The Life and Work of Irenaeus of Lyons: A Brief Sketch
Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202 A.D.) was probably a native of Smyrna, Izmir in modern day Turkey. As a youth he testifies that he listened to the preaching of Bishop Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of the Apostle John. Writing to the Roman presbyter Florinus, he said,
For when I was still a boy, I knew you in lower Asia, in Polycarp=s house...I remember the events of those days more clearly that those which happened recently... how he [Polycarp] sat and disputed... how he reported his intercourse with John [the Apostle] and others who had seen the Lord, how he remembered their words, and what were the things concerning the Lord, which he had heard from them, from the eye-witnesses of the Word of Life, and reported all things in agreement with the Scriptures. I listened eagerly even then to these things... and made notes of them, not on paper, but then in my heart and ever by the grace of God do I truly ruminate on them.
He later used Polycarp, whose martyrdom and heroic defense of the faith was legendary, to confront the like of heretics like Marcion and Valentinus.[1] He says Polycarp once ran into Marcion and called him rightly, “firstborn of Satan.”[2]
He worked with Bishop Pothinus in Lyons as a presbyter and was probably saved from martyrdom himself when about 177 A.D. Bishop Pothinus sent him with a mission to Rome. By the time he returned the 90 year old Bishop was among about 45 martrys who died in a persecution of the Emperor Aurelius. Irenaeus was appointed his successor, becoming the second Bishop of Lyons, France.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his book, The Fathers, says he was ”first and foremost a man of faith and a pastor.”[3] He soon became immersed in his work of combating the numerous heresies that threatened to destroy the unity of the Church, for which Jesus had prayed (John 17:20-21); a Church which St. Paul described as the "household of God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth" (1 Tim 3: 15). He took seriously the warning of St. Peter in Acts 20: 28-30, "Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. "
He was the most important of the second century defenders of the faith and is best known for his great work "Detection and Overthrow of Gnosis Falsely So-Called," but generally referred to as "Adversus Haereses" or "Against Heresies." Pope Benedict says this work can be called “the oldest ‘catechism of Catholic doctrine’”. The Gnostics he battled against believed that matter was as source of evil and could not have been created by a good God. They claimed special knowledge beyond that of the faith of the Church. Some were ascetics and some were libertine. The epistle of Jude warns against a Gnostic group that was turning the agape love feast into orgies. The Gnostics also claimed that Church doctrines were mere “symbolism for the simple who were unable to grasp difficult concepts” . . .[4]
Sadly the Greek text of his great work is lost to history (last mentioned copy existed in the 9th c.) but the Latin version is available. It is so literal that to properly understand it, you have to translate it back to the Greek. Tertullian and many other Fathers used this revered work. One scholar said of his great work, “He built up a body of Christian theology that resembled a French Gothic cathedral, strongly supported by columns of biblical faith and tradition, illuminated by vast expanses of exegetical and logical argument, and upheld by flying buttresses of rhetorical and philosophical considerations from the outside. In his own person he united the major traditions of Christendom from Asia Minor, Syria, Rome and Gaul, although his acquaintance with Palestine, Greece and Egypt was minimal.”[5] Still he well represents 2nd c. Christianity. The Holy Father calls him the creator of systematic theology, the “first great church theologian.”[6]
In his book Irenaeus of Lyons, Robert M. Grant observed that Irenaeus apologized for his grammar and rhetorical style:
You will not expect from us who live with the Celts and most of the time use the language of barbarians either the art of rhetoric which we did not learn, or the skills of a writer we have not exercised, or elegance of language or persuasion which we do not know. You may, however, accept with love what we have written for you with love, simplicity and truth and, without technique, and yourself develop it, being more capable that we are.[7]
However, what he lacks as a stylist (and he is too modest on that account), he makes up for in the quality of his thought. Jerome called his style, “most learned and eloquent.”
His view of Scripture is uplifting. He stresses its divine inspiration again and again, noting, “The Scriptures are perfect, inasmuch as they were spoken by God’s Word and Spirit” (Bk. 2.28.2). He says the Spirit was heralded through the Prophets and announced by the Apostles. The Word “gave us the fourfold Gospel.” He writes, “Not only the prophets, but the entire Old Testament (O.T.) is prophetic, because the Holy Spirit spoke through all the writers just as He did through the prophets; the writers were His instruments. Moreover the New Testament is as inspired and divine as the O.T., being equally the word of the Spirit. The Scriptures are without error, ‘perfect,’ and ‘the mainstay and pillar of our faith.’” He used virtually all the books of the Bible (though the canon was not yet determined) in his defense of the faith and generally did not use apocryphal sources (he did use Henoch once).[8] Interestingly, he quotes two sayings of Jesus not in canonical books. He usually insisted on the literal sense of Scripture to counter the exaggerated allegories of the Gnostics. Because the Scriptures are not always clear, he says it is not an absolute rule of faith, but rather we rely upon Tradition, the doctrine of the Church and the rule of Truth itself. Unlike the Gnostics, Catholic Tradition was public not secret, one not diverse in faith thus creating unity among the people, and emanating from the Holy Spirit not men.[9] He wrote:
[1, 10, 2] . . . the Church, having received this preaching and this faith ["from the apostles and from their disciples"] although she is disseminated throughout the whole world, yet guarded it as if she occupied but one house. She likewise believes these things as if she had but one soul and one and the same heart; and harmoniously she proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down, as if she possessed but one mouth. For, while the languages of the world are diverse, nonetheless, the authority of the traditions is one and the same."
