Brief biography of Irenaeus

Irenaeus was probably born in Smyrna around AD 130. Through Irenaeus, there is a direct connection with the original apostles. When he was young, Irenaeus studied as a pupil of Polycarp, who was bishop of Smyrna. In turn, Polycarp had originally been trained by the apostle John in Ephesus. He also studied in Rome under Justin Martyr, but did not follow his more philosophical approach. Pothnius, the first bishop of Lyons, invited Irenaeus to become a presbyter in the church there. In 177, Pothinus was martyred during the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius, while Irenaeus was visiting Rome. When Irenaeus returned to Lyons, he was appointed bishop to replace Pothinus, where he died around 202.

Against Heresies

This is the longest work by Irenaeus, consisting of five volumes. Its full name is “A Refutation and Subversion of Knowledge Falsely So Called”. His aim was to give a thorough argument against Gnosticism and to affirm the true faith of the church as passed down from the apostles, showing that there was only one true God, who was God of both the Old and New Testaments.

Book I

In Book I, he gives a very detailed description of speculations of various Gnostic teachers, particularly Valentinius. These are difficult for us to follow today, but this book is one of the major sources for our knowledge of Gnosticism. Gnosticism was based on dualism, believing that the spiritual was good, and the physical was evil. This made God distant and unknowable, so they believed in a hierarchy of emanations called Aeons. Irenaeus showed how they justified this teaching from Scripture (1:3, 1:8), although they used rather strange methods of exegesis.

In his refutation, Irenaeus gives significant historical information which is helpful in NT interpretation. One example is his description of Marcus (1:13), who deceived and seduced high-born women, encouraging them to prophesy. It is probably deceivers like this that Paul warns about, who made their way into households and captivated silly women (2 Tim 3:6). This may also be the situation that Paul addresses when he warns about women being deceived, and why they should not teach men (1 Tim 2:8-15). He also tells about Simon of Samaria, the magician rebuked by Peter (Acts 8:9ff) who became the founder of different immoral Gnostic sects (1:23). Some Gnostic teachers claimed that it was Simon of Cyrene who was crucified (1:24), because they could not believe that the Son of God really had a physical body, or could suffer in any way. He also describes the followers of Nicolas (1:26), one of the seven deacons (Acts 6:5), who were the Nicolaitians condemned by John in the book of Revelation for eating food offered to idols (Rev 2:6,15).

Book II

The main point is his second book is to show that the creator God of the OT and God the Father of the NT is one and the same, and there are no greater beings, and that this is the teaching of the church passed down from the apostles (2:9:1). This book also contains a large quantity of information about the speculations of Valentinius and the Gnostics, which is difficult for modern readers to follow. However it gives an important lesson for today, that to be successful in standing against the teaching of the false teachers it is necessary to have a thorough knowledge and understanding of their teaching. Irenaeus was able to use their jargon and knew the names of all the intermediaries they taught about, as well as the characteristic teaching of each of the various Gnostic sects. He was able to point out contradictions and inconsistencies in their teaching, and show that their interpretation of scripture is incorrect. It appears that much of their speculations are derived from strange application of different numbers found in Scripture (eg. 2:20, 2:22, 2:24), something which is still mistakenly done today when people look for secret codes in the Bible.

Book III

In his third book, Irenaeus transfers his attention away from the teaching of the heretics to clearer teaching from the scriptures. He places great importance on scripture, as well as the tradition passed down in a direct line of bishops from the apostles. One of his main arguments against the heretics is that they cannot trace the origin of their teaching from the apostles (3:4). Again he continually proves from Scripture (the OT) (eg. 3:6, 3:9), and from the preaching of the apostles (3:12) that there is only One God. This is the God of Abraham, the Creator, who is also the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. He stands against the teaching of Marcion, who only accepted the teaching of Luke and Paul (3:14), showing the Paul submitted to the authority of the other apostles. He also proved from the teaching of the apostles in the NT that there can be no division between Jesus and the Christ, as taught by the Gnostics (3:16). At his baptism it was not the Christ that came upon Jesus, but the Holy Spirit (3:17), and Christ did suffer on the cross. To counter the teaching of the Ebionites, who say that Jesus was the son of Joseph, he strongly affirms the virgin birth, saying that this was clearly predicted by Isaiah (3:21).

