The accounts of this father which are given in various biographies are
purely conjectural. His very existence has been disputed in a little
book published by Thomas Scott, of Ramsgate,* the author of which
contends that the Greek word _Eirenaios_, meaning "peaceful" is simply
the title of a treatise against heresies, the object of which was to
allay sectarian discord, and that Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, is a purely
mythical personage. Certain it is that very little is known of this old
saint. But in that respect he in no way differs from the other early
founders of Christianity.
* "Irenaeus: A Leaf of Primitive Church History Corrected
and Re-Written," 1876.
Dodwell makes him to have been born in the year 97, but Dupin and the
best modern authorities place his birth about 140; a number, however,
strike a medium at about 120. The importance of his date is evident
since the work against heresies is the first writing which makes any
mention of the four Gospels, and Irenaeus claims to have been a disciple
of Polycarp, who was a hearer of John. This claim can only be made at
all plausible by giving each of these holy martyrs an exceedingly long
life, for we have the word of Eusebius, that the book against heresies
was composed in the time of Eleutherius, the twelfth Pope, between 177
and 192, and Irenaeus lived until the third century. He is said to have
been made bishop of Lyons in 178, but how he managed to get transplanted
from Asia Minor to Gaul, is one of those things which are left to our
faith and wonder.
The fact is, it is extremely doubtful if the author of the book against
heresies ever saw Polycarp, and still more doubtful if Polycarp ever
saw John. He says John leaped out of the bath when he saw Cerinthus.
Now Cerinthus was a heretic, who lived about the middle of the second
century. He described John as wearing the _petalon_, the bishops
insignia of office. Fancy the retired fisherman, the beloved disciple,
who was told by his master to carry neither purse nor scrip, wearing the
priestly robes of office! George Reber, in his curious book, "The Christ
of Paul," (New York, 1876), says (p. 178): "The studied dishonesty of
Irenaeus in attempting to palm off the Presbyter John for the Apostle, is
as dark a piece of knavery as is to be found in the history of a church,
which has encouraged such practices from the time it claimed to be the
depositary of all the divine wealth left by the apostles."
Irenaeus is alleged to have suffered martyrdon about 202, but there is no
evidence of this prior to the ninth century, when Gregory of Tours first
circulated a story to that effect. Even such orthodox writers as
Cave, Basnage, Dodwell, and others, doubt the martyrdon, since neither
Tertullian, Eusebius, Theodoret, nor other early writers refer to it.
Two churches in Lyons dispupted for centuries about the possession of
his relics, which the Catholics allege were afterwards sacriligeously
despoiled by the Calvinists: a story often refuted. His sacred head
is said to have been kicked about in the gutters, but of course it was
miraculously restored to its place, and the skull, we believe, may be
seen for a consideration at the present day. The original Greek text
of the book against heresies is lost, and it exists only in a barbarous
Latin version. At whatever time it was written, and it may probably be
dated between 182 and 188, it testifies to the existence of numerous
heresies in the Church. It contains many statements respecting the
Gnostics, particularly the Valentinian heresy. There we may read of
their peculiar theories concerning God and Christ. Some thought the
Hebrew Jahveh a malignant deity whom Christ had come to destroy. Others
were foolish and wicked enough to ask whence God got the matter for
his creation. Cerinthus and his followers denied the virgin birth.
Carpocrates and his school held that Jesus was the son of Joseph, and
just like other men with the exception that inasmuch as his soul was
stedfast and pure a power descended on him from the Father that by means
of it he might escape from the creators of the world. Basilides taught
that Jesus did not suffer death, but Simon of Cyrene, being compelled,
bore the cross and was crucified in his stead. Irenaeus does not forget
to denounce these heretics as blasphemers and shameless sophists who
speak not a word of sense. He calls them slippery serpents and other
choice epithets such as the orthodox usually have in store for heretics,
so that the reader is tempted to wish that the wretches could show cause
why they should not summarily be damned. It is a notable fact that none
of the heretical books or heretical gospels have been preserved; they
come to us only through the medium of such representations as their
opponents chose to make of them.