(See also 2 Thes. 2:15)
(See also 2 Thes. 2:15)
He also affirms Apostolic Succession:
[3, 3, 1] It is possible, then, for everyone in in every Church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the Apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles, and their successors to our own times: men who neither knew nor taught anything like these heretics rave about.
Since Tradition, derived from Jesus and the Apostles, existed before the writing of the New Testament, he considered it the absolute source of revelation. It is the teaching, he said, of the living Church, even if it had not been written down later. Moreover that Tradition must come from Rome:
[3, 3, 3] The blessed Apostles [Peter and Paul] having founded and built up the Church [of Rome] handed over the episcopate to Linus [our 2d pope]. Paul makes mention of this Linus in the epistle to Timothy [2 Tim 4:21] To him succeeded Anencletus; and after him in the third place, from the Apostles, Clement. . ." [Peter, Linus, Anencletus and Clement were the first four Bishops of Rome or "Popes." "Pope" is an Italian word meaning "father". Note: This is also cited in Dei Verbum in footnote 3 to para 7.]
He is revered too because he provides historical witness of the authorship and order of the Gospels:
[3, 1, 1] We have learned the plan of our salvation from none other than those through whom the gospel came down to us. Indeed, they first preached the gospel , and afterwards, by the will of God, they handed it down to us in the Scriptures . . . Matthew also issued among the Hebrews a written Gospel in their own language, while Peter and Paul were evangelizing in Rome and laying the foundation of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also handed down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, set down in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord who reclined at His bosom also published a Gospel, while he was residing at Ephesus in Asia.
Salvation history. Irenaeus once said in his book, Against Heresies, understanding consists in showing why there are a number of covenants with mankind and in teaching what is the character of each of the covenants. If you don’t understand that you have not understood things adequately. Augustine in the City of God, book X, Sec XIV teaches that salvation history reveals God’s fatherly pedagogy. In other words God wants to instruct and mature mankind to enter into divine sonship. So what Irenaeus is saying? God made these covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses David and Ezra and Jesus and we should study the character of each. For Irenaeus the key word was okonomia, the Greek term is a compound (okos) for family and (nomia) for law. So the economy of grace or the economy of law or the divine economy of salvation, these phrases are used by Irenaeus, who takes the word from St. Paul in 1-2 Corinthians and Ephesians. This word refers to God’s family plan, God’s household administration. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) incorporates this principle at the center of its structure, throughout all four major units. Augustine builds on this and suggest we have a pedagogy (and again the word is derived from St. Paul, this time in Ephesians 3) where he speaks about the law of Moses was a pedagogue, a guardian, a teacher and an instructor, that serves a purpose for a time and having served its purpose, certain laws in the economy of grace can be dispensed (e.g., animal sacrifice, circumcision, the dietary regulations, etc.). Why? The only way you can understand why the Church felt the freedom to change the laws from Saturday to Sunday, from circumcision to Baptism, from the Passover to the Eucharist, and all the other attendant changes is by discerning the hidden intention of the Divine Teacher and Father. This requires theological exegesis of Scripture. That is really what Scripture calls for. Scripture is among other things a theological document. So it is appropriate to study what unifying themes show us about theological unity. The Church Fathers knew this.[10]
St. Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, John Chrysostom, St. Thomas Aquinas all saw this as did the rabbis like Tuchanides, Namaimodies, Maimonides (d.1204), saw that the literal historical sense of the animal sacrifice and the dietary regulations and other ceremonial laws that Christians are dispensed from, including Sabbath worship, were given to break Israel’s idolatrous attachments to the habits and the gods of the other nations and to prepare them to receive the gift of heavenly glory and divine sonship.
Irenaeus wrote Against Heresies to refute the Gnostics by revealing in clear exposition their errors. Book I is devoted entirely to that objective. Although much of the work is a refuting of heresy, it contains much positive theology about divine revelation. In Book 2 he refutes the Gnostic belief in two gods chiefly from reason. In Book 3 he turns to arguments drawn mainly from the Apostles and in Book 4, mainly with the Lord’s words. In Book 5, he explains the salvation of the Body, which the Gnostics adamantly denied. He is a master of figurative language and concrete constructions which are aptly chosen and concisely stated. For example, he says of God, “He might have indeed been invisible to them because of His eminence, but He could by no means of been unknown to them because of His providence” (Bk 2.6.1). “God’s friendship bestows imperishability on those who strive for it (Bk 4.13.4) … so that He might become the son of man in turn might become a son of God” (Bk 3.10.2). Professor Scott Hahn is found of this latter saying. He also wrote, “Where the Church is, there is God’s Spirit and where God’s Spirit is, there is the Church and every kind of grace” (Bk.3.24.1).
