Library › St Irenaeus of Lyons › Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920
Chapter 90
Therefore by newness of the spirit is our1 calling, and not in the oldness of the letter;2 even as Jeremiah prophesied: Behold the days come,3 saith the Lord, that I will accomplish for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah the covenant of the testament4 which I covenanted with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: because they continued not in the covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant of the testament that I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws 5 into their minds, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach any more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will pardon and be merciful unto the sins of their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more.
Notes
- Cf. Rom. vii. 6.
- I have followed the simple emendation suggested by the editors: the printed text has “not in our oldness.”
- Jer. xxxi. 31 ff.; Heb. viii. 8 ff.
- After διαθήκην the words καινήν, οὐ κατὰ τὴν διαθήκην must have been missed by the scribe or translator. “The covenant of the testament” is only a double rendering of διαθήκην: such double renderings occur several times in this quotation, but I have not retained them in every case.
- Lit. “giving my laws”; cf. Heb. viii. 10.