5.8 Creation and the Supremacy of God Over All Things: Haer. 4.20.1–4 (Gen 1:26, Gen 2:7)
chapter 5 (signo) between God and his people, which symbolizes the expectation for the people of God to come to rest from their sacerdotal service in the kingdom of God.43
In the first two passages, Ezek 20:12 and Exod 31:13, Irenaeus observes that both Ezekiel and Moses identify the Sabbath as a "sign" (signo). The terms
"sign" and "Sabbath" link these passage together. For Irenaeus, this "sign" was given by a "wise artist" (sapiente artifice) with purpose and meaning, and he describes the sign of the Sabbath with a quotation of Rom 8:36 where the people of God continue daily in the service of God as "sheep for the slaughter"
(oves occisionis).44 They abstain from all greed (Matt 6:19) and do not store up for themselves treasures on earth. He contrasts this perpetual ministry with the Sabbath rest instituted at the conclusion of creation in Gen 2:2–3. The Sabbath rest is the eschatological Sabbath when Irenaeus suggests those who preserve in the service of the Lord will experience the peace and rest in the eschatological kingdom of God and take their place to dine at the table of the Lord.45
In his reading, Gen 2:2–3 sets the theological paradigm for the understanding of Sabbath rest. Both Ezek 20:12 and Exod 31:13 confirm that the ministry of the Lord on the Sabbath is indeed a sign, and Rom 8:36 and Matt 6:19 illustrate the nature of this perpetual ministry. These are contrasted with the reward of the eschatological Sabbath rest when the faithful are able to cease from work and recline at the table of the Lord.
5.8
Creation and the Supremacy of God Over All Things: Haer. 4.20.1–4 (Gen 1:26, Gen 2:7) The section offers a shift in the overall structure of Haer. 4, where Irenaeus begins a concentrated analysis of Old Testament prophecy that is fulfilled in the New Testament. This objective also contributes to his overall goal of unifying the two testaments under the administration of one God and Father.
The thesis of Haer. 4.20.1–4a can be summarized by the well-known Irenaean axiom: "the glory of God is a living man" (gloria enim Dei vivens homo).46 He believes that in the incarnation, the Son takes the creation into his divine life
43 Haer. 4.16.1. Orbe determines two senses of the Sabbath rest: 1) immediate rest from work, and 2) the continual service of God involving the perpetual sacerdotal exercises and service at the table of God. However, in this instance the service of God in the present life gives way to the Sabbath rest in the eternal kingdom of God. Orbe, Teología IV, 208.
44 Noormann, Irenäus, 198.
45 Irenaeus will develop this argument in Haer. 5.33.2.
46 Haer. 4.20.7.
Genesis, the Creation, and the Divine Economy and, as a result, creation participates in the glory of God.47 The Valentinian emphasis on ignorance is directly opposed to Irenaeus' identification of God's goodness or love as the primary motivation for creation.48 This section, in particular, provides some of the most intricate textual networking in all of Haer. 4 and combines a series of readings strategies including verbal strategies, prosopological interpretations, and general-to-particular reasoning. He cites Gen
1:26 and Gen 2:7 in Haer. 4.20.1, and these connect with a network of texts spanning Haer. 4.20.2–4a that argue for the creation of all things by means of the Word and Wisdom. The language of "all things" (omnia) is the catchword that links these passages, as well as a general-to-particular rhetorical argumentation.49 The summary statement that God has formed all things by his Word and Wisdom in Haer. 4.20.4a signifies the conclusion of this particular intertextual reading of the creation texts.
In Haer. 4.20.1 Irenaeus describes the greatness of God and its relationship to the notion of creatio ex nihilo and utilizes a general-to-particular mode of argumentation by coordinating the general creation of all things mentioned in John 1:3 and Mand 1 with the particular creation of humankind in Gen 2:7. God in himself, Irenaeus argues, has "established, selected, adorned and contains all things, and among all things is us and this world" (constituit et fecit et adornavit et continet omnia, in omnibus autem et nos et hunc mundum).50 This is not a God who forms from preexistent matter, but a God who creates out of nothing.51 In this claim Irenaeus distinguishes himself from the Gnostic and MiddlePlatonic doctrines of the origin of the world.52 He makes the general point that all things have been made by God and nothing exists that God has not created
(John 1:3, Mand 1). At the same time, he wants to emphasize humankind and the world as particular elements within "all things" (omnia) that God has created. Gen 2:7 describes the particularity of the creation of humankind within "all things" (omnia) when "God formed the man, taking the dust of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life" (Et plasmavit Deum hominem, limum terrae accipiens, et insufflavit in faciem ejus flatum vitae). The citation of Gen 2:7, then, illustrates the particular creation of humanity in comparison
47 Orbe, "Gloria Dei vivens homo: Análisis de Ireneo, adv. haer. IV, 20, 1–7," Greg 73.2 (1992):
205–68. Behr, Asceticism, 262–63.
