Translation against heresies 53
A parallel in Homeric study
9.4 After collecting scattered texts and names they transfer them, as we said before,
out of their natural meaning to a meaning contrary to nature, acting like those who propose
random hypotheses for themselves and try to treat them from the Homeric verses, so that
the untutored may suppose that Homer composed verses on this completely novel subject
and that many readers may be led astray, through the well-ordered sequence of the verses,
to ask if Homer wrote them. Here is how, with verses from Homer, one could describe
Heracles as sent by Eurystheus to the dog in Hades. Nothing keeps us from using such an
example, since it involves the same argument in both cases.
Having thus spoken, he left groaning deeply (Od. 10.76)
The noble Heracles, witness of great deeds (Od. 21:26);
Eurystheus, born of Sthenelos the Perseid (Il. 19.123),
To lead from Erebos the dog of cruel Hades (Il. 8.368).
He left, like a fierce lion fed in mountains (Od. 6.130),
Through mid-city; his friends at once parted (Il. 24.327).
Old men and boys and unmarried girls (Od. 11.38),
Uttering laments as if he walked toward death (Il. 24.328).
Hermes went with him, and grey-eyed Pallas (Od. 11.626),
For he knew what grief agitated his brother (Il. 2.409).
What simpleton would be taken in by these verses to suppose that Homer composed them
in this way? One who knows his Homer will recognize the verses but not the subject matter.
He knows that one of the verses deals with Odysseus, another with Heracles, another with
Priam, another with Menelaos and Agamemnon. If anyone takes these verses and restores
them to their original setting, he will make the system disappear. And thus whoever keeps
the rule of truth, which he received through baptism, unchanged within himself, knows these
names, phrases, and parables from the scriptures but does not recognize their blasphemous
Copyright © 1996. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
system. If he recognizes the stones [of the mosaic] he will not take the fox for the royal
image. Setting each word in its context and adjusting it to the body of truth, he will strip it
of their fiction and show their inconsistency.
The uniform faith of the church
10.1 The church, dispersed throughout the world to the ends of the earth, received
from the apostles and their disciples the faith in one God the Father Almighty, “who made
heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them” (Exod. 20:11), and in one Christ Jesus, the
Son of God, incarnate for our salvation, and in the Holy Spirit, who through the prophets
predicted the dispensations of God: the coming, the birth from the Virgin, the passion,
the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension of the beloved Jesus Christ our Lord
in the flesh into the heavens, and his coming from the heavens in the glory of the Father
to “recapitulate all things” (Eph. 1:10) and raise up all flesh of the human race, so that to
Christ Jesus our Lord and God and Savior and King, according to the good pleasure of the
Grant, Robert M.. Irenaeus of Lyons, Taylor & Francis Group, 1996. ProQuest Ebook Central,
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54 Irenaeus of Lyons
invisible Father, “every knee should bow, of beings in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, and that every tongue should confess him” (Phil. 2:10–11), and that he should render
a just judgement on all and send to eternal fire the spiritual powers of iniquity, the lying
and apostate angels, and men who are impious, unjust, iniquitous, and blasphemous, while
on the contrary he should give life imperishable as a reward to the just and equitable who
keep his commandments and persevere in his love (some from the beginning, others since
their conversion), and surround it with eternal glory.
10.2 The church, having received this preaching and this faith, as we have just said,
though dispersed in the whole world, diligently guards them as living in one house, believes
them as having one soul and one heart (Acts 4:32), and consistently preaches, teaches, and
hands them down as having one mouth. For if the languages in the world are dissimilar, the
power of the tradition is one and the same. The churches founded in Germany believe and
hand down no differently, nor do those among the Iberians, among the Celts, in the Orient,
in Egypt, or in Libya, or those established in the middle of the world. As the sun, God’s
creature, is one and the same in the whole world, so the light, the preaching of truth, shines
everywhere and illuminates all men who wish to come to the knowledge of truth. And none
of the rulers of the churches, however gifted he may be in eloquence, will say anything dif-
ferent—for no one is above the Master (Matt. 10:24)—nor will one weak in speech damage
the tradition. Since the faith is one and the same, he who can say much about it does not
add to it nor does he who says little diminish it.
What theological method can and cannot do
10.3 The fact that some people know more or less by insight does not result in changing
the subject (hypothesis) and falsely imagining a God other than the Creator, Maker, and
Sustainer of this universe, as if he were not sufficient for us, or another Christ or another
Only Son. But knowledge lies in (a) the more complete investigation of everything said
in parables and its adaptation to the argument of truth; (b) telling in detail the action and
Copyright © 1996. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
plan of God for humanity; (c) setting forth God’s long-suffering toward the apostasy of
the rebellious angels as well as the disobedience of men; (d) stating why one and the
same God made some things temporal, others eternal, some celestial, others earthly; (e)
understanding why God, being invisible, appeared to the prophets, not in one form but
variously; (f) indicating why many covenants were handed down to the human race, and
teaching the character of each one; (g) investigating why “God consigned all things to
unbelief that he might have mercy on all” (Rom. 11:32); (h) giving thanks for why “the
Word” of God “became incarnate” (John 1:14) and suffered; (i) proclaiming why the
advent of the Son of God took place in the last times, that is, why the Beginning appeared
at the end; (j) investigating whatever is contained in the scriptures about the end and things
to come; (k) not being silent about why, when the gentiles were without hope, God made
them joint heirs incorporate, sharers with the saints (Eph. 3:6); (1) announcing how “this
mortal flesh will put on immortality and this perishable, imperishability” (1 Cor. 15:54);
(m) proclaiming how “the not-people became a people and the non-beloved beloved” (Hos.
2:25) and how “the children of the one abandoned have become more than the children of
her who had a husband” (Gal. 4:27).
Grant, Robert M.. Irenaeus of Lyons, Taylor & Francis Group, 1996. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/duke/detail.action?docID=178268.
Created from duke on 2020-08-19 05:39:25.