Like Paul, Irenaeus drew parallels between Adam and Christ, so Jesus recapitulated the work of Adam. Through Adam’s disobedience sin and death entered, so through the obedience of Christ, righteousness was introduced. He argued the virgin birth from the fact that Adam had no human father, so the second Adam could have no human father (3:21). So also Mary’s obedience reversed the disobedience of Eve. From this, he gave unusual evidence for the virgin birth by suggesting that Adam and Eve were not created as adults, but as children, so could not procreate (3:22:3). Likewise, Mary who although she was betrothed to Joseph, remained a virgin, and her obedience brought salvation. It may be true that this thinking later developed into the doctrine that original sin was transmitted through sexual relationships, which contributed to the very negative view the church had of sexuality through the centuries. He also claimed that Adam still obtained salvation, as he received no curse on himself, and showed repentance by his action of covering himself with fig-leaves (3:23). Instead of blaming Adam for the fall, Irenaeus placed responsibility on the serpent, who will be defeated by the son of Mary.

From Irenaeus, we receive several important traditions about the canon of the New Testament. He lists four gospels, says Matthew wrote in Hebrew, Mark was the interpreter of Peter, Luke was the companion of Paul, and identified John as the disciple who leaned on the breast of Jesus (3:1:1). He likened the four-fold gospel to the four living creatures of Revelation, symbolism which became common in the church (3:11:8). He also records important historical information, like John’s reaction to meeting Cerinthus in the bath-house, and living until the time of Trajan (3:3), who became emperor in AD 98.

Book IV

In his fourth book, he continues to prove from the Scriptures that there is only One God, and the separation by the heretics of the Creator from God the Father is blasphemy. He showed that Jesus, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets believed in the One God of both covenants (4:1-5). For example, it was the same God who gave promises to Abraham who fulfilled those promises in Christ (4:7). Also, predictions of the coming and suffering of Christ show that both testaments were inspired by the same God (4:10). He also showed that Jesus did not abolish the law, but fulfilled the requirements of the law (4:13), again showing the unity of the God of both covenants. He said that Jesus replaced the tithing law with the commandment to share our possessions with the poor - a call to generosity, even to enemies (4:13:3). This is an interesting point, as many churches today teach legalistic tithing, rather than voluntary joyful generosity as taught by Jesus and Paul (2 Cor 9:7). For Irenaeus, the heart of the law was the Decalogue, which is eternally binding, other aspects of the law were for controlling desires and because of their hardness of hearts (4:15). In the O.T., salvation did not depend on obedience to law or circumcision, but came through faith (4:10), instead of sacrifices, the Lord wanted obedience (4:17).

He likened our body to the Eucharist. Both have the union of flesh and spirit, so the bread is no longer common bread, so the body has the hope of resurrection (4:18:5). It is clear that he does not understand the bread to be merely a symbol, but to have been changed in some way when it was consecrated. This could mark the very early stages of the development of the understanding of transubstantiation, which later became official Catholic doctrine.

Irenaeus was certainly convinced of the pre-existence of the Son, as the eternal Word of God, through whom the worlds were created. He also taught that Wisdom in the OT was the Holy Spirit, who was also involved in creation (4:20:4). Here, we see the truth that there is One God, who is Three persons - the doctrine of the Trinity, even before that word was first used by Tertullian.

He made an important comment about the identification of prophetic fulfilment - that before its fulfilment prophecy is full of enigmas and ambiguities, but it becomes clear and certain after its fulfilment (4:26:1). This continues to be a significant guideline for the interpretation of predictive prophecy.

Against the spiritual fatalism of the Gnostics, Irenaeus taught that mankind was given the ability to make a free choice, either to follow or to reject the Gospel (4:37). Just as God has free-will, so mankind, being made in God’s image, also have free-will to choice faith or unbelief.

Book V

In his final book, he continues to refute the teachings of the Gnostics through the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. Against the docetists, he affirms the reality of the person of Jesus (5:1:2), and against the Ebionites, he affirms that the Spirit came upon Mary to cause the incarnation of the Son of God (5:1:3), thereby showing both the deity and humanity of Christ.

One his main subjects in his fifth book is the future resurrection of the body. This is to refute the Gnostics, who would say that there is no future for the body, because the body is evil. Even though humans suffer infirmity in this life, in Christ they will be raised bodily to eternal life, as confirmed by the preservation of the bodies of O.T. heroes (5:5). Just as Christ was raised in his flesh, so the believers will also be raised in physical bodies, not merely as souls (5:7). The believer is prepared for this resurrection through the presence of the Spirit in this life (5:8), without the Spirit it is impossible to bear fruit or to inherit the kingdom (5:10). The future resurrection is also proved by the raising of Lazarus and others by Jesus during his ministry (5:13), and was predicted by the prophets (5:15).

He also continues to demonstrate that the Creator and Father are the same, shown by Jesus’ power to forgive sins (5:17) and he was the eternal Word who had taken flesh (5:18). He called the virgin Mary the ‘patroness’ of Eve, who, as noted before, reversed the sin of Eve - her virginal obedience rescued mankind from the bondage of death (5:19). One of the characteristic topics of Irenaeus is his doctrine of recapitulation, that Christ reversed the sin of Adam and defeated the work of serpent in the Garden, fulfilling the promise that the offspring of Eve will strike the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15) (5:21).

