Library › St Irenaeus of Lyons › Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920
Chapter 46
He it is who spake with Moses in the bush, and said: Seeing have I seen the affliction of thy1 people that is in Egypt; and I am come down to deliver them. He it is who came forth and came down for the deliverance of the oppressed, bringing us out from the power of the Egyptians, that is, from all idolatry and impiety; and delivering us from the Red Sea, that is, delivering us from the deadly confusion of the Gentiles and the grievous vexation of their blasphemy. For in them the Word of God prepared and rehearsed beforehand the things concerning us. Then He set forth in types beforehand that which was to be; now in very truth He has brought us out from the cruel service of the Gentiles, and a stream of water in the desert has He made to flow forth in abundance from a rock; and that rock is Himself; and has given twelve fountains,2 that is, the teaching of the twelve apostles.3 And the obstinate unbelievers He brought to an end and consumed in the wilderness; but those who believed on Him, and in malice were children,45 He made to enter into the inheritance of the fathers; whom not Moses, but Jesus puts in possession of the heritage:6 who also delivers us from Amalek by the expansion of His hands,7 and8 brings us to the kingdom of the Father.
Notes
- Ex. iii. 7.
- Cf. 1 Cor. x. 4.
- Cf. Ex. xv. 27.
- IV, xliv. 3: “Malitia parvuli”: cf. c. 95.
- 1 Cor. xiv. 20.
- IV, xlvii. 1: “ecclesiae . . . quam non Moyses quidem famulus Dei, sed Jesus filius Dei in haereditatem dabit.”
- V, xvii. 4: διὰ τῆς ἐκτάσεως τῶν χειρῶν (where neither Lat. nor Arm. supports the inserted θείας): cf. c. 79. For this ἔκτασις cf. Barn. XII. 2; Just. M. Dial. 91, 112, 131.
- Cf. Ex. xvii. 9 ff.