Irenæus

Footnotes

Introductory Note to Irenæus Against Heresies

^[4603] The Greek is preserved here, and reads, διὰ τῆς θείας ἐκτάσεως τῶν χειρῶν— literally, “through the divine extension of hands.” The old Latin merely reads, “per extensionem manuum.”

Chapter XVIII.—God the Father and His Word have formed all created things (which They use) by Their own power and wisdom, not out of defect or ignorance. The Son of God, who received all power from the Father, would otherwise never have taken flesh upon Him.

^[4604] John xiv. 11.

^[4605] From this passage Harvey infers that Irenæus held the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son,—a doctrine denied by the Oriental Church in after times. [Here is nothing about the “procession:” only the “mission” of the Spirit is here concerned. And the Easterns object to the double procession itself only in so far as any one means thereby to deny “quod solus Pater est divinarum personarum, Principium et Fons,”—ρίζα καὶ πηγὴ. See Procopowicz, De Processione, Gothæ, 1772].

^[4606] Grabe and Harvey insert the words, “quod est conditionis,” but on slender authority.

^[4607] John vii. 39.

^[4608] Eph. iv. 6.

^[4609] John i. 1, etc.

^[4610] John i. 10, etc.

^[4611] John i. 14.

^[4612] The text reads “invisiblilter,” which seems clearly an error.

^[4613] Deut. xxviii. 66.

^[4614] John i. 12.

^[4615] Ps. l. 3, 4.

Chapter XIX.—A comparison is instituted between the disobedient and sinning Eve and the Virgin Mary, her patroness. Various and discordant heresies are mentioned.

^[4616] The text is here most uncertain and obscure.

^[4617] [This word patroness is ambiguous. The Latin may stand for Gr. ἀντίληψις, —a person called in to help, or to take hold of the other end of a burden. The argument implies that Mary was thus the counterpart or balance of Eve.]

^[4618] The text reads “porro,” which makes no sense; so that Harvey looks upon it as a corruption of the reading “per Horum.”

Chapter XX.—Those pastors are to be heard to whom the apostles committed the Churches, possessing one and the same doctrine of salvation; the heretics, on the other hand, are to be avoided. We must think soberly with regard to the mysteries of the faith.

^[4619] “Et eandem figuram ejus quæ est erga ecclesiam ordinationis custodientibus.” Grabe supposes this refers to the ordained ministry of the Church, but Harvey thinks it refers more probably to its general constitution.

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