, and
the dropping of the phrase " of his mouth " in our
present passage makes this only too plain.
Next we note the expression " by the Spirit
He adorned them." This word " adorned " (Lat.
adornavif) recurs several times in the passage we
have quoted from Bk. IV : " created and made and
adorned and contains all things ; " " the form of
the things adorned," " who by the Word made and
by Wisdom adorned all things." The Armenian
word is the same throughout, and probably repre-
sents the Greek ixoojuqoev and TOJV xexoojur]/j,eva)v. 1
At the end of the passage we have a similar
phrase : " who by the Word and Wisdom made
and fashioned all things (Lat. adaptavif)" *
The passage in the Demonstration goes on to
say that " rightly and fittingly is the Word called
the Son, and the Spirit the Wisdom of God." The
proof texts for this latter statement are not given :
but we have had them in the long passage from
the fourth book Against Heresies. For the pur-
pose of asserting the part of the Holy Spirit in
Creation, Irenaeus has boldly taken over the texts
which speak of Wisdom in this connexion texts
1 In Justin (Ap. II, 6) we have e/n-/(re /col eKoV^rjo-e, and in
Athenagoras (Sitppl. 8) eVonjo-e Kal e'/cdV^Tjo-e.
2 The Arm. also has here a different word one which is used
to translate Karapricras in the quotation from Hermas. Other
parallels are II, xlvii. 2 : " condens et faciens omnia . . . Verbo
virtutis suse ; et omnia aptavit et disposuit Sapientia sua . . . qui
fecit ea per semetipsum, hoc est per Verbum et per Sapientiam
suam:" III, xxxviii. 2: "Verbo suo confirmans et Sapientia
compingens omnia."
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 51
which Justin before him and Origen 1 after him
would have referred to the Son.
This equivalence in creative function of the
Son and the Spirit, as the Word and the Wisdom
of God, is strangely expressed in Bks. IV and
V, by calling them the Hands of God. In IV,
pref. 3 we read : " Man is a mingling of soul and
flesh, 2 fashioned after the likeness of God and
formed (plasmatus) by His Hands, that is, by the
Son and the Spirit, to whom also He said : Let
us make man'' The conception is developed in IV,
xiv. I : " The Father had no need of angels to make
the world and to form man for whose sake the
world was made ; nor again was He in want of
ministration for the making of created things and
the dispensation of the work that concerned man :
but He had abundant and unbounded ministration ;
because there ministers unto Him His own Off-
spring for all purposes, and His own Hands, 3 that
is, the Son and the Spirit, the Word and Wisdom
to whom all the angels render service and are in
subjection." The next occurrence of the metaphor
is in the great passage we have quoted above
(IV, xxxiv. i, "as though He had not His own
Hands "), where he practically repeats what he
has said before.
Then in V, i. 3 we have : " For never at any time
has Adam escaped the Hands of God, to whom
1 Oiigen found the Spirit in Gen. i. 2 and in Ps. xxxiii. 6 : but
he is quite clear that Wisdom is the Son.
2 Cf. c. 2: "Man is a living being compounded of soul and
flesh," and note there.
3 For " His own Hands" (Arm.) the Latin has "figuratio sua,"
which has troubled the commentators : the Armenian version
restores the meaning of the passage.
52 INTRODUCTION
the Father spake, saying : Let us make man after
our image and likeness. And for this cause in the
end (of the times), not of the will of flesh nor of
the will of man (John i. 13), but of the good
pleasure of the Father, His Hands made the Living
Man, that Adam might become after the image
and likeness of God." Here we see the conception
carried on from the Creation to the Incarnation.
In V, v. x I, speaking of Enoch and Elijah, he
says : " By those Hands by which they were
formed (enModrjoav') at the beginning they were
translated and taken up : for in Adam the Hands
of God were habituated to order and hold and
carry their own formation (nhdojua), and to bear it
and set it where they themselves would." He goes
on to say that " the Hand of God was present "
with the Three Children in the Furnace namely
"the Son of God."
Then in V, vi. I the continual moulding of man
is indicated : " God shall be glorified in His own
formation (plasmate\ conforming and conjoining it
to His Son. For by the Hands of the Father, that
is, the Son and the Spirit, man is made after the
image and likeness of God but not part of man."
He is arguing for the resurrection of the flesh, not
of the soul alone.
In V, xv. 2 f. our Lord's cures in the Gospels are
said to show the Hand of God, which formed man
at the beginning : cf. also xvi. I. This is not at
variance with the conception, for the Son is one of
the Hands of God.
Lastly, in V, xxviii. 3, he returns to the two
Hands : " Wherefore in all this time (viz. the
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 53
6000 years) man, formed at the beginning by the
Hands of God, that is, the Son and the Spirit, is
being made after the image and likeness of God."
In the Demonstration the same thought is
suggested by the phrase in c. 1 1 : " But man He
formed with His own Hands ; " but it is not further
dwelt upon.
The identification of the Spirit with Wisdom
was made after a fashion by some of the " Gnostics,"
but not in a way that is likely to have influenced
Irenaeus. 1 Nor do I know where else to find it at
this date except in Theophilus of Antioch. But
on his name we must pause for a brief digression.
He seems to have written a little earlier than
Irenaeus, who is generally admitted to have had
some acquaintance with his works.
In approaching what Theophilus of Antioch has
to say concerning the Holy Spirit, it is of the first
importance to bear in mind that his three books
addressed to Autolycus represent a systematic
attempt to convert a heathen from the worship of
a plurality of Gods. A higher faith is set before
him, but it is not what we today should speak of
1 In the Clementine Homilies, however, the doctrine of which
has much in common with the Helchesaite teachings of the second
century, there are some curious parallels to the language of Irenseus
on this subject. In Hqjn. xvi. 12 we read: "There is one God
who said to His Wisdom, Let us make man. Now Wisdom, with
which, as with His own Spirit, He Himself ever rejoiced (cf. Prov.
viii. 30), is united as Soul with God, and stretched out from Him as
Hand, creating the universe (e/cre/j/eTai 5e us x ^P ^TH^tovpyovcra ri>
iroj')." So in Horn. xi. 22, "of the Spirit of God moving on the
water," we are told : " The Spirit has the beginning of extension
(rV apxTiv TTJS e/craoreojs) from God who made all things;" and,
"when God spake, the Spirit as His Hand created all things."
With this tKTaffts cf. Dem. c. 26 : " Now the finger of God is
that which is stretched forth from the Father in the Holy Spirit."
54 INTRODUCTION
as distinctively Christian. There is no Christian
theology, properly so called, propounded : the
Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection of our Lord are
not mentioned ; the very names Christ and Jesus
are absent : x the Gospels are referred to only in
passing for certain moral precepts. Much of the
work is directly controversial and negative : his
positive arguments are concerned with the process
of Creation as revealed to Moses and with prophe-
cies of the Old Testament. In these Scriptures
and in the Gospels, so far as he touches on them,
he finds the inspiring activity of the Spirit of God :
but Creation, not less than Inspiration, is for him a
function of God's Wisdom as well as of God's Word ;
and, though he does not explicitly identify Wisdom
with the Holy Spirit, his language certainly implies
that this was his meaning.
Theophilus leads off with a general statement
which is perhaps to be explained by his anxiety to
keep the Unity of God in the front of his exposition.
The form of God, he says, is ineffable: "if I call
Him Light, I speak of His handiwork; if Word,
of His rule " for he explains later that OLQ^TJ means
" rule " (8xi ao%ei) as well as " beginning " ; " if I call
Him Mind, I speak of His understanding ; if Spirit,
of His breath; if Wisdom, of His offspring; if
Strength, of His might ; if Power, of His working ;
if Providence, of His goodness," and so on. 2
Here we have " Word," Spirit," " Wisdom "as
1 Even when explaining the word "Christian" he does not
mention Christ, but plays with the word evxpfjo'Tos, and then says,
"We are called Christians because we are anointed (xpi6/j.e0a) with
the oil of God " (i. I and 12).
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 55
it were Names of God : a sort of warning that, if
these are hereafter mentioned as active powers,
they are not to be thought of as infringing on the
Unity of the Deity.
Next, in i. 5, we read : " the whole creation is
embraced by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit that
embraces it is together with the creation embraced
by the hand of God." This does not encourage us
to expect a very clear definition of terms.
In i. 7 we get what is more to our purpose. He
is speaking of God as the Physician who can open
the eyes of the soul : " God, who heals and quickens
by the Word and Wisdom. For God by His
Word and Wisdom made all things. For by his
word were the heavens established \ and by his spirit
all their power. Most excellent is His Wisdom :
God by wisdom founded the earth, and prepared the
heavens by understanding : by (his) knowledge the
depths were broken ///, and the clouds dropped down
the dew."
This might be Irenaeus himself. 1 There is the
same inexact quotation of Ps. xxxiii. 6, with " his
spirit," instead of "the spirit (or 'breath') of his
mouth"; and the same full quotation of Prov. iii.
19, 20, where the former verse only might have
been expected. Moreover the next sentences of
Theophilus give in summary form much which is
said with great fulness by Irenaeus, touching the
vision of God and the resurrection of the flesh as
well as of the soul.
In ii. 9 Wisdom and Holy Spirit are found in
close conjunction. The prophets being " spirit-
1 See above, pp. 44, 48 f.
56 INTRODUCTION
bearers of holy Spirit" (nvsvjuaTCKpoQoi
ayiov) were able to take in the Wisdom that is from
Him (i. e. from God) and by this Wisdom spoke of
creation and of other things, future as well as past.
Wisdom is here connected with the Holy Spirit,
yet not expressly identified with Him.
We go on (ii. 10) to what the prophets have
told us about the creation. Out of what did not
exist God made all things. For God has no
coeval. Though in need of nought in His existence
before the ages, yet He willed to make man, by
whom He might be known. So He made the
world in preparation for man. And this is how
He did it : " God having His own Word existent
within His own heart (IvdidOerov), begat Him,
together with His own Wisdom, uttering Him
forth before all things. 1 This Word He used as
minister for the things brought into being by Him,
and through Him He made all things. This
(Word) is also called Rule (oQ%tf y on a.Q%ei} t because
He rules and dominates all that has been created
through Him. This (Word) therefore, being
Spirit of God and Rule and Wisdom and Power
of the Highest, came down upon the prophets and
through them spoke of the world's creation and
all other things. For the prophets were not there
when the world was made, but (only) the Wisdom
of God which is in Him, and His holy Word who
is ever present with Him. So Solomon says :
When he prepared the heaven I was present with
rbv favrov \6yov eySidOzTOV v rots IStois
avrbv pera rrjs eavrov (?o<pia.s
The language is moulded on Ps. xlv. I :
\6yov ayaddv.
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 57
him" and so on. "And long before Solomon
Moses, or rather the Word of God through him as
an instrument, says : In the beginning God made
the heaven and the earth." Then follows a mention
of" the Divine Wisdom " as foreknowing the foolish
idolatries of men, and as saying In the beginning
God made> that it might be understood that " in
His Word God made the heaven and the earth."
It may be that Theophilus thus passes from the
Word of God to the Wisdom of Gocl, and back
again, and even calls the Word both Spirit of God
and Wisdom, in order to maintain the ruling
conception of the Unity of the Deity. He speaks
of God as begetting His own Word together with
His own Wisdom and we remember that in an
earlier place he spoke of Wisdom as the offspring
(yevvrifjLa) of God but he has not used the word
" Son," though this he will have to do later. He
writes so clearly when he chooses, that we are
almost forced to conclude that he is withholding
the fuller doctrine with intentional reserve from
one who still persists in his heathen beliefs.
He now quotes (ii. n) the whole of the first
chapter of Genesis, and begins to comment on it,
first noting " the exceeding greatness and riches
of the Wisdom of God " displayed in it. Presently
(ii. 13) he says that, unlike man, God can begin
His building from the roof. Therefore "/ the
beginning God made the heaven, that is, through
the Beginning (dia z% %??) the heaven was
made, as we have explained." He has already
called the Word do%rj, though in the sense of
Rule. The Spirit appears as the vivifying power
58 INTRODUCTION
in connexion with the water. Then " the Command
(TI didxa^H;} of God, that is, His Word," introduces
light. Then the Word of God gathers the waters
"into one assembly" (eiq owaycoy^v) , a phrase
which presently is allegorised. 1
When he comes to the fourth day, on which
the luminaries were created, he offers some alle-
gorical interpretations. Man, though not yet
created, is in a way anticipated and prefigured.
The sun, never waning, is a type of God in His
eternal fulness : the moon with her changes is a
type of man, his re-birth and resurrection. "In
like manner also," he proceeds, "the three days
before the luminaries were made are types of the
triad God and His Word and His Wisdom ; 2
and to the fourth type (what corresponds) is man,
who needs the light : so that there may be God,
Word, Wisdom, Man. This is why the luminaries
were made on the fourth day." And he goes on
to interpret the stars, bright and less bright, as
the prophets and other just men, and the planets
as wanderers from God.
Here for a moment we seem to have got the
doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and the identification
of Wisdom with the Spirit. And we have no
earlier example of the use of the word Tolas
in this sense. But we are instantly warned off
from such a view by his introduction of Man as
a fourth member of the series. If he has come
too near enunciating the Trinity, he certainly
1 ii. 14 : rots ffvvaycayds, Ae'yo/zev 8e ew/cAtjcrtas ayias-
2 ii. 15 : TVTTOI elffl TT}S rpidSos, rov Oeoii Kal TOV \6yov avrov Kal
TTJS ffotylas aiiTov.
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 59
escapes, covering his tracks. Is it possible that
these were " words to the wise " ? At any rate he
has said nothing that could raise in the mind of
Autolycus any thought of plurality of Gods.
In ii. 1 8 he comes on to the creation of man. First
the high dignity of man is indicated in the words,
Let us make man after our image and likeness.
"For when God had made all things by word,
and counted them all as subsidiary (ndoEQya), the
making of man He alone counted work of His
own hands. Yea more, as though needing
assistance, God is found saying, Let us make . . .
But to none other did He say it, save to His own
Word and His own Wisdom."
Here again we almost seem to be listening to
Irenaeus. Is it possible that it is in view of the
indistinctness of this very teaching that Irenaeus
so often reiterates that the Word and the Wisdom
are the Son and the Spirit, and that these are the
Hands of God? Theophilus has almost said it
himself: but he has stopped shorj: of saying it.
And in a later chapter (ii. 22) he will return to
the old vagueness, and tell us that it was " not the
God and Father of all ... but His Word, through
whom He made all^things, who, being His Power
and His Wisdom, represented the Father of all/'
and conversed in Paradise with Adam. And he
adds that the Voice Adam heard is "the Word
of God, who is also His Son (vlo$ avwv) : not
indeed as poets and mythologers speak of sons of
the gods begotten by intercourse ; but as truth
declares concerning the Word who is ever existent
within (evdidOerov) the heart of God. For before
60 INTRODUCTION
anything was made He had Him to His Counsellor,
as being His own mind and understanding. But
when He willed to make what He had counselled,
He begat this Word into outwardness (noocpogixov),
as first-begotten of all creation : not being Him-
self emptied of the Word, but having begotten
the Word, and for ever conversing with His Word."
He then quotes the first verses of St John's
Gospel ; but he does not go on to " the Word
made flesh."
In all this we have much that reminds us of
Irenaeus, and there are yet closer parallels to be
found in later chapters. We cannot but regret
that we have none of those works of Theophilus
which would have given us his more distinctively
Christian teaching, such as Autolycus might have
received had he been willing to become a catechu-
men. We have enough at any rate to make us
feel that Irenaeus was not on wholly new ground
in this particular matter, even if he trod it much
more firmly than his predecessor.
We now return to the Demonstration and read a
passage in which Irenaeus sums up a portion of
his argument (c. 47). " So then the Father is Lord
and the Son is Lord, and the Father is God and
the Son is God : for that which is begotten of God
is God." This surprises us alike by its anticipation
of a later formula, and by its silence in regard
to the Holy Spirit. It is only at a later point
after a quotation from Ps. xlv, that the Spirit
is mentioned : " The Son, as being God, receives
from the Father, that is, from God, the throne of
the everlasting kingdom, and the oil of anointing
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 61
above His fellows. The oil of anointing is the
Spirit, wherewith He has been anointed." This
statement is also found in III, xix. 3: and in
III, vi. i we read : "Since therefore the Father is
truly Lord and the Son is truly Lord, the Holy
Spirit duly indicated them by the title of Lord ; "
and, after certain texts have been quoted : " For
the Holy Spirit indicated both by the title of
Lord Him who is anointed, even the Son, and
Him who anoints, that is, the Father." 1
The concern of Irenaeus, as of Justin before him,
is with the Father and the Son ; and he writes
always with the heresy of Marcion in the back of
his mind. It would seem as though no question of
the Deity of the Holy Spirit occurred to him.
The Spirit was the Spirit of God and the Spirit of
Christ. It was necessary to insist that "that
which is begotten of God is God : " the Godhead
of the Son required proof. But to say that "the
Spirit of God " is truly God would have been
to him a tautology. The thought of the Spirit as
God did not as yet involve any such distinction as
could seem to conflict with the Unity of the Deity.
To do justice to the teaching of Irenaeus so far
as it regards the relation of the Holy Spirit to the
Father and the Son, it would be necessary to
examine what he has to tell us of the Spirit's work
in the process of man's restoration. An adequate
1 The earlier part of this chapter has been quoted above (p. 37).
In insisting that no other save the Father and the Son is called God
or Lord in the full sense, Irenseus is following Justin (Dial. 56).
Justin has quoted Ps. xlv. 7, and asks : Ei ovv Kal &\\ov TWO. QtoXo-
yetv teal KvpioXoyelv rb Trvev/j.0, rb ayidv (pore u/xels trapa rbv irartpa TU>V
o\<av itdi Tbv xp lffrr bv avrov. Equally strong are the statements in
Dial, 65 and 68.
62 INTRODUCTION
consideration of this would correct the one-sided
view which is all that we gain from treating of
the points on which his conceptions are farthest
removed from those with which we ourselves are
familiar. It has been necessary to consider these
points with some fulness, because it is important to
observe how much still remained unsettled, and
how great a task still lay before the leaders of
Christian thought before such definitions could be
reached as should adequately guard the Catholic
doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It is not possible
however to do more within our present limits, and
it is fortunate for us that the gap may be filled by
a reference to the careful and sympathetic
exposition of Dr. Swete in his valuable work on
The Holy Spirit in the Ancient Church (1912, pp.
89-94). " Irenaeus," he tells us, " enters into the
details of the Holy Spirit's work on the hearts and
lives of men with a fulness which is far in advance
of other Christian writers of the second century."
And he sums up by saying : " On the whole, the
pneumatology of Irenaeus is a great advance on all
earlier Christian teaching outside* the Canon."
With this apology for incompleteness we must pass
on to the third and last point of our subject.
3. The Holy Spirit and the Incarnation of the
Word. We have seen how Justin declared that it
was not permissible to regard " the Spirit " and
" the Power " that came upon the Virgin as any
other than the Word of God Himself. And we
also noted- in passing that Theophilus of Antioch
spoke of the Word as being " Spirit of God " and
" Power of the Highest/' the second of which
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 63
designations comes from Luke i. 35. We have
now to ask whether the language of Irenaeus
corresponds with this interpretation and makes
the Word Himself to be the agent of His own
Incarnation.
We begin with a strange passage of the
Demonstration (c. 71) in which he expounds Lam.
iv. 20 : The Spirit of our face, the Lord Christ, was
taken in their snares ; of whom we said, Under his
shadow we shall live among the Gentiles. He has
used part of this text in III,xi. 2, a passage which
must be cited here. Christ, he says, is Salus,
Salvator, and Salutare in various Scriptures. " He
is Salvator (Saviour), because He is Son and Word
of God : Salutare (perhaps as saving-principle),
because He is Spirit ; for the Spirit of our face, it
says, Christ the Lord: and He is Salus (Salvation),
because He is flesh." He has in his mind some
" Gnostic " error which he is refuting ; but we are
only concerned with his use of the text to prove
that Christ is Spirit. In the passage in the
Demonstration he makes the same use of it. This
Scripture, he says, declares " that Christ being
(the) Spirit of God was to become a suffering
man." Then he adds : " And by shadow he means
His body. For just as a shadow is made by a
body, so also Christ's body was made by His
Spirit." Here again we are not concerned with the
general argument, but only with these two state-
ments : Christ was Spirit of God, and Christ's body
was made by His Spirit. This is as much as
to say that the Word of God was the agent of His
own Incarnation.
64 INTRODUCTION
In c. 59 we read : " By flower [of the root of
Jesse] he means His flesh (or "body") : for from
spirit it budded forth, as we have said before."
The reference would appear to be to c. 51: " that
the same God forms Him from the womb, that is,
that of the Spirit of God He should be born."
In V, i. 2, controverting Docetic views, he says :
" If He were not man and yet appeared to be man,
then neither did He remain what He was in truth,
(viz.) Spirit of God, since the Spirit is invisible ; nor
was any truth in Him, since He was not what He
appeared to be."
In c. 97, after quoting from Baruch iii. 38,
Afterward did he appear upon earth, and was
conversant with men, he says : " mingling and
mixing the Spirit of God the Father with the
plasma (* formation ') of God, that man might be
after the image and likeness of God." There is
a close parallel in IV, xxxiv. 4, a continuation of
the great passage cited at length above : " His
advent according to flesh, whereby a mingling and
communion of God and man was made, according
to the good-pleasure of the Father : the Word of
God having foretold from the beginning that God
should be seen of men and should be conversant with
them on the earth . . . that man being intermingled 1
with the Spirit of God should be brought to the
glory of the Father."
The general thought here is that the restoration
of man takes place after the pattern of the Incar-
nation the intermingling of human flesh with
1 Latin: complexus homo Spirit urn Dei. Arm.: "intertwined
and mingled with." Perhaps the Greek
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 65
the Spirit of God. If the Spirit of God in the
Incarnation is thought of primarily as Christ
Himself, yet there is no sharp distinction drawn
between Christ as Spirit and the Spirit that works
in believers. The indistinctness is not greater
than in St Paul : " if the Spirit of God be in you
. . . but if any man have not the Spirit of Christ
. . . but if Christ be in you ... if the Spirit of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dvvelleth
in you " all in consecutive verses in Rom. viii. 9 ff.
