Irenæus

Footnotes

Introductory Note to Irenæus Against Heresies

^[4449] Ex ratione universis ostensionibus procedente. The words are very obscure.

Chapter I.—Christ alone is able to teach divine things, and to redeem us: He, the same, took flesh of the Virgin Mary, not merely in appearance, but actually, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, in order to renovate us. Strictures on the conceits of Valentinus and Ebion.

^[4450] Rom. xi. 34.

^[4451] “Initium facturæ,” which Grabe thinks should be thus translated with reference to Jas. i. 18.

^[4452] [Compare Clement, cap. 49, p. 18, this volume.]

^[4453] Luke i. 35.

^[4454] In allusion to the mixture of water in the eucharistic cup, as practised in these primitive times. The Ebionites and others used to consecrate the element of water alone.

^[4455] 1 Cor. xv. 22.

^[4456] Viz., the Son and the Spirit.

^[4457] John i. 13.

Chapter II.—When Christ visited us in His grace, He did not come to what did not belong to Him: also, by shedding His true blood for us, and exhibiting to us His true flesh in the Eucharist, He conferred upon our flesh the capacity of salvation.

^[4458] 1 Cor. x. 16.

^[4459] Col. i. 14.

^[4460] Matt. v. 45.

^[4461] [Again, the carefully asserts that the bread is the body, and the wine (cup) is the blood. The elements are sanctified, not changed materially.]

^[4462] The Greek text, of which a considerable portion remains here, would give, “and the Eucharist becomes the body of Christ.”

^[4463] Eph. v. 30.

^[4464] Luke xxiv. 39.

^[4465] 1 Cor. xv. 53.

^[4466] 2 Cor. xii. 3.

^[4467] This is Harvey’s free rendering of the passage, which is in the Greek (as preserved in the Catena of John of Damascus): καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἠνέσχετο ὁ Θεὸς τὴν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἡμῶν ἀνάλυσιν. In the Latin: Propter hoc passus est Deus fieri in nobis resolutionem. See Book iii. cap. xx. 2.

Chapter III.—The power and glory of God shine forth in the weakness of human flesh, as He will render our body a participator of the resurrection and of immortality, although He has formed it from the dust of the earth; He will also bestow upon it the enjoyment of immortality, just as He grants it this short life in common with the soul.

^[4468] 2 Cor. xii. 7-9.

^[4469] We have adopted here the explanation of Massuet, who considers the preceding period as merely parenthetical. Both Grabe and Harvey, however, would make conjectural emendations in the text, which seem to us to be inadmissible.

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