The library · Edition and sources
Irenaeus: Against Heresies, Books I–V
ANF historical edition · Edition commentary
Against Heresies: Book V — Translator and historical edition notes
Ex ratione universis ostensionibus procedente. The words are very obscure.
Rom. xi. 34 .
“Initium facturæ,” which Grabe thinks should be thus translated with reference to Jas. i. 18 .
[Compare Clement, cap. 49, p. 18, this volume.]
Luke i. 35 .
In allusion to the mixture of water in the eucharistic cup, as practised in these primitive times. The Ebionites and others used to consecrate the element of water alone.
1 Cor. xv. 22 .
Viz., the Son and the Spirit.
John i. 13 .
1 Cor. x. 16 .
Col. i. 14 .
Matt. v. 45 .
[Again, the carefully asserts that the bread is the body , and the wine (cup) is the blood . The elements are sanctified, not changed materially.]
The Greek text, of which a considerable portion remains here, would give, “and the Eucharist becomes the body of Christ.”
Eph. v. 30 .
Luke xxiv. 39 .
1 Cor. xv. 53 .
2 Cor. xii. 3 .
This is Harvey’s free rendering of the passage, which is in the Greek (as preserved in the Catena of John of Damascus): καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἠνέσχετο ὁ Θεὸς τὴν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἡμῶν ἀνάλυσιν. In the Latin: Propter hoc passus est Deus fieri in nobis resolutionem. See Book iii. cap. xx. 2.
2 Cor. xii. 7–9 .
We have adopted here the explanation of Massuet, who considers the preceding period as merely parenthetical. Both Grabe and Harvey, however, would make conjectural emendations in the text, which seem to us to be inadmissible.
The ancients erroneously supposed that the arteries were air-vessels , from the fact that these organs, after death, appear quite empty, from all the blood stagnating in the veins when death supervenes.
Gen. ii. 8 .
2 Cor. xii. 4 .
Jon. ii. 11 .
Dan. iii. 19–25 .
Luke xviii. 27 .
1 Cor. ii. 6 .
The old Latin has “audivimus,” have heard .
1 Thess. v. 23 . [I have before referred the student to the “Biblical Psychology” of Prof. Delitzsch (translation), T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1868.]
1 Cor. iii. 16 .
John ii. 19–21 .
1 Cor. iii. 17 .
1 Cor. vi. 13, 14 .
John xx. 20, 25–27 .
1 Cor. vi. 14 .
Rom. viii. 11 .
Ps. xxii. 31 , LXX.
1 Cor. xv. 42 .
1 Cor. xv. 36 .
1 Cor. xv. 43 .
1 Cor. xv. 43 .
1 Cor. xv. 44 .
1 Cor. xiii. 9, 12 .
1 Pet. i. 8 .
Grabe, Massuet, and Stieren prefer to read, “the face of the living God;” while Harvey adopts the above, reading merely “Domini,” and not “Dei vivi.”
Eph. i. 13 , etc.
2 Cor. v. 4 .
Rom. viii. 9 .
Rom. viii. 15 .
This is adopting Harvey’s emendation of “voluntatem” for “voluntate.”
Jer. v. 3 .
Ps. xlix. 20 .
Lev. xi. 2 ; Deut. xiv. 3 , etc.
Ps. i. 2 .
Luke vi. 46 .
1 Cor. ii. 14 , 1 Cor. iii. 1 , etc.
1 Cor. xv. 50 .
Luke x. 60 .
Matt. xxvi. 41 .
1 Cor. xv. 48 .
1 Cor. xv. 49 .
Matt. v. 5 .
Rom. xi. 17 .
Matt. vii. 19 .
1 Cor. xv. 50 .
Matt. xiii. 25 .
Matt. xxiv. 42 , Matt. xxv. 13 ; Mark xiii. 33 .
Jas. i. 21 .
Rev. ii. 17 .
1 Cor. xv. 50 .
Rom. viii. 8 .
The Latin has, “sed infusionem Spiritus attrahens.”
1 Cor. xv. 53 .
Rom. viii. 9 .
Rom. viii. 10 , etc.
Rom. viii. 13 .
Or, “poisonings.”
Gal. v. 19 , etc.
Gal. v. 22 .
1 Cor. vi. 9–11 .
1 Cor. xv. 49 , etc.
Isa. xxv. 8 , LXX.
Isa. xlii. 5 .
Isa. lvii. 16 .
1 Cor. xv. 46 .
1 Cor. xv. 45 .
Col. iii. 5 .
Col. iii. 9 .
Phil. i. 22 .
Following Harvey’s explanation of a somewhat obscure passage.
Col. iii. 10 .
Gal. i. 15, 16 .
Vol. i. pp. 306, 321.
