5.4 The Son of God Conversing with Adam: Haer. 4.10.1 (Gen 3:9)
Genesis, the Creation, and the Divine Economy by uniting the Creator and the Father of Christ, and at least this intention was handed down from Justin.
5.4
The Son of God Conversing with Adam: Haer. 4.10.1 (Gen 3:9) As I mentioned above, the whole of Haer. 4.1–19 addresses the continuity of the work of God throughout both testaments. In Haer. 4.10.1 this argument take the form of citing examples of Old Testament theophanies and Christophanies, which applies the particular style of prosopological interpretation. Drawing upon Christ's own assertion that Moses spoke of him in John 5:39–40, Irenaeus suggests that the "Son of God is implanted everywhere throughout his
Scriptures" (inseminatus est ubique in Scripturis ejus Filius Dei).21 As general evidence he lists a series of Christophanies in the Mosaic writings, including the Son of God conversing with Adam in Gen 3, Abraham in Gen 18, Noah in Gen 6, and Moses in Exod 3. These appearances are exemplary because he concludes there are countless instances where the writings of the Old Testament reveal the Son.22 His reference to the Son's "inquiring after Adam" (autem quaerens
Adam) in Gen 3:9 identifies the moment when Adam and Eve hid from God following their disobedience in Gen 3:6. In this context he offers little commentary because he is not explaining why the Son conversed with Adam, but how this passage participates in a number of theophanic accounts where the Son of God is found interacting with God's people in creation. Gen 3:9 is the first of many Christophanies and prophecies hidden in the Mosaic writings that illustrate how the Mosaic writings spoke of Christ (John 5:39–40; John 5:46). This series of illustrative texts gives a scriptural framing to his prosopological reading of other passages. The words of the Lord confirm that the scriptures testify of Christ, so the true interpreter of scripture should search out the scripture and find the person of Christ active within them.
5.5
The Divine Economy and the Growth of Humankind: Haer. 4.11.1–2 (Gen 1:28) Irenaeus continues arguing for the unity of both testaments in Haer. 4.11.1–2 by explaining that the purposes of creation are never separated from the unfolding nature of the divine economy. This section offers a narratival reading of the 21 Haer. 4.10.1.
22 Haer. 4.10.1. Cf. Epid 43–46.
chapter 5 creation accounts that is evident in the opening lines of Haer. 4.11.2 summarize this view with a well-known Irenaean axiom: "God makes, but the human being is made" (Deus quidem facit, homo autem fit).23 The present tense of facit and fit, suggest creation is not a singular event but an ongoing process whereby
God perpetually forms the human person and prepares them for resurrection.
Behr describes this view as the "unalterable fact of creation."24 God is always the same, but humanity must receive a "beginning, middle, and addition with increase" (initium et medietatem et adjectionem et augmentum).25 For Irenaeus,
God is completely self-sufficient, but the creature has unremitting need.26
This need is epitomized in the salvation and perfection of humanity achieved through the organized trajectory of established in the creation mandate of Gen 1:28: "Increase and multiply" (Crescite et multiplicamini). Irenaeus' read
Gen 1:28 in a narratival sense as a paradigm for the growth and advancement of humankind toward God saying, "For He formed him for growth and increase, as the Scripture says: Increase and multiply" (Plasmavit enim eum in augmentum et incrementum, quemadmodum Scriptura dicit: Crescite et multiplicamini).27
Steenberg rightly summarizes the human aspect of Irenaeus' general reading of Gen 1:28, which establishes "the necessity for the course of humanity's growth via the implication of a temporal ascendancy in the command."28 But this text also frames the trinitarian activity initiated by the command. Orbe observes the two-fold implication of Gen 1:28, where the Word of God continually forms the human person, even as the human person maintains obedience in faith. The Son, obeying the Fathers' command, actively enables the human advancement in salvation. What is more, throughout the events transpiring
23 Haer. 4.11.2.
24 Behr, Asceticism, 37.
25 Haer. 4.11.2; Steenberg identifies a parallel passage in Philo, who also cites Plato. Steenberg,
Irenaeus, 35.
26 D. Jeffrey Bingham, "Christianizing Divine Aseity: Irenaeus reads John" in The Gospel of John in Christian Theology, eds. Richard Bauckham and Carl Mosser (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2008): 53–67, 55. Steenberg distinguishes between spatial, temporal, and cooperative self-sufficiency. Steenberg, Irenaeus, 73.
27 Haer. 4.11.1. Steenberg undervalues the broader influence of this passage, only mentioning the citation of Gen 1:28 in this context and a second allusion in Haer. 3.22.4. The latter allusion he sets aside as "incidental." Irenaeus alludes to Gen 1:28 in several other contexts:
Epid 11, Haer. 1.28.1, Haer. 2.28.1, Haer. 3.24.2, Haer. 4.38.3, and Haer. 5.33.3–4. Steenberg,
Irenaeus, 97.
28 Steenberg, Irenaeus, 96. Cf. Bacq, De l'ancienne, 96 n. 2. Behr Asceticism, 37 n. 12. Behr mentions Gen 1:28 several times, but does not develop Irenaeus' reading of this text. Behr,
Asceticism, 116–27.
Genesis, the Creation, and the Divine Economy within the divine economy, the messianic expectation of the Old Testament prophets is evident. Citing Matt 13:17, Irenaeus reasons that the prophets desired to see the advent of the Son in every episode of redemption. He specifically mentions the activity of the Word of God conversing with his creatures and dictating the law, along with the general description of the times where
God reproved and exhorted his people. All of these actions are organized in such a manner to bring Adam to a state of perfection, because Adam is by nature formed for growth and increase. This distinction, therefore, demonstrates the personal and progressive nature of Irenaeus' reading of Gen 1:28 that directs the faithful toward sanctification and glorification. In this sense,
Irenaeus' reading of Gen 1:28 is paradigmatic for the whole course of the divine economy and the growth of the faithful toward God.
In Haer. 4.11.2 Irenaeus also uses the notions of "growth and increase" (augmentum et incrementum) found in Gen 1:28 to contrast divine aseity with human necessity. The Bishop of Lyons argues that God is perfect, but humankind receives "advancement and increase towards God" (percipiens et augmentum ad Deum).29 In other words, God creates and humanity is created. God gives and humanity receives. Nevertheless, the human person must allow God to work out his or her salvation.30 Those who are grateful toward God become receptors of God's goodness. They are the "good and faithful servant" (serve bone et fidelis) of Matt 25:21 who are continually given an increasing amount of administration and continuously bearing fruit unto eternal life. But those who reject the creative activity of God become the receptors of his judgment.31
In the reading of Irenaeus, Matt 25:21 illustrates the way that Gen 1:28 functions in the course of the divine economy. It confirms and qualifies the nature of growth and increase in Gen 1:28 that incrementally prepares the faithful to receive God.32
29 Haer. 4.11.2.
30 Behr, Asceticism, 40.
31 Haer. 4.11.2.
32 Behr has read this passage in light of Haer. 3.22.4 to communicate the developing sexuality in the prelapsarian Adamic state, which has some merit, but Steenberg is right to point to the Christological focus of this passage. Steenberg, Irenaeus, 97; Behr, "Irenaeus Haer.
3.23.5, and the Ascetic ideal," StVTQ 36.4 (1993), 309–10.