We have left to the last a phrase, which taken
alone might have suggested a later view. If we
are not to misinterpret Irenaeus, we must bear
in mind that the clause " Conceived of the Holy
Ghost " does not appear in any credal confession
before the Council of Ariminum in 359, and it
was not until some years later that it found final
acceptance. It belongs to a period of definition
long subsequent to the age of Irenaeus.
The words in question are these (c. 40) : " He
from whom all things are, He who spake with
Moses, came into Judaea, generated from God
by (the) Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary."
I have been compelled to use the word " generated,"
at the risk of misunderstanding : but the Armenian
word means simply "sown." And we shall do
well at once to compare III, xvii. 6 : "The Word,
. . . united and sown together with that which He
Himself had formed (or, as the Latin has it, unitus
et consparsus suo plasmati] according to the good-
pleasure of the Father, and made flesh." It is the
Word that the Father " sows " by His Spirit. And
to show the wide scope of the metaphor, we may
66 INTRODUCTION
compare IV, xx. I : " The Son of God is sown every-
where in the Scriptures ; at one time speaking with
Abraham and eating with him," and so forth. And,
again, in IV, xlviii. 2 we have : " the seed of the
Father of all, that is, the Spirit of God, through
whom all things were made, mingled and united
with flesh, that is, His plasma (' formation ')."
This is said of the Holy Spirit in His work
amongst men.
The whole topic is further illustrated by V, i. 3 :
" The Ebionites . . . not willing to understand
that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the power
of the Highest overshadowed her ; wherefore also
that which was born was holy, and Son of the
Most High God, the Father of all, who wrought
His incarnation, and manifested a new birth ; that,
as by the former birth we inherited death, so by
this birth we should inherit life." Presently he
adds : " and not considering that, just as at the
beginning of our formation (plasmatio] in Adam
that breath of life which was from God, being
united to] the thing formed (plasmati), animated
man and manifested a rational animal, so at the
end the Word of the Father and the Spirit of God,
being united (adunitus, singular) to the original
substance of the formation (plasmatio) of Adam,
made man living and perfect, capable of receiving
the perfect Father ; that, as in the animal we all
died, so in the spiritual we should all be made
alive." 1
It results from this exa'mination that the teaching
1 The words which follow have been quoted above, p. 51 : " For
never at any time hath Adam escaped the Hands of God," etc.
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 67
of Irenaeus as to the relation of the Holy Spirit to
the Incarnation is vague, perhaps even transitional.
He does not, like Justin, plainly assert that the
Spirit of God who came down upon the Virgin
was the Word of God Himself ; nor, on the other
hand, does he definitely preclude that view. He
seems to prefer to think of a cooperation of the
Word of God and the Wisdom of God the Two
Hands of God to whom the creation of the first-
formed man was due.
We may 'conclude by quoting a striking passage
from the Demonstration, x the earlier part of which
will recall the noble lines of Newman's hymn :
O wisest love ! that flesh and blood,
Which did in Adam fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should prevail.
And that a higher gift than grace
Should flesh and blood refine,
God's presence and his very Self,
And Essence all-divine.
" So the Word was made flesh, that, through that
very flesh which sin had ruled and dominated,
it should lose its force and be no longer in us.
And therefore our Lord took that same original
formation as (His) entry into flesh, so that He
might draw near and contend on behalf of the
fathers, and conquer by Adam that which by
Adam had stricken us down. Whence then is
the substance of the first-formed (man) ? From
the Will and the Wisdom of God, and from the
virgin earth. For God had not sent rain, the
1 Dem. cc. 31 f.
68 INTRODUCTION
Scripture says, upon the earth, before man" was
made ; and there was no man to till the earth.
From this, then, whilst it was still virgin, God
took dust of the earth and formed the man, the
beginning of mankind. So then the Lord, sum-
ming up afresh this man, took the same dispensa-
tion of entry into flesh, being born from the Virgin
by the Will and the Wisdom of God ; that He
also should show forth the likeness of Adam's entry
into flesh, and there should be that which was
written in the beginning, man after the image and
likeness of God."
THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
APOSTOLIC PREACHING
I. Knowing, my beloved Marcianus, your desire
to walk in godliness, which alone leads man to
life eternal, I rejoice with you and make my prayer
that you may preserve your faith entire and so be
pleasing to God who made you. Would that it
were possible for us to be always together, to help
each other and to lighten the labour of our earthly
life by continual discourse together on the things
that profit. 1 But, since at this present time we
are parted from one another in the body, yet
according to our power we will not fail to speak
with you a little by writing, and to show forth in
brief the preaching of the truth for the confirmation
of your faith. 2 We send you as it were a manual
of essentials, 3 that by little you may attain to much,
learning in short space all the members of the
body of the truth, 4 and receiving in brief the
1 This opening section is in the manner of the introductions to
each of the five books Against Heresies : in the first of these, of
which the Greek is preserved, we have parallels to language used
here : KaOws Swapis TJ/JUV, and eVl iroAi/ Kapirocpop-lifffis TO 81 o\iyuv
2 "To shew forth the preaching." This corresponds to the
wording of the title: the e7r5et|is, ostensio, or "demonstration"
of the Apostolic Preaching.
3 Lit. "a more essential remembrancer."
4 Cf. I, i. 20 : fv tKaaTov 5e riav eipr)fj.fvcav airotiovs TT? iSta
KOI npocra.pfj.do'as r<# TT)S a\r)0eias
6 9
70 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
demonstration of the things of God. So shall it
be fruitful to your own salvation, and you shall put
to shame all who inculcate falsehood, and bring
with all confidence our sound and pure teaching to
everyone who desires to understand it. For one
is the way leading upwards for all who see, lightened
with heavenly light : but many and dark and
contrary are the ways of them that see not. This
way leads to the kingdom of heaven, uniting man
to God : but those ways bring down to death,
separating man from God. Wherefore it is needful
for you and for all who care for their own salvation
to make your course unswerving, firm and sure by
means of faith, that you falter not, nor be retarded
and detained in material desires, nor turn aside and
wander from the right. >
2. Now, since man is a living being compounded
of soul and flesh, 1 he must needs exist by both of
these : and, whereas from both of them offences
come, purity of the flesh is the restraining abstinence
from all shameful things and all unrighteous deeds,
and purity of the soul is the keeping faith towards
God entire, neither adding thereto nor diminishing
therefrom. For godliness is obscured and dulled
by the soiling and the staining of the flesh, and is
broken and polluted and no more entire, if false-
hood enter into the soul : but it will keep itself in
its beauty and its measure, when truth is constant
in the soul 2 and purity in the flesh. For what
1 Cf. IV. pref. 3 : " Homo est autem temperatio animae et
carnis : " V, vi. i, viii. i, ix. I.
2 Or, "spirit." The Armenian word for "spirit" (in/eC/ia) is
sometimes used also for "soul " (fyvx'h) : the context shows that it is
so used here.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 2, 3 yt
profit is it to know the truth in words, and to
pollute the flesh and perform the works of evil?
Or what profit can purity of the flesh bring, if truth
be not in the soul? For these rejoice with one
another, and are united and allied to bring man
face to face with God. Wherefore the Holy Spirit
says by David : Blessed is the man who hath not Ps. i. i
walked in the counsel of the ungodly : that is, the
counsel of the nations which know not God : for
those are ungodly who worship not the God that
truly is. And therefore the Word says to Moses :
I am He that is :^ but they that worship not the Ex. Hi.
God that is, these are the ungodly. And hath not I4 '
stood in the way of sinners : but sinners are those
who have the knowledge of God and keep not His
commandments ; that is, disdainful scorners. And
hath not sat in the seat of the pestilential : 2 now the
pestilential are those who by wicked and perverse
doctrines corrupt not themselves only, but others
also. For the seat is a symbol of teaching. Such
then are all heretics : they sit in the seats of the
pestilential, and those are corrupted who receive
the venom of their doctrine.
3. Now, that we may not suffer ought of this
kind, we must needs hold the rule of the faith with-
out deviation, 3 and do the commandments of God,
believing in God and fearing Him as Lord and
loving Him as Father. Now this doing is produced
1 Lit. "I am the Existing One, "as in LXX'Eyo* elfj.1 6 >v. In III,
vi. 2 the words are quoted as spoken by the Father.
2 Here, as usual, the LXX is followed (\ot/j.S>v).
3 Cf. I, i. 2O : 6 r'bv KO.VOVO. rf)s aXrjQeias a/cAtj/r) fv eavraj KaTfXtav,
bv 8ta TOV fiairTicr/jLaTos efAi7</>e. The Arm. has taken over the
Greek word KOLVUV.
72 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
Isa. vii. 9 by faith : for Isaiah says : If ye believe not, neither
shall ye understand. And faith is produced by the
truth ; for faith rests on things that truly are. For
in things that are, as they are,, we believe ; and
believing in things that are, as they ever are, we
keep firm our confidence in them. Since then faith
is the perpetuation of our salvation, we must needs
bestow much pains on the maintenance thereof, in
order that we may have a true comprehension of
the things that are. Now faith occasions this for
us ; even as the Elders, the disciples of the
Apostles, 1 have handed down to us. First of all
it bids us bear in mind that we have received
baptism for the remission of sins, in the name of
God the Father, and in the name of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who was incarnate and died and
rose again, and in the Holy Spirit of God. And
that this baptism is the seal of eternal life, and is
the new birth unto God, that we should no longer
be the sons of mortal men, but of the eternal and
perpetual God ; and that what is everlasting and
continuing is made God; 2 and is over all things
that are made, and all things are put under Him ;
1 Cf. V, xxxvi. i : " presbyteri apostolorum discipuli."
2 This passage is obscure, and I cannot feel any confidence in my
rendering of it. The Armenian translator has probably misunder-
stood the construction of the Greek : his verbs are all in the
infinitive, which suggests that Irenaeus is recording what the faith
teaches. The words " made God" represent 0eoiroiet(r0at. This
word, if not traceable elsewhere in Irenceus, is found in other early
( writers : e. g. Hippolytus, Philos. x. 34 : yeyovas yap Qe6s . . .
eOeoirofhOris a6d.va.Tos yfvvt]B(ls ou yap Trrwxeyei 0e&s /col <re Bthv
irotTJo-os ets 86av avrov. It is frequent in Athanasius ; e.g. De
Incarn. 54 : aitrbs yap fvnvOpwirrjarev, 'iva y^e'is 6eo-noi7]6caiJifV. In
Irenreus the thought finds expression in various forms : see IV, Ixiii.
3: " quoniam non ab initio dii facti sumus, sed primo quidem
homines, tune demum dii :" also III, vi. i.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 4, 5 73
and all the things that are put under Him are
made His own ; for God is not ruler and Lord over
the things of another, but over His own ; * and all
things are God's ; and therefore God is Almighty,
and all things are of God.
4. For it is necessary that things that are made
should have the beginning of their making from
some great cause ; and the beginning of all things
is God. For He Himself was not made by any,
and by Him all things were made. And therefore
it is right first of all to believe that there is One
God, the Father, who made and fashioned all
things, and .made what was not that it should be,
and who, containing all things, alone is uncon-
tained. 2 Now among all things is this world of
ours, 3 and in the world is man : so then this world
also was formed by God.
5. Thus then there is shown forth 4 One God, the
Father, not made, invisible, creator of all things ;
above whom there is no other God, and after whom
there is no other God. And, since God is rational, Cf. isa.
xliii. 10.
1 This is a reminiscence of controversy with the heretics who
denied that the Good God of the New Testament was the Creator
God of the Old Testament : see IV, xxxiv. 2 : " non enim aliena sed
sua tradidit ei " (of the Father committing all things to the Son) ;
V, ii. i : " vani autem qui in aliena dicunt Dominum venisse, velut
aliena concupiscentem " (where the Arm. enables us to correct the
Latin, which has "Deum ")
2 In IV, xxxiv. 2 he quotes, as "Scripture," the Shepherd of
Hermas, Maud. I : Tlpwrov trdvTUJV iriarfuffov 5rt efs fffrlv 6 6e6s, 6 ra
irdvra KTiffas Kal Karaprlaas, teal iroiriffas e/c TOV p.}} OVTOS fls rb e/i/at
TO. irdvra, Kal iravra xwpwv, p.6vos 5e ax^pTlTos &v. Cf. also I,
XV. I.
3 IV, xxxiv. i : "in omnibus autem et nos, et hunc mundum qui
est secundum nos : " I, xv. I: "etenim mundus ex omnibus :" III, xi.
7 : "in omnibus ergo est et hsec quoe secundum nos est conditio."
* Or "shown to be" : cf. V, xviii. I : " Et sic unus Deus Pater
ostenditur =
74 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
therefore by (the) Word He created the things
that were made ; 1 and God is Spirit, and by (the)
Spirit He adorned all things : as also the prophet
PS. xxxiii. says : By the word of the Lord were the heavens
established, and by his spirit all their power.
Since then the Word establishes, that is to say,
gives body 2 and grants the reality of being, and
the Spirit gives order and form to the diversity of
the powers; rightly and fittingly is the Word
called the Son, and the Spirit the Wisdom of God. 3
Eph. iv. 6. Well also does Paul His apostle say : One God,
the Father, who is over all and through all and in us
all. For over all is the Father ; and through all is
the Son, for through Him all things were made by
Cf. Gal. the Father ; and in us all is the Spirit, who cries
iv. 6. Abba Father \ and fashions man into the likeness of
God. 4 Now the Spirit shows forth the Word, and
therefore the prophets announced the Son of God ;
and the Word utters the Spirit, and therefore is
Himself the announcer of the prophets, and leads
and draws man to the Father.
6. This then is the order of the rule of our faith,
and the foundation of the building, and the
1 God is \oyiic6s, therefore by \6yos He created the world.
The play on the words is given by the Armenian, but cannot
be given by the English translation.
2 "Gives body :" apparently representing atap.a.Toiroifi : cf. I.
i. 9, of the Demiurge of Valentinus : ^{ affoo/jidTwt/ arcafjiaroiroiTia-avra.
3 III, xxxviii. 2: "Verbo suo confirmans et Sapientia compingens
omnia;" IV, xxxiv. 2: "qui omnia Verbo fecit et Sapientia
adornavit ;" 4 : "qui Verbo et Sapientia fecit et adaptavit omnia."
On this whole section, see Introd. pp. 44 ff.
4 V, xviii. i : "Super omnia quidem Pater, et ipse est caput
Christi ; per omnia autem Verbum, et ipse est caput ecclesire ; in
omnibus autem nobis Spiritus, et ipse est aqua viva quam prbestat
Dominus," etc. Cf. Hippol. c. Noet. 14: 6 &v irarfyp eirl iravruv,
6 5e vlbs Sia iravruv, rb 8e asyiov irvevfjia iv irafftv.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 6, 7 75
stability of our conversation : God, the Father, not
made, not material, invisible ; one God, the creator
of all things : this is the first point l of our faith.
The second point is : The Word of God, Son of
God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was manifested to
the prophets according to the form of their
prophesying and according to the method of the
dispensation of the Father : 2 through whom all
things were made ; who also at the end of the
times, to complete and gather up 3 all things, was
made man among men, visible and tangible, 4 in
order to abolish death and show forth life and
produce a community of union 5 between God and
man. And the third point is : The Holy Spirit,
through whom the prophets prophesied, and the
fathers learned the things of God, and the right-
eous were led forth into the way of righteousness ;
and who in the end of the times was poured out
in a new way 6 upon mankind in all the earth,
renewing man unto God.
7. And for this reason the baptism of our
1 Lit. "head:" cf. cc. 7, 100.
2 This is fully worked out in IV, Iv. 1-6 : the prophets were
"members of Christ," and so each, according to the "member"
that he was, declared his portion of prophecy, all together
announcing the whole.
3 The same double rendering of avaKf<pa\aia>ffa(rOai (Eph. i. 10)
is found in the Arm. version of V, i. 2.
4 IV, xi. 4: "visibilem et palpabilem ;" cf. IV, xiii. i, where
the Arm. shows that the Latin "passibilis" should be corrected to
"palpabilis."
5 This double rendering occurs in the Arm. of IV, xxxiv. 4 and
V, i. i, where the Latin has simply "communio." With the whole
of this passage compare IV, xxxiv. 4 : " qui novissimis temporibus
homo in hominibus factus est, ut finem conjungeret principio, id est,
hominem Deo."
6 We have the same words in IV, Iv. 6: "in novissimis tem-
poribus nove effusus est in nos."
76 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
regeneration proceeds through these three points :
God the Father bestowing on us regeneration
through His Son by the Holy Spirit. For as
many as carry (in them) the Spirit of God 1 are
led to the Word, that is to the Son ; and the Son
brings them to the Father ; and the Father causes
them to possess incorruption. 2 Without the Spirit
it is not possible to behold the Word of God, nor
without the Son can any draw near to the Father :
for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, 3 and the
knowledge of the Son of God is through the Holy
Spirit ; and, according to the good pleasure of the
Father, the Son ministers and dispenses 4 the Spirit
to whomsoever the Father wills and as He wills.
8. And by the Spirit the Father is called Most
High and Almighty and Lord of hosts ; that we
may learn concerning God that He it is who is
creator of heaven and earth and all the world, and
maker of angels and men, and Lord of all, through
whom all things exist and by whom all things are
sustained ; merciful, compassionate and very tender,
good, just, the God of all, both of Jews and
of Gentiles, and of them that believe. To them
that believe He is as Father, for in the end of the
times He opened up the covenant 5 of adoption;
1 IV, xxv. 2: "assuescens hominem portare ejus Spiritum; 5 '
xxxiv. 6: "qui portant Spiritum ejus."
2 IV, xxxiv. 5 : "Spiritu quidem prseparante hominem in Filium
Dei, Filio autem adducente ad Patrem, Patre autem incorruptelam
donante ; " V, xxxvi. 2: "per Spiritum quidem ad Filium, per
Filium autem ascendere ad Patrem."
3 IV, xi. 5 : " Agnitio enim Patris Filius."
4 Lit. "ministerially dispenses." Cf. V, xviii. I: "Verbum
. . . preestat Spiritum omnibus quemadmodum vult Pater."
5 Cf. c. 91 ; and III, xi. 5: " testamentum hominibus aperiens ; "
V, ix. 4: "testamentum evangelii apertum et universe mundo
lectumj" xxxiii. I : "apeitionem hrereditatis j" cf, JJI, xviii. I.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 8, 9 77
but to the Jews as Lord and Lawgiver, for in the
intermediate times, when man forgat God and
departed and revolted from Him, He brought them
into subjection by the Law, that they might learn
that they had for Lord the maker and creator, who
also gives the breath of life, and whom we ought to
worship day and night : and to the Gentiles as
maker and creator and almighty : and to all alike
sustainer and nourisher and king and judge ; for
none shall escape and be delivered from His judg-
ment, neither Jew nor Gentile, nor believer that has
sinned, nor angel : but they who now reject His
goodness shall know His power in judgment, ac-
cording to that which the blessed apostle says :
Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to R om . ii.
repentance ; but according to thy hardness and im- 4~ 6 -
penitent heart thou treasurest up for thyself wrath in
the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous
judgment of God, who shall render to every man
according to his works. This is He who is called
in the Law the God of Abraham and the God of
Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of the living;
although the sublimity and greatness of this God is
unspeakable.
9. Now this world is encompassed by seven
heavens, 1 in which dwell powers and angels and
1 An account of the late Jewish teaching as to the Seven Heavens
is given in Mr. H. St John Thackeray's valuable book St Paul and
Contemporary Jewish Thought, pp. 172-179, where three parallel
tables of their descriptions will be found. References to them in
Christian apocryphal literature are collected in Dr Charles's Book of
the Secrets of Enoch (from the Sclavonic), pp. xliv-xlvii. Hippolytus
in his Commentary on Daniel (ed. Achelis, p. 96), referring to '
ovpavoi in the Benedicite, says : rovs eTrra ovpavovs . . .
Clement of Alexandria (Strom, iv. 25) says : elre
ovpavoi, ovs rives apid/j.ov<nv KO.T' eiravdftaffiv. Origen (c, Cels,
78 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
archangels, doing service to God, the Almighty
and Maker of all things : not as though He was in
need, but that they may not be idle and unprofit-
able and ineffectual. 1 Wherefore also the Spirit of
God is manifold in (His) indwelling, 2 and in seven
forms of service 3 is He reckoned by the prophet
Isaiah, as resting on the Son of God, that is the
Isa. xi. 2f. Word, in His coming as man. The Spirit of God,
he says, shall rest iipon him, the Spirit of wisdom
and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of
might, (the Spirit of knowledge] 4 and of godliness ;
the Spirit of the fear of God shall fill him. Now
the heaven which is first from above, 5 and en-
compasses the rest, is (that of) wisdom; and the
vi. 21) likewise mentions the Seven Heavens, but without com-
mitting himself to the exact number.
Irenaeus in I, i. 9 refers to the Valentinian teaching which identi-
fied the Seven Heavens with angels of varying degrees of power.
In our passage he strangely connects the Seven Heavens with the
Seven Gifts of the Spirit. We observe two peculiarities in his
description. First, that, numbering from above downwards, he
reckons the highest as the First Heaven : secondly, that his Seventh,
or lowest, is the firmament. Evil is wholly excluded from these
heavens : so it is in the Ascension of Isaiah (for which see In trod.
p. 41), where however it is found in the firmament, which is not
reckoned as one of the heavens.
The belief in the Seven Heavens soon came to be discredited ;
and it is curious to find a survival of it, due apparently to Irish
influences, in the invocation of the septeni ccelos in a book of
prayers of the seventh or eighth century (Brit. Mus. Reg. 2.
A. xx, f. 47 v. ).
1 Compare the reason given by Justin Martyr (Dial. 22) for the
worship in the Temple : o\>x &s ^vSt^s &v . . . dAA' onus K&V Kara
rovro irpuffexovres avry p.^] t5wAoA.orpT}T6.
2 Perhaps the text should be emended so as to give "operation "
3 Or " ministrations " ( SiaKoviwv in Arm. version of I Cor. xii. 5).
4 Omitted by oversight : cf. c. 59, and III, x. i, xviii. 2, where
the words are correctly given.