48 Haer. 1.2.3; Steenberg, Irenaeus, 36–8; Mackenzie, Irenaeus's Demonstration, 95.
49 Shotwell, Biblical Exegesis, 32–33.
50 Haer. 4.20.1.
51 Haer. 2.10.4. Cf. Theophilus, Ad Autol 2.4.
52 Gerhard May, Creatio ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of 'Creation out of Nothing' in Early Christian
Thought, trans. A.S. Worrall (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1994), 168; Orbe, Teología IV, 276. Cf.
Haer. 4.38.3; Haer. 2.25.3; and Haer. 5.4.2.
chapter 5 with the general creation and formation of all things. The detailed description of God's involvement in Gen 2:7 heightens the particularity of the creation of Adam. In Gen 2:7, God is not generally speaking all creation into existence, but specifically forming humankind from the dust.
Irenaeus uses Gen 1:26, on the other hand, to depict the means by which God created, namely God created humankind within God.53 His argument, as Orbe points out, inverts the Gnostic notions of the distinctive creative actions of the Demiurge.54 As Irenaeus argued in Haer. 4.14.1–2 and throughout Haer. 1,
God stands in need of nothing to accomplish creation, because God possess his own "Hands," which is the Son and the Spirit. When the Father speaks to the Son and the Spirit saying, "Let Us make humankind after our image and likeness" (Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem), this is God creating all things within God.55 Conceptually speaking, the act of creation necessarily includes the activity of all three persons, so that "He taking from Himself"
(ipse a semetipso) formed all things by means of the Son and the Spirit communicates the creation of humanity is the corporate action united in will and purpose. The Father provided the substance of the clay, the Son acted as the paradigm for the formation of the man, and the Spirit enlivened the form.56
This presentation of the "mutual interrelatedness of the trinitarian persons" is a striking example of Irenaeus' prosopological interpretation of Gen 1:26 and Gen 2:7.57 He interprets the divine plural in Gen 1:26 as the Father conversing with the Son and Spirit, and the act of God molding the form of Adam from the dust as the work of the Father with his two "Hands" (the Son and the Spirit). Through his prosopological reading of these texts, Irenaeus interprets the economic function of the divine persons that actively contribute to the 53 The text of Gen 2:7 contains three separate phrases: Gen 2:7a "God reached down taking dust from the earth and formed the man," Gen 2:7b: "and breathed into the man the breath of life," Gen 2:7c: "and the man became a living being." This is the only occasion where he provides a complete citation of Gen 2:7ab and at no point does Irenaeus cite
Gen 2:7 in full.
54 Orbe, Teología IV, 276.
55 Haer. 4.20.1. Parallel uses are found in Epid. 55, Haer. 5.1.3, and Haer. 5.15.4. There is, of course, much debate around the trinitarian discussions of these pre-Nicene Fathers, and while some have argued Irenaeus is "terminologically-contradictory," the degree of overlapping trinitarian terminology is unmistakable. Steenberg, Irenaeus, 64. Mackenzie goes so far as to say, "There is little, if anything, in the Nicene formulae which is not present in embryonic or directional form in the works of Irenaeus." Mackenzie, Irenaeus'
Demonstration, 29. Wingren, Man and the Incarnation, 105.