George Reber says: "The Fourth Gospel was written with no other purpose
than to prove the incarnation, and that purpose is so persistently kept
up in every line and verse, from the beginning to the end, that if we
strike out this, and the miracles which are mere supports of the
main idea, there is nothing left, and so with the third book against
Heresies--it has but one theme. The writer sets out with the _Logos_
idea of this gospel, which is never lost sight of. He finds proof in
the traditions of the Church--in every page of the Old Testament--in
the Synoptics as well as in the fourth Gospel; and as we read his
misapplication of words and sentences, we should conclude that he was a
lunatic if we did not know he was something else" (p. 188). "As we read
whole pages in Irenaeus, charging his adversaries with forgeries and
false interpolations, we smile at the impudence and audacity of the man,
who has done more to pollute the pages of history than any other, and
whose footprints we can follow through the whole century, like the slime
of a serpent" (p. 216).
Reber, it will be seen, can be as abusive as Irenaeus himself. He calls
him "one of the most dishonest historians of any age" and "the great
criminal of the second century;" and endeavors to make out, on quite
insufficient grounds, that he was the forger of the Gospel according to
John.
Dr. Samuel Davidson, in his able work on "The Canon" (p. 155; 1880),
says "Irenaeus was credulous and blundering," and our case against him
will be sufficient if we prove these charges.
The orthodox Dr. Donaldson observes: "What he says about the apostle
John has the appearance of being, to say the least, highly colored"
("History of Christian Literature," vol. i., p. 157; 1864). The whole
purport of his account concerning John was to refute heretics by the
allegation of an apostolical succession which rests on his unsupported
testimony alone. The author of the work against Heresies was essentially
a priest, dwelling much on the authority of the priesthood and priestly
traditions. He did more perhaps than any other to lay the foundations
of the Romish hierarchy. In his third book, chapter four, he gives
the opinion that every Church should agree with the Church of Rome on
account of its pre-eminent authority.
He considers oral traditions of no less importance than Scripture, and
cites Clement, Polycarp, and those who were alleged to have heard the
apostles as decisive authorities. Hermes he calls divine Scripture. To
be outside the Church is to be outside truth. Holy Scripture is only
safely interpreted under control of the bishops.
Our Father cites the authority of John, and all the elders in Asia, for
the assertion that the ministry of Jesus lasted twenty years, and
that he was over fifty years of age when he was crucified. In the
twenty-second chapter of his second book, he discusses the question at
considerable length, and quotes John viii., 56-57, as establishing his
opinion. For he argues the Jews would not have said to Jesus "Thou art
not yet fifty years old," if he had only been thirty. Their object being
to remind him of the short period he had been on earth, they certainly
would not extend it eighteen or twenty years. If Irenaeus was right in
this important matter, the evidence of the Gospel history is falsified;
if wrong, what is the worth of his testimony as to the origin of the
four Gospels?
In regard to these he tells us there are mystic reasons why there could
only be four Gospels. "It is not possible that the Gospels can be either
more or fewer in number than they are. For since there are four zones of
the world in which we live, and four principal winds [or four Catholic
Spirits] while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the
pillar and ground of the Church is the gospel and the spirit of life; it
is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality
on every side, and vivifying men afresh" (Book iii., chap, xi, sect 8.,
p. 293). Dr. Giles in his "Christian Records" (p. 137), points out
that as this work was written many years after the apologies of Justin
Martyr, there was ample time in the interval for the compilation of our
Gospels, out of the authentic "Memoirs of the Apostles" and "Sayings of
our Lord."
In his third book, chapter xxi., Irenaeus follows Justin in his foolish
tale about the seventy Jewish elders, who made separate translations of
the Bible into Greek in the very same words from beginning to end.
