3.5 Creation of the Body and Soul: Haer. 2.34.3–4 (Gen 2:1, Gen 2:7)
REFUTING GNOSTIC CREATION
the Prophets herald, whom Christ reveals, whom the apostles hand down, whom the church believes.36
The purpose of this summary is to identify God as administrating over each of these events collectively. In terms of the events themselves, there is an anthropological focus in the summary with the chronological inversion of the creation of Adam and the creation of the world. The simple description of the creation of the "world" must be a general reference to Gen 1:1–2:4, given the narratival context of the passage as a whole. Irenaeus mentions the creation of the world after the formation of Adam and Paradise, which suggests that, for Irenaeus, the formation of humankind is the central point of creation. This summary of Gen 1–2 is also set in context with the reference to the Noah in Gen 7–8, and a reference to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matt 22:32) that summarize the remaining narrative in Genesis. The allusion to the titles is drawn from Matt 22:32, which is evident in the final allusion to the "God of the living"
(Deus uiuorum).37 His allusion to this passage, however, is the arrangement of the names of the key individuals as a summary of God's work in salvation history. This is obvious when he also mentions the Law, Prophets, Christ, and the church.38 This narratival arrangement communicates the importance of Gen
1–3 for orienting the decisive episodes of God's work in redemption.
3.5
Creation of the Body and Soul: Haer. 2.34.3–4 (Gen 2:1, Gen 2:7) In the closing chapters of his second book (Haer. 2.31–35), Irenaeus addresses a few remaining issues with some other streams of Gnosticism that share similar views with the Valentinians including: Marcion, Simon, Menander, Saturninus,
Basilides, and Carpocrates. In Haer. 2.33–34, he addresses Plato's view on the transmigration of souls that is assumed by many of these schools of Gnosticism.
His response details a theology of the relationship of the soul to the body, which draws extensively from the imagery of creation in Gen 2:7.39 Irenaeus denies the transmigration of the soul and argues that souls are immortal, even
36 Haer. 2.30.9.
37 This title is found throughout the Old Testament, especially Exodus and Deuteronomy.
38 This summary functions as an inclusio with Haer. 2.2.5 in order to tie together the whole argument against the Valentinians (Haer. 2.1–2.30) and communicate that the same God was at work throughout salvation history beginning in Genesis.
39 Cf. Epid 15. Justin, Dial 5.
chapter 3 though they had a beginning.40 The Gnostics, on the other hand, argue that if God created the soul it necessarily would be subject to death and decay like the rest of creation. That is why Irenaeus goes on to argue that God creates souls and then continues to sustain them throughout their existence.41 For the Bishop of Lyons, God the immortal and eternal Creator sustains and preserves all creation from beginning to end, including the soul.
Irenaeus develops this point in Haer. 2.34.2–4 with a series of passages that illustrate how creation is subjected to the will of the Creator including: Gen 2:1,
Gen 2:7, Psalm 32(33):9,42 Psalm 20:5(21:4), and Luke 16:10. In the opening lines of Haer. 2.34.3, Irenaeus alludes to the completion of creation in Gen 2:1 and argues that just as the creation has existed for a long duration of time, so also the soul. He mentions the creation of the firmament, the sun, moon, and stars, and all their "ornaments" that did not exist beforehand, but had been made.
This creation, though, has continued to exist by the will of God. He connects this example with Psalm 32(33):9, where he finds the qualitative description that God has created all things to exist "forever" (in saeculum).43 The same point is made in reference to humankind in Psalm 20:5(21:4). The "life" (vitae)
God bestowed upon humanity through salvation prepares the faithful to exist "forever" (in saeculum).44 He also links these texts with a passage from the parable of the unrighteous steward, when Christ commends the one who is faithful with a little and will be faithful with more. This tension illustrates, for Irenaeus, how the one who is not faithful with the short temporal life, will not be granted the greater life that is to come and the eternal existence. Therefore, his intertextual reading is created through the catchword "forever" that connects the descriptions in Psalm 32(33):9 and Psalm 20:5(21:4), which is also united with the illustrations of the continual existence of the creation formed in Gen 2:1 and the imagery of the tension between the short temporal life and the greater eternal life that is to come (Luke 16:10).
Irenaeus continues a similar assertion in the next paragraph, only in this instance he is arguing that the soul only partakes of life as long as God wills.
40 Ibid., 92.
41 Haer. 2.34.2.
42 Cf. Psalm 148:5–6.
43 Haer. 2.34.3.
44 Haer. 2.34.3. Rousseau interprets "life" (vitae) in Psalm 20:5(21:4) as the "life in the Spirit"
Adam enjoyed prior to his disobedience, but Behr rightly notes that "life" is this section must be life in the body. Behr, Asceticism, 94–6. SC 293.345–6. Rousseau's position was also criticized heavily by Lassiat. Lassiat, "L' Anthropologie d'Irénée," NRT 100 (1978):
399–417, 405.