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Updated: June 22, 2025
The presence of this reading in the Old Latin and Curetonian Syriac proves its wide diffusion. At the same time it is clear that Irenaeus himself was aware of the presence of the other reading in some copies which he regarded as bearing the marks of heretical depravation.
The Soul's Testimony, I. Of the Resurrection of the Flesh, III. Octavius, XVIII. Against Celsus, II, 40. De Trinitate, VIII. Divine Institutes, I, 2. E.g., Irenaeus: Against Heresy, II, 9, 1; Tertullian: Against Marcion, I, 10; Origen: De Principiis, I, 3, 1; Tertullian: Apology, XVII; Lactantius: Divine Institutes, I, 2.
Even granting that Irenaeus must have been mistaken, his evidence none the less affects one of the most important points debated in this work.
Irenaeus could have given an account of the genesis of Episcopacy, for he lived throughout the period of its original development; but he has taken care not to lift the veil which covers its mysterious commencement. He could have told what prompted Polycarp to undertake a journey to Rome when burthened with the weight of years; but he has left us to our own surmises.
It is at any rate clear that Irenaeus had some means of referring to the opinions of Valentinus as distinct from his school; because, after giving a sketch of the system, he proceeds to point out certain contradictions within the school itself, quoting first Valentinus expressly, then a disciple called Secundus, then 'another of their more distinguished and ambitious teachers, then 'others, then a further subdivision, finally returning to Ptolemaeus and his party again.
The evidence from Polycarp's Epistle has been discussed in a preceding chapter. When examined, it has completely broken down, as it is based on an entire misconception of the meaning of the writer. The words of Irenaeus can be adduced with still less plausibility to uphold the credit of these letters.
We should hardly endorse the arguments by which Irenaeus proves a priori the necessity of a 'four-fold Gospel, but there is real weight in the fact that four Gospels and no more were accepted by him and others like him.
Irenaeus also had before him a number of writings some, e.g. the works of the Marcosians, in addition to those that have been discussed in the course of this work in which our Gospels are largely quoted, and which, to say the least, were earlier than his own time of writing. The opinions therefore to which he gives expression in his works of this date were no doubt formed at a earlier period.
If, after reading Paul, Peter, or John, we turn to Tertullian, Irenaeus, or Cyprian, we instinctively realize that we have, so to speak, been transferred from sunny Italy to frigid Siberia. We are conscious of a change to another era, and to another country. Notwithstanding the fact that we find numerous familiar objects, we know that we are moving in another atmosphere amid foreign surroundings.
It mentions all the books in our New Testament but four, Hebrews, First and Second Peter, and James. Irenaeus, who died about 200, had a canon which included all the books of our New Testament except Hebrews, Jude, James, Second Peter, and Third John.
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