He further tells us there was nothing astonishing in this since God
inspired Ezra to re-write all the words of the former prophets and to
re-establish the Mosaic law, destroyed during the captivity in Babylon.
The object of making the Septuagint version of Divine authority, was
because the quotations in the Christians' Scriptures were taken from
it, strangely enough, had the writers of those Scriptures been Jews. But
despite their boasted accuracy, Irenaeus (book iii., chap, xx., sec. 4)
quotes Isaiah as saying, "And the holy Lord remembered his dead Israel,
who had slept in the land of sepulture; and he came down to preach his
salvation to them that he might save them." In another place he quotes
this same passage as from Jeremiah, but it is in neither prophet Justin
in his dialogue with Trypho had brought it forward as an argument
against him, and accused the Jews of having fraudulently removed it from
the sacred text. The passage is, however, found in no ancient version
or Jewish Targum, which fact may be regarded as a decisive proof of its
spuriousness.
He follows Justin also in his tales of miracles asserting "some do
certainly and truly drive out devils. Others have foreknowledge of
things to come, they see visions, and utter prophetic expressions.
Others still, heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they
are made whole. Yea, moreover, the dead even have been raised up, and
remained among us for many years." As with the other Fathers, he gives
only general statements not particular instances. He allows that
the heretics Simon and Carpoerates and their followers also perform
miracles, "but not through the power of God but for the sake of
destroying and misleading mankind, by means of magical deceptions."
None of these Christian miracles were known to the heathen, and, as Dr.
Conyers Middle ton pointed out, in his "Free Enquiry into the Miraculous
Powers in the Christian Church," at this very same time when one
Autolycus, an eminent heathen, challenged his friend Theophilus, Bishop
of Antioch, a convert and champion of the Gospels, to show him but
one person who had "been raised from the dead, on the condition of him
turning Christian himself," Theophilus made plain by his answer that he
was not able to give him that satisfaction.
Irenaeus follows Justin in making the angels mix with the daughters of
men, and also in his absurd typology. He even makes Balaam's ass a
type of the Savior. The cohabitation of Lot with his two daughters was
providential and typical of the two sister synagogues, the Jewish and
the Christian.
In common with all the early Fathers he asserts the doctrine of the
millenium, and this in the grossest sense. We have already seen the
quotation which he gives from Papias as the actual words of Jesus upon
this matter. He believed it would be a purely earthly glory and felicity
after the sort depicted in the Jewish apocalypses. This portion of his
writings, having been utterly discredited, is very often omitted. He
believed the end of all things was near at hand. The world would last
six thousand years because made in six days. Antichrist would come from
the tribe of Dan and reign three years and five days in Jerusalem, when
he would be vanquished. The fall of Antichrist and the end of the world
would coincide with the fall of the Roman Empire, for the mysterious
name of the beast is _Latinus_. Then the Lord was to come, and there
would be no more labor "but unlimited wine swilling."
Irenaeus affirms also on the same authority of tradition delivered to
him by those who had received it from the apostles, that Enoch and Elias
were translated into that very Paradise from which Adam was expelled,
and that this was the place into which St. Paul was caught up. This is
affirmed also by all the later Fathers, both Greek and Latin.
Our space will not permit us to further enlarge on the vast appeals to
faith made by Irenaeus. Nor can we pause to deal with Tertullian,
who, with more impetuosity and no less acerbity, championed the same
orthodoxy, shrinking not from the "credo quia absurdum est," and who
ended by turning heretic. Nor with the learned Clement of Alexandria,
whose high speculations led also into contempt of the world and its
ways of science, art, and civilisation. Nor with the ascetic and
self-emasculated Origen, at once profound and prolific, who, in his
attempt to reconcile Christianity with reason, fell into such errors as
believing in the pre-existence and pretemporal fall of souls, and the
redemption of the inhabitants of the stars and even of Satan himself.
We must reserve a brief space for the great ecclesiastical historian.