* The heavens are enumerated from above, in order to correspond
with the prophet's words and put Wisdom first and Fear of God last.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 10 79
second from it, of understanding ; and the third,
of counsel ; and the fourth, reckoned from above,
(is that) of might ; and the fifth, of knowledge ;
and the sixth, of godliness ; and the seventh, this
firmament of ours, is full of the fear of that Spirit
which gives light to the heavens. For, as the
pattern (of this), Moses received the seven-branched
candlestick, 1 that shined continually in the holy
place ; for as a pattern of the heavens he received
this service, according to that which the Word
spake unto him : Thou shalt make (if) according Ex. xxv.
to all the pattern of the things which thou hast seen 4 '
in the mount?'
10. Now this God is glorified by His Word 3
who is His Son continually, 4 and by the Holy
Spirit who is the Wisdom of the Father of all :
and the power(s) of these, (namely) of the Word
and Wisdom, which are called Cherubim and
Seraphim, 5 with unceasing voices glorify God ; and
1 V, xx. 2 : "ecclesia . . . eTrra^uxos lucerna."
2 IV, xxv. 3 : "Quoniam fades omnia juxta typum eorum quas "
vidisti in monte : " LXX, rt>v SeSerjTieVov aoi : the variation may be
due to a reminiscence of Acts vii. 44, by ewpa/cet.
3 On the glorification of the Father by the Son and the Holy
Spirit, see Introd. p. 39.
4 The meaning is uncertain : the word means " daily, continual,
perpetual " ; but it is also used as an adverb. The German trans-
lations take it in the sense of "eternal" (sein ewiger Sohn). It
renders 5io irayrbs in Lev. xxiv. 2 ; and that may have been the
original Greek in this passage. But even so it is not clear whether
it is to be taken with "who is His Son," or with " is glorified"
For the Eternal Sonship we may compare III, xix. I : "existens
semper apud Patrem ; " and IV, xxxiv. 3 : " semper cum Patreerat."
5 Origen in his Commentary on Romans (III, 8) interprets
the two Cherubim over the mercy-seat as the Son and the Holy
Spirit. In De Principiis (I, iii. 4, IV, iii. 26) he gives the same
interpretation of the two Seraphim of Isa. vi. 3, saying that he
received it from his Hebrew teacher : he adds that the same applies
to the two living creatures of Hab. iii. 2 (LXX). Philo ( Vit. Mos.
8o THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
Cf. Rev. every created thing that is in the heavens offers
v ' I3> glory to God the Father of all. He by His Word
has created the whole world, and in the world are
the angels ; and to all the world He has given laws
wherein each several thing should abide, and
according to that which is determined by God
should not pass their bounds, each fulfilling his
appointed task.
ii. But man He formed with His own hands, 1
taking from the earth that which was purest and
finest, and mingling in measure His own power
with the earth. For He traced His own form on
the formation, 2 that that which should be seen
should be of divine form: for (as) the. image of
God was man formed and set on the earth. And
that he might become living, He breathed on his
face the breath of life ; that both for the breath
and for the formation man should be like unto
God. Moreover he was free and self- con trolled,
being made by God for this end, that he might
rule all those things that were upon the earth.
And this great created world, prepared by God
before the formation of man, was given to man as
his place, containing all things within itself. 3 And
there were in this place also with (their) tasks the
iii. 8) had interpreted the two Cherubim as ras irpear^vrdras Ka\
avcordrd} 5vo rov OVTOS 5vvd/j.eis, T^V re tron)TiK.)]v Kal fia.(Ti\iKT)v :
the former ovo^a^rai deos, the latter Kvpios. This probably paved
the way for Origen's interpretation.
x Elsewhere Irenoeus constantly speaks of the Son and the Spirit
as the Hands of God: see Introd. p. 51.
2 Equivalent to plasma or plasmatio.
8 So both the German translations : but they transfer the words
so as to link them with " this great created world." What we seem
to want is, "to have all as his own," if the words can bear that
meaning.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, n, 12 81
servants of that God who formed all things ; and
the steward, who was set over all his fellow-
servants received this place. Now the servants
were angels, and the steward was the archangel. 1
12. Now, having made man lord of the earth
and all things in it, He secretly appointed him
lord also of those who were servants in it. They
however were in their perfection ; but the lord,
that is, man, was (but) small ; for he was a child ; 2
and it was necessary that he should grow, and so
come to (his) perfection. And, that he might have
his nourishment and growth with festive and dainty
meats, He prepared him a place better than this
world, 3 excelling in air, beauty, light, food, plants,
1 For this function of angels cf. Papias, as quoted by Andreas
in ApocaL C. 34, serm. 12 : 'Eviois 5e avriav (5r?\a5^ riav TraAot
detail/ ayy\ci)v) ical TT/S ircpl r^v yrfV StaKoa'fj.'fja'fcas 5a>/cei/ apx^iv,
Kal Ka\ws ap%eiv irapriyyvriffe.
2 IV. Ixii. I : HjTTios yap i\v.
3 That Paradise was in a region outside this world is not quite
distinctly stated here, but the opening words of c. 17 seem to
support this view. The view of Irenaeus, however, is clearly given
in V, v. I : IloG ovv ere'077 6 irptaros avBpwiros ; eV T$ TropoSetV^
T]\ov6Ti, Kadws ysypairrai (Gen. ii. 8) ... Kal CKfWev eeArj077 ets
rovSe rbv Koffp.ov Tropa/coucros. He goes on to speak of this as the
Paradise into which St Paul was caught up (2 Cor. xii. 4). More-
over he identifies it with the resting-place of just men, such as
Enoch and Elijah. So in the Apocalypse of Peter the just are
dwelling in a ^yiaTov x^>P v exrhs rovrov TOV Koff/j.ov. Irenaeus is
silent as to whether Paradise is in the third heaven. But the
Slavonic Secrets of Enoch, referred to above, places it there. In
the shorter and apparently more original recension we read as
follows (c. 8): "And the men removed me from that place, and
brought me to the third heaven, and placed me in the midst of a
garden ; a place such as was never seen for the goodliness of its
appearance. And every tree is beautiful, and every fruit ripe ; all
kinds of agreeable food springing up with every kind of fragrance.
And (there are) four rivers flowing with a soft course ; and every
kind of thing good, that grows for food," etc. The Valentinians,
according to Irenreus (I, i. 9), placed Paradise uTrep rpirov ovpav6v.
Comp. the Anaphora in the Liturgy of St Basil (Swainson,
p. 80) : e|wpt(ras ai'Top eV TTJ SiKaioKpiffia aov, 6 6e6s, e/c
ets rtvSf rbv
82 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
fruit, water, and all other necessaries of life : and
its name is Paradise. And so fair and good was
this Paradise, that the Word of God continually
resorted thither, and walked and talked with the
man, figuring beforehand the things that should be
in the future, (namely) that He should dwell with
him and talk with him, and should be with men,
teaching them righteousness. But man was a
child, not yet having his understanding perfected ;
wherefore also he was easily led astray by the
deceiver.
13. And, whilst man dwelt in Paradise, God
brought before him all living things and corn-
Gen, ii. manded him to give names to them all ; and
whatsoever Adam called a living soul, that was its
name. And He determined also to make a helper
Gen. ii. for the man : for thus God said, //' is not good for
l8 ' the man to be alone : let us make for him a helper
meet for him}- For among all the other living
things there was not found a helper equal and
comparable and like to Adam. But God Himself
Gen. ii. cast a trance upon Adam and made him sleep ; and,
fr
that work might be accomplished from work, since
there was no sleep in Paradise, this was brought
upon Adam by the will of God ; and God took one
of Adams ribs and filled up the flesh in its place,
and the rib which He took He buildedinto a woman ; 2
and so He brought her to Adam ; and he seeing (her)
said : This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my
flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was
taken from her husband.
1 As LXX, Kara.vr6v.
2 As LXX,
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 13-15 83
14. And Adam and Eve for that is the name
of the woman were naked, and were not ashamed y 1 Gen. ii.
for there was in them an innocent and childlike 25<
mind, and it was not possible for them to conceive
and understand anything of that which by wicked-
ness through lusts and shameful desires is born
in the soul. For they were at that time entire,
preserving -their own nature; since they had
the breath of life which was breathed on their
creation : and, while this breath remains in its
place and power, it has no comprehension and
understanding of things that are base. And
therefore they were not ashamed, kissing and em-
bracing each other in purity after the manner of
children.
15. But, lest man should conceive thoughts too
high, and be exalted and uplifted, as though he
had no lord, because of the authority and freedom
granted to him, and so should transgress against
his maker God, overpassing his measure, and enter-
tain selfish imaginings of pride in opposition to
God ; a law was given to him by God, in order
that he might perceive that he had as lord the
Lord of all. And He set him certain limitations,
so that, if he should keep the commandment of
God, he should ever remain such as he was, that is
to say, immortal ; but, if he should not keep it, he
should become mortal and be dissolved to earth
from whence his formation had been taken.
Now the commandment was this : Of every tree Gen. ii.
that is in the Paradise thou shalt freely eat ; but qf l6f '
that tree alone from which is the knowledge of good
1 Cf. Ill, xxxii. i.
84 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
and evil, of it thou shalt not eat ; for in the day thou
eatest, thou shalt surely die.
1 6. This commandment the man kept not, but
was disobedient to God, being led astray by the
angel who, for the great gifts of God which He
had given to man, was envious and jealous of him, 1
and both brought himself to nought and made
man sinful, persuading him to disobey the com-
mandment of God. So the angel, becoming by
his falsehood the author and originator of sin,
himself was struck down, having offended against
God, and man he caused to be cast out from
Paradise. And, because through the guidance of his
disposition he apostatized and departed from God,
he was called Satan, according to the Hebrew word ;
that is, Apostate : 2 but he is also called Slanderer.
Now God cursed the serpent which carried and con-
veyed the Slanderer ; and this malediction came
on the beast himself and on the angel hidden and
concealed in him, even on Satan ; and man He put
away from His presence, removing him and making
him to dwell on the way to Paradise 3 at that time ;
because Paradise receiveth not the sinful.
17. And when they were put out of Paradise,
Adam and his wife Eve fell into many troubles of
anxious grief, going about with sorrow and toil
1 IV, Ixvi. 2 ; fKTore yap aTroo-Tarrjs & &yyf\os ovros teal
a( 5 $re eV}A.a><re rb ir\d(r/j.arov 0eou : V, xxiv. 4: " Invidens homini,
apostata adivina factus estlege : invidia enim aliena esta Deo." Cf.
Wisd. ii. 24 : <(>Q6v(p 8e 5iafi6\ov Qdvaros ei<rf)A.06' els T^bv K6ffp.ov.
2 V, xxi. 2 : " Satana enim verbum Hebraicum apostatam signifi-
cat." Cf. Just. Mart. Dial. 103.
3 Cf. Gen. iii. 24 : KaTfyKurev avrbv airevavTi TOV TrapaSeuroy TTJS
Tpu</>fjs. Perhaps "the way" comes from "the way of the tree of
life " in the same verse.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 16-18 85
and lamentation in this world. For under the
beams of this sun man tilled the earth, and it put
forth thorns and thistles, the punishment of sin.
Then was fulfilled that which was written : Adam Gen. iv.
knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain ; l '
and after him she bare Abel. Now the apostate
angel, who led man into disobedience and made
him sinful and caused his expulsion from Paradise,
not content with the first evil, wrought a second on
the brothers; for filling Cain with his spirit he
made him a fratricide. And so Abel died, slain by
his brother ; signifying thenceforth that certain
should be persecuted and oppressed and slain, the
unrighteous slaying and persecuting the righteous.
And upon this God was angered yet more, and
cursed Cain ; and it came to pass that everyone of
that race in successive generations was made like
to the begetter. And God raised up another son Gen. iv
to Adam, instead of Abel who was slain.
1 8. And for a very long while wickedness ex-
tended and spread, and reached and laid hold
upon the whole race of mankind, until a very
small seed of righteousness remained among them :
and illicit unions took place upon the earth, since
angels were united with the daughters of the race
of mankind ; and they bore to them sons who for
their exceeding greatness were called giants. And
the angels brought as presents to their wives
teachings of wickedness, 1 in that they brought
1 This is from the Book of Enoch, to which Irenseus also refers in
IV, xxvii. 2. Enoch vii. I : /col eSiSa^av auras (pap/j.aKtas Kal eVooiSas
Kal pioTo/j.ias, Kal ras froTavas eSr)\caffav avrals : viii. I : fy(\ta Kal
K^ff/j-ovs Kal ffrifieis /cat rb Ka\\tfi\(papov Kal iravroiovs \i6ovs
tK\KTovs Kal ra ftacpiKoi. Tcrtullian makes use of the same passage :
De cultufem. i. 2, ii. 10 (ut Enoch refert).
86 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
them the virtues of roots and herbs, dyeing in
colours and cosmetics, the discovery of rare sub-
stances, love-potions, aversions, amours, concupis-
cence, constraints of love, spells of bewitchment,
and all sorcery and idolatry hateful to God ; by
the entry of which things into the world evil
extended and spread, while righteousness was
diminished and enfeebled :
19. Until judgment came upon the world from
God by means of a flood, in the tenth generation from
the first-formed (man); Noah alone being found
righteous. And he for his righteousness was him-
self delivered, and his wife and his three sons, and
the three wives of his sons, being shut up in the ark.
And when destruction came upon all, both man
and also animals, that were upon the earth, that
which was preserved in the ark escaped. Now the
three sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth,
from whom again the race was multiplied : for these
were the beginning of mankind after the flood.
20. Now of these one fell under a curse, and the
two (others) inherited a blessing by reason of their
works. For the younger of them, 1 who was called
Ham, having mocked his father, and having been
1 The Armenian corresponds to the Greek 6 vedrepos (Gen. ix. 24).
As there were three sons of Noah, the comparative causes difficulty.
Origen took it as a superlative : for in later Greek (as in French)
the comparative with the article is used as a superlative. He went
on to argue that as Ham was not the youngest son of Noah, the
word " son " was used for grandson, and that " Noah knew what his
grandson (Canaan) had done to him": hence the curse falls on
Canaan. This accorded with a tradition given him by his Hebrew
teacher (Comm. in Gen. ix. 18 ; Lomm. viii, p. 65). The trouble
arose from the fact that " the curse of Ham " was not pronounced on
Ham, but on his son Canaan. Justin Martyr (Dial. 139) says that
Noah cursed his son's son ; "for the prophetic Spirit would not curse
his son, who had been blessed together with the other sons by God."
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 19-21 87
condemned of the sin of impiety because of his
outrage and unrighteousness against his father,
received a curse ; and all the posterity that came
of him he involved in the curse ; whence it came
about that his whole race after him were accursed,
and in sins they increased and multiplied. But
Shem and Japheth, his brothers, because of their
piety towards their father obtained a blessing.
Now the curse of Ham, wherewith his father Noah
cursed him, is this : Cursed be Ham the child ; 1 a Gen. ix.
servant, shall he be unto his brethren. This having 25<
come upon his race, he begat many descendants upon
the earth, (even) for fourteen generations, growing
up in a wild condition ; and then his race was cut
off by God, being delivered up to judgment. For
the Canaanites and Hittites and Peresites and
Hivites and Amorites and Jebusites and Gergasites
and Sodomites, the Arabians also and the dwellers in
Phoenicia, all the Egyptians arid the Libyans, 2 are
of the posterity of Ham, who have fallen under the
curse ; for the curse" is of long duration over the
ungodly.
21. And even as the curse passed on, so also the
blessing passed on to the race of him who was
1 Irenceus makes no difficulty about speaking of "the curse of
Ham." It is clear that he had a text of the LXX, which enabled him
to do so. The Hebrew of Gen. ix. 25 gives us : "Cursed be Canaan :
a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." The LXX
has : 'EiriKardparos Xavdav irais oi/cerTjs tcrrai TOIS d8eA.<o?s avrov.
But some MSS (E and some cursives) read Xa,u for Xavdav. When
JTCUS was taken with the preceding word, Xa/j. TTOIS was no doubt
intended to mean " the child of Ham," i.e. Canaan : it might how-
ever be understood as " Ham the child." So here the Armenian
translator does not give the genitive case of Ham, but the nomina-
tive : and it would seem that he rightly interprets the meaning of
Irenreus.
2 Irenceus seems to have drawn on Acts ii. 9-1 1 to amplify his list,
G
88 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
blessed, to each in his own order. For first of
Gen. ix. them was Shem blessed in these words : Blessed
26 - be the Lord, the God of Shem ; and Ham 1 shall be
his servant. The power of the blessing lies in this,
that the God and Lord of all should be to Shem a
peculiar possession of worship. And the blessing
extended and reached unto Abraham, who was
reckoned as descended in the tenth generation
from the race of Shem : and therefore the Father
and God of all was pleased to be called the God of
Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacob ; because the blessing of Shem reached out
and attached itself to Abraham. Now the blessing
Gen. ix. of Japheth is on this wise : God shall enlarge ttnto
27 ' Japheth, and he shall dwell in the house of Shem,
and Ham 2 shall be his servant. That is to say :
In the end of the ages he blossomed forth, at the
appearing of the Lord, through the calling of the
Gentiles, when God enlarged unto them the calling ;
Ps. xix. and their sound went out into all the earth, and
4 * their words to the end of the world. The enlarging,
then, is the calling from among the Gentiles, that
is to say, the Church. 3 And he dwells in the house
1 The LXX reads Canaan, but one cursive has Ham.
2 Here again the LXX reads Canaan, though E and other MSS.
have Ham. The Arm. here has "he shall bless" for "he shall
dwell " ; but this is a slip, as appears from below.
3 " The calling of the Gentiles," or, as we have it also here,
"the calling from among the Gentiles," recurs in cc. 28, 41 bis,
42, 89, 91. I have noted it in the Armenian version of IV, xxxiv.
12, where however we find in the Greek ^ e| fdvuv e/c/c\rj(ria, and in
the Latin ca qua ex gentibus est ccclesia. I do not remember to
have met with it elsewhere in the writings of Irenseus, or in any
earlier writer. In the fragments of Hippolytus on Gen. xlix (ed.
Achelis, pp. 59 ff.) r) e| tQv&v K\TJ(TIS is found several times, and more
than once e/c/cATjtrta occurs as a various reading. It is not found,
however, in the corresponding comments in The Blessings of Jacob
(Texte u. Unters. xxxviii. i).
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 22 89
of S hem; that is, in the inheritance of the fathers,
receiving in Christ Jesus the right of the firstborn.
So in the rank in which each was blessed, in that
same order through his posterity he received the
fruit of the blessing. 1
22. Now after the Flood God made a covenant
with all the world, even with every living thing of
animals and of men, that He would no more destroy
with a flood all that grew upon the earth. And
He set them a sign (saying) : When the sky shall Gen. Sx.
be covered with a cloud, the bow shall be seen in the I4 '
cloud ; and I will remember my covenant, and will
no more destroy by water every moving thing upon
the earth. And He changed the food of men,
giving them leave to eat flesh : for from Adam
the first-formed until the Flood men ate only of
seeds and the fruit of trees, and to eat flesh was
not permitted to them. But since the three sons
of Noah were the beginning of a race of men, God
blessed them for multiplication and increase, say-
ing : Increase and multiply, and replenish the earth and Gen. ix.
rule it ; and the fear and dread of you shall be upon z '
every living thing of animals and upon all the fowls
of the. air ; and they shall be to you for meat, even
as the green herb : but the flesh with the blood of life
ye sJiall not eat : for your blood also will I requite
at the hand of all beasts and at the hand of man.
Whoso sheddeth a man's blood, in return for his
blood shall it be shed? For He made man the
1 With all the above cf. Just. M. Dial. 139.
2 These last words are so quoted in V, xtv. i. The LXX continues :
on eV \K6vi 0eoS eVoirjo-a riv tivdpcairov. This Irenaeus paraphrases ;
cf. c. II : "for (as) the image of God was man formed and set
on the earth." That "the image of God is the Son" may be a
reminiscence of Col. i. 15.
90 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
image of God ; and the image of God is the Son,
after whose image man was made : and for this
cause He appeared in the end of the times that
He might show the image (to be) like unto Him-
self. 1 According to this covenant the race of
man multiplied, springing up from the seed of the
Gen. xi. three. And upon the earth was one lip, that is to
say one language.
23. And they arose and came from the land of
the east ; and, as they went through the land, they
chanced upon the land of Shinar, which was
exceeding broad ; where they took in hand to
build a tower. They sought means thereby to
go up to heaven, and be able to leave their work
as a memorial to those men who should come after
them. And the building was made with burnt
bricks and bitumen : and the boldness of their
audacity went forward, as they were all of one
mind and consent, and by means of one speech
they served the purpose of their desires. But
that the work should advance no further, God
divided their tongues, that they should no longer
be able to understand one another. And so they
were scattered and planted out, and took possession
of the world, and dwelt in groups and companies
each according to his language : whence came
the diverse tribes and various languages upon
the earth. So then, whereas three races of men
took possession of the earth, and one of them
was under the curse, and two under the blessing,
the blessing first of all came to Shem, whose
1 V, xvi. I : TKfyelova eSei^v ahyOias, avrbs TOVTO y*r&fifOS OTrep
ri et'/cwv avrov : where see the context.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 23, 24 91
race dwelt in the east and held the land of the
Chaldeans.
24. In process of time, that is to say, in the
tenth generation after the Flood, Abraham appeared, 1
seeking for the God who by the blessing of his
ancestor was due and proper to him. 2 And when,
urged by the eagerness of his spirit, he went all
about the world, searching where God is, and failed
to find out ; God took pity on him who alone was
silently seeking Him ; and He appeared unto
Abraham, making Himself known by the Word,
as by a beam of light. For He spake with him
from heaven, and said unto him : Get thee out of Gen. xii.
thy country ', and from thy kindred, and from thy(\.^* .
father's house; and come into the land that I will
show thee, and there dwell. And he believed the
heavenly voice, being then of ripe age, even
seventy 3 years old, and having a wife ; and to-
gether with her he went forth from Mesopotamia,
taking with him Lot, the son of his brother who
was dead. And when he came into the land which
now is called Judaea, in which at that time dwelt
seven tribes descended from Ham, God appeared
unto him in a vision and said : To thee will I give Gen. xvii.
this land, and to thy seed after thee, for an ever- 8 '
lasting possession, and (He said) that his seed
should be a stranger in a land not their own, and
should be evil-entreated there, being afflicted and
1 Lit. "was found " (= evpe'07?).
2 This is explained by the comment above (c. 21) on the blessing
of Shem, which did not say "Blessed be Shem," but "Blessed
be the Lord, the God of Shem" ; meaning that God "should be
to Shem a peculiar possession of worship."