He then focuses his attention to the work of Satan, who was a liar from the beginning, a liar when he promised Jesus all the kingdoms of the world (5:24), and will continue to lie to the end, particularly in the time of Antichrist (5:25). Irenaeus understood Paul’s teaching of the man of lawlessness (2 Thess 2), and the prophecies of Daniel to predict a time of apostasy at the end of time, when the satanically inspired Antichrist will come to power. It appears that he expects the Roman empire, represented by Daniel’s kingdom of iron and clay, to be divided into ten kingdoms, before Jesus will return (5:26). At the advent of Christ, there will be eternal separation of the believers from the unbelievers who will receive eternal punishment (5:27). He expected the final apostasy and the end of the world to come at the end of the 6000th year, based on the six days of creation (5:28). This antichrist will recapitulate all the iniquity through history, particularly the rebellion before the flood and the arrogance of Nebuchadnezzar (5:29), from which he draws significance of the number 666, representing recapitulations of apostasy. He suggests that the alternative reading of 616 in some manuscripts is an error of copying (5:30). He warns against trying to predict the identity of the Antichrist, but suggests “Lateinos” (ie. the Roman Empire), or “Teitan” (tyrant) as possibilities. He says that this Antichrist will reign in the temple in Jerusalem for 3½ years before the Lord appears (5:30). This would suggest that he was expecting the temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt in the last days. His teaching on Antichrist is similar to much of the popular teaching on end-times around today, and could be used as evidence to support it. It is quite surprising to find this understanding of end-times in the writings of Irenaeus, as it is normally thought of as a more modern interpretation.

One interesting historical note is that he says that John received his apocalyptic visions towards the close of Domitian’s reign (5:30:3). This would suggest a date for the book of Revelation of around the mid-90's, as Domitian died in AD 96.

Irenaeus expects a physical resurrection of the saints after the second coming, when Christ will establish his kingdom on earth, and the lion and lie down with the lamb (5:33), and the whole of creation will be renewed (5:34). He says that these predictions should not be allegorised, but will be physically fulfilled after the resurrection (5:35). However, he makes no mention of this lasting for a thousand years, so it does not seem to be right to say that Irenaeus had a pre-millennial understanding of end-times as is sometimes claimed. His teaching should be seen in the context of him refuting the gnostics who deny any importance to the physical world. Here, he is showing that believers expect a physical resurrection, just as Christ was physically raised, and an eternal life in a restored physical world.

Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

Although mentioned by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History (V.26), for many centuries this work was lost. It was only discovered at the beginning of the 20th century in an Armenian translation. In this book, Irenaeus’ aim was to explain Christian teaching and to prove it from prophecy, so it became a short handbook of Christian apologetics.

He begins his work with a summary of God’s working through the Old Testament. This describes the rebellion of Satan, the creation, the Garden of Eden, the events of the book of Genesis, and the promises made to Abraham as far as the Exodus, including the making of the covenant in the wilderness and entry to the promised land. Jesus came as a fulfilment of the promises made in the OT where he appeared in his pre-incarnate form as the angel of the Lord. He also came in fulfilment of many detailed predictions made by the prophets, particularly by Isaiah that through his sufferings healing will come. Irenaeus wanted to show the unity between the two testaments, and that Christ’s death was clearly predicted in the OT. In some of the passages he quoted he is stretching the limits of interpretation to see predictions of Christ. For example he quotes Isaiah’s statement “I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people” (Is 65:2) as a prediction of Jesus stretching out his hands on the cross (79).

As noted in Against Heresies, Irenaeus went beyond the clear teaching of the Bible when he drew a contrast between Eve and Mary. He claimed that in same way that Paul taught that the obedience of Christ reversed the disobedience of Adam, the obedience of a virgin (Mary) put away the disobedience of a virgin (Eve). He also stated that man received life through the Virgin’s (Mary’s) obedience to the Word of God (33). This is probably one of the earliest examples in the history of the church of the excessive veneration of Mary. He seems to indicate that her obedience had redemptive power in the same way that the obedience of Christ did. It is likely that this teaching became the platform for much of the later mis-leading devotion to Mary as co-redeemer through the history of the medieval church. Irenaeus taught that Adam was created as a child, which explains why he was so easily led astray by the devil (12). In contrast to this, the account in Genesis appears to indicate clearly that Adam was an adult, who was able to name all the animals, and who was given a female helper (Gen 2:20ff).

