3.4 Refuting Valentinian Anthropology: Haer. 2.30.7 and Haer. 2.30.9
chapter 3 as well as the connection between "womb" (uulua) and "light" (lumen).24 In a similar way, the wheat crop, when it has matured, is harvested and taken into the barn (Matt 3:12), which is the conclusion to John the Baptist's messianic declaration. Irenaeus' reading of this passage develops the imagery of "grow and multiply" from Gen 1:28, saying: "the same Lord brought forth the stem, made the wheat grow and multiply [Gen 1:28] and prepared the granary [Matt 3:12] (idem Dominus qui et stipulam eduxit et triticum augens multiplicauit et horreum praeparauit).25 Like the womb/sun imagery, the wheat harvesting imagery is connected to Irenaeus' concept of human growth and sanctification prepared in Gen 1:28. In this way, the passages of Gen 1:1, Gen 2:7 and Gen 1:28 are linked through a progressive framework from the creation and advancement of toward divine perfection, which is also illustrated in Job 3:16 and Heb 7:7, and ultimately in Matt 3:12.
3.4
Refuting Valentinian Anthropology: Haer. 2.30.7 and Haer. 2.30.9
The larger section of Haer. 2.29–30 completes Irenaeus extended critique of the Valentinians (Haer. 2.1–30) and concerns the nature of salvation in Valentinian thought. In doing so, it summarizes the eternal destiny of the three substances: hylics, psychics, and pneumatics. The hylics remain below and are destroyed, the psychics ascend only to the intermediary place, and the pneumatics ascend to the Pleroma. Logically Irenaeus argues if pneumatics are saved by their nature, the notion of a Savior is superfluous. The description of Paul's ascension to the third heaven in 2 Cor 12:4 is central to the Valentinian account of salvation, but Irenaeus demonstrates how Paul's ascension is not incongruous with the salvation of the body. There is a close association in Irenaeus' thought between this Pauline text and a narrative summary of salvation history beginning with Genesis. He also closes this section with a description of his trinitarian understanding of God's work in creation.
3.4.1
The Works of God in Creation and Paul's Rapture to Paradise:
Haer. 2.30.7 (Gen 1:1, Gen 2:7, Gen 2:15) The section of Haer. 2.30.7 is part of a larger discussion of Gnostic anthropology.
In essence the Gnostics claim that they ascend higher than the Creator since they are truly spiritual. Irenaeus responds with the basic assertion, "one who is superior is to be revealed by his works (qui enim melior est, ex operibus
24 Haer. 2.28.1.
25 Haer. 2.28.1.
REFUTING GNOSTIC CREATION
ostenditur)"26 These works of God are what Paul witnessed in his rapture to the third heaven in 2 Cor 12:4. It is evident that Irenaeus has encountered the Valentinian exegesis of this text previously, and he challenges their interpretation of Paul's ascension by observing that Paul only ascended to the third heaven. Since the Pleroma extends beyond the third heaven, the Gnostics cannot claim to ascend higher than the apostle. He also observes that Paul's physical body in 2 Cor 12:2–3 did not hinder his ability to witness spiritual visions.
In his analysis of Paul's rapture in 2 Cor 12:4, Irenaeus describes the "spiritual mysteries" (sacramenta . . . spiritalia) that Paul witnessed as the "operations of God" (Dei operationes) and those who reach the height of perfection, such as Paul, may also witness the works of God. These are the deeds of God that prove the divine being is superior to the Gnostics and, indeed, all created things. He illustrates these spiritual mysteries or "operations of God" with a series of allusions to Gen 1–2 that recount how God "made the heavens and the earth [Gen
1:1], and formed man [Gen 2:7], and placed him in paradise [Gen 2:15]" ( fecit cealos et terram et plasmauit hominem et posuit in paradiso).27 The language of "paradise" (paradisus) links Gen 2:15 and 2 Cor 12:2–4, but Irenaeus also extends this connection with a narratival summary of the creation and Adam's placement in paradise (Gen 2:15).28 This theological connection also strengthens the continuity between the apostle and Mosaic writings.29 So Irenaeus interprets the language of "paradise" in 2 Cor 12:4 as a synecdoche that implies the larger framework of God's work in ordering and arrangement creation itself. While in paradise, Adam became a spectator of these works of God, but his disobedience resulted in his expulsion from the presence of God. Now, however, those who come to exceed in their love of God will, like Paul, invert Adam's expulsion from Paradise and become spectators of God in paradise, beholding the divine activity revealed there. Therefore, what Paul observed in paradise was the true knowledge of God as Creator of all things.
