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Against Heresies

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Against Heresies is a work of Christian theology written in Greek by Irenaeus, the bishop of Lugdunum (now Lyon in France). Due to its reference to Eleutherus as the current bishop of Rome, the work is usually dated c. 180.[1][2] In it, Irenaeus identifies and describes several schools of Gnosticism, and other schools of Christian thought, whose beliefs he rejects as heresy. He contrasts them with orthodox Christianity (proto-orthodox Christianity).

P. Oxyrhynchus 405 – fragment of Against Heresies from c. 200 AD

Only fragments of the original text in ancient Greek remain today, but a complete (less one paragraph[2]) Latin translation — "very ancient"[3], "probably made in the fourth or early fifth century"[2] — still survives. Books IV and V exist in their entirety in a literal version in Armenian.[3][2] There are quotations in Syriac, but it is not clear if a translation of the whole was ever made into Syriac.[4]

Against Heresies (Latin: Adversus haereses, Greek: Κατὰ αἱρέσεων), also given as Against the Heresies[2], is the conventional name for the work. That name for it comes from Eusebius,[2] whose Ecclesiastical History contains many quotations from Against Heresies. The original title of the work, in Koine Greek, was Ἔλεγχος καὶ ἀνατροπὴ τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως (Elenchos kai anatropē tēs pseudōnymou gnōseōs). And so in English the work is sometimes referred to by translations of the full Greek title, such as Refutation and Overthrow of the Knowledge Falsely So-called,[5] The Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So-Called,[6] Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So-Called.[7][8] The Refutation and Overthrowal of Knowledge falsely so-called,[2] and Refutation and Overthrowal of Knowledge falsely so-called.[2]

The final phrase "of knowledge falsely so-called" (Greek: tes pseudonymou gnoseos genitive case; or nominative case pseudonymos gnosis[citation needed] — ψευδώνυμος pseudonymos meaning "under a false name, falsely called"[9]) is found in 1 Timothy 6:20[10]

Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge[11]

Historical importance

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Until the discovery of the Library of Nag Hammadi in 1945, Against Heresies was the best surviving contemporary description of Gnosticism. Today, the treatise remains historically important as one of the first unambiguous attestations of the canonical gospel texts and some of the Pauline epistles. Irenaeus cites from most of the New Testament canon, as well as the noncanonical works 1 Clement and The Shepherd of Hermas; however, he makes no references to Philemon, 2 Peter, 3 John or Jude – four of the shortest epistles.[12]

Purpose

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Against Heresies can be dated to sometime between 174 and 189 AD, as the list of the Bishops of Rome includes Eleutherius, but not his successor Victor.[13] The earliest manuscript fragment of Against Heresies, P. Oxy. 405, dates to around 200 AD.[14]

Irenaeus' primary goal in writing Against Heresies was to attack sects that deviated from Christianity, mainly the Gnostics and Marcionites.[15][16][17] In particular, he sought to disprove what he saw as incorrect interpretations of scripture on the part of Gnostics such as Valentinus.[18] Irenaeus sought to present "what was understood as an authentic form of century-old Christian tradition against various forms of Gnosticism."[19] As James VanderKam notes, elements of this early Christian tradition drawn upon by Irenaeus include apocalyptic traditions such as 1 Enoch.[20]

As bishop, Irenaeus felt compelled to keep a close eye on the Valentinians and to safeguard the church from them. In order to fulfill this duty, Irenaeus became well informed of Gnostic doctrines and traditions.[21] His studies of Gnosticism eventually led to the compilation of this treatise.

Main ideas

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Irenaeus argued that orthodox Christianity was passed down to him from the apostles who knew Jesus personally, while the Gnostics and Marcionites were distorting this apostolic tradition.[13]

While the Gnostics offered salvation through secret knowledge available only to a few, Irenaeus contended that the true doctrines of the Christian faith are identical even when taught by bishops in different areas.[22]

While many of the Gnostics viewed the material world as flawed and from which believers sought to escape to an eternal realm of spirit, Irenaeus saw creation as good and ultimately destined for glorification.[23] As Mark Jeffrey Olson points out, 1 Corinthians 15:50 is quoted more than any other verse from the letters of Paul in Against Heresies:

I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

— 1 Corinthians 15:50, RSV

Both Irenaeus and the Valentinians use this verse to argue for their own understandings of the resurrection of the dead. The Valentinians believed that resurrection was a purely spiritual phenomenon, while Irenaeus insisted that Christians would be raised from the dead in fleshly bodies. According to Irenaeus, this verse was used by the Gnostics to argue that "the handiwork of God is not saved."[24]

Irenaeus also polemicized against Marcion of Sinope, who preached that the creator God of the Hebrew Bible and the Father of Jesus Christ were two different Gods. Irenaeus argues that the same God who sent Jesus to the Earth also led man through history by way of the Jewish law and prophets.[13]