56 Behr, Asceticism, 87. Orbe, Teología IV, 275 n. 9.
57 Steenberg, Irenaeus, 114.
Genesis, the Creation, and the Divine Economy formation of humankind. For this reason, the creation of human life, Irenaeus asserts, could not have been the work of angels, or powers, or any other creature, because they "are not able to create an image of God" (neque . . . poterant imaginem facere Dei, Gen 1:26).58
This prosopological reading of Gen 1:26 and Gen 2:7 is structurally joined to a cento of passages that are laced together by their associations to the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo and the specific vocabulary of creation imagery.59 Here again, Irenaeus utilizes a logical general-to-particular argument corresponds these texts is the language and concept of "all things" (omnia). The texts in Haer. 4.20.2–4 are arranged in the following order: Mand 1, Mal 2:10, Eph 4:6,
Matt 11:27, Rev 3:7, John 1:3, 1 Pet 2:23, Col 1:18, Prov 3:19–20, Prov 8:22–25, and Prov 8:27–31. The first four passages (Mand 1, Mal 2:10, Eph 4:6, and Matt 11:27) are linked through a complex connection of specific linking terms. All four contain the catchword "all things" (omnia), which explains the general point that Irenaeus wants to argue. More specifically, Mand 1 identifies God as the Creator of all things, while Mal 2:10 and Eph 4:6 contain both titles "God" and "Father" as the author of all creation.60 Finally, the last passage, Matt 11:27, contains the catchword "Father" and speaks of the time when the Father delivered all things over to the Son. It is also noteworthy that Irenaeus offers virtually no commentary on these passages, because in his thinking the texts are selfexplanatory and explicit when it comes to teaching the doctrine of creation and identifying God the Father as the author of creation. It is also apparent that Irenaeus' intertextual arrangement intentionally draws together an Old
Testament reference (Mal 2:10), an apostle (Eph 4:6) and the words of the Lord (Matt 11:27).61 The canonical linkage is a means for Irenaeus to marshal the entire corpus of divine revelation in one continuous witness to the Father's creation of all things.
He continues to develop this understanding of the creation of all things with a variety of other passages including: Acts 10:42, Rev 3:7, John 1:14, 1 Pet
2:23, Col 1:18, Prov 3:19–20, Prov 8:22–25, and Prov 8:27–31. In the first five 58 Haer. 4.20.1. Cf. Haer. 1.5.5, Haer. 1.18.6, and Haer. 1.30.4–5.
59 Haer. 4.20.2–3. For a discussion of creatio ex nihilio in Irenaeus see: Orbe, "San Ireneo y la creation"; J. Fantino, La téologie, 265–337; Fantino, "La crátion ex nihilo chez saint Irénée"
RSPT 76.3, (1992), 421–42; Steenberg, Irenaeus, 38–49.
60 O'Neill argues the citation of Hermes elevates it to 'creedal status" of creation ex nihilo, but Steenberg rightly notes this overstates the case. J.C. O'Neill, "How early is the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo?" JTS 53.2 (2002), 455, 63; Steenberg, 'Scripture graphe, and the status of Hermas in Irenaeus,' SVTQ 53.1 (2008): 29–66.
61 Orbe, Teología IV, 280.
chapter 5 passages, he emphasizes the all human persons as a particular subset within all things. These texts do not use the language or conceptual imagery of "all things" (omnia) and, as a result, require commentary and explanation. First of all, given that all things have been handed over to the Son (Matt 11:27), now the Son has the authority to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). Alluding to Rev 3:7 and Rev 5:2, 3 and 9, the Son alone has the authority to open the book of the Father because of his sacrifice, which, Irenaeus argues, resulted in his right to receive power over all things, including the living and the dead. Similarly, the Son alone has supremacy over all things on earth (John 1:14) and under the earth (Col 1:18). His sovereignty on earth is also located in his righteous life
(1 Pet 2:23). The later three passages from the Proverbs build upon this logic by conveying that God the Father existed with the Son and Spirit before all creation. The two key verbs fecit and aptavit, alongside the reference to Verbo and Sapientia, inspire the links between these texts.62 In Prov 3:19–20 and Prov
8:22–25, Wisdom is in the beginning with God before the creation of the earth, while Prov 8:27–31 describes how Wisdom rejoiced with God at the completion of creation. 63 For Irenaeus, the Wisdom of Prov 8:22 is the personal Spirit that is imparted through the Word of God. These texts fill out the theological reality of the primordial world where the Son and the Spirit are present with the Father prior to creation in Genesis, and support the reality that the Father created all things by His Word and Wisdom in Gen 1:26.
Through the intertextual reading of these passages, Irenaeus concludes in Haer. 4.20.4: "There is therefore one God, who by the Word and Wisdom created and arranged all things" (Unus igitur Deus, qui Verbo et Sapientia fecit et aptavit omnia). This statement is parallel to his analysis of Gen 1:26 in the opening paragraph. In other words, all of these passages communicate the nature of God existing as Father, Son and Spirit before the foundation of the world. All three divine persons, therefore, are present in Gen 1:26 and actively involved in the creation of all things. This section displays the complexity of Irenaeus' prosopological reading of Gen 1–3, which relies upon other passages that are fashioned through different philological relationships, and shaped by a general-to-particular rhetorical argument.
62 Orbe, Teología IV, 282.
63 Haer. 4.20.3. Orbe suggests that Verbo et Sapientia in the opening line refers to Psalm
32(33):6, but the connections are too obscure to be certain. Orbe, Teología IV, 282n24.