In reading some of his work Against Heresies we can see his humility and wisdom as he takes on those who presumptuously claim to be familiar with the mysteries of God. He writes:
If anyone, therefore, says to us, How then was the Son produced by the Father? We reply to him, that no man understands that production, or generation, or calling, or revelation, or by whatever name one may describe His generation, which is in fact altogether indescribable. Neither Valentinus, nor Marcion, nor Saturninus, nor Basilides, nor angels, nor archangels, nor principalities, nor powers [possess this knowledge], but the Father only who begot, and the Son who was begotten. Since therefore His generation is unspeakable, those who strive to set forth generations and productions cannot be in their right mind, inasmuch as they undertake to describe things which are indescribable... (Book IV, chapter 26, para 6)
Likewise, he argues that we do not know how God produced matter but there are some things we do know:
If anyone, therefore, says to us, How then was the Son produced by the Father? We reply to him, that no man understands that production, or generation, or calling, or revelation, or by whatever name one may describe His generation, which is in fact altogether indescribable. Neither Valentinus, nor Marcion, nor Saturninus, nor Basilides, nor angels, nor archangels, nor principalities, nor powers [possess this knowledge], but the Father only who begot, and the Son who was begotten. Since therefore His generation is unspeakable, those who strive to set forth generations and productions cannot be in their right mind, inasmuch as they undertake to describe things which are indescribable... (Book IV, chapter 26, para 6)
Likewise, he argues that we do not know how God produced matter but there are some things we do know:
For although the Spirit of the Savior that is in Him searches all things, even the deep things of God, 1 Corinthian 2:10, yet as to us there are diversities of gifts, differences of administrations, and diversities of operations; and we, while upon the earth, as Paul also declares, know in part, and prophesy in part 1 Corinthians 13:9. Since, therefore, we know but in part, we ought to leave all sorts of [difficult] questions in the hands of Him who in some measure, [and that only,] bestows grace on us. That eternal fire, [for instance,] is prepared for sinners, both the Lord has plainly declared, and the rest of the Scriptures demonstrate. And that God foreknew that this would happen, the Scriptures do in like manner demonstrate, since He prepared eternal fire from the beginning for those who were [afterwards] to transgress [His commandments]; but the cause itself of the nature of such transgressors neither has any Scripture informed us, nor has an apostle told us, nor has the Lord taught us. It becomes us, therefore, to leave the knowledge of this matter to God, even as the Lord does of the day and hour [of judgment], and not to rush to such an extreme of danger, that we will leave nothing in the hands of God, even though we have received only a measure of grace [from Him in this world] (Book IV, chap 28, para 7).
In conclusion we can only note that the this first of the great theologians was keenly aware that "the Church and the Spirit were inseparable" as Pope Benedict XVI observed. Irenaeus deserves to be remembered for his heroic defense of the faith and his systematic arguments in its defense, especially against the Gnostics.
[1] Marcion wanted a Christianity untrammeled and undefiled by association with Judaism. Christianity was the New Covenant pure and simple. Abstract questions on the origin of evil or on the essence of the Godhead interested him little, but the Old Testament was a scandal to the faithful and a stumbling-block to the refined and intellectual gentiles by its crudity and cruelty, and the Old Testament had to be set aside. The two great obstacles in his way he removed by drastic measures. He had to account for the existence of the Old Testament and he accounted for it by postulating a secondary deity, a demiurgus, who was god, in a sense, but not the supreme God; he was just, rigidly just, he had his good qualities, but he was not the good god, who was Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.. (Catholic Encyclopedia online). The Marcionites threw out the gospels and said only the letters of St. Paul were a part of Scripture and they were, in fact, the reason a Council of the Church bishops was called to put together the Canon of the New Testament in the 390's.
[2] The meeting between Marcion and Polycarp must have happened in 154, by which time Marcion had displayed a great and successful activity, for St. Justin Martyr in his first Apology (written about 150), describes Marcion's heresy as spread everywhere. These half a dozen years seem to many too short a time for such prodigious success and they believe that Marcion was active in Asia Minor long before he came to Rome. (Catholic Encyclopedia online).
[3] Benedict XVI, Pope. The Fathers, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., Huntington, In., p.24.
[4] Benedict XVI, p. 25.
[5] Grant, Robert McQueen. Irenaeus of Lyons (The Early Church Fathers), New York: Routledge Books, 1997.
[6] Benedict XVI, p. 26.
[7] Grant, p. 47.
[8] “The Book of Henoch enjoyed a high esteem among them, mainly owing to the quotation in Jude. The so-called Epistle of Barnabas twice cites Henoch as Scripture. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and even St. Augustine suppose the work to be a genuine one of the patriarch. But in the fourth century the Henoch writings lost credit and ceased to be quoted. After an allusion by an author of the beginning of the ninth century, they disappear from view.” It deals mainly with the God’s judgments. Per Catholic Encyclopedia online.
[9] Pope Benedict XVI, The Fathers, pp. 27-29.
[10] Lecture by Professor Scott Hahn in his Theological Foundations course at Franciscan University, 2007.