3 Heb. and LXX : "seventy and five."
92 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
in bondage four hundred years ; and in the fourth
generation should return unto the place that was
promised to Abraham ; and that God would judge
that race which had brought his seed into bondage.
And, that Abraham might know as well the
multitude as the glory of his seed, God brought
Gen. xv. him forth abroad by night, and said : Look upon
the heaven, and behold the stars of the heaven, if
thou be able to number them : so shall thy seed be.
And when God saw the undoubting and unwaver-
ing certainty of his spirit, He bare witness unto
him by the Holy Spirit, saying in the Scripture :
Gen. xv. And Abraham believed, and it was counted unto
f v ' ~ Rom ' him for righteousness. And he was uncircum-
cised when this witness was borne ; and, that the
excellency of his faith should be made known by
Rom. iv. a sign, He gave him circumcision, a seal of the
righteousness 1 of that faith which he had in un-
circumcision. And after this there was born to
him a son, Isaac, from Sarah who was barren,
according to the promise of God ; and him he cir-
cumcised, according to that which God had coven-
anted with him. And of Isaac was Jacob born ; and
on this wise the original blessing of Shem reached
to Abraham, and from Abraham to Isaac, and
from Isaac to Jacob, the inheritance of the Spirit
being imparted to them : for He was called the
God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the
God of Jacob. And Jacob begat twelve sons, from
whom the twelve tribes of Israel were named.
25. And when famine had come upon all the
1 The Arm. has " uncircumcision " for " righteousness" by an
oversight.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 25, 26 93
earth, it chanced that in Egypt alone there was food ;
and Jacob with all his seed removed and dwelt
in Egypt : and the number of all that migrated
was threescore and fifteen souls: and in four hun- Actsvii.
dred years, as the oracle had declared before- *4-
hand, they became six hundred and sixty thousand.
And, because they were grievously afflicted and
oppressed through evil bondage, and sighed and
groaned unto God, the God of their fathers,
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob ; He brought them
out of Egypt by the hand of Moses and Aaron,
smiting the Egyptians with ten plagues, and in
the last plague sending a destroying angel and
slaying their first-born, both of man and of beast :
wherefrom He saved the children of Israel, reveal-
ing in a mystery the sufferings of Christ by the
sacrifice of a lamb without spot, and giving its
blood to be smeared on the houses of the Hebrews
as a sure precaution. And the name of this
mystery is Passion, 1 the source of deliverance.
And dividing the Red Sea, He brought the chil-
dren of Israel with all security to the wilderness ;
and as to the pursuing Egyptians, who followed
them and entered into the sea, they were all over-
whelmed ; this judgment of God coming upon
those who had iniquitously oppressed the seed
of Abraham.
26. And in the wilderness Moses received the
Law from God, the Ten Words on tables of stone, Ex xxxi.
written with the finger of God (now the finger of *g' xxxlv
1 The same interpretation of Pascha, as if from Trao-xew, is
found in IV, xx. I : " cujus et diem passionis non ignoravit, sed
figuratim prsenuntiavit eum, Pascha nominans."
94 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
God is that which is stretched forth from the
Father in the Holy Spirit) ; l and the command-
ments and ordinances which he delivered to the
children of Israel to observe. And the tabernacle
of witness he constructed by the command of
God, the visible form on earth of those things
which are spiritual and invisible in the heavens,
and a figure of the form of the Church, and a
prophecy of things to come : in which also were
the vessels and the altars of sacrifice and the ark
in which Jtie placed the tables (of the Law). And
he appointed as priests Aaron and his sons, assign-
ing the priesthood to all their tribe : and they were
of the seed of Levi. Moreover this whole tribe he
summoned by the word of God to accomplish the
work of service in the temple of God, and gave
them the Levitical law, (to shew) what and what
manner of men they ought to be who are continually
employed in performing the service of the temple
of God.
27. And when they were near to the land, which
God had promised to Abraham and his seed,
Moses chose a man from every tribe, and sent
them to search out the land and the cities therein
and the dwellers in the cities. At that time God
revealed to him the Name which alone is able to
save them that believe thereon ; and Moses changed
the name of Oshea the son of Nun, one of them
that were sent, and named him Jesus : 2 and so he
1 "The finger of God" (Luke xi. 20) appears as "the Spirit of
God " in Matt. xii. 28. Cf. Barn. xiv. 3 ; and Clem. Horn. xi. 22,
xvi. 12, quoted in Introd. p. 53 n. I.
2 Num. xiii. 16 : KOI e7raWytia<rei> MWUO-TJS T~bv Auo-^ vlbv Nau)?
'\-r\crovv. Justin Martyr (Dial 75, 113) has much to say on this
change of name. Cf. Barn. xii. 8 f.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 27 95
sent them forth with the power of the Name,
believing that he should receive them back safe
and sound through the guidance of the Name :
which came to pass. 1 Now when they had gone
and searched and enquired, they returned bringing
with them a bunch of grapes ; and some of the
twelve who were sent cast the whole multitude
into fear and dismay, saying that the cities were
exceeding great and walled, and the sons of the
giants dwelt therein, so that it was (not) possible
for them to take the land. And thereupon it fell
out that all the multitude wept, failing to believe
that it was God who should grant them power
and subjugate all to them. And they spake evil
also of the land, as not being good, and as though
it were not worth while to undergo the danger for
the sake of such a land. But two of the twelve,
Jesus the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of
Jephunneh, rent their clothes for the evil that was
done, and besought the people not to be dis-
heartened nor lose their courage ; for God had
given all into their hands, and the land was ex-
ceeding good. And when they believed not, but
the people still continued in the same unbelief,
God changed and altered their way, that they
should wander desolate and sore smitten in the
desert. And according to the days that they were
in going and returning who had spied out the
land and these were forty in number setting a
1 Probably this represents t> eyevero. Compare the brief clauses :
"and this came to pass" (c. 67), and "as indeed they have be-
come" (c. 72); III, vi. 4 : "quod et erat." But it might be
rendered, in conjunction with the Name, " which was (given them) " :
so the German translations take it.
96 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
year for a day, He kept them in the wilderness for
the space of forty years; and none of those who
were fulJgrown and had understanding counted
He worthy to enter into the land because of their
unbelief, save only the two who had testified of
the inheritance, Jesus the son of Nun and Caleb
the son of Jephunneh, and those who were quite
young and knew not the right hand and the left.
So all the unbelieving multitude perished and were
consumed in the wilderness, receiving one by one
the due reward of their want of faith : but the
children, growing up in the course of forty years,
filled up the number of the dead.
28. When the forty years were fulfilled, the
people drew near to the Jordan, and were assembled
and arrayed over against Jericho. Here Moses
gathered the people together, and summed up
all afresh, proclaiming the mighty works of God
even unto that day, fashioning and preparing those
that had grown up in the wilderness to fear God
and keep His commandments, imposing on them
as it were a new legislation, adding to that
which was made before. And this was called
Deuteronomy : 1 and in it were written many
prophecies concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and
concerning the people, and also concerning the
calling of the Gentiles and concerning the kingdom.
29. And, when Moses had finished his course,
1 Cf. the Greek fragment attributed to Irenseus, Harvey II,
p. 487, where we have waKf^aXatov^vos : this fragment, however,
is now shown to be from Hippolytus On the Blessings of Moses
(Texte u. Unters. N. F. XI, la, p. 49). Cf. also IV, ii. I :
" Moyses igitur recapitulationem universe legis ... in Deuteronomio
faciens."
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 28-31 97
it was said to him by God : Get thee up into the
mountain^ and die : for thou shalt not bring in my x '
people into the land. So he died according to the Deut.
word of the Lord; and Jesus the son of Nun XXXIV< 5
succeeded him. He divided the Jordan and made
the people to pass over into the land ; and, when
he had overthrown and destroyed the seven races
that dwelt therein, he assigned to the people the
temporal Jerusalem, 1 wherein David was king, and
Solomon his son, who builded the temple to the
name of God, according to the likeness of the
tabernacle which had been made by Moses after
the pattern of the heavenly and spiritual things.
30. Hither were the prophets sent by God
through the Holy Spirit ; and they instructed the
people and turned them to the God of their fathers,
the Almighty ; and they became heralds of the
revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of
God, declaring that from the posterity of David
His flesh should blossom forth ; that after the flesh
He might be the son of David, who was the son
of Abraham by a long succession ; but according
to the spirit Son of God, pre-existing 2 with the
Father, begotten before all the creation of the
world, and at the end of the times appearing to
all the world as man, the Word of God gathering Eph. i. 10
up in Himself all things that are in heaven and that
are on earth.
31. So then He united man with God, and
established a community of union 3 between God
1 Or "this present Jerusalem": perhaps representing rV vvv
'lejoya-aArju (Gal. IV. 25).
2 Cf.c. 51.
3 For this double rendering see above c. 6.
98 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
and man ; since we could not in any other way 1
participate in incorruption, save by His coming
among us. For so long as incorruption was
invisible and unrevealed, it helped us not at all :
therefore it became visible, 2 that in all respects we
might participate in the reception of incorruption.
And, because in the original formation 3 of Adam
all of us were tied and bound up with death through
his disobedience, it was right that through the
obedience of Him who was made man for us we
should be released from death : and because death
reigned over the flesh, it was right that through
the flesh it should lose its force and let man
John i. 14. go free from its oppression. So the Word was
made flesh, that, through that very flesh which
sin had ruled and dominated, it should lose its
force and be no longer in us. And therefore our
Lord took that same original formation as (His)
entry into flesh, so that He might draw near
and contend on behalf of the fathers, 4 and con-
quer by Adam that which by Adam had stricken
us down.
32. Whence then is the substance of the first-
formed (man) ? From the Will and the Wisdom
1 III, xx. I : " Quemadmodum autcm adunari possemus incor-
ruptelae et immortalitati, nisi prius incorruptela et immortalitas
facta fuisset id quod et nos?" Cf. Ill, xix. 6 : ai et
6 &v9pci}TTOs Ttf 0e<, OVK &>/ T)Svvf]9tj yueTCKrxetV rrjs
2 Cf. 2 Tim. i. IO : (pcoriffavTos (fco^v Kal acpBapffia^ Sta rov
rxet
(fco^v
3 V, i. 2 : TV apxaiav TrXaffivrov 'ASa/i els eawrlv avfK(pa\aia>(raTO.
4 III, xix. 5: " erat enim homo pro patribus certans : "
V, xxi. i : " Omnia ergo recapitulans, recapitulates est et adversus
inimicum nostrum bellum, provocans et elidens eum qui in initio in
Adam captivos duxerat nos " (the Arm. version of this passage
suggests the true punctuation). With " pro patribus " comp. Barn,
V. 7 ' tv& xal rols Tra.Tp6.tnv TT\V
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 32, 33 99
of God, and from the virgin earth. 1 For God had Gen. ii. 5.
not sent rain, the Scripture says, upon the eartli,
before man was made ; and there was no man to
till the earth. From this, then, whilst it was still
virgin, God took dust of the earth and formed
the man, the beginning of mankind. So then
the Lord, summing up afresh this man, took
the same dispensation of entry into flesh, being
born from the Virgin by the Will and the
Wisdom of God ; that He also should show
forth the likeness of Adam's entry into flesh, 2
and there should be that which was written in
the beginning, 3 man after the image and likeness Gen. i. 26
of God.
33. And just as through a disobedient virgin
man was stricken down and fell into death, so
through the Virgin who was obedient to the Word
of God man was reanimated and received life. 4
For the Lord came to seek again the sheep that
1 Almost the same words are here used as in III, xxx. I. : " Et
quemadmodum protoplastus ille Adam de rudi terra et de adhuc
virgine nondum enim phierat Deus, et homo non erat operatus terram
habuit substantiam et plasmatus est manu Dei, id est, Verbo
Dei omnia enim per ipsumfacta stint et sumpsit Dominus limum
a terra et plasmavit hominem : ita recapitulans in se Adam ipse
Verbum existens ex Maria, qure adhuc erat virgo, recte accipiebat
generationem Adae recapitulationis. " Cf. Ill, xix. 6: also
Ephraim's Commentary on the Diatessaron (Moesinger, p. 21):
" In Virginis conceptione disce quod qui sine conjugio Adamum
ex virginea terra protulit, is etiam Adamum secunduni in utero
virginis formaverit." Cf. also Tertullian, De carne Christi, 17 ;
Firmicus Maternus, De errore prof, relig., 25.
2 III, xxxi. I : rV aurV fiteivcp rrjs yevv^ffecas fX fLV o/jLOiornra.
3 V, ii. i : " restaurans suo plasmatt quod dictum est in principio,
factum esse hominem secundum imaginem et siinilitudinem Dei:"
and below, c. 97.
4 The same parallel is worked out in III, xxxii. I, and V, xix. I.
It is found earlier in Justin Martyr (Dial. 100), and later in
Tertullian (De carne Chr. 17).
ioo THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
was lost ; 1 and man it was that was lost : and for
this cause there was not made some other forma-
tion, 2 but in that same which had its descent from
Adam He preserved the likeness of the (first)
formation. 3 For it was necessary that Adam
Cf. i Cor. should be summed up in Christ, that mortality
xv> * 3 ' might be swallowed up and overwhelmed by im-
mortality ; and Eve summed up in Mary, that a
virgin should be a virgin's intercessor, 4 and by a
virgin's obedience undo and put away the dis-
obedience of a virgin.
34. And the trespass which came by the tree was
undone by the tree of obedience, 5 when, hearkening
unto God, the Son of man was nailed to the tree ;
thereby putting away the knowledge of evil and
bringing in and establishing the knowledge of
good : now evil it is to disobey God, even as
hearkening unto God is good. And for this cause
the Word spake by Isaiah the prophet, announcing
beforehand that which was to come for therefore
are they prophets, because they proclaim what is
to come 6 : by him then spake the Word thus :
1 Irenseus is fond of referring to the sheep that was lost : see III,
xx. 3, xxxii. 2, xxxvii. I ; V, xii. 3, xv. 2.
2 V, xiv. 2: "Nunc autetn quod fuit qui perierat homo, hoc
salutare factum est Verbum . . . non alteram quandam, sed illam
principalem Patris plasmationem in se recapitulans, exquirens id
quod perierat."
3 See above, c. 32.
4 III, xxxii. I : "earn quse est a Maria in Evam recirculationem
significans ; " V, xix. i: " uti virginis Eva? virgo Maria fieret
advocata." Cf. Just. M. Dial. ioo.
6 V, xvi. 2 : " Dissolvens enim earn qua? in initio in ligno facta
fuerat hominis inobedientiam, o bediens factus est usque ad mortem,
mortem autem cruets, earn qua; in ligno facta fuerat inobedientiam
per earn qua? in ligno fuerat obedi
6 IV, xxxiv. 5: " Narr
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 34 101
/ refuse not, nor gainsay : I gave my back to scourg- Isa. 1. 5 f.
ing, and my cheeks to smiting ; l and my face I
turned not aivay from the shame of spitting. So
then by the obedience wherewith He obeyed even Phil. ii. 8.
unto death, hanging on the tree, He put away the
old disobedience which was wrought in the tree.
Now seeing that He is the Word of God Almighty,
who in unseen wise in our midst is universally
extended in all the world, and encompasses
its length and breadth and height and depth 2
for by the Word of God the whole universe is
ordered and disposed in it is crucified the Son of
God, inscribed crosswise upon it all : 3 for it is right
that He being made visible, should set upon all
things visible the sharing of His cross, that He
might show His operation on visible things through
a visible form. For He it is who illuminates the
height, that is the heavens ; and encompasses the
deep which is beneath the earth ; and stretches
and spreads out the length from east to west ; and
steers across the breadth of north and south ;
1 Cf. c. 68.
2 V, xvii. 4 : 'ETrel yap 5ia uA.ou aTTftd.\o/j.ev avr6v (sc. rbv \6yov
Kvpiov), Sta u\ou ird\tv <pai>pbs rots iraffiv e-yevero, tTriSfiKViHav rb
ityos Kal fJ.r)Kos KOI irXdros eV eau-r ' Kal, us <pr) rts rcav irpo&e&r]K6-
roav irpefffivTepwi', 5ia TTJS eKTa<rea>s TWV xzipcav rovs Svo \aovs ets
eVo Qebv crvfayuv. The Greek, preserved in a Catena, is here
emended from the Latin and Armenian versions, both of which
omit Kal fidOos.
3 V, xviii. 2 : "in hocmundo existens, et secundum invisibilitatem
continet quae facta sunt omnia, et in universa conditione infixus
(Arm. "and in all this world in-crucified"), quoniam Verbum Dei
gubernans et disponens omnia." The thought is taken from Justin
(Ap. I. 60), who attributes to Plato the words : 'Exia-fffv avrbv eV rf
TTCIVTI (cf. Tim&us 36 B.C.). See above, Introd. p. 29. Justin says
that Plato misunderstanding the story of the Brazen Serpent,
jU7)Se foriffas TVTTOV slvai aravpov, dAA.a x' i
irp&TOv Oebv Zvvafjuv /ce^iacr^ai eV ry Travrl
102 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
summoning all that are scattered in every quarter
to the knowledge of the Father.
35. Moreover He fulfilled the promise made to
Abraham, which God had promised him, to make
his seed as the stars of heaven. For this Christ
did, who was born of the Virgin who was of
Abraham's seed, and constituted those who have
Phil. ii. faith in Him lights in the world?- and by the same
\ 5> faith with Abraham justified the Gentiles. For
6 ; c 'f. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him
Rom. iv. j~ or righteousness. In like manner we also are
Gal iii 11- justified by faith in God : for the just shall live by
Rom. faith. Now not by the law is the promise to
1V> I3 ' Abraham, but by faith : for Abraham was justified
i Tim. i. by faith : and for a righteous man the law is not
made. In like manner we also are justified not by
the law, but by faith, which is witnessed to in the
law and in the prophets, whom the Word of God
presents to us.
36. And He fulfilled the promise to David ; for
Ts. cxxxii. to him God had promised ftti&of the fruit of his body
He would raise up an eternal King, 2 whose king-
dom should have no end. And this King is Christ,
the Son of God, who became the Son of man ;
that is, who became the fruit of that Virgin who
had her descent from David. And for this cause
II-
IV, x. I : ort Trot^<Ti T& aTcipfj-a. avrov &s ra &ffTpa rov ovpavov .
b uTri) Tlav\ov elp"fi/j.evov' ls (fxaarrjpes ev itdcr/uup : cf. IV,
xiii. I.
2 III, xxvi. I : fK Kapirov TTJS Koi\ias avrov alwviov avaffTT}ffeiv
fiaffiXea : III, xi. 4, xvii. I, xxix. I. In all these places the phrase
" eternal king " is used in connexion with this particular promise.
The phrase also occurs in III, xx. 2, and below in cc. 56, 66, 95.
Justin uses it several times (Dial. 34, 36, 118, 135), but not in
this connexion.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 35-38 103
the promise was, Of the fruit of thy body 1 that He
might declare the peculiar uniqueness of Him, who
was the fruit of the virgin body that was of David,
(even of Him) who was King over the house of
David, (and) of whose kingdom there shall be no
end.
37. Thus then He gloriously achieved our
redemption, and fulfilled the promise of the
fathers, and abolished the old disobedience. The
Son of God became Son of David and Son
of Abraham ; perfecting and summing up this
in Himself, that He might make us to possess
life. The Word of God was made flesh by the
dispensation of the Virgin, to abolish death and
make man live. For we were imprisoned by
sin, being born in sinfulness and living under
death.
38. But God the Father was very merciful : He
sent His creative 2 Word, who in coming to deliver
us came to the very place and spot in which we
had lost life, and brake the bonds of our fetters.
And His light appeared and made the darkness of
the prison disappear, and hallowed our birth and
destroyed death, loosing those same fetters in
which we were enchained. And He manifested
1 Here and above I have used "body" as in A. V. for
but the strange argument is thus somewhat obscured. The words
which immediately follow in the Armenian text may be more
easily rendered in Latin : " de fructu veniris tui, quod est proprium
feminse prsegnantis : non de fructu lumborum, nee de fructu
renum, quod est proprium viri generantis : ut declararet," etc.
Almost the same words are found in III, xxvi. i : cf. also III,
ix. 2 : "ex fructu ventris David, id est, ex David virgine." The
argument is used by Tertullian, Adv, Marcion, III, 20.
2 The same word corresponds to "artifex" in the Arm. version
of V, xv. 2, xxiv. 4 : cf. Ill, xi. II : 6 rwv cnrdvTuv re^iT^r Arf-yos.
H
104 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
the resurrection, 1 Himself becoming the first-
begotten of the dead, and in Himself raising up man
that was fallen, lifting him up far above the heaven
to the right hand of the glory of the Father : even
as God promised by the prophet, saying: And I
will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen ;
that is, the flesh 2 that was from David. And this
our Lord Jesus Christ truly fulfilled, when He
gloriously achieved our redemption, that He might
truly raise us up, setting us free unto the Father.
And if any man will not receive His birth from a
virgin, how shall he receive His resurrection from
the dead ? For it is nothing wonderful and aston-
ishing and extraordinary, if one who was not born
rose from the dead : nay indeed we cannot speak of
a resurrection of him who came unto being with-
out birth. For one who is unborn and immortal,
and has not undergone birth, will also not undergo
death. For he who took not the beginning of man,
how could he receive his end?
39. Now, if He was not born, neither did He
die ; and, if He died not, neither did He rise
from the dead ; and, if He rose not from the dead,
neither did He vanquish death and bring its reign
to nought ; and if death be not vanquished, how can
we ascend to life, who from the beginning have fallen
under death ? So then those who take away
redemption from man, and believe not in God that
He will raise them from the dead, these also despise
1 Cf. c. 39 : Barn. V. 6 : 'iva Karapy-hffri T^V Qa.va.rov Ka\ r^v e/c
vcKpSiiV avaffraffiv 5e^p : and Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition, in the
Eucharistic Prayer : " ut resurrectionem manifestet " ; and Philos.
x. 33 (Connolly, Texts and Studies, VIII, 4. 166).