Contents

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See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Schaff, Philip (2001) [c. 1885] "Introductory Note to Irenæus Against Heresies", Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume I, Against Heresies, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Behr, John (1997). On the Apostolic Preaching. St. Vladimir's Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-088141-174-4. By the standards of later church fathers, Irenaeus was not a prolific author. Only two of his writings are extant. The first is The Refutation and Overthrowal of Knowledge falsely so-called, to use the title by which Irenaeus himself refers to it (AH 4:Pref.: 1; cf. EH 5:7:1); the shorter, more popular title, Against the Heresies, comes from Eusebius (EH 3:23:3). The second work, here translated, is The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching. In book 3 of Against the Heresies, Irenaeus mentions that Eleutherius was then the bishop of Rome (AH 3:3:3). As such, this book can be dated with some certainty to the period between 175 and 189. That Irenaeus refers the reader of the Demonstration (chp 98) to his work Refutation and Overthrowal of Knowledge falsely so-called would seem to indicate that the Demonstration was written later, at the end of the second century, although it is possible that the final chapters of the Demonstration are a later addition. The Greek text of Against the Heresies was consulted by Photius in Baghdad in the ninth century, but was probably lost in the sacking of the city in 1258. The complete text, apart from a paragraph towards the end, survives only in a Latin version probably made in the fourth or early fifth century. In 1904, a manuscript was discovered in Erevan which contained an Armenian version of books 4 and 5 of Against the Heresies and the complete text of the Demonstration, probably made in the last quarter of the sixth century.
  3. 1 2 Poncelet, Albert (1910). "St. Irenaeus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York City: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 4 March 2009. Irenaeus wrote in Greek many works which have secured for him an exceptional place in Christian literature, because in controverted religious questions of capital importance they exhibit the testimony of a contemporary of the heroic age of the Church, of one who had heard St. Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, and who, in a manner, belonged to the Apostolic Age. None of these writings has come down to us in the original text, though a great many fragments of them are extant as citations in later writers (Hippolytus, Eusebius, etc.). Two of these works, however, have reached us in their entirety in a Latin version: • A treatise in five books, commonly entitled Adversus haereses, and devoted, according to its true title, to the "Detection and Overthrow of the False Knowledge" (see GNOSTICISM, sub-title Refutation of Gnosticism). Of this work we possess a very ancient Latin translation, the scrupulous fidelity of which is beyond doubt. It is the chief work of Irenaeus and truly of the highest importance; it contains a profound exposition not only of Gnosticism under its different forms, but also of the principal heresies which had sprung up in the various Christian communities, and thus constitutes an invaluable source of information on the most ancient ecclesiastical literature from its beginnings to the end of the second century. In refuting the heterodox systems Irenaeus often opposes to them the true doctrine of the Church, and in this way furnishes positive and very early evidence of high importance.
  4. ↑ Denis Minns, "Irenaeus of Lyons", in Wiley Blackwell Companions to Patristics (2015), p. 75.
  5. ↑ https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250105.htm#:~:text=Refutation%20and%20Overthrow%20of%20the%20Knowledge%20Falsely%20So%2Dcalled
  6. ↑ e.g. Peter Drilling Premodern faith in a postmodern culture 2006 p 73 "But eventually The Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So-Called (the actual title of what is commonly known as Against Heresies) expanded from two volumes to five."
  7. ↑ Robert Lee Williams Bishop lists 2005 p 123 "Irenaeus recorded the bishops of the Roman church in the third of his five books entitled Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So-Called"
  8. ↑ Robert Lee Williams Bishop lists 2014 ("Reprinted from the 2005 edition by Gorgias Press") p 121 "Irenaeus recorded the bishops of the Roman church in the third of his five books entitled Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So-Called (Haer. 4.pref.1) and usually called Against Heresies."
  9. ↑ "Greek Word Study Tool | irregular nom f. sg". perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  10. ↑ Unger, Dominic J., Dillon, John J., St. Irenaeus of Lyons Against the heresies, Vol.1, p.3, 1992 "the final phrase of the title "knowledge falsely so-called" is found in 1 Timothy 6:20”.
  11. ↑ https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%206%3A20&version=NRSVUE
  12. ↑ Davis, Glenn (2008). "Irenaeus of Lyons". The Development of the Canon of the New Testament. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
  13. 1 2 3 Richardson, C. (1995). Early Christian Fathers. Touchstone. p. 343. ISBN 978-0-684-82951-7. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  14. ↑ Egypt Exploration Fund (1903). Grenfell, Bernard P.; Hunt, Arthur S. (eds.). The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Vol. 3. Oxford. p. 10. 405 consists of seven fragments written in a small neat uncial hand, which is not later than the first half of the third century, and might be as old as the later part of the second.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  15. ↑ Heide, G. (2012). Timeless Truth in the Hands of History: A Short History of System in Theology. Wipf & Stock Publishers. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-63087-798-9. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  16. ↑ Donovan, Mary Ann (1998). "Irenaeus of Lyons (review)". Journal of Early Christian Studies. 6 (4): 674–675. doi:10.1353/earl.1998.0062. S2CID 170882635. Project MUSE 9987.
  17. ↑ Great Christian Thinkers: From the Early Church Through the Middle Ages. Fortress Press. 2011. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8006-9851-5. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  18. ↑ Steenberg, M.C. (2009). Of God and Man: Theology as Anthropology from Irenaeus to Athanasius. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-567-60047-9. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  19. ↑ Anderson, W.P. (18 September 2023). A Journey Through Christian Theology: With Texts from the First to the Twenty-first Century. Fortress Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-4514-2032-6. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  20. ↑ intertextual.bible/text/1-enoch-9-irenaeus-against-heresies-1.15.6
  21. ↑ Vallée, Gérard (1981). A study in anti-Gnostic polemics: Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Epiphanius. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 9. ISBN 0-919812-14-7. OCLC 8975860.
  22. ↑ Kotsko, A. (2010). The Politics of Redemption: The Social Logic of Salvation. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-567-20432-5. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  23. ↑ McFarland, Ian A. (2009). Creation and Humanity: The Sources of Christian Theology. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-23135-4.[page needed]
  24. ↑ Irenaeus (2001) [c. 180] "Showing how that passage of the apostle which the heretics pervert, should be understood; viz., 'Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God.'", in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume I, Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter IX, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
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