40 Facts About Irenaeus

Irenaeus was a Greek from Polycarp's hometown of Smyrna in Asia Minor, now Izmir, Turkey, born during the first half of the 2nd century.

Irenaeus is regarded as a martyr by the Catholic Church and by some within the Orthodox Church.

Irenaeus was buried under the Church of Saint John in Lyon, which was later renamed St Irenaeus in his honour.

Irenaeus wrote a number of books, but the most important that survives is the Against Heresies.

Book IV consists of Jesus's sayings, and here Irenaeus stresses the unity of the Old Testament and the Gospel.

The purpose of "Against Heresies" was to refute the teachings of various Gnostic groups; apparently, several Greek merchants had begun an oratorial campaign in Irenaeus's bishopric, teaching that the material world was the accidental creation of an evil god, from which we are to escape by the pursuit of gnosis.

Irenaeus argued that the true gnosis is in fact knowledge of Christ, which redeems rather than escapes from bodily existence.

However, the general consensus among modern scholars is that Irenaeus was fairly accurate in his transmission of gnostic beliefs, and that the Nag Hammadi texts have raised no substantial challenges to the overall accuracy of Irenaeus's information.

Irenaeus wrote The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, an Armenian copy of which was discovered in 1904.

Eusebius attests to other works by Irenaeus, today lost, including On the Ogdoad, an untitled letter to Blastus regarding schism, On the Subject of Knowledge, On the Monarchy or How God is not the Cause of Evil, On Easter.

Irenaeus's works were first translated into English by John Keble and published in 1872 as part of the Library of the Fathers series.

Irenaeus pointed to the public rule of faith, authoritatively articulated by the preaching of bishops and inculcated in Church practice, especially worship, as an authentic apostolic tradition by which to read Scripture truly against heresies.

Irenaeus classified as Scripture not only the Old Testament but most of the books now known as the New Testament, while excluding many works, a large number by Gnostics, that flourished in the 2nd century and claimed scriptural authority.

Irenaeus argued that since he could trace his authority to Jesus and the Gnostics could not, his interpretation of Scripture was correct.

Irenaeus used "the Rule of Faith", a "proto-creed" with similarities to the Apostles' Creed, as a hermeneutical key to argue that his interpretation of Scripture was correct.

Irenaeus asserted that all four of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were canonical scripture.

Irenaeus is the earliest attestation that the Gospel of John was written by John the Apostle, and that the Gospel of Luke was written by Luke, the companion of Paul.

Irenaeus considered all 13 letters belonging to the Pauline corpus to have been written by Paul himself.

The central point of Irenaeus's theology is the unity and the goodness of God, in opposition to the Gnostics' theory of God; a number of divine emanations along with a distinction between the Monad and the Demiurge.

Irenaeus uses the Logos theology he inherited from Justin Martyr.

Irenaeus was a student of Polycarp, who was said to have been tutored by John the Apostle.

Irenaeus repeatedly insists that God began the world and has been overseeing it ever since this creative act; everything that has happened is part of his plan for humanity.

The essence of this plan is a process of maturation: Irenaeus believes that humanity was created immature, and God intended his creatures to take a long time to grow into or assume the divine likeness.

Irenaeus likens death to the big fish that swallowed Jonah: it was only in the depths of the whale's belly that Jonah could turn to God and act according to the divine will.

Irenaeus sees Christ as the new Adam, who systematically undoes what Adam did: thus, where Adam was disobedient concerning God's edict concerning the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Christ was obedient even to death on the wood of a tree.

Irenaeus is the first to draw comparisons between Eve and Mary, contrasting the faithlessness of the former with the faithfulness of the latter.

Irenaeus conceives of our salvation as essentially coming about through the incarnation of God as a man.

Irenaeus characterizes the penalty for sin as death and corruption.

Irenaeus emphasizes that salvation occurs through Christ's Incarnation, which bestows incorruptibility on humanity, rather than emphasizing His Redemptive death in the crucifixion, although the latter event is an integral part of the former.

Irenaeus argues that if Jesus were in his thirties, his opponents would have argued that he was not yet 40 years old, since that would make him even younger.

Irenaeus's argument is that they would not weaken their own argument by adding years to Jesus's age.

In refuting Gnostic claims that Jesus preached for only one year after his baptism, Irenaeus used the "recapitulation" approach to demonstrate that by living beyond the age of thirty Christ sanctified even old age.

Irenaeus first brings up the theme of victory over sin and evil that is afforded by Jesus's death.

Reconciliation is a theme of Paul's that Irenaeus stresses in his teachings on Salvation.

Irenaeus believes Jesus coming in flesh and blood sanctified humanity so that it might again reflect the perfection associated with the likeness of the Divine.

Irenaeus uses this parallel to demonstrate that Christ truly took human flesh.

Irenaeus explains that by becoming man, Christ restored humanity to being in the image and likeness of God, which they had lost in the Fall of man.

Irenaeus emphasizes the importance of Christ's reversal of Adam's action.

Irenaeus emphasizes that it is through Christ's reversal of Adam's action that humanity is saved, rather than considering the Redemption to occur in a cultic or juridical way.

The recently discovered Gospel of Judas dates close to the period when Irenaeus lived, and scholars typically regard this work as one of many Gnostic texts, showing one of many varieties of Gnostic beliefs of the period.