2 Or " body " : cf. c. 62.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 39, 40 105
the birth of our Lord, 1 which He underwent on our
behalf, that the Word of God should be made
flesh in order that He might manifest the resur-
rection of the flesh, and might have pre-eminence
over all things in the heavens, as the first-born and
eldest offspring of the thought of the Father, the
Word, fulfilling all things, and Himself guiding
and ruling upon earth. For He was the Virgin's
first-born, a just and holy man, 2 godfearing, good,
well- pleasing to God, perfect in all ways, and
delivering from hell all who follow after Him : for
He Himself was the first-begotten of the dead, the Rev. i. 5.
Prince and Author of life unto God.
40. Thus then the Word of God in all things Col. i. 18.
hath the pre-eminence ; 3 for that He is true man
and Wonderful Counsellor and Mighty God; 4 isa. ix. 6.
calling men anew to fellowship with God, that by
fellowship with Him we may partake of incorrup-
tion. So then He who was proclaimed by the law
through Moses, and by the prophets of the Most
High and Almighty God, as Son of the Father of
all ; He from whom all things are, He who spake
with Moses He came into Judaea, generated from
God by the Holy Spirit, 5 and born of the Virgin
Mary, even of her who was of the seed of David
and of Abraham, Jesus the Anointed of God, show-
1 V, xix. 2 : " Alii autem manifestum adventum Domini contem-
nunt, incarnationem ejus non recipientes."
2 IV, xxxiv. 2 : " homo Justus : " the whole context is parallel to
our passage : cf. also III, xvii. 6.
3 IV, xxxiv. 2, Ixiii. 2.
4 Cf. cc. 54 f.
5 The Arm. seems to be a rendering ot e/c 0eou o-irapels 5ta
irvfv/j.a.Tos aytov. Cf. Ill, xvii. 6: " unitus et consparsus suo plas-
mati secundum placitum Patris, et caro factus." See Introd. p. 65.
io6 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
ing Himself to be the One who was proclaimed
beforehand by the prophets.
41. And His forerunner was John the Baptist,
who prepared and made ready the people before-
hand for the reception of the Word of life ;
declaring that He was the Christ, on whom the
Spirit of God rested, mingling with His flesh. 1
His disciples, the witnesses of all His good deeds,
and of His teachings and His sufferings and death
and resurrection, and of His ascension into heaven
after His bodily 2 resurrection these were the
apostles, who after (receiving) the power of the
Holy Spirit were sent forth by Him into all
the world, and wrought the calling of the Gentiles,
showing to mankind the way of life, to turn them
from idols and fornication and covetousness,
cleansing their souls and bodies by the baptism of
water and of the Holy Spirit ; which Holy Spirit
they had received of the Lord, and they distributed
and imparted It to them that believed ; and thus
they ordered and established the Churches. By
faith and love and hope they established that
which was foretold by the prophets, the calling of the
Gentiles, according to the mercy of God which was
extended to them ; bringing it to light through the
ministration of their service, and admitting them
to the promise of the fathers : to wit, that to those
who thus believed in and loved the Lord, and con-
tinued in holiness and righteousness and patient
endurance, the God of all had promised to grant
1 Cf. c. 97 (where however the Incarnation is in question), and
the references there given.
2 Or " fleshly" : cf. I, ii. I : /col rfy eyepffiv e/c veKpwv Kal rV
TOVS ovpavovs
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 41, 42 107
eternal life by the resurrection of the dead ; through
Him who died and rose again, Jesus Christ, to
whom He has delivered over the kingdom of all
existing things, and the rule of quick and dead,
and also the judgment. And they counselled them
by the word of truth to keep their flesh undefiled
unto the resurrection and their soul unstained.
42. For such is the state l of those who have
believed, since in them continually abides the Holy
Spirit, who was given by Him in baptism, and
is retained by the receiver, if he walks in truth
and holiness and righteousness and patient
endurance. For this soul has a resurrection in
them that believe, the body receiving the soul
again, and along with it, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, being raised up and entering into the
kingdom of God. This is the fruit of the blessing
of Japheth, in the calling of the Gentiles, made
manifest through the Church, standing in readi-
ness 2 to receive its dwelling in the house of Shem
according to the promise of *God. That all these
things would so come to pass, the Spirit of God
declared beforehand by the prophets ; that in
respect of them the faith of those who worship God
in truth should be confirmed. For what was
an impossibility to our nature, and therefore ready
to cause incredibility to mankind, this God caused
to be made known beforehand by the prophets ;
in order that, through its having been foretold
in times long before, and then at last rinding
1 The Arm. is a literal rendering of OVTWS ex eiv > as * n the Arm.
version of IV, xi. 2 (" sic se habere ").
2 Cf. c. 21. The Arm. is obscure, perhaps corrupt.
io8 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
effect in this way, even as it was foretold, we
might know that it was God who (thus) proclaimed
to us beforehand our redemption.
43. So then we must believe God in all things,
for in all things God is true. Now that there was
a Son of God, and that He existed not only before
He appeared in the world, but also before the
world was made, Moses, who was the first that
Gen. i. i. prophesied, 1 says in Hebrew : Baresith bara
Elowin basan benuam samenthares. And this,
translated into our language, 2 is : " The Son
in the beginning : God established then the heaven
and the earth." 3 This Jeremiah the prophet also
PS. ex. 3, testified, saying thus : Before the morning-star I
IXXH. 1 7. fogat thee : and before the sun (is] thy name ; 4 and
that is, before the creation of the world ; for
together with the world the stars were made. And
again the same says : Blessed is he who was, before
he became man? Because, for God, the Son was
(as) the beginning before the creation of the
world ; 6 but for us (He was) then, when He
1 Cf. Just. M. Ap. I. 32 : M<av<rr)S . . . irpwros TWV
2 Lit. "the Armenian language."
3 The Hebrew text has been corrupted in transmission : but it is
plain that Irenseus interpreted the first two words ("In the
beginning created ") as " In the beginning the Son." St Hilary, on
Ps. ii. 2, says that bresith has three meanings, "in principio
in capile, in filio " ; but he prefers the first as the interpretation
given by the LXX. See the note of the learned Dom Coustant, the
Benedictine editor of St Hilary. See also Dr Harnack's notes in
Texte u. Unters., I, I. 1176. and xxxi, I. 60. In Clem. Alex. Eel.
Proph. 4 we find as a comment on Gen. i. I, '6ri apx^) o vl6s.
4 For this composite quotation from the Psalms, here attributed
to Jeremiah, see Introd. p. 196.
5 For this quotation also see Introd. p. 22 f.
6 This is probably a reference to Prov. viii. 22 : 6 Kvptos
&V bfiwv avrov.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 43, 44 109
appeared ; and before that He was not for us, who
knew Him not 1 Wherefore also His disciple
John, in teaching us who is the Son of God, who
was with the Father before the world was made, and
that all the things that were made were made by
Him, says thus : In the beginning was the Word, and John i.
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. l fi '
The same was in the beginning with God. All
things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made : showing with certainty that the
Word, who was in the beginning with the Father,
and by whom all things were made, this is His Son.
44. And again Moses tells how the Son of God
drew near to hold converse with Abraham: And Gen. xviii
God appeared unto him by the oak of Mamre in the r ff *
middle of the day. And looking up with his eyes
he beheld, and, lo, three men stood over against him.
And he bowed himself down to the earth, and said :
Lord, if indeed I have found favour in thy sight.
And all that which follows he spake with the Lord,
and the Lord spake with him. Now two of the
three were angels ; but one was the Son of God,
with whom also Abraham spake, pleading on
behalf of the men of Sodom, that they should not
perish if at least ten righteous should be found
there. And, whilst these were speaking, the two
angels entered into Sodom, and Lot received them.
And then the Scripture says : And the Lord rained GV\\. xix.
upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from 24>
i Justin (Dial. 88) quotes the Voice at the Baptism in the form
" Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee " (Ps. ii. 7, and
Luke iii. 22 in Codex Bezae, etc. ). Then he says : r6re
avrov Xs-ywv ylveadai rots avdpwtrois, e| orov TJ yvwffis avrov
no THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
the Lord out of heaven : that is to say, the Son, who
spake with Abraham, being Lord, received power
to punish the men of Sodom from the Lord out of
heaven, even from the Father who rules over all. 1
So Abraham was a prophet and saw things to
come, which were to take place in human form :
even the Son of God, that He should speak with
men and eat with them, and then should bring
in the judgment from the Father, having received
from Him who rules over all the power to punish
the men of Sodom.
45. And Jacob, when he went into Mesopotamia,
Gen. saw Him in a dream, standing upon the ladder, that
*2 V f m * is, the tree, which was set up from earth to
heaven ; 2 for thereby they that believe on Him
go up to the heavens. For His sufferings are our
ascension on high. And all such visions point to
the Son of God, speaking with men and being in
their midst. For it was not the Father of all, who
is not seen by the world, the Maker of all who
Acts vii. said : Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool:
Ixvi. i)! what house will ye build me, or what is the place of
Isa. xl. 12. my rest ? and who comprehendeth the earth with his
hand, and with his span the heaven 3 it was not He
that came and stood in a very small space and
spake with Abraham ; but the Word of God, who
was ever with mankind, and made known before-
_ * III, vi. I : " Filium enim hie significat, qui et Abrahse collocutus
sit, a Patre accepisse potestatem judicandi Sodomitas propter ini-
quitatem eorum." For the indebtedness of Irenzeus to Justin in this
and the next chapter, see Introd. p. 12.
' 2 The Arm. text has "from heaven to heaven" by oversight.
That Jacob's Ladder signified the Cross was said by Justin (Dial. 86).
3 IV, xxxiii. i : " Audistis mensos esse oelos in palma ... qui
comprehendit terram pugillo."
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 45, 46 HI
hand what should come to pass in the future, and
taught men the things of God.
46. He it is who spake with Moses in the bush,
and said : Seeing have I seen the affliction of my EX. Hi. 7.
people that is in Egypt ; and I am come down to
deliver them. He it is who came forth and came
down for the deliverance of the oppressed, bringing
us out from the power of the Egyptians, that is, from
all idolatry and impiety ; and delivering us from
the Red Sea, that is, delivering us from the deadly
confusion of the Gentiles and the grievous vexation
of their blasphemy. For in them the Word of
God prepared and rehearsed beforehand the things
concerning us. Then He set forth in types before-
hand that which was to be ; now in very truth
He has brought us out from the cruel service of the
Gentiles, and a stream of water in the desert has He
made to flow forth in abundance from a rock ; and
that rock is Himself; and has given twelve fount- Cf. i Cor.
ains, that is, the teaching of the twelve apostles. Q f 4 g x
And the obstinate unbelievers He brought to an xv. 27.
end and consumed in the wilderness ; but those
who believed on Him, and in malice were children?- i Cor.
He made to enter into the inheritance of the
fathers ; whom not Moses, but Jesus puts in pos-
session of the heritage : 2 who also delivers us from
Amalek by the expansion of His hands, 3 and Cf. Ex.
brings us to the kingdom of the Father.
1 IV, xliv. 3 : " Malitia parvuli " : cf. c. 95.
2 IV, xlvii. i : "ecclesise . . . quam non Moyses quidem famulus
Dei, sed Jesus filius Dei in haereditatem dabit."
3 V, xvii. 4 : 8:0 rfjs e/cratrecos r&v xeipcav (where neither Lat. nor
Arm. supports the inserted 0eios) : cf. c. 79. For this &CTCKTIS cf.
Barn. XII. 2 ; Just. M. Dial. 91, 112, 131.
ii2 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
47. So then the Father is Lord and the Son is
Lord, 1 and the Father is God and the Son is God ;
for that which is begotten of God is God. 2 And
so in the substance and power of His being there
is shown forth one God ; but there is also according
to the economy of our redemption both Son and
Father. Because to created things the Father of
all is invisible and unapproachable, 3 therefore those
who are to draw near to God must have their access
to the Father through the Son. And yet more
plainly and evidently does David speak concerning
Heb. i. the Father and the Son as follows : Thy throne,
xlv^6f ) God, is for ever and ever : thou hast loved righteous-
ness and hated unrighteousness : 4 therefore God hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows. For the Son, as being God, receives from
the Father, that is, from God, 5 the throne of the
everlasting kingdom, and the oil of anointing
above His fellows. The oil of anointing is the
Spirit, 6 wherewith He has been anointed ; and His
fellows are prophets and righteous men and
apostles, and all who receive the fellowship of His
kingdom, that is to say, His disciples.
Ps. ex. 48. And again David says: The Lord said unto
1 ff - my Lord : Sit on my right hand, until I make thy
1 III, vi. I : " Vere igitur cum Pater sit Dominus et Filius vere sit
Dominus, merito Spiritus Sanctus Domini appellatione signavit eos."
2 I, i. l8 : rb yap e/c 0eoG yevvyOev 6e6s fffnv.
3 Cf. Athan. Orat. i. 64 : /cal %anv 6 Oebs a6pa,Tos /cai airpoffiros
TOIS
4 Apparently reading aSiKiav. The omission of ' ' thy God " after
" God" may^be an oversight.
5 III, vi. I : " Utrosque enim Dei appellatione signavit Spiritus :
et eum qui ungitur Filium, et eum qui ungit, id est, Patrem."
6 III, xix. 3 : " Et unxit quidem Pater, unctus est vero Filius, in
Spiritu qui est unctio," etc. For this chapter, see Introd. p. 60.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 4 7~49 3
enemies thy footstool. The rod of thy strength shall
the Lord send forth from Sion ; and rule thou in
the midst of thy enemies. With thee in the begin-
ning^ in the day of thy power > in the brightness of
the holy ones : from the womb before the morning-
star I begat thee. The Lord sware and will not
repent : Thou art a priest for ever after the order
of Melchisedec. And the Lord on thy right hand
hath broken in pieces kings in the day of wrath :
he shall judge among the Gentiles, he shall fill up the
ruins, and shall break in pieces the heads of many
on the earth? He shall drink of the brook in the
zvay : therefore shall he lift up the head. Now here-
by he proclaimed that He came into being before
all, and that He rules over the Gentiles and judges
all mankind and the kings who now hate Him
and persecute His name ; for these are His ene-
mies : and in calling Him God's priest for ever, he
declared His immortality. And therefore he said :
He shall drink of the brook in the way ; therefore
shall he lift up the head ; proclaiming the exaltation
with glory that followed on His humanity and
humiliation and ingloriousness. 3
49. And again Isaiah the prophet says : Thus isa. xlv.
saith the Lord God to my Anointed the Lord* whose '
right hand I have held, that the Gentiles should
hearken before him. And how the Christ is called
Son of God and King of the Gentiles, that is. of all
1 As though reading h apxy for apx^-
2 As though reading Tr\fjpwffei Trra>fj.ara and eiri yys iroXXwv, with
some MSS. of LXX.
3 This is Justin's interpretaton of the words : see Dial. 33 : fcai
on TdTrejvbs eaTcu irpdarov &v8p(airos, elra
4 Reading /tuple? for Kvpy : cf. Barn. XII, n : so also many
later writers.
ii4 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
mankind ; and that He not only is called but is
Son of God and King of all, David declares thus :
Ps. ii. 7 f. The Lord said unto me : Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I will give thee
the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and for a possession
the iitmost parts of the earth. These things were
not said of David ; for neither over the Gentiles
nor over the utmost parts did he rule, but only
over the Jews. So then it is plain that the promise
to the Anointed to reign over the utmost parts of
the earth is to the Son of God, whom David
himself acknowledges as his Lord, saying thus :
Ps. ex. i. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit on my right hand,
and so forth, as we have said above. For he
means that the Father speaks with the Son ; as
we showed a little before as to Isaiah, that he said
Isa. xlv. i. thus : God saith to my Anointed the Lord, that the
Gentiles should hearken before him. For the
promise is the same by the two prophets, that He
should be King : so that the speech of God is
addressed to one and the same, I mean, to Christ
Ps. ii. 7. the Son of God. Forasmuch as David says : The
Lord said unto me, it is necessary to say that it is
not David who speaks, nor any one of the prophets,
in his own person : for it is not a man who speaks
the prophecies ; but the Spirit of God, assimilating
and likening Himself to the persons represented,
speaks in the prophets, and utters the words
sometimes from Christ and sometimes from the
Father. 1
1 The subject is fully treated by Justin (Ap. i, 36 ff.) : cf.
especially : ir&rt 8e ws cbrb irpoffwirov TOV 8e<nr6Tov irdvTwv KO.\
irarphs Ofov QOeyyerai, TTOTC 8e a>s ebrb Trpoffwirov TOV xpj(rrot).
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 50, 51 115
50. So then right fitly Christ says through
David that He converses with the Father ; and
right worthily does He say the other things
concerning Himself through the prophets ; as in
other instances, so also after this manner by
Isaiah : And now thus saith the Lord, who formed Is**
me as his servant from the womb, to gather Jacob 5
and to gather Israel unto him : and I shall be
glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be a
strength unto me. And he said; A great thing
shall it be to thee to be called my servant, to stablish
and confirm the tribe of Jacob, and to turn again the
dispersion of Israel: and I have set thee for a light
of the Gentiles^ tJiat thou shouldst be for salvation
unto the end of the earth.
51. Here, first of all, is seen that the Son of God
pre-existed, from the fact that the Father spake
with Him, 2 and before He was born revealed Him
to men : and, next, that He must needs be born a
man among men ; and that the same God forms
Him from the womb, that is, that of the Spirit of
God He should be born ; and that He is Lord of
all men, and Saviour of them that believe on Him,
both Jews and others. For the people of the Jews
is called Israel in the Hebrew language, from
Jacob their father, who was the first to be called
Israel : and Gentiles He calls the whole of man-
kind. And that the Son of the Father calls
Himself servant, (this is) on account of His sub-
1 Here the quotation corresponds with Acts xiii. 47, as in Just.
M. Dial. 121.
2 Cf. C. 30. Justin says (Dial. 62) : 'AAAeb TOVTO rb T<$ ovn a?rb
TOU Trarphs TrpojSA.Tjflei' yeWTj/ua Trpb TrdvTcav ruv TT OJTJ fj-d-r uv avvr\v T<
irarpl, /col TOVT<J> 6 Trar^p
n6 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
jection to the Father : for among men also every
son is the servant of his father.
52. That Christ, then, being Son of God before
all the world, is with the Father ; and being with the
Father 1 is also nigh and close and joined unto
mankind ; and is King of all, because the Father
has subjected all things unto Him ; and Saviour of
them that believe on Him such things do the
Scriptures declare. For it is not feasible and
possible to enumerate every scripture in order ;
and from these you may understand the others
also which have been spoken in like manner,
believing in Christ, and seeking understanding
and comprehension from God, so as to understand
what has been spoken by the prophets.
53. And that this Christ, who was with the
Father, being the Word of the Father, was there-
after to be made flesh and become man and under-
go the process of birth and be born of a virgin and
dwell among men, the Father of all bringing about
Isa. vii. His incarnation 2 Isaiah says thus : Therefore the
14 Lord himself shall give you a sign : behold, the
virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and
ye shall call him Emmanuel : butter and honey shall
he eat ; before he knoweth or selecteth the evil, he
chooseth the good: for, before the child knoiveth good
or evil, he rejecteth wickedness to choose the good.
So he proclaimed His birth from a virgin ; and
that He was truly man he declared beforehand by
His eating ; and also because he called Him the
1 The construction of the Arm. is uncertain, but the general
sense is plain. The preposition " with" in the first place seems to
represent avv, in the second place irp6s.
2 V, i. 3 : " Patris omnium, qui operatus est incarnationem ejus.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 52-54 117
child; and further by giving Him a name; for
this is the custom also for one that is born. 1 And
His name is two-fold : in the Hebrew tongue
Messiah Jesus, and in ours Christ Saviour. And
the two names are names of works actually
wrought. For He was named Christ, because
through Him the Father anointed and adorned all
things ; and because on His coming as man He
was anointed with the Spirit of God and His
Father. As also by Isaiah He says of Himself;
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: wherefore he isa. ixi. \
hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.
And (He was named) Saviour for this, that He
became the cause of salvation to those who at that
time were delivered by Him from all sicknesses
and from death, 2 and to those who afterwards
believed on Him the author of salvation in the
future and for evermore.
54. For this cause then is He Saviour. Now
Emmanuel is, being interpreted, With you God;* or Cf. Matt,
as a yearning cry 4 uttered by the prophet, such as 1- 23>
this : With us shall be God ; according to which it
is the explanation and manifestation of the good
tidings proclaimed. For Behold^ He saith, the virgin Isa. vii.
shall conceive and shall bring forth a son ; and He, I4 *
being God, is to be with us. And, as if altogether
astonished 5 at these things, he proclaims in regard
to these future events that With us shall be God.
1 For comments on the rest of this chapter, see Introd. pp. 15 f.
2 After the word "death " the Arm. has again "at that time."
3 The translator has read /ue0' vfj.S>v for fj.e6' TJ^WV : there is no
distinction in sound in the later Greek pronunciation.
4 Or, perhaps," a cry of augury."
5 Cf. c. 71 ; and Just. M. Ap. I, 47 : OavnatfvT&v ra
Dial, llS : rovro 9av/j.d(av 'H<rcuas ty>7j.
n8 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
And yet again concerning His birth the same
Isa. Ixvi. prophet says in another place : Before she that
17 ' travailed gave birth, and before the pains of travail
came on, she escaped and was delivered of a man-
child. Thus he showed that His birth from the
virgin was unforeseen and unexpected. 1 And again
Isa. ix. 6. the same prophet says : Unto us a son is born, and
unto us a child is given : 2 and his name is called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God?
55. He calls Him Wonderful Counsellor, meaning
of the Father : whereby it is declared that the
Father works all things together with Him ; as is
contained in the first book of Moses which is
Gen. i. entitled Genesis : And God said, Let us make man
after our image and likeness. For there is seen in
this place the Father speaking to the Son, 4 the
Wonderful Counsellor of the Father. Moreover
He is also our Counsellor, giving advice ; not
compelling as God, 5 even though He is Mighty
God, (as) he says ; but giving advice that we should
forsake ignorance and acquire knowledge, and
1 III, xxvi. 2 : "In eo autem quod dixerit : Ipse Dominus dabit
signwn, id quod erat inopinatum generationis ejus significavit. . . .
