5.7 The Sign of Sabbath Rest: Haer. 4.16.1 (Gen 2:2–3)
Genesis, the Creation, and the Divine Economy beholding the glory of Christ, participate in his glory. Isa 43:5–7 also follows the same logic and explicitly mentions the divine intention of glorification for the one whom God formed.38 Finally, Matt 24:28 completes this collection of passages supporting Irenaeus' vision of unilateral nature of the divine-human relationship from creation. The text is part of Christ's apocalyptic warnings that characterize the dreaded "Day of the Lord" with a "proverb-like" saying:
"Wherever the corpse is, there the eagles will gather" (ubicumque est cadaver, illuc congregabuntur et aquilae).39 He interprets the eagles gathered around the carcass as the resurrected faithful gathered around the glorified body of the Son of God and participating in his glory.40 Together these passages illustrate the mutual glorification of the Father and the Son that motivates God to form of Adam in Gen 2:7. God's aseity initiates creation and instructs humankind through a unilateral divine-human relationship that ultimately characterizes all interactions throughout the events of the divine economy. The blessing of glorification innate to the Father and the Son is bestowed upon Adam and his posterity.
5.7
The Sign of Sabbath Rest: Haer. 4.16.1 (Gen 2:2–3) The final reference to Gen 1–3 in Haer. 4.1–19 is an allusion to God's Sabbath rest in Gen 2:2–3 in Haer. 4.16.1. This section previews a theme that Irenaeus develops in the final chapters of Haer. 5. Irenaeus argues that God created circumcision and Sabbath as signs of identification for the children of Abraham.
These signs are located in verbal connections between the seventh day of creation in Gen 2:2–3 and other descriptions of Sabbath rest mentioned elsewhere in scripture. He states that these signs of the Sabbath are not without purpose because they "prefigured" (praefigurabat) the coming of the Spirit and the eschatological Sabbath (Gen 2:2–3), which he identifies with the future kingdom of God.41 Following his discussion of circumcision as a sign, his reference to the Sabbath begins with an allusion to Ezek 20:12, Exod 31:13, Rom 8:36, and Matt 6:19.42 Both Ezek 20:12 and Exod 31:13 describe the Sabbath as a "sign"
38 Haer. 4.14.1.
39 Ulrich Luz, Matthew 21–28: A Commentary, trans. James E. Crouch (Minneapolis: Augsburg
Fortress, 2005), 199.
40 Luz notes this allegorical reading is common from Hippolytus onwards. Luz, Matthew
21–28, 200 n. 158. Orbe, Teología IV, 188 n. 12.
41 Haer. 4.16.1.
42 The discussion of circumcision links Gen 17:9–11, Deut 10:16, and Col 2:11.