Mark v. 22 . Irenæus confounds the ruler of the synagogue with the high priest. [Let not those who possess printed Bibles and concordances and commentaries, and all manner of helps to memory, blame the Fathers for such mistakes, until they at least equal them in their marvellous and minute familiarity with the inspired writers.]
Luke vii. 12 .
John ix. 30 .
The two miracles of raising the widow’s son and the rabbi’s daughter are here amalgamated.
1 Cor. xv. 52 .
John v. 28 .
1 Cor. xv. 53 .
Phil. iii. 29 , etc.
The original Greek text is preserved here, as above; the Latin translator inserts, “in secunda ad Corinthios.” Harvey observes: “The interpretation of the Scriptural reference by the translator suggests the suspicion that the greater number of such references have come in from the margin.”
2 Cor. v. 4 .
1 Cor. vi. 20 .
Agreeing with the Syriac version in omitting “the Lord” before the word “Jesus,” and in reading ἀεὶ as εἰ , which Harvey considers the true text.
2 Cor. iv. 10 , etc.
2 Cor. iii. 3 .
Phil. iii. 11 .
The Syriac translation seems to take a literal meaning out of this passage: “If, as one of the men, I have been cast forth to the wild beasts at Ephesus.”
This is in accordance with the Syriac, which omits the clause, εἴπερ ἄρα νεκροὶ οὐκ ἐγείρονται.
1 Cor. xv. 13 , etc.
1 Cor. xv. 53 .
2 Cor. iv. 11 .
Gen. iv. 10 .
Gen. ix. 5, 6 , LXX.
One of the mss. reads here: Sanguis pro sanguine ejus effundetur.
Matt. xxiii. 35 , etc.; Luke xi. 50 .
Col. i. 21 , etc.
Eph. i. 7 .
Eph. ii. 13 .
Eph. ii. 15 .
Rom. vi. 12, 13 , etc.
“Et sanguine ejus redhibitus,” corresponding to the Greek term ἀποκατασταθείς . “Redhibere” is properly a forensic term, meaning to cause any article to be restored to the vendor.
Col. ii. 19 .
Harvey restores the Greek thus, καὶ τὸν αὐτοῦ ἄνθρωπον βεβαίως ἐκδεχόμενος , which he thinks has a reference to the patient waiting for “Christ’s second advent to judge the world.” The phrase might also be translated, and “receiving stedfastly His human nature.”
Isa. xxvi. 19 .
Isa. lxvi. 13 .
Ezek. xxxvii. 1 , etc.
Ezek. xxxvii. 12 , etc.
Isa. lxv. 22 .
John v. 14 .
John ix. 3 .
Gen. ii. 7 .
Jer. i. 5 .
Gal. i. 15 .
John ix. 7 .
Gen. i. 25 .
Gen. iii. 9 .
Gen. iii. 19 .
Phil. ii. 8 .
1 Tim. ii. 5 .
Matt. vi. 12 .
Gen. iii. 8 .
Matt. ix. 2 ; Luke v. 20 .
Matt. ix. 2 ; Luke v. 20 .
Luke i. 78 .
Matt. ix. 8 .
Matt. ix. 6 .
Ps. xxxii. 1, 2 .
Col. ii. 14 .
2 Kings vi. 6 .
Matt. iii. 10 .
Jer. xxiii. 29 .
The Greek is preserved here, and reads, διὰ τῆς θείας ἐκτάσεως τῶν χειρῶν — literally, “through the divine extension of hands.” The old Latin merely reads, “per extensionem manuum.”
John xiv. 11 .
From this passage Harvey infers that Irenæus held the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son,—a doctrine denied by the Oriental Church in after times. [Here is nothing about the “procession:” only the “mission” of the Spirit is here concerned. And the Easterns object to the double procession itself only in so far as any one means thereby to deny “quod solus Pater est divinarum personarum, Principium et Fons,”— ρίζα καὶ πηγὴ . See Procopowicz, De Processione , Gothæ, 1772].
Grabe and Harvey insert the words, “quod est conditionis,” but on slender authority.
John vii. 39 .
Eph. iv. 6 .
John i. 1 , etc.
John i. 10 , etc.
John i. 14 .
The text reads “invisiblilter,” which seems clearly an error.
Deut. xxviii. 66 .
John i. 12 .
Ps. l. 3, 4 .
The text is here most uncertain and obscure.
[This word patroness is ambiguous. The Latin may stand for Gr. ἀντίληψις , —a person called in to help, or to take hold of the other end of a burden. The argument implies that Mary was thus the counterpart or balance of Eve.]
The text reads “porro,” which makes no sense; so that Harvey looks upon it as a corruption of the reading “per Horum.”
“Et eandem figuram ejus quæ est erga ecclesiam ordinationis custodientibus.” Grabe supposes this refers to the ordained ministry of the Church, but Harvey thinks it refers more probably to its general constitution.