Sed quoniam inopinata salus hominibus inciperet fieri, Deo
adjuvante, inopinatus et partus virginis fiebat," etc.
2 The transposition of "son " and " child " would seem to be an
oversight : see however Just. M. Ap. I, 35 (iraiS'iov . . . veaviffKos]:
and note that the whole passage is quoted differently in c. 56 below.
* So in IV, lv. 2 : cf. Ill, xx. 2. So above, c. 40. But in c. 56 we
have "Angel of great counsel," as in III, xvii. 3: cf. Just. M.
Dial. 76.
4 V, xv. 4: "Cum quo et loquebatur Pater: Faciatnus," etc.:
cf. IV, xxxiv. i. Cf. Barn. V, 5.
5 V,i. i: "noncumvi . . . sed secundum suadelam . . . suadentem,
non vim inferentem : " cf. IV, lix. I : Bio 0e ov irpoVea-ru/ ' ayaQ^i 5e
yvw/j.7) irdi>TOT (rvfAirdpecmv aiT<j3 : Ix. I : aAAa /j,^ f)iao[j.i>ov. Compare
Ep. ad Diognetum 7 : is irft6u>i>, ov fiiatf/jLevos j8io yhp ov i
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 55, 56 119
depart from error and come to the truth, and put
away corruption and receive incorruption.
56. And again Isaiah says : And they shall wish Isi. ix.
that they had been burned ivith fire : for unto us a 5 ' '
child is born, and unto us a son is given ; whose
government is upon his shoulders, and his name is
called Angel of great counsel. For I will bring
peace upon the rulers, again peace and health unto
him. Great is his rule, and of his peace there is no
bound, upon the throne of David and upon his king-
dom, to prosper and complete, to aid and undertake^
in righteousness and judgment from this time forth
and for evermore, For hereby the Son of God is
proclaimed both as being born and also as eternal
King. 2 But they shall wish that they had been
burned zvithfire (is said) of those who believe not
on Him, and who have done to Him all that they
have done : for they shall say in the judgment,
How much better that we had been burned with
fire before the Son of God was born, than that,
when He was born, we should not have believed
on Him. Because for those who died before Christ
appeared there is hope that in the judgment of
the risen 3 they may obtain salvation, even such as
feared God and died in righteousness and had in
them the Spirit of God, as the patriarchs and
prophets and righteous men. But for those who
after Christ's appearing believed not on Him, there
is a vengeance without pardon in the judgment.
1 The Arm. offers double renderings both of KaropGaxrai and of
2 Cf. cc. 36, 66, 95.
3 The Arm. appears to mean " of the Risen One" : but the text
may be corrupt.
I
120 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE'
Now in this : Whose government is upon his shoulder,
the cross is in a figure declared, on which He was
nailed back. 1 For that which was and is a reproach
to Him, and for His sake to us, 2 even the cross,
this same is, says he, His government, being a sign
of His kingdom. And, Angel of great counsel, he
says ; that is, of the Father 3 whom He hath
declared unto us.
57. That the Son of God should be born, and in
what way He was to be born, and that He should
be shown to be Christ from what has been said
it is plain how this was made known beforehand
by the prophets. And in addition to this, in what
land and among whom of mankind He was to be
born 4 and to appear, this also was proclaimed
beforehand with words such as these. Moses in
Gen. xlix. Genesis says thus : There shall not fail a prince
10 f ' from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he
shall come for whom it remaineth ; 5 and he shall be
the expectation of the Gentiles : washing his robe in
wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.
Now Judah was the ancestor of the Jews, the son
of Jacob ; from whom also they obtained the name. 6
1 This is Justin's interpretation in Ap. I, 35 : o3 T\ apx^ rJ r&v
iS}p.(av'fJif]vvrtK^)v TTJS 8uvd/j.fd)S TOV ffravpov, $ TrpoffeOyKe rovs &/J.QVS
2 Cf. Just. M. Dial, IOI : "OveiSos pev yap T\IUV rots fls avrbv
avQpwirois vavraxov <TTIV. Justin is interpreting oveiSos
(Ps. xxii. 7)-
3 III, xvii. 3 : " magniconsilii patris nuntius : " see note to c. 54.
4 Cf. Just. M. Ap, I, 34: OTTOU 8e /col rfjs yrjs yevvaffOai e/ieAAer,
K.T.A., quoting Mic. v. 2, which Irenseus quotes below, c. 63.
5 So in IV, xx. 2: "cui repositum est," corresponding to
$ ctTrJ/mTat, the reading which Justin defends in Dial. 1 20.
6 Cf. Just. M. Ap, I, 32 : 'lovSas yap irpoirdTwp 'louSa/wr, o<>' ov
/cal rb 'loi/Seuot KaXf'iffdai fffx^Kaari. See on this whole chapter
Introd. pp. 6 ff.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 57, 58 121
And there failed not a prince among them and a
leader, until the coming of Christ. But from the
time of His coming the might of the quiver was
captured, 1 the land of the Jews was given over into
subjection to the Romans, and they had no longer
a prince or king of their own. For He was come,
for whom remaineth in heaven the kingdom ; 2 who
also washed his robe in wine> and his garment in
the blood of the grape. His robe as also His gar-
ment are those who believe on Him, 3 whom also
He cleansed, redeeming us by His blood. And
His blood is said to be blood of the grape : for even
as the blood of the grape no man maketh, but God
produceth, and maketh glad them that drink thereof, Cf. Ps.
so also His flesh and blood no man wrought, but Clv ' I5 '
God made. The Lord Himself gave the sign of the Isa. vii.
virgin, even that Emmanuel which was from the I4 *
virgin ; who also maketh glad them that drink of
Him, that is to say, who receive His Spirit, (even)
everlasting gladness. Wherefore also He is the Isa. xxxv.
expectation of the Gentiles, of those who hope in |^ xi I0
Him; because we expect of Him that He will
establish again the kingdom.
58. And again Moses says: There shall rise a star Num.
out of Jacob,; and a leader^ shall be raised up out 0/ xxlv< I7-
Israel ; showing yet more plainly that the dispen-
1 The translation is uncertain. Cf. Justin, ibid. : /xefl'&V *v6vs
oopia\o>Tos vfjuv i) yT} 'lovSaicav irapfftdOij.
2 Cf. Justin, ibid. : u ctTrdVemu T& ftafflteiov.
Cf. Justin, ibid. : ^ yap /ce/cArjjUcz/rj . . . o"ToA^ of iriffrevovres
<XUT< fiffiy avdpwiroi. And for what follows : t>v rp6irov yap TO TTJS
a^tTreAoy af/xa OVK avdpuiros TreTroirj/cei/ a\A' 6 Of 6s, K.T.\. and the similar
passage in Dial. 54.
So in III, ix. 2 ("dux"). The only other evidence for this
seems to be Just. M. Dial. 106 (r}yov/j.fvos) : LXX,
122 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
sation of His coming in flesh should be among the
Jews. And from Jacob and from the tribe of
Judah He who was born, coming down from
heaven, took upon Him this economy of dispensa-
tion : for the star appeared in heaven. And by
leader he means king, because He is the King of
Cf. Matt. a ii t h e redeemed. And at His birth the star
appeared to the Magi who dwelt in the east ; and
thereby they learned that Christ was born ; and
they came to Judaea, led by the star ; until the star
came to Bethlehem where Christ was born, and
entered the house wherein was laid the child,
wrapped in swaddling-clothes ; and it stood over
His head, 1 declaring to the Magi the Son of God.,
the Christ.
59. Moreover Isaiah himself yet further says :
Isa. xi. And there shall come forth a rod out of the roots of
1 ' Jesse,anda flower from his root shall come forth. And
the spirit of God shall rest upon him ; the spirit of
wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel
and of might, the spirit of knowledge and of godli-
ness : the spirit of the fear of God shall fill him?'
Not according to opinion shall he judge, and not
according to speech shall he reprove: but he shall
judge judgment for the humble, and shew mercy
to z the humble of the earth. And he shall smite
the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the
1 Cf. Protevang. Jacob i (cod. D) : e<as ov ei<rrj\8ev . . . /cal (ffrrj eir!
rV K#a\V rov TratSiou : Of us Imperf. in Matth. p. 30: "venit
et stetit super caput pueri." Codex Bezce has ^Travco rot) -rraiSt'oy
and supra puerum (with vet. lat.).
2 This passage was quoted in c. 9.
3 As though reading eAerjo-et for eAe^et. But in III, x. I we
find "arguet gloriosos terne." The confusion between \fyx ti/
and eAeeiV is found in the text of Jude 22.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 59, 60 123
breath of his lips x shall he slay the impious man.
And he shall be girt about his loins with righteous-
ness^ and with truth encompassed about his reins.
And the wolf shall feed with the lamb, and the
leopard* 1 with the kid, and the calf and the lion
shall pasture together. And a sucking child shall
put his hand on the hole of the asps, and on the lair
of the offspring of the asps, and they shall not hurt
him. And in that day there shall be a root of
Jesse, and he that riseth up to rule the Gentiles : in
him shall the Gentiles hope : and his rising up 3
shall be honour. By these words he states that He
was born from her who was of the race of David
and of Abraham. For Jesse was the descendant
of Abraham, and the father of David ; (and
David's) descendant the virgin was who conceived
Christ. Now (as to) the rod: for this cause also
Moses with 4 a rod showed the mighty works to
Pharaoh : and with other men also the rod is a
sign of rule. And by flower he means His flesh ; 5
for from spirit it budded forth, as we have said
before.
60. Now, Not according to opinion shall he judge,
and not according to speech shall he reprove : but he
shall judge judgment for the humble, and shall show
mercy to tJie hiimble on the earth (by this) he the
1 Lit. "with spirit through the lips," as in LXX.
2 Omitting "shall lie down" : but this is found in V, xxxiii. 4
(lat. and arm.} : so too are the other words which are wanting in
what follows here.
3 As though reading avdffraa-is instead of avd-jrauffts.
4 The Arm. means "with," not "by means of." Cf. Just. M.
Dial. 86 : Mceuo-rji fj.era fid&Sov eirt rfyv rov \aov airo^vr
TT/j.(()Qrj : the Rod from Jesse's root is there said to be Christ.
5 Or "body."
124 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
more establishes and declares His godhead. 1 For
to judge without respect of persons and partiality,
and not as favouring the illustrious, but affording
to the humble worthy and like and equal treatment,
accords with the height and summit of the right-
eousness of God : for God is influenced and moved
by none, save only the righteous. And to show
mercy is the peculiar attribute of God, who by
mercy is able to save. And He shall smite the
earth with a word, and slay the impious with a word
only : this belongs to God who worketh all things
with a word. And in saying : He shall be girt
about his loins with righteousness, and with truth
encompassed about his reins > he declares His human
form and aspect, and His own surpassing righteous-
ness.
6 1. Now as to the union and concord and peace
of the animals of different kinds, 2 which by nature
are opposed and hostile to each other, the Elders
say that so it will be in truth at the coming of
Christ, when He is to reign over all. For already
in a symbol he announces the gathering together
in peace and concord, through the name of Christ,
of men of unlike races and (yet) of like dispositions.
For, when thus united, on the righteous, who are
likened to calves and lambs and kids and sucking
1 III, x. I : " secundum autem quod Deus erat non secundum
gloriam judicabat neque secundum loquelam arguebat."
2 In V, xxxiii. 4 he discusses the same question and, while recog-
nizing that some persons give a symbolical interpretation, he
inclines to look for a literal fulfilment. Here also he finds room
for both interpretations. The passage of Papias there quoted, as
to the marvellous productivity of the millennial period, ends with
the statement that the animals will live in peace and concord and
in subjection to man. This explains the reference to the Elders in
our text.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 61, 62 125
children, those inflict no hurt at all who in the
former time were, through their rapacity, like wild
beasts in manners and disposition, both men and
women ; so much so that some of them were like
wolves and lions, ravaging the weaker and warring
on their equals; while the women (were like)
leopards or asps, who slew, it may be, even their
loved ones with deadly poisons, or by reason of
lustful desire. (But now) coming together in one
name 1 they have acquired righteous habits by the
grace of God, changing their wild and untamed
nature. And this has come to pass already. For
those who were before exceeding wicked, so that
they left no work of ungodliness undone, learning
of Christ and believing on Him, have at once
believed and been changed, so as to leave no
excellency of righteousness undone ; so great is
the transformation which faith in Christ the Son
of God effects for those who believe on Him. And
he says : Rising up to rule the Gentiles^ because He
is to die and rise again, and be confessed and
believed as the Son of God (and) King. On this
account he says : And His rising up shall be honour :
that is, glory ; for then was He glorified as God,
when He rose.
62. Wherefore again the prophet says: 2 In that Amos ix.
day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is "'
fallen : that body 3 of Christ, which, as we have said
before, is born of David, he plainly declares as after
death rising from the dead. For the body is called a
1 The Arm. text as printed gives "in my name"; but by a
different division of the letters we get "in one name."
2 Cf. c. 38.
3 Or " flesh" ; and so throughout the passage.
126 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
tabernacle. 1 For by these words he says that He
who according to the flesh is of the race of David
will be Christ the Son of God ; and that He will
die and rise again, and that He is in aspect a man,
but in power God ; and that He Himself will be
as judge of all the world and as the only worker
of righteousness and redeemer all this the
Scripture declared.
63. And again the prophet Micah speaks of the
place where Christ should be born, that it should
Matt. ii. be in Bethlehem of Judaea, saying thus : And
6 (Micah t j lou ^ Bethlehem of Judcea, art thou the least among
the princes of Judah ? for out of thee shall come a
prince who shall feed my people Israel? But Beth-
lehem is the native place 3 of David : so that not
only in respect of the Virgin who bore Him is He
of David's race, but also in respect of His birth in
Bethlehem the native place of David.
64. And again David says that of his race Christ
Ps. cxxxii. is to be born, (speaking) after this manner : For
10 ff. David my 4 servant's sake turn not away the face of
thy Christ. The Lord sivare truth unto David, and
he will not disappoint him : Of the fruit of thy body
1 Cf. Wisd. ix. 15 (R. v. ): "For a corruptible body weighs
down the soul, and the earthly frame (TO yeS>Ses aicrivos} lieth heavy
on a mind that is full of cares : " 2 Cor. v. I : ^ eTrfyeios T]p.S>v olida
rov (nervous : and cf. ffK-hvwpa in 2 Pet. i. I3f. For the use of
a-KTJvos in the sense of "body" in Greek literature, see Field,
Notes on N. T. Translation, p. 183 ; and Stephanus, Thesatirus Gr.
Ling., ad vocem.
2 Irenseus quotes the prophecy in the Matthsean form, which
differs much from the LXX rendering. Moreover he agrees with
Codex Eez.se in reading TT}S 'lovSaias for 777 'lovda, and ^ for oi/So/uws.
Justin quotes the words twice in the Matthsean form, but with the
usual 777 'louSa and ovSap&s (Ap. I, 34, Dial. 78).
3 The Arm. word renders ndrpis in Matt. xiii. 54, 57.
4 My " for "thy " (LXX troy) by oversight. Part of the text is
quoted in III, ix. 2. See also above, c. 36.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 63-66 127
will I set on thy throne : if thy children shall keep
my covenant and my testimonies, which I covenanted
with them, their sons for evermore (shall sit upon
thy throne)}* But none of the sons of David reigned
for evermore, nor was their kingdom for evermore ;
for it was brought to nought. But the king that
was born of David, He is Christ. All these testi-
monies declare in plain terms His descent accord-
ing to the flesh, and the race and place where He
was to be born ; so that no man should seek among
the Gentiles or elsewhere for the birth of the Son
of God, but in Bethlehem of Judaea from Abraham
and from David's race.
65. And the manner of His entry into Jerusalem,
which was the capital of Judaea, where also was
His royal seat and the temple of God, the prophet
Isaiah declares : Say ye to the daughter of Sion> Matt, x
Behold a king cometh unto thee, meek and sitting J5riL?i
upon an ass, a colt the foal of an ass. 2 For, sitting Zech. i
on an ass's colt, so He entered into Jerusalem, the
multitudes strewing and putting down for Him
their garments. And by the daughter of Sion he
means Jerusalem.
66. So then, that the Son of God should be born,
and in what manner born, and where He was to be
born, and that Christ is the one eternal King, 3 the
prophets thus declared. And again they told
beforehand concerning Him how, sprung from
mankind, He should heal those whom He healed,
1 The Arm. has "and their son for evermore," and nothing further.
2 The passage is quoted in the Matthaean form, and ascribed to
Isaiah from whom the first words come. In St Matthew's Gospel
it is ascribed to "the prophet," though some codices insert
"Zachariah." Justin quotes it differently, Ap. I, 35, Dial. 53.
8 Cf. cc. 36, 56, 95.
128 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
and raise the dead whom He raised, and be hated
and despised and undergo sufferings and be put to
death and crucified, even as He was hated and
despised and put to death.
67. At this point let us speak of His healings.
Matt. viii. Isaiah says thus : He took our infirmities and bare
ini^4^ our sicknesses: that is to say, He shall take, and
shall bear. For there are passages in which the
Spirit of God through the prophets recounts things
that ' are to be as having taken place. 1 For that
which with God is essayed and conceived of as
determined to take place, is reckoned as having
already taken place : and the Spirit, regarding and
seeing the time in which the issues of the prophecy
are fulfilled, utters the words (accordingly). And
Isa. xxix. concerning the kind of healing, thus will He make
mention, saying : In that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book, and in darkness and in mist
Isa. xxxv. the eyes of the blind shall see. And the same says
3 ' again : Be strong, ye weak hands and feeble and
trembling knees : be comforted, ye that are of a fear-
ful mind. Be strong, fear not. Behold, our God
will recompense judgment : He will come and save
us. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and
the ears of the deaf shall hear : then shall the lame
man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stam-
Isa. xxvi. merers shall be plain. And concerning the dead,
that they shall be raised, he says thus : The
dead shall be raised, and they that are in the tombs
1 Cf. Just. M. Dial. 114: &T0' tire yap rb ayiov iri/ev/xa . . .
\6yov3 e<f>6fya.To irepl TWV cwrojSaii/eti/ /j.\\6vT(av } <pOeyy6/j.vov avrovs
ws T<$re yivopevuv % /cal yeyevi)/j.vuv. It is interesting to see that in
IV. Iv. 2, Irenaeus actually had given the future in this passage.
' ' Ipse infirmitates nostras accipiet et languores portabit. "
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 67, 68 129
shall be raised. And in bringing these things to
pass He shall be believed to be the Son of God.
68. And that He shall be despised and tormented
and in the end put to death, Isaiah says thus :
Behold, my son shall understand?- and shall be Isa. ii.
exalted and glorified greatly. Even as many shall I3 '
be astonished at thee, so without glory shall thy form
be from men. And many races shall be astonished,
and kings shall shut their mouths : for they to whom
it was not declared concerning him shall see, and they
who have not heard shall consider. Lord, who hath
believed our report ? and to whom hath the arm of the
Lord been revealed ? We declared before him as a
child, as a root in a dry ground : and there is to him
no form nor glory : and we saw him, and he had no
form nor beauty : and his form ivas without honour
meaner than that of other men : a man in chastise-
ment, and acquainted with the bearing of pain ; for
his face was turned away, he was dishonoured and
made of no account. He beareth our sins, and for
our sakes endureth pain : and we accounted him to .
be in pain and chastisement and affliction. But he
was wounded for our iniquities, and was tormented
for our sins. The discipline of our peace (was) upon
him ; by his stripes, we were healed. By these
words it is declared that He was tormented ; as
also David says : And I was tormented?' Now
1 The Arm. text gives the passive ("be understood ") ; but doubt-
less the LXX ffvvT)ffei was read : the difference is only in the final
letter.
2 The repetition in the Arm. of the word here rendered "tor-
mented " suggests that the same Greek verb would underlie the
words of the prophet (" was tormented for our sins") and of the
psalmist ("And I was tormented"). But in the former case we
and ^ejuaXa/atTTcu, and this verb does not occur in the LXX of the
130 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
David was never tormented, but Christ (was), when
the command was given that He should be cruci-
Isa. I. 6. fied. And again by Isaiah His Word says : I gave
my back to scourging, and my cheeks to smiting: and
my face I turned not away from the shame of spit-
ting^ And Jeremiah the prophet says the same,
Lam. iii. thus : He shall give his cheek to the smiter : he
shall be filled with reproaches. All these things
Christ suffered.
Isa. liii, 69. Now what follows in Isaiah is this : By
5 f ' his stripes we ivere healed. All we like sheep
went astray : a man in his way went astray : and
the Lord delivered him. up to oitr sins. It is mani-
fest therefore that by the will of the Father
these things occurred to Him for the sake of
Isa. liii. 7. our salvation. Then he says : And he by reason
of his suffering opened not (his) mouth : as a sheep to
the slaughter was he brought \ as a lamb 2 dumb before
the shearer. Behold how he declares His voluntary
Isa. liii. 8. coming to death. And when the prophet says : In
the humiliation his judgment was taken away t he
signifies the appearance of His humiliation : accord-
ing tcr the form of the abasement was the taking
away of judgment. And the taking away of
judgment is for some unto salvation, and to some
unto the torments of perdition. For there is a
taking away for a person, and also from a person.
Psalms. Probably the reference is to Ps. xxxviii. 8 (9),
taking up ev Ko/c&><rei and /ce/ca/c<S<r0cu of Isa. liii. 4, 7. For the
argument cf. Just. M. Ap. I, 35 : 6 /j.v AauetS . . . ouSei/ rovTwv
ZiraOev; /f.T.A.
1 Cf. C. 34.
2 The Arm. word for "lamb" in this place (amaru] seems to be
a Syriac loan-word : see the note in Dr. Weber's translation.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 69-71 131
So also with the judgment those for whom it is
taken away have it unto the torments of their
perdition : but those from whom it is taken away
are saved by it. Now those took away to them-
selves the judgment who crucified Him, and when
they had done this to Him believed not on Him : for
through that judgment which was taken away by
them they shall be destroyed with torments. And
from them that believe on Him the judgment is
taken away, and they are no longer under it. And
the judgment is that which by fire will be the
destruction of the unbelievers at the end of the
world.
