Synopsis
Irenaeus was born in Smyrna in Asia Minor,
where he studied under bishop Polycarp, who in turn had been a disciple of
Apostle John.1 Leaving Asia Minor for Rome he
joined the school of Justin Martyr before being made bishop of Lyons in
Southern Gaul in about AD 178.2 In contrast to
Justin - whose writings he used and respected3 - Irenaeus rejected the philosophical approach to
Christianity, which for him as a child of the Church "rested on revelation,
tradition, and on the power of the Holy Spirit."4
Despite this he did not abandon philosophy completely and many of his works are
indebted to it.5 Other sources of his teaching
include Theophilus and Ignatius of Antioch.6
His saw his main ministry in the refutation
of Gnosticism and to this end he wrote his major
work Against Heresies, in which also sought to expound and defend the
catholic faith.7 Faced with difficult passages
from the Old Testament he applied a Christological hermeneutic8 and answered the objections of the heretics from the
Scriptures themselves. Central to his refutation of the Gnostics was the
Genesis account of the Creation and the
fall. He held that Adam and Eve were created as
children,9 with the intention that they grow in
grace through willing submission until they reach the point when they would be
ready to receive the Spirit of adoption.10 An
archangel was assigned to look after Adam and Eve in the Garden,11 but Adam
...disobeyed God, being misled by the
angel, who becoming jealous of God’s many favours which he had bestowed on
man, both ruined himself and made man a sinner, persuading him to disobey
God’s command.12
Being mere children they were not truly
responsible for the fall, the blame for which is laid at the Devil’s
door.13 By claiming that it was Adam who was
deceived by the serpent Irenaeus has subtly altered the biblical
account.14 He adds to the account by informing us
that the angel fell when he tempted man. Adam’s "disobedience is the
source of the general sinfulness and mortality of mankind, as also of their
enslavement to the Devil".15 Irenaeus, taking up
Paul’s Adam-Christ parallel centred his theology around the
Recapitulation16 of all things in Christ. What
Adam lost for mankind, Christ becoming a man, won back.17
Rob Bradshaw, Webmaster
References
1 Mary T.
Clark, "Irenaeus," Everett Ferguson, ed., Encyclopedia of Early
Christianity. New York: Garland Press, 1990. pp. 471-472; Norris,
57.
2 Richard A.
Norris, God And World In Early Christian Theology: A Study in Justin Martyr,
Irenaeus, Tertullian and Origen. (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1966),
57.
3 W.H.C. Frend,
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244.
4 Frend,
Rise, 244: "He was interested in philosophy only insofar as it could
help one to penetrate more deeply into what one believed."
5 Clark,
"Irenaeus," p.473.
6 ANF,
Vol. 1, 311.
7 David S.
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8 "The man was
a babe. He had not yet the perfect use of his faculties. Hence he was easily
deceived by the seducer." Irenaeus, Demonstration, 12; cf. Heresies
3.22.4, 4.38.1-4; 4.39.1 (ANF, Vol. 1, 455, 521-522, 522);
Theophilus of Antioch, Autolycus 2.2 (ANF, Vol. 2, 94).; Clement
of Alexandria, Protrepsis. 11.111.1.
9 Irenaeus,
Heresies, 4.37.1; 4.38.3 (ANF, Vol. 1, 518-519,
521-522).
10 Irenaeus,
Demonstration, 12.
11 Irenaeus,
Demonstration, 16.
12 Irenaeus,
Heresies 5.16.2; 4.40.3 (ANF, Vol. 1, 544, 524).
13 The apostle
Paul writes that it was Eve who was deceived, not Adam in 1 Tim.
2:14.
14 J.N.D.
Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, rev., 1960. (San Francisco: Harper,
1978), 171.
15 Cf. Eph.
1:10; Irenaeus, Heresies, 3.18.1; 5.29.2 (ANF, Vol. 1, 501,
558).
16 Irenaeus,
Heresies, 5.21.1; 5.21.3 (ANF, Vol. 1, 548-549, 550).
17 Irenaeus,
Heresies 2.9.2 (ANF, Vol. 1, 369).
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