3.4.2
Creation by the Word and Wisdom: Haer. 2.30.9 (Gen 1:1, Gen 2:7, Gen 2:8) In Haer. 2.30.9 Irenaeus continues the same argument that the "spiritual"
Valentinians are not superior to the Creator. This chapter concludes Irenaeus' discussion of the Valentinians and contains an extended reflection on the nature of God and God's economic activity including: Gen 1:1, Gen 2:7, Gen 2:8,
26 Haer. 2.30.2, 5. Cf. Haer. 3.12.11. This same phrase appears in Justin in 1 Apol. 22.4.
27 Haer. 2.30.7. cf. Gen 2:8.
28 There is an implied use of Gen 3:8 in the description of the Lord walking in the garden.
29 Haer. 2.2.5.
chapter 3 Eph 1:21, Matt 11:27, Heb 1:3, and Mand. 1.30 There is a creedal sense to the language that is reminiscent of his other descriptions of the regula.31 His account of the work of God includes general references to God as the creator of all things who is omnipotent, incomprehensible, and exalted above every other
Principality and Power (Eph 1:21).
Near the conclusion of his paragraph he summarizes the titles, and, once again, announces that there is only one God who is called "Father," "God",
"Creator," "Maker," "Builder" (Pater, Deus, Condictor, Factor, Fabricator) and he made all things by his "Word" (Verbum) and "Wisdom" (Sapientiam).32 Just a few lines earlier he stated his basic premise that God created all things by the "Word of His power" (Verbo uirtutis suae, Heb 1:3), so here he conflates Heb 1:3 with Hermas Mand. 1 in order to unify the "Word" (Verbo) and the "Wisdom"
(Sapientia) in the creative process.33 Irenaeus believes the Will and Wisdom of God form all things from his own substance.34 These texts depict the Word as the instrument of the Father or, in Steenberg's more formal definition, the "formative actualization of the Father's creative will."35 While these discussions often precipitate in the context of Gen 1:26. The conflation of Heb 1:3 and Mand. 1 is set against the notion of a mediated creation.
Within this description of the nature of God and the creative process involving the Word and Wisdom, Irenaeus frames the activity of God with narrative of salvation history saying:
He it is who fashioned man [Gen 2:7], planted paradise [Gen 2:8], made the world [Gen 1:1–2:4], and brought on the flood that saved Noah
[Gen 7–8]. He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God . . . of the living [Matt 22:32], whom the Law announces, whom
30 Haer. 2.30.9. He makes a general echo of Gen 1:1 in the language "heavenly" (caelestia) and the "earthly" (terrena), and also mentioned an assortment of other general scriptural titles or terminology such as "heaven and earth, and the seas, and all things that are in them" (Exod 20:11, Psalm 145(146):6, Acts 4:24, 14, 15, and Matt 22:32) and "Father of our
Lord Jesus" which is a standard Pauline introductory formula (2 Cor 1:3, 11:31, Eph 1:3, 3:14,
Col 1:3, and 1 Pet 1:3). Many of the statement are general scriptural images and titles mingled together with allusions to other scriptural texts and descriptions of God.
31 See also: Haer. 1.10.1 and Haer. 1.22.1.
32 Haer. 2.30.9.
33 Haer. 2.30.9.
34 Fantino, La Théologie, 311–12; cf. Haer. 2.10.4, 2.14.4.
35 Steenberg, Irenaeus, 79–80. Steenberg's language of "actualization" may be problematic if he implies the Word as the end product of God's creative will rather than the means.
Orbe, "San Ireneo y la Creación de la material," Greg 59 (1978): 71–127, 74–75.