Irenæus

Footnotes

Introductory Note to Irenæus Against Heresies

^[4238] Comp. Clem. Rom., chap. xi. Josephus (Antiq., i. 11, 4) testifies that he had himself seen this pillar.

^[4239] The Latin is “per naturalia,” which words, according to Harvey, correspond to δἰ ἐμμηνοῤῥοίας. There is a poem entitled Sodoma preserved among the works of Tertullian and Cyprian which contains the following lines:—

“Dicitur et vivens, alio jam corpore, sexus

Munificos solito dispungere sanguine menses.”

^[4240] Matt. v. 13.

^[4241] The poem just referred to also says in reference to this pillar:—

“Ipsaque imago sibi formam sine corpore servans

Durat adhuc, et enim nuda statione sub æthram

Nec pluviis dilapsa situ, nec diruta ventis.

Quin etiam si quis mutilaverit advena formam,

Protinus ex sese suggestu vulnera complet.”

[That a pillar of salt is still to be seen in this vicinity, is now confirmed by many modern travellers (report of Lieut. Lynch, United States Navy), which accounts for the natural inference of Josephus and others on whom our author relied. The coincidence is noteworthy.]

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.

^[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.”

^[4243] “Quassum et futile.” The text varies much in the mss.

^[4244] Gen. i. 3.

^[4245] John i. 3.

^[4246] Eph. iv. 5, 6.

^[4247] Eph. iv. 16; Col. ii. 19.

^[4248] “Constabit ei.”

^[4249] We here read “secundum quos” with Massuet, instead of usual “secundum quod.”

^[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.”

^[4251] The Latin is, “per proprium visum.”

^[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.]

Chapter XXXIII.—Whosoever confesses that one God is the author of both Testaments, and diligently reads the Scriptures in company with the presbyters of the Church, is a true spiritual disciple; and he will rightly understand and interpret all that the prophets have declared respecting Christ and the liberty of the New Testament.

^[4253] 1 Cor. ii. 15. [The argument of this chapter hinges on Ps. xxv. 14, and expounds a difficult text of St. Paul. A man who has the mind of God’s Spirit is the only judge of spiritual things. Worldly men are incompetent critics of Scripture and of Christian exposition.

^[4254] Rom. i. 21.

^[4255] Isa. liii. 3.

^[4256] Zech. ix. 9.

^[4257] Ps. 118:22.

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