70. Then he says : His generation who shall Isa. liii. 8.
declare ? This was said to warn us, lest on account
of His enemies and the outrage of His sufferings
we should despise Him as a mean and contemptible
man. For He who endured all this has an un-
declarable generation ; x for by generation He
means descent ; (for) He who is. His Father is
undeclarable and unspeakable. Know therefore
that such descent was His who endured these
sufferings ; and despise Him not because of the
sufferings which for thy sake He of purpose endured,
but fear Him because of His descent.
71. And in another place Jeremiah says: The Lam. iv.
Spirit of our face, the Lord Christ ; 2 and how He 20<
was taken in their snares, of whom we said, Under
his shadow we shall live among the Gentiles. That,
being (the) Spirit of God, Christ was to become a
1 IV, lv. 2 : " et inenarrabile habet genus." Cf. Just. M. Ap. I,
51 : b Tavra Trdcrxw avfKSi-fiyrirov fxet rb yevos : Dial. 43 and 76.
2 III, xi. 2: " Spiritus enim inquit faciei nostr<z Christus
Domimis." See for this whole passage Introd. p. 63.
132 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
suffering man the Scripture declares ; and is, as
it were, amazed and astonished at His sufferings,
that in such manner He was to endure sufferings,
under whose shadow we said that we should live.
And by shadow he means His body. 1 For just
as a shadow is made by a body, so also Christ's
body was made by His Spirit. 2 But, further, the
humiliation and contemptibility of His body he
indicates by the shadow. For, as the shadow of
bodies standing upright is upon the ground and
is trodden upon, so also the body of Christ fell
upon the ground by His sufferings and was
trodden on indeed. And he named Christ's body
a shadow, because the Spirit overshadowed it,
as it were, with glory and covered it. 8 Moreover
oftentimes when the Lord passed by, they laid
those who were held by divers diseases in the
way, and on whomsoever His shadow fell, they
were healed. 4
Isa. ivii. 72. And again the same prophet (says) thus
concerning the sufferings of Christ : Behold how
the righteous is destroyed, and no man layeth it to
heart ; and righteous men are taken away, and no
man understandeth. For from the face of iniquity
is the taking away of the righteous : peace shall be
his burial, he hath been taken away from the midst.
And who else is perfectly righteous, but the Son of
God, who makes righteous and perfects them that
believe on Him, who like unto Him are persecuted
1 Or " flesh," as elsewhere.
2 Cf. c. 59, ad -fin.
3 The words appear to mean literally : "the Spirit becoming as
it were a shadow with glory and covering it (or him)."
4 This is said of St Peter in Acts v. 15.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 72, 73 133
and put to death ? l But in saying : Peace shall be
his burial, he declares how on account of our
redemption He died : for it is in the peace of
redemption : and (also he declares) that by His
death those who aforetime were enemies and
opposed to one another, believing with one accord
upon Him, should have peace with one another,
becoming friends and beloved on account of their
common faith in Him ; as indeed they have be-
come. But in saying : He hath been taken away
from the midst, he signifies His resurrection from
the dead. Moreover because He appeared no
more after His death and burial, the prophet
declares that after dying and rising again He was
to remain immortal, (saying) thus : He asked life, p s . xxi.
and thou gavest (it) him, and length of days for 4-
ever and ever. Now what is this that he says,
He asked life, since He was about to die? He
proclaims His resurrection from the dead, and that
being raised from the dead He is immortal. For
He received both life, that He should rise, and
length of days for ever and ever, that He should
be incorruptible.
73. And again David says thus concerning the
death and resurrection of Christ : / laid me down Ps. iii. 5.
and slept: I awaked, for the Lord received me. 21
David said not this of himself, for he was not
raised after death : but the Spirit of Christ, who
(spake) also in other prophets concerning Him,
says here by David : / laid me down and slept : I
1 The same point about "the Just" and "just men" is made
by Justin (Ap. i, 48 ; Dial. no).
2 Cf. IV, xlviii. 2 ; Iv. 4.
134 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
awaked, for the Lord received me. By sleep he
means death ; for He arose again.
74. And again David (says) thus concerning the
Ps. ii. i f. sufferings of Christ : Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the people imagine vain things ? Kings rose
up on the earth, and princes were gathered together,
Cf. Acts against the Lord and his Anointed. For Herod
iv. 25 ff. the kmg . of the j ews and p ontius palate, the
governor of Claudius Caesar, 1 came together and
condemned Him to be crucified. For Herod
feared, as though He were to be an earthly king }
lest he should be expelled by Him from the
kingdom. But Pilate was constrained by Herod
and the Jews that were with him against his will
to deliver Him to death : (for they threatened
him) if he should not rather do this 2 than act
contrary to Caesar, by letting go a man who was
called a king.
75. And further concerning the sufferings of
Ps. Christ the same prophet says : Thou hast repelled
and despised us ; and hast cast away thine Anointed.
Thou hast broken the covenant of my z servant ;
thou hast cast his holiness to the ground. Thou
hast overthrown all his hedges ; thou hast made his
1 Pilate was procurator of Judaea for ten years (27-37). Claudius
did not become emperor until A.D. 42. The statement here made
is therefore inconsistent with the chronology of history : but it
agrees with the view, expressed in II, xxxiii. 2ff., that our Lord
reached cetatem seniorem, that is, an age between 40 and 50 : a
view which is largely based on John viii. 57 : "Thou art not yet
fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ? " For these words
seemed to Irenreus to show that He could not have been much less
than fifty at the time when they were spoken. See C. H. Turner's
art. " Chronology" in Hastings' Diet, of the Bible.
2 The Armenian is here uncertain.
3 Cf. c. 64 for a similar oversight.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 74~77 135
strongholds to tremble}- They that pass on the way
have ravaged him; he is become a reproach to his
neighbours. Thou hast exalted the right hand of his
oppressors ; tkou hast made his enemies to rejoice
over him. Thou hast turned away the help of his
sword, andgavest him not a hand in the battle. Thou
hast removed and thrown him down from purifica-
tion ; thou kast overturned his throne upon the ground.
Thou hast shortened the days of his time, and hast
poured forth shame upon him. That He should
endure these things, and that too by the will of
the Father, he manifestly declared : for by the will
of the Father He was to endure sufferings.
76. And Zechariah says thus : Sword, awake Zech. xiii.
against my shepherd, and against the man (that is] 7 '
my companion. Smite 2 the shepherd, and the sheep
of the flock shall be scattered. And this came to
pass when He was taken by the Jews : for all the
disciples forsook Him, fearing lest they should die
with Him. For not yet did they stedfastly believe
on Him, until they had seen Him risen from the
dead.
77. Again He says in the Twelve Prophets : 3
And they bound him and brought him as a present Hos. x. 6.
to the king. For Pontius Pilate was governor of
Judaea, and he had at that time resentful enmity
against Herod the king of the Jews. 4 But then,
when Christ was brought to him bound, Pilate sent
1 Lit. "for trembling."
2 "Smite" is in the singular, as in cod. A of the LXX, which
is here followed.
3 Cf. c. 93, and IV, xxix. 5 ; "in duodecim prophetis Malachias."
Often in Justin.
4 The same interpretation is given by Justin {Dial. 103).
K
136 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
Him to Herod, giving command to enquire of him,
that he might know of a certainty what he should
desire concerning Him ; making Christ a con-
venient occasion of reconciliation with the king.
78. And in Jeremiah He thus declares His
death and descent into hell, saying : And the Lord
the Holy One of Israel^ remembered his dead, which
aforetime fell asleep in the dust of the earth ; and he
went down unto them, to bring the tidings of his
salvation, to deliver them}- In this place He also
renders the cause of His death : for His descent
into hell was the salvation of them that had passed
away.
79. And, again, concerning His cross Isaiah says
Tsa. Ixv. thus : / have stretched out my hands all the day long
2 - to a disobedient and gainsaying people. For this is
an indication of the cross. 2 And yet more mani-
Ps. xxii. festly David says : Hunting-dogs encompassed me : 3
l6 - the assembly of evil-doers came about me. They
pierced my hands and my feet. And again he says :
Ps. xxii. My heart became even as wax melting in the midst
14, 17.
1 This is one of the prophecies which Justin declared the Jews
had erased from their Scriptures {Dial. 72). It is quoted several
times by Irenseus : III, xxii. I (as from Isaiah) ; IV, xxxvi. I (as
from Jeremiah, to whom Justin had attributed it) ; 1. I (an allusion
only); Iv. 3 ("alii autem dicentes: Rememoratus . . . causam
reddiderunt propter quam passus est hsec oninia") ; V, xxxi. I
(with variations, and no name of author).
2 Cf. c. 46 : Barn. XII. 4: Just. M. Ap. I, 35.
3 Justin (Dial. 104) quotes the passage with KVVCS iroAA.cn' (as
LXX), but in his comment says : obs Kal itvvas KoAet /coi Kwyyots.
Jerome, in his Psalter translated from the Hebrew, has " venatores,"
apparently after Symmachus or Theodotion (see Field, Origenis
Hexapla, ad. loc.). The Arm. is literally "dogs hunter"; but
"hunter" is used adjectivally, and the two words signify "hounds."
Why woAAo/ should have disappeared and "hunter" have taken its
place does not seem to be explained by these curious parallels.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 78-81 137
of my body ;^ and they put asunder* my bones, and
again he says : Spare my soul from the sword and'??,, xxii.
nail my flesh : for the assembly of evil-doers hath ^ . c ^:
risen up against me? In these words with mani- 16.
fest clearness he signifies that He should be
crucified. And Moses says this same thing to the
people, thus : A nd thy life shall be hanged up before Deut.
thine eyes, and thou s halt fear by day and by night > xxvm - 66 -
and tjiou shalt not believe in thy life.
80. And again David says : They looked upon me, Ps. xxii.
they parted my garments among them, and upon my ^ '
vesture they cast lots. For at His crucifixion the
soldiers parted His garments as they were wont ;
and the garments they parted by tearing ; but for Cf. John
the vesture, because it was woven from the top and X1X ' 23 '
was not sewn, they cast lots, that to whomsoever it
should fall he should take it.
8 1. And again Jeremiah the prophet says: A nd Matt
they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him j^JJ' xi*
that was sold, whom they bought from the children 13)-
of Israel ; and they gave them for the potter's field,
as the Lord commanded me. For Judas, being one
of Christ's disciples, agreed with the Jews and
covenanted with them, when he saw they desired
to kill Him, because he had been reproved by Him '
and he took the thirty staters 4 of the province, and cf. Matt.
betrayed Christ unto them : and then, repenting of XXVK J 5-
1 Lit. Koi\las.
z Or " they sent far" : apparently for e'l^pi^Tjo-av of Ps. xxii. 17.
3 " Nail my flesh " comes from the LXX. of Ps. cxix. 120, where
A. V. has " My flesh trembleth for fear of thee." Cf. Barn. V, 13 :
Qelffai /JLOV rrjs i^uxfjs a7rb po/j.<paias teal K.aQ-i)Xwar6v ftov ras (rdpicas,
on irovripevo/jLevcav awaryciiyal eTravfffrrjffdv fiot.
4 In Matt. xxvi. 15 Cod. Bezae and some other authorities have
rrrarripas for dpyvpia.
138 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
what he had done, he gave the silver back again to
the rulers of the Jews, and hanged himself. But
they, thinking it not right to cast it into their
treasury, because it was the price of blood, bought
with it the ground that was a certain potter's for
the burial of strangers.
Cf. Matt. 82. And at His crucifixion, when He asked a
** h vll x .34- drink, they gave Him to drink vinegar mingled
29. with gall. And this was declared through David :
Ps. ixix. They gave gall to my meat, and in my thirst they
gave me vinegar to drink}
83. And that, being raised from the dead, He
Ps. Ixviii. was to ascend into heaven, David says thus : The
17 ' chariot of God (is) ten-thousandfold, thousands are
the drivers : 2 the Lord (is) among them in Sinai in
Eph. iv. 8. (his) sanctuary. He ascended up on high, he led
captivity captive : he received, he gave gifts to men-
And by captivity he means the destruction of the
rule of the apostate angels. 3 He declares also the
place where He was to ascend into heaven from
the earth. For the Lord, he says, from Sion
ascended up on high.^ For over against Jerusalem,
1 The Arm. probably represents 'Ev 8e T< (rravpa^vai avr6v.
The oos /xT& x^ s ft*/wyM<fw in Matt, xxvii. 34 (oos A etc. ;
dlvov XBD etc.) was before crucifixion, when "He would not
drink." " When He asked a drink " on the cross (Joh. xix. 29),
they gave Him o|os: but some MSS. add //era x o ^ s - Cf. Barn.
VII, 3, 5 ; Ev. Petr. 5.
2 As though reading svQvvovriov (as some MSS. of LXX) for
fvBijvovfrcav : so too in the Arm. Psalter, which in the next verse
has after " captive " : " He received booty, he distributed gifts, and
gave to the sons of men." It is possible therefore that here "he
received, he gave " is a reminiscence of his own Psalter on the part
of the translator.
3 Just. M. Dial. 39 : irpoetfujTevQr) aiX^^-WTeOtTat avrbv TJ/HUS airb
rrjs Tr\di/r)s /cal SoDfai TJ/JUV Sahara.
4 This is not a fresh quotation, but part of the comment on the
passage before quoted : "The Lord ... in Sinai in his sanctuary :
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 82-85 J 39
on the mount which is called (the Mount) of
Olives, after He was risen from the dead, He
assembled His disciples, and expounded to them
the things concerning the kingdom of heaven ;
and they saw that He ascended, and they saw how
the heavens were opened and received Him.
84. And the same jays David again : Lift up p s . xxiv.
your gates, ye rulers ; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting 7<
gates, and the King of glory shall come in. For the
everlasting gates are the heavens. But because
the Word descended invisible to created things, He
was not made known in His descent to them.
Because the Word was made flesh, He was visible
in His ascension ; and, when the powers saw Him,
the angels below cried out to those who were on
the firmament: Lift up your gates; and be ye lift up,
ye everlasting gates, that the King of glory may come
in. And when they marvelled and said : Who is p s . xxiv.
this ? those who had already seen Him testified a 8 ff -
second time : The Lord strong and mighty, he is the
King of glory }-
85. And being raised from the dead and exalted
at the Father's right hand, He awaits the time
appointed by the Father for the judgment, when
all enemies shall be put under Him. Now the
enemies are all those who were found in apostasy,
angels and archangels and powers and thrones,
who despised the truth. And the prophet David
he ascended upon high." Irenieus seems to have taken it as
though it were " in Sion in his sanctuary."
1 Justin's interpretation (Dial. 36) makes the humble form of
our Lord's humanity (oetSr/s /cal O.TL/U.OS) the reason why He is not at
once recognized. The interpretation given by Irenceus corresponds
to that of the Ascension of Isaiah : see Introd. p. 43.
140 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
Ts. ex, i. himself says thus : The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
on my right hand> until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. And that He ascended thither, whence
Ps. xix. 6. He had come down, David says : From the end
of heaven is his going forth, and his cessation even at
the end of heaven. Then he signifies his judgment :
A nd there is none that shall be hid from his heatl
86. If then the prophets prophesied that the Son
of God was to appear upon the earth, and
prophesied also where on the earth and how and in
what manner He should make known His appear-
ance, and all these prophecies the Lord took upon
Himself; our faith in Him was well-founded, and
the tradition of the preaching (is) true : that is to
say, the testimony of the apostles, who being sent
forth by the Lord preached in all the world the
Son of God, who came to suffer, and endured
to the destruction of death and the quickening of
the flesh : that by the putting away of the enmity
towards God, which is unrighteousness, we should
obtain peace with Him, doing that which is
pleasing to Him. And this was declared by the
Rom. x. prophets in the words : How beautiful are the feet
15 (Isa. O j: them that bring tidings of peace, and of them that
bring tidings ef good things? 1 And that these were
to go forth from Judaea and from Jerusalem,
to declare to us the word of God, which is the law 3
Isa. ii. 3. for us, Isaiah says thus : For from Sion shall come
1 The same interpretation in IV, Iv. 4 : " quoniam illuc assumptus
est unde et descendit, et non est qui justum judicium ejus effugiat."
2 Quoted with a small difference in III, xiii. i.
3 See the comment on the same text in IV, Ivi. 3 f. : " Si autem
libertatis lex, id est, verbum Dei ab apostolis qui ab Hierusalem
exierunt annuntiatum," etc.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 86-88 141
forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem. And that in all the earth they were to
preach, David says : Into all the earth went forth PS. xix. 4.
their speech, and their words to the ends of the
world.
87. And that not by the much-speaking of the Cf. Matt,
law, but by the brevity of faith and love, men were vl> 7>
to be saved, Isaiah says thus : A ivord brief and Rom. ix.
short in righteousness : for a short word will God*. 22*!).
make in the whole world. And therefore the
apostle Paul says : Love is the fulfilling of the law : Rom. xiii.
for he who loves God has fulfilled the law. More- Ic
over the Lord, when He was asked which is the
first commandment, said : Thou shalt love the Lord Matt.
thy God with all . thy heart and with all thy Marie xii.
strength}- And tJie second is like unto it: Thou 3f-
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two
commandments, He says, all the law hangeth and
the prophets. So then by our faith in Him He
has made our love to God and our neighbour to
grow, making us godly and righteous and good.
And therefore a short word has God made on the
earth in the world.
88. And that after His ascension He was to be
exalted above all, and that there shall be none
to be compared and equalled unto Him, Isaiah
says thus : 2 Who is he that entereth into judgment isa. 1. 8 f.;
(with me] ? Let him stand up against (me). And 11 ' I7 '
1 For the abbreviation of the " First Commandment " cf. Just. M.
Dial. 93.
2 Almost the same comment is found in IV, Iv. 4, where the
same combination of texts is made : " Quisquisjudicatur, ex adverse
adstet ; et quisquis justificatur, appropinquet puero Dei (Arm.
Domini) ; et vje vobis ... in altissimis."
142 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
who is he who is justified ? Let him draw near to
the Lord's Son. Woe unto you, for ye shall grow old
as a garment, and the moth shall devour you. And
all flesh shall be humbled and abased, and the Lord
alone shall be exalted in the highest. And that
in the end by His name they should be saved who
Isa. Ixv. served God, Isaiah says : And on those who serve me
a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed
upon the earth: and they shall bless the true God.
And that this blessing He Himself should bring
about, and Himself should redeem us by His
Isa. Ixiii. own blood, Isaiah declared, saying : No mediator,
9 ' no angel, but the Lord himself saved them ; because
he loved them and spared them : he himself redeemed
them}-
89. That He would not send back the redeemed
to the legislation of Moses for the law was fulfilled
in Christ but would have them live 2 in newness
by the Word, through faith in the Son of God
Isa. xliii. and love, Isaiah declared, saying : Remember not the
former things, nor bring to mind the things that
were in the beginning. Behold I make new (things) >
which shall now spring up, and ye shall know
(them}. And I will make in tJie wilderness a way,
and in the waterless place streams, to give drink to
my chosen race, and to my people whom I have
purchased to declare my virtues? Now a wilderness
and a waterless place was at first the calling of the
Gentiles : for the Word had not passed through
1 Cf. 0.94. In III, xxii. i we have ; " Neque senior (
LXX) neque angelus."
2 The word means more especially " to live in freedom."
3 Quoted in IV, Iv. 5, with a brief comment,
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 89, 90 143
them, 1 nor given them the Holy Spirit to drink ; 2
who fashioned the new way of godliness and
righteousness, and made copious streams to spring
forth, disseminating over the earth the Holy
Spirit ; even as it had been promised through the
prophets, that in the end of the days He should
pour out the Spirit upon the face of the earth.
90. Therefore by newness of the spirit is our Cf. Rom.
calling, and not in the oldness of the letter ; 3 even V11< 6 *
as Jeremiah prophesied : Behold the days come, Jer. xxxi.
saith the Lord, that 1 will accomplish for the house Heb.'viii
of Israel and for the house of Judah the covenant 8 ff.
of the testament 1 ^ which I covenanted with their
fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to
lead them out of the land of Egypt : because they
continued not in the covenant, and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant of the
testament that I will covenant with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord : I will put
my laivs 5 into their minds, and write them in their
hearts ; and I will be to them a God, and they
shall be to me a people : and they shall not teach any
more every man his neighbour, and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall
1 IV, xxv. 2. : " per omnes illos transiens Verbum," in connexion
with " the voice of many waters."
2 The Greek doubtless was : ouSe irvfv/j.a ayiov eVJ-rterei/ avrovs :
and the context shows that Trvev/j.0. must be taken as accusative.
For the general thought of the passage cf. Ill, xviii. I f.
3 I have followed the simple emendation suggested by the
editors: the printed text has " not in our oldness."
4 After ia()T)KT]v the words Kaiv4\v, ov Kara rrjv Siafl^j/ojv must
have been missed by the scribe or translator. "The covenant
of the testament " is only a double rendering of tiiad-nK-nv : such
double renderings occur several times in this quotation, but I have
not retained them in every case.
5 Lit. " giving my la\\s "; cf. Heb. viii. 10.
144 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
know me, from the least to the greatest of them.
For I will pardon and be merciful unto the sins
of their iniquities, and their sins will I remember
no more.
91. And that these promises the calling from
among the Gentiles should inherit, to whom also
the new testament was opened up, 1 Isaiah says
Isa. xvii. thus : These things saith the God of Israel: In that
17 ' day a man shall trust* 1 in his Maker, and his eyes
shall look to the Holy One of Israel: and they shall
not trust in altars, nor in the work of their own
hands, which their fingers have made. For very
plainly this was said of such as have forsaken idols
and believed in God our Maker through the
Holy One of Israel. And the Holy One of
Israel is Christ : and He became visible to men,
and to Him we look eagerly and behold Him ;
and we trust not in altars, nor in the works of
our hands.
92. And that He should become visible 3 amongst
us for the Son of God became Son of man and
be found of us who before had no knowledge (of
Isa. ixv. Him), the Word Himself says thus in Isaiah : /
* became manifest to them that sought me not ; I was
found of them that asked not for me. I said,
Behold, here am I, to a race that called not on my
name.
93. And that this race was to become an holy
people was declared in the Twelve Prophets 4 by
Rom. ix. Hosea, thus : / will call that which was not (my]
25 f. (Hos.
ii. 23, i. * Cf. c. 8, and note there.
