Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I: IRENÆUS: Chapter XXXII.—That one God was the...

Chapter XXXII.—That one God was the author of both Testaments, is confirmed by the authority of a presbyter who had been taught by the apostles.

1. After this fashion also did a presbyter, 4242 a disciple of the apostles, reason with respect to the two testaments, proving that both were truly from one and the same God. For [he maintained] that there was no other God besides Him who made and fashioned us, and that the discourse of those men has no foundation who affirm that this world of ours was made either by angels, or by any other power whatsoever, or by another God. For if a man be once moved away from the Creator of all things, and if he grant that this creation to which we belong was formed by any other or through any other [than the one God], he must of necessity fall into much inconsistency, and many contradictions of this sort; to which he will [be able to] furnish no explanations which can be regarded as either probable or true. And, for this reason, those who introduce other doctrines conceal from us the opinion which they themselves hold respecting God, because they are aware of the untenable 4243 and absurd nature of their doctrine, and are afraid lest, should they be vanquished, they should have some difficulty in making good their escape. But if any one believes in [only] one God, who also made all things by the Word, as Moses likewise says, “God said, Let there be light: and there was light;” 4244 and as we read in the Gospel, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was nothing made;” 4245 and the Apostle Paul [says] in like manner, “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, who is above all, and through all, and in us all” 4246 —this man will first of all “hold the head, from which the whole body is compacted and bound together, and, through means of every joint according to the measure of the ministration of each several part, maketh increase of the body to the edification of itself in love.” 4247 And then shall every word also seem consistent to him, 4248 if he for his part diligently read the Scriptures in company with those who are presbyters in the Church, among whom is the apostolic doctrine, as I have pointed out.

2. For all the apostles taught that there were indeed two testaments among the two peoples; but that it was one and the same God who appointed both for the advantage of those men (for whose 4249 sakes the testaments were given) who were to believe in God, I have proved in the third book from the very teaching of the apostles; and that the first testament was not given without reason, or to no purpose, or in an accidental sort of manner; but that it subdued 4250 those to whom it was given to the service of God, for their benefit (for God needs no service from men), and exhibited a type of heavenly things, inasmuch as man was not yet able to see the things of God through means of immediate vision; 4251 and foreshadowed the images of those things which [now actually] exist in the Church, in order that our faith might be firmly established; 4252 and contained a prophecy of things to come, in order that man might learn that God has foreknowledge of all things.

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Footnotes

505:4242

Harvey remarks here, that this can hardly be the same presbyter mentioned before, “who was only a hearer of those who had heard the apostles. Irenæus may here mean the venerable martyr Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna.”

506:4243

“Quassum et futile.” The text varies much in the mss.

506:4244

Gen. i. 3.

506:4245

John i. 3.

506:4246

Eph. 4:5, 6.

506:4247

Eph. iv. 16; Col. ii. 19.

506:4248

“Constabit ei.”

506:4249

We here read “secundum quos” with Massuet, instead of usual “secundum quod.”

506:4250

“Concurvans,” corresponding to συγκάμπτων, which, says Harvey, “would be expressive of those who were brought under the law, as the neck of the steer is bent to the yoke.”

506:4251

The Latin is, “per proprium visum.”

506:4252

[If this and the former chapter seem to us superfluous, we must reflect that such testimony, from the beginning, has established the unity of Holy Scripture, and preserved to us—the Bible.]