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Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920
Chapter 34
And the trespass which came by the tree was undone by the tree of obedience,1 when, hearkening unto God, the Son of man was nailed to the tree; thereby putting away the knowledge of evil and bringing in and establishing the knowledge of good: now evil it is to disobey God, even as hearkening unto God is good. And for this cause the Word spake by Isaiah the prophet, announcing beforehand that which was to come—for therefore are they prophets, because they proclaim what is to come:2 by him then spake the Word thus: I refuse not, nor gainsay: I gave my back to scourging,3 and my cheeks to smiting;4 and my face I turned not away from the shame of spitting. So then by the obedience wherewith He obeyed even5 unto death, hanging on the tree, He put away the old disobedience which was wrought in the tree. Now seeing that He is the Word of God Almighty, who in unseen wise in our midst is universally extended in all the world, and encompasses its length and breadth and height and depth6—for by the Word of God the whole universe is ordered and disposed—in it is crucified the Son of God, inscribed crosswise upon it all:7 for it is right that He being made visible, should set upon all things visible the sharing of His cross, that He might show His operation on visible things through a visible form. For He it is who illuminates the height, that is the heavens; and encompasses the deep which is beneath the earth; and stretches and spreads out the length from east to west; and steers across the breadth of north and south; summoning all that are scattered in every quarter to the knowledge of the Father.
Notes
- V, xvi. 2: “Dissolvens enim eam quae in initio in ligno facta fuerat hominis inobedientiam, obediens factus est usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis, eam quae in ligno facta fuerat inobedientiam per eam quae in ligno fuerat obedientiam sanans.”
- IV, xxxiv. 5: “Nam prophetia est praedicatio futurorum.”
- Isa. l. 5 f.
- Cf. c. 68.
- Phil. ii. 8.
- V, xvii. 4: ᾿Επεὶ γὰρ διὰ ξύλου ἀπεβάλομεν αὐτόν (sc. τὸν λόγον Κυρίου), διὰ ξύλου πάλιν φανερὸς τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐγένετο, ἐπιδεικνύων τὸ ὕψος καὶ μῆκος καὶ πλάτος ἐν ἑαυτῷ· καὶ, ὡς ἔφη τις τῶν προβεβηκότων πρεσβυτέρων, διὰ τῆς ἐκτάσεως τῶν χειρῶν τοὺς δύο λαοὺς εἰς ἕνα θεὸν συνάγων. The Greek, preserved in a Catena, is here emended from the Latin and Armenian versions, both of which omit καὶ βάθος.
- V, xviii. 2: “in hoc mundo existens, et secundum invisibilitatem continet quae facta sunt omnia, et in universa conditione infixus (Arm. “and in all this world in-crucified”), quoniam Verbum Dei gubernans et disponens omnia.” The thought is taken from Justin (Ap. I. 60), who attributes to Plato the words: ᾿Εχίασεν αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ παντί (cf. Timaeus 36 B.C.). See above, Introd. p. 29. Justin says that Plato misunderstanding the story of the Brazen Serpent, μηδὲ νοήσας τύπον εἶναι σταυροῦ, ἀλλὰ χίασμα νοήσας, τὴν μετὰ τὸν πρῶτον θεὸν δύναμιν κεχίασθαι ἐν τῷ παντὶ εἶπε.