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Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920

Chapter 70

Then he says: His generation who shall1 declare? This was said to warn us, lest on account of His enemies and the outrage of His sufferings we should despise Him as a mean and contemptible man. For He who endured all this has an un-declarable generation;2 for by generation He means descent; (for) He who is His Father is undeclarable and unspeakable. Know therefore that such descent was His who endured these sufferings; and despise Him not because of the sufferings which for thy sake He of purpose endured, but fear Him because of His descent.

Notes

  1. Isa. liii. 8.
  2. IV, lv. 2: “et inenarrabile habet genus.” Cf. Just. M. Ap. I, 51: ὁ ταῦτα πάσχων ἀνεκδιήγητον ἔχει τὸ γένος: Dial. 43 and 76.

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