As seen before, Irenaeus teaches recapitulation, that Jesus reversed the sin of Adam. He calls the cross the ‘tree of obedience’ in contrast to the tree in the Garden of Eden through which disobedience came (34). He emphasises the pre-existent nature of the Son of God as the eternal Word (43), who existed before creation, then appeared as the angel of the Lord to Abraham (44), who was at the top of Jacob’s ladder (45), and spoke to Moses through the burning bush (46). He taught that Jeremiah predicted that Jesus would die and descend to hell to bring salvation to the dead (78). Although this doctrine is not explicitly taught in the Bible, it later was included in the Nicean Creed. Jesus was the Lord of the law so the law was fulfilled in him, removing the need for Christians to keep the law (96).

Fragments in Eusebius

This document is a collection of fragments of other writings by Irenaeus which have now been lost, but portions are only preserved because they were quoted by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History and other writings.

In these fragments, there are several points worth noting. One is the importance he placed on his direct connection with the apostle John through Polycarp, and through John as an eye-witness to Jesus himself (2). He saw that this ‘apostolic succession’ was crucial in protecting the truth of the Gospel. This became a very important doctrine of the Catholic church in later centuries.

His approach to the Old Testament is highly Christological in that he notes types of Christ in places where only a few scholars would today. These include: the ass which Balaam mounted being a type of the body of Christ which bears our sins (23), the boy leading Samson being a type of John the Baptist who led people towards Christ (27), and the floating axe head showing that souls will be lifted up through a piece of wood - the cross (28), an argument he also used elsewhere (Against Heresies 5:17:4).

Conclusion

The writings of Irenaeus continue to have great value for the church. They give much information about the teachings of the gnostics and how he refuted them. He also records valuable historical information which came through his direct connection with John and the apostolic age through Polycarp. From the teaching of Irenaeus we also see the beginnings of doctrines which were later developed to become very important in the medieval Catholic church. These include apostolic succession, veneration of Mary and transubstantiation.

Key teaching from Irenaeus

Against Heresies

What the church believes: One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His future manifestation from heaven. The raising up anew all flesh of the whole human race. The angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, will be cast into everlasting fire. Those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning of their Christian course, and others from the date of their repentance, with everlasting glory. (Against Heresies 1.10 )

God created all things by himself through his Word. (Against Heresies 2.2)

Irenaeus thinks Jesus was 50 before he died. (Against Heresies 2.22)

Christ and Jesus are one and the same. The Christ did not descend on Jesus at his baptism. Jesus is God. (Against Heresies 3.9)

Isaiah 7:14 has to be translated virgin. (Against Heresies 3.21)

In 1 Corinthians 13, "that which is perfect" and "face to face" refer to the second coming. (Against Heresies 4.9)

Jesus fulfilled the Passover. It was God's plan to stop the animal sacrifices after the destruction of the temple. That is why He commanded the Passover lamb not to be sacrificed anywhere except Jerusalem. (Against Heresies 4.10)

For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity. Now we make offering to Him, not as though He stood in need of it, but rendering thanks for His gift, and thus sanctifying what has been created. (Against Heresies 4.18:5-6)

Christ is the treasure which was hid in the field. (Against Heresies 4.26:1)

We should not be puffed up, nor be severe upon those of old time, but ought ourselves to fear, lest perchance, after we have come to the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but be shut out from His kingdom. The apostle says, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." And as it was not to those who are without that he said these things, but to us lest we should be cast forth from the kingdom of God. And we have the precept: "If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one no not to eat." (Against Heresies 4.27)

The flood was to put a check on the types of sins man was doing because of the angels (See Genesis 6). (Against Heresies 4.36)

We walked in former times in the oldness of the flesh, not obeying God; so now let us, receiving the Spirit, walk in newness of life, obeying God. Inasmuch, therefore, as without the Spirit of God we cannot be saved, the apostle exhorts us through faith and chaste conversation to preserve the Spirit of God, lest, having become non-participators of the Divine Spirit, we lose the kingdom of heaven (wild olive tree). (Against Heresies 5.9)

In Galatians 5, not "inheriting the kingdom of God" means he did not receive the Spirit of God, shall not have power to inherit the kingdom of heaven. (Against Heresies 5.11)

The Virgin Mary is the patroness of Eve. Patroness (advocata) probably refers to some one in a similar situation who is an example you follow. (Against Heresies 5.19)

When Satan tempted Jesus with all the things he would give him, they were not his to give. (Against Heresies 5.22)

Governments are appointed by God not the devil. We are to pay them taxes. (Against Heresies 5.24)

Fragments of Irenaeus

Christians still observe the seven festivals. John and Polycarp observed the fast of Yom Kippur. Most Christians observe the festival but not the fast. Some fast one day, others two days, and some try for 40. Some stand for prayer others kneel for the prayer of Yom Kippur. (Fragments 3)

The faithful are imperfect but God overlooks that. True faith produces virtue. (Fragments 55)

Bibliography