CURIOUS STATEMENTS OF IRENAEUS.
The special importance of the evidence of Irenaeus, is due to the fact
that of all the Fathers whose undisputed works have come down to us he
is the only one who can be considered to have been anything like in
touch with the Apostles. As an acquaintance of the aged Polycarp, who
is said to have been in his youth a pupil of the aged Evangelist and
Apostle St. John and to have met yet other Apostles, Irenaeus had
opportunities for ascertaining facts concerning the life and death of
Jesus which the other Fathers upon whose works we rely did not possess.
What, then, does this important witness have to say, which bears upon
the points at issue? As a matter of fact, very little.
There are, however, two passages in the works of Irenaeus which it
would not be right to altogether ignore.
In the first of these passages Irenaeus mentions that some Christians
believed that Simon of Cyrene was executed instead of Jesus, owing to
the power of Jesus to metamorphose himself and others having been
exercised with that object in view.[31] This power is referred to more
than once in our Gospels, for instance in the account of the so-called
"Transfiguration" upon the Mount; the Greek word rendered in our Bibles
as "transfigured" being the word which in translations of the older
Greek classics is rendered "metamorphosed."
Even if we pass by this belief of certain of the early Christians that
Jesus was never executed, a question here arises which should at least
be stated, and that is the question how, if Jesus was metamorphosed
upon the Mount, as the Gospels tell us, he can be said to have died as
a man at Calvary? For if upon the Mount of Transfiguration, or at any
other time previous to the scene at Calvary, Jesus was metamorphosed,
the form which was the result of the process of re-metamorphosis
necessary to make him recognisable again cannot be said to have been
born of the Virgin Mary, and can have been human only in appearance.
The other passage in the writings of Irenaeus which deserves our
notice, is neither more nor less than an emphatic declaration, by
Irenaeus himself, that Jesus was not executed when a little over thirty
years of age, but lived to be an old man. Explain it away how we will,
the fact remains; and it certainly ought not to be ignored.
At first sight this statement of Irenaeus would decidedly seem to
support the theory advanced by some, that, as the Roman Procurator
Pontius Pilate admittedly did not want to carry out the extreme penalty
in the case of Jesus, though he reluctantly consented to do so in order
to pacify the Jews and allowed Jesus to be fixed to a stauros and
suspended in public view, he took care to manage things so that Jesus
should only appear to die. The idea of course is that if Pilate wished
to preserve the life of Jesus he could easily have had him taken down
while in a drugged condition, have had the farce of burial carried out
at the earliest possible moment, and then have had him resuscitated and
removed to some region where he could dwell in safety.
What Irenaeus says concerning Jesus is that
"He passed through every age, becoming an infant for
infants. . . . So likewise he was an old man for old
men, that he might be a perfect Master for all, not
merely as regards the setting forth of the truth but
also as regards age, sanctifying at the same time the
aged also and becoming an example to them likewise.
Then, at last, he came on to death itself. . . . From
the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline
towards old age, which our Lord possessed while he still
fulfilled the office of a Teacher; even as the Gospel
and all the elders testify, those who were conversant in
Asia with John the disciple of the Lord affirming that
John conveyed to them that information. And he remained
among them up to the times of Trajan. Some of them
moreover saw not only John but the other apostles also,
and heard the very same account from them, and bear
testimony as to the statement. Whom, then, should we
rather believe? Whether such men as these, or
Ptolemaeus, who never saw the apostles and who never
even in his dreams attained to the slightest trace of an
apostle?"[32]
The reader must decide for himself or herself whether Irenaeus believed
that Jesus was never executed; or that he was executed but survived; or
that he was born when we suppose, but executed thirty years or so later
than we suppose; or that, though executed when we suppose, he was then
an old man, and was born, not at the commencement or middle or end of
the year A.C. 1, or B.C. 4, or whenever the orthodox date is, but
thirty years or more before what we call our era began. Anyhow he
mentions neither cross nor execution, and here seems to assume that
Jesus died a natural death. And in any case the fact remains that,
however mistaken he may have been, Irenaeus stated that Jesus lived to
be an old man; and stated so emphatically.
Even granting that Irenaeus must have been mistaken, his evidence none
the less affects one of the most important points debated in this work.
For it is clear that if even he knew so little about the execution of
Jesus, the details of that execution cannot have been particularly well
known; and the affirmation that the stauros to which Jesus was affixed
had a transverse bar attached may have had no foundation in fact, and
may have arisen from a wish to connect Jesus with that well-known and
widely-venerated Symbol of Life, the pre-Christian cross.