10). z Or " hope " : and so twice below.
3 Or " manifest," as in the quotation below.
4 Cf. c. 77. For the quotation cf. I, iv. I ; IV, xxxiv. 12.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 91-94 145
people, my people ; and her that was not beloved,
beloved. It shall come to pass that in the place
where it was called not my people, there shall they be
called sons of the Living God. This also is that
which was said by John the Baptist : That God Matt. ill.
is able of these stones to raise up sons to Abraham. 9 '
For our hearts being withdrawn and taken away
from the stony worship * by means of faith behold
God, and become sons of Abraham, who was
justified by faith. And therefore God says by
Ezekiel the prophet : And I will give them another Ezek. xi,
heart, and a new spirit will I give them : and I will I9 f *
withdraw and take away the stony heart from their
flesh, and I will give them another heart of flesh:
so that they shall walk in my precepts, and shall
keep my ordinances and do them. And they shall
be to me for a people, and I will be to them for a God.
94. So then by the new calling a change of
hearts in the Gentiles came to pass through the
Word of God, when He was made flesh and taber-
nacled with men ; as also His disciple John says :
And his Word was made flesh and dwelt among Johni. i
us. Wherefore the Church beareth much fruit of
the redeemed : because no longer Moses (as)
mediator nor Elijah (as) messenger, 2 but the Lord
Himself has redeemed us, granting many more
children to the Church than to the first Synagogue ; 3
1 IV, xiii. I : " a lapidum religione extrahens nos."
2 Rendering the Greek 776 \os. Cf. c. 88.
3 Both the German translations take the passage to mean:
"granting many children to the Church, the assembly of the first-
born." But it is hard to get this out of the Armenian text, which
has "first" and not "first-born." It seems certain that there
is a contrast between "the Church" and " the first Synagogue "
(whose husband was the Law, as is said below). The text can
146 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
Isa. liv. i ; as Isaiah declared, saying : Rejoice thou barren,
2 7 * ' that didst not bear. The barren is the Church,
which never at all in former times presented sons
to God. Cry out and call, thou that didst not
travail: for the children of the desolate are more than
of her which hath an husband. Now the first
Synagogue had as husband the Law.
95. Moreover Moses in Deuteronomy says that
Cf. Deut. the Gentiles should be the head, and the unbelieving
Deut! 44 ' P eo pl e the tail. And again he says : Ye provoked
xxxii. 21 ; me to jealousy with those that are no gods, and
19. angered me with your idols : and I will provoke you
to jealousy with that which is no nation, and with
a foolish nation will I anger you. Because they
forsook the God who is, and worshipped and served
the gods who are not ; and they slew the prophets
Cf. Jer. ii. of God, and prophesied for Baal, who was the idol
of the Canaanites. And the Son of God, who
is, x they despised and condemned, but they chose
Barabbas the robber who had been taken for
murder : and the eternal King 2 they disavowed,
and they acknowledged as their king the temporal
Caesar. (So) it pleased God to grant their
inheritance to the foolish Gentiles, even to those
who were not of the polity of God and knew not
what God is. Since, then, by this calling life has
been given (us), and God has summed up again
for Himself in us the faith of Abraham, we ought
easily be amended so as to give the meaning required. Cf. IV,
xlviii. i. f : "duaesynagog3e...fructificantes...filios vivos vivo Deo " ;
III, vi. i: " Ecclesia, hsec enim est synagoga Dei." For the
quotation and its interpretation cf. Just. M. Ap. I, 53.
1 In the Arm. "who is" refers to "the Son,"
2 Cf. 36, 56, 66.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 95, 96 147
not to turn back any more I mean, to the first
legislation. For we have received the Lord of the
Law, the Son of God ; and by faith in Him we
learn to love God with all our heart, and our
neighbour as ourselves. Now the love of God is
far from all sin, 1 and love to the neighbour worketh Cf. Rom
no ill to the neighbour. xiii * Ia
96. Wherefore also we need not the Law as a
tutor. Behold, with the Father we speak, and in
His presence we stand, being children in malice? ^ Cor
and grown strong in all righteousness and sober- xiv. 20.
ness. For no longer shall the Law say, Do not Ex
commit adultery, to him who has no desire at all 13 k;
for another's wife ; and Thou shalt not kill, to him R 6 ^' v *
who has put away from himself all anger and
enmity ; (and) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour s
field or ox or ass, to those who have no care at all
for earthly things, but store up the heavenly fruits :
nor An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, to EX. xxi.
him who counts no man his enemy, but all men 2 4-
his neighbours, and therefore cannot stretch out
his hand at all for vengeance. It will not require
tithes of him who consecrates all his possessions to
God, 3 leaving father and mother and all his kindred,
and following the Word of God. And there will
be no command to remain idle for one day of rest,
to him who perpetually keeps sabbath, 4 that is to
1 Dr Rendel Harris ( Testimonies I, 66) has pointed out that this
is a reminiscence of Polycarp, Ep. ad Phil. 3 ; 'O 70^ e^wv ayairyv
fj.a.Kpdv effriv ira.at]S apapTias- 2 Cf. c. 46.
8 IV, xxxi. I : " illi quidem decimas suorum habebant consecratas :
qui autem perceperunt libertatem, omnia quse sunt ipsorum ad
dominicos decernunt usus."
4 Just. M. Dial. 12 : ffaPftarifciv v/j.as 6 itaivbs v6/j.os 5ta iravrbs
9eA.6{, /cal u/uets ptav apyovvres 7]/J.epav evffe&e'iv So/fetYe.
148 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
say, who in the temple of God, which is man's body,
does service to God, and in every hour works
Hos. vi. righteousness. For I desire mercy^ He saith, and
not sacrifice ; and the knowledge of God more than
Isa. Ixvi. burnt offerings. Btit the wicked that sacrificeth to me
a calf is as if he should kill a dog; and that offereth
Joel ii. fine flour \ as though (he offered} swine's blood. But
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
Cf. Acts be saved. And there is none other name of the
Lord given under heaven whereby men are saved,
save that of God, which is Jesus Christ the Son of
God, to which also the demons are subject and
evil spirits and all apostate energies.
97. By the invocation of the name of Jesus
Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, 1 there is a
separation and division among mankind ; and
wheresoever any of those who believe on Him
shall invoke and call upon Him and do His will }
He is near and present, fulfilling the requests of
those who with pure hearts call upon Him.
Whereby receiving salvation, we continually give
thanks to God, ,who by His great, inscrutable and
unsearchable wisdom delivered us, and proclaimed
the salvation from heaven to wit, the visible
coming of our Lord, that is, His living as man 2
Luke to which we by ourselves could not attain : for the
xvni. 27. fhings w hi cn are impossible with men are possible
with God? Wherefore also Jeremiah saith con-
Bar, iii. cerning her (i.e. wisdom): Who hath gone lip into
1 II, xlix. 3 : 'Ev T< ov6/j.an '\f\ffov Xpiffrov, rov ffTavpooOevros eVt '
Uovriov neiAarov. Cf. Just. M. Ap. ii.,6, Dial. 30, 76, 85. These
words should be taken with c. 96 : see Add. Note on p. 151.
" Suggesting the Greek rfy avOpcairi^v avrov TroXireiav.
3 So quoted in IV, xxxiv. 5.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 97 149
heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from
the clouds ? Who hath gone over the sea, found her,
and will bring her for choice gold ? There is none
that hath found her way, nor any that comprehendeth
her path. But he that knoweth all things knoweth her
by his understanding: he that prepareth the earth
for evermore, hath filled it with four-footed beasts .- 1
he that sendeth forth the light and it goeth ; he called
it, and it obeyed him with fear : and the stars shined
in their watches, and were glad : he called them, and
they said Here we be ; they shined with gladness
unto him that made them. This is our God: there
shall none other be accounted of in comparison with
him. He hath found out every way by knowledge,
and hath given it unto Jacob his servant, and to
Israel that is beloved of him. Afterward did he
appear upon earth, and was conversant with men.
This is the book of the commandments of God, and
of the law which endureth for ever. All they that
hold it fast (are appointed] to life : but such as leave
it shall die. Now by Jacob and Israel he means
the Son of God, who received power from the
Father over our life, and after having received this
brought it down to us who were far off from Him,
when He appeared on earth and was conversant with
men, mingling and mixing 2 the Spirit of God the
1 The Arm. for "beasts" (/cTajj/oh/) is here "fat (things)."
2 With the whole of this passage compare IV, xxxiv. 4 fif.,
especially the words " pnedicaverunt ejus secundum carnem adven-
tum, per quern commixtio et communio Dei et hominis secundum
placitum Patrisfacta est ; ab initio praenuntiante Verbo Deiquoniam
vidcbitur Deus ab hominibus et conversabitur cum eis super terrain
et colloqueretur et adfuturus esset suo plasmati " ; and " pnesignifi-
cabant igitur prophetoe quoniam videbitur Deus ab hominibus," words
which come again a little further on.
150 THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE
Father with the creature formed by God, 1 that
man might be after the image and likeness of God. 2
98. This, beloved, is the preaching of the truth,
and this is the manner of our redemption, and this
is the way of life, which the prophets proclaimed,
and Christ established, and the apostles delivered,
and the Church in all the world hands on to her
children. 3 This must we keep with all certainty,
with a sound will and pleasing to God, with good
works and right-willed disposition.
99. So that none should imagine God the Father
to be other than our Creator, as the heretics
imagine ; (for) they despise the God who is, and
make gods of that which 'is not ; and they fashion a
Father of their own above our Creator, and imagine
that they have found out for themselves something
greater than the truth. For all these are impious
and blasphemers against their Creator and against
the Father, as we have shown in the Exposure
and Overthrow of Knowledge falsely so-called. And
others again reject the coming of the Son of God
and the dispensation of His incarnation, which
the apostles delivered and the prophets declared
beforehand, even such as should be the summing
up of mankind, as we have shown you in brief:
and such also are reckoned amongst those who
are lacking in faith. And others receive not the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, and cast away from them-
1 Lit. " with the formation (plasma) of God."
2 Cf. c. 32: V, i. 3, ii. I, xxxvi. i, and elsewhere.
3 The same language is found in the preface to Bk. V : " quod
prophetae quidem prceconaverunt . . . perfecit autem Christus,
apostoli vero tradiderunt, a quibus ecclesia accipiens, per universum
mundum sola bene custodiens, tradidit filiis suis : " and similar
language.in II. xlvii. 2.
APOSTOLIC PREACHING, 98-100 151
selves the prophetic grace, 1 watered whereby man
bears the fruit of life unto God : and these are they
of whom Isaiah speaks : For they shall be, saith he, isa. i. 30.
as an oak that is stripped of leaves, and as a garden
that hath no water. And such are in no wise
serviceable to God, seeing that they cannot bear
any fruit.
100. So then in respect of the three points 2 of
our seal error has strayed widely from the truth.
For either they reject the Father, or they accept
not the Son and speak against the dispensation of
His incarnation ; or else they receive not the
Spirit, that is, they reject prophecy. And of all
such must we beware, and shun their ways, if in
very truth we desire to be well-pleasing to God
and to attain the redemption that is from Him.
1 III, xi. 12 : "propheticam vero gratiam repellunt ab ecclesia."
2 Lit. "heads": cf. cc. 6 f .
ADDITIONAL NOTE. A new instalment has now appeared of the
Patrologia Orientalis (XII. 5 : Paris, 1919), containing a reprint of
the Armenian text, with a translation into English by the discoverer,
Ter-Mekerttschian, and Dr S. G. Wilson. This is followed by a
much more accurate translation into French by the late Pere
Barthoulout, S.J., formerly a missionary in Armenia. Among
other valuable notes he points out that the opening words of c. 97
have been wrongly separated from the preceding chapter. The next
sentence would then appear to mean : " He is separated and with-
drawn from among men, and (yet) wheresoever," etc.
On p. 78, n. 5. Compare the fragment attributed to Victorinus
of Pettau, printed by Routh, RelL III, 458 : " Summum ergo
ccelum sapientke," etc. The common source maybe "the Elders"
or Papias.
INDEX LOCORUM
An asterisk (*) signifies an allusion only. References within brackets are to
Harvey's edition of Irenaeus.
Gen. i, I : c. 43 [I, 11,4; II,
5,2]
i, 26 : cc. 32, 55 [often]
ii, 5: c. 32 [III, 30, i]
ii, i6f. : c. 15 [V, 23, i]
ii, i8f. : c. 13
ii, 21 ff. : c. 13
ii, 25 : c. 14 [III, 32, i]
iv, i : c. 17
iv, 25 : c. 17*
ix, i ff. : c. 22 [V, 14, i]
ix, 14 f. : c. 22
ix, 26 f. :c. 21 [111,5,3]
xi, i : c. 22
xv, 5 : c. 24 [III, 9, I ; IV,
12, i ; 13, i]
xv, 6 : cc. 24, 35 [IV, 10, i ;
15, i]
xvn, 8 : c. 24
xviii, I ff . : c. 44
xix, 24 : c. 44 [III, 6, i ; IV,
20, i ; 58, 3 f.]
xxviii, 12 f. : c. 45
xlix, lof. : c. 57 [IV, 20, 2]
Ex. iii, 7f. : c. 46 [IV, 14, i;
23, i]
iii, 14 : c. 2 [III, 6, 2]
xv, 27 : c. 46*
xvii, 9ff. : c. 46* [IV, 38, I ;
50, i]
xx, 13 ff. : c. 96
xxi, 24 : c. 96
xxv, 40: c. 9 [IV, 25, 3;
32, i]
xxxi, 1 8 : c. 26
xxxiv, 28 : c. 26
Num. xxiv, 17 : c. 58 [III, 9, 2]
Deut. v, I7ff. : c. 96
xxviii, 44 : c. 95*
xxviii, 66 : c. 79 [IV, 20, 2 ;
V, 1 8, 2]
xxxii, 21 : c. 95
xxxii, 49 f. : c. 29
xxxiv, 5 : c. 29
Ps. i, i : c. 2
ii, if.: c. 74
ii, 7 f. : c. 49 [IV, 35, 3]
iii, 5 : c. 73 [IV, 48, 2 ; 55,
4]
xix, 4 : cc. 21, 86
xix, 6 : c. 85 [IV, 55, 4]
xxii, 14-20 : cc. 79 f.
xxiv, 7-10 : c. 84 [IV, 55, 4]
xxxiii, 6 : c. 5 [I, 15, I ; III,
8,3]
xlv, 6f. : c. 47 [III, 6,1 ; IV,
55, i]
Ixviii, I7f. : c. 83 [II, 32, 2]
Ixix, 21 : c. 82 [III, 20, 2 ;
IV, 55, 3]
Ixxii, 17 : c. 43
Ixxxix, 39-46 : c. 75
civ, 15 : c. 57*
ex, i : c. 85 [often]
ex, 3 : c. 43
ex, 1-7 : cc. 48 f.
cxix, 120: c. 79
cxxxii, 10 ff. : c. 64 [III, 9, 2]
cxxxii, ii : c. 36 [III, II, 4 ;
17, I ; 26, i]
Isa. i, 30: c. 99
ii, 3: c. 86 [IV, 56, 3]
ii, 17: c. 88 [IV, 55, 4]
vii, 9 : c. 3
vii, 14 ff. :cc. 53 f., 57 [often]
ix, 5 ff. : cc. 54 ff.
ix, 6: c. 40 [III, 17, 3 ; 20,
2; IV, 55, 2]
x, 22 f. : c. 87
xi, i-io : cc. 59 ff. [Ill, 10,
i ; IV, 41, i ; 50, i 5 V,
33, 3]
xi, 2f. : c. 9 [III, 10, I ; 18,
if.]
xvii, 7f. : c. 91
xxvi, 19 : c. 67 [IV, 55, 2 ;
V, 15, i ; 34, I]
xxix, 18 : c. 67
152
INDEX 153
Isa.xxxv, 3-6 : c. 67 [III, 21, 2 ; Matt, viii, 17 : c. 67
IV, 55, 2] xxi, 5 : c. 65
xxxv, 10 : c. 47* xxii, 37 f. : c. 87
xl, 12: c. 45 [IV, 33, i] xxvi, 15: c. 81
xliii, 10 : c. 5* [IV, 8, 3] xxvii, 9 f . : c. 81
xliii, 18-21 : c. 89 [IV, 55, 5] xxvii, 34 : c. 82
xlv, i : c. 49 Mark xii, 30 f. : c. 87
xlix, 5 f. : c. 50 Luke xviii, 27 : c. 97 [IV, 13, 5]
1, 5f. : cc. 34, 68 [IV, 55, 3] John i, i ff. : c. 43 [often]
1, 8f. c. 88 [IV, 55, 4] i, 14 : cc. 31, 94 [often]
lii, 7 : c. 86 [III, 13, i] xix, 23 f. : c. 80*
Hi, 13-53, 8: cc. 67 ff. [often] xix, 29 : c. 82
liv, i : c. 94 [I, 4, i] Acts iv, 12 : c. 96* [III, 12, 4]
Ivii, i f. : c. 72 [IV, 56, 4] iv, 25 ff. : c. 74 [III, 12, 5]
Ixi, i : c. 53 [III, 10, i ; 18, v, 15 : c. 71
i 5 19, 3 ; IV, 37, i] vii, 3 : c. 24
Ixii, 1 1 : c. 65 vii, 14 : c. 25
Ixiii, 9 : c. 88 [III, 22, i] vii, 49 : c. 45
Ixv, i : c. 92 [III, 6, i ; 10, i] Rom. ii, 4ff. : c. 8 [IV, 59, i]
Ixv, 2 : c. 79 [IV, 55, 2] iv, 3 : cc. 24, 35
Ixv, 15 f. : c. 88 iv, ii : c. 24 [IV, 39, i]
Ixvi, i : c. 45 [IV, 4, i] iv, 13 : c. 35
Ixvi, 3 : c. 96 [IV, 31, 2] vii, 6 : c. 90
Ixvi, 7 : c. 54 ix, 25 f. : c. 93
Jer, ii, 8 : c. 95* ix, 28 : c. 87
xxxi, 31-34: c. 90 [IV, 18, x, 15: c. 86 [III, 13, i]
i 5 55, 5] *. 19: c. 95
Lam. iii, 30 : c. 68 xiii, 10 : cc. 87, 95 [IV, 22, 2]
iv, 20 : c. 71 [III, II, 2] i Cor. x, 4 : c. 46* [IV, 25, 3]
Ezek. xi, 19 f. : c. 93 xiv, 20 : cc. 46, 96 [IV, 44, 3]
Hos. i, 10: c. 93 Gal. iii, n : c. 35
ii, 23 : c. 93 [I, 4, i ; IV, 24, iv, 6 : c. 5 [IV, 19, i]
12] iv, 27: c. 94
vi, 6: c. 96 [IV, 29, 5] Eph. i, 10: c. 30 [often]
x, 6 : c. 77 iv, 6 : c. 5 [II, 2, 5 ; IV, 34,
Joel ii, 32 : c. 96 2 ; 49, 2 ; V, 18, i]
Amos ix, ii: cc. 38, 62 iv, 8 : c. 83
Mic. v, 2 ; c. 63 Phil, ii, 8 : c. 34 [III, 12, II ;
Zech. ix, 9 : c. 65 IV, 38, 2 ; V, 16, 2]
xi, 13 : c. 81 ii, 15 : c. 35 [IV, 10, i ; 13, i]
xiii, 7 : c. 76 Col. i, 18 : c. 40 [IV, 34, 2]
Bar. iii, 29-iv, i : c. 97 [IV, 34, I Tim. i, 9 : c. 35 [IV, 27, 3]
4f.] . Heb. i, 8f. : c. 47
Matt, i, 23 : c. 54* viii, 8 ff. : c. 90
ii, i-u : c. 58* [III, 10, i] Rev. i, 5 : c. 38 f. [Ill, 32, I ;
ii, 6: c. 63 IV, 3, 2; 34, 2]
iii, 9 : c. 93 [often]
GENERAL INDEX
Angel : applied to Christ, 27,
119: for Malachi, 47
Animals, concord among : 124 f.
Apocryphal quotations from
"Jeremiah": 22 f., 108, 136
Apostolic Constitutions : 40 f. ,
44
Athenagoras: 25, 27 ff., 50
Barnabas, Epistle of: 94, 98,
104, in, 113, 118, 136 ff.
Cherubim and Seraphim : 39 ff. ,
79
Christ: meaning of, i6ff. ; Name
of, I24f.
Claudius Caesar : 134
Clementine Homilies : 53, 94
Cross, prefigurationsofthe: 28f.,
100 f., 120, 136 f.
Deuteronomy, meaning of: 96
Diognetus, Epistle to : 118
Elders, the : disciples of apostles,
72, 101, 124, 151
Enoch, Book of: 85
Secrets of: 40, 77
God : Two Hands of, 51 ff., 80 ;
Finger of, 93 f.
Heavens, Seven :4i ff., 77 ,151
Hebrews, Gospel ace. to : 33
Hernias, Shepherd of: 73
Hippolytus : 72, 74, 77, 88, 96,
104
Isaiah, Ascension of: 41 ff., 78,
139
Jacobi, Protevangelium : 122
Jesus : meaning of, 16 ff. ; power
of the Name, 94 f., 148
Justin Martyr : parallels in, 6-
23 78, 84, 86, 89, 94, 99 ff.,
io8ff., 113 ff., 117 f., I2of.,
123, 126 ff., 130 f., 133, 135 f.,
I38f., 141, I46ff. : on the
Holy Spirit, 24-34
Lactantius : 23
Liturgy of St Basil : 81 ; of St
Mark, 40 ; of Serapion, 39
Malachi : see Angel
Papias: 81, 124, 151
Paradise : 81 ff.
Pascha, as Passion : 93
Peter, Apocalypse of: 81 ; Gos-
pel of: 138
Plato: 28 f., 10 1
Polycarp, Epistle of: 147
Satan, meaning of: 84
Serapion, Litiugyof: 39
Spirit, the Holy : glorifies the
Father, 39 ff., 79 : as Wisdom
of God, 44 ff., 55 ff.
"Testimonies against the Jews" :
iof., 21 f.
Theophilus of Antioch : 53 ff.
Waterland: 31
154
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