5.13 Perfection in the Image and Likeness of God: Haer. 4.38.1–4
chapter 5 though they possess free will humankind is subject to the nature of the divine economy, while God is not.95 As rational creatures within God's economy (not irrational as other created substances), human beings have the ability to differentiate between good and evil works. Those, according to Irenaeus, who of their own free will choose to be disobedient toward God will be subject to God's judgment, while those who choose to be obedient to God will be granted divine blessing. For Irenaeus, the nature of free will in humankind, which they have possessed from the beginning, is validated by the myriad of scriptures that petition the faithful in obedience to commands of God. He reasons that Paul would not give the faithful these examples to practice and abstain from certain practices (contra Gnostic asceticism), if they did not possess the capacity to do so. Irenaeus exemplifies this concept of universal human freedom with allusions to 1 Cor 6:12, Eph 4:25, Eph 4:29, Eph 5:8, and 1 Pet 2:16. All of these passages illustrate the concept of humans as created in the likeness of God (Gen 1:26) with the power to act freely from the beginning.
5.13
Perfection in the Image and Likeness of God: Haer. 4.38.1–4 Continuing the theme of human liberty, in the next chapter Irenaeus raises the question of the imperfection of Adam and Eve in Genesis and considers why God did not create them perfect, or as "gods" (dii), in the beginning.96
While Irenaeus acknowledges that all things are possible with God, he appeals to the distinctive natures of Creator and creature exemplified in the creation accounts. He emphasizes, contra the Valentinians, the corporeal nature of Adam fashioned in the beginning and his initial capacity to become accustomed to divine immortality. For Irenaeus the creature could not be created perfect in the same sense as the Creator. A creature is by nature inferior to the Creator, because to be created is to be of more recent origin. For this reason in Genesis Adam and Eve are "infantile" (infantilia) and "unaccustomed to and unexercised in perfect discipline" (insueta et inexercitata ad perfectam disciplinam).97 The first couple is, as Behr suggests, categorically "imperfect" in the sense that they require growth and were subject to the conditions and properties of their nature as a created substance.98 Created substances are subject to time, change, and require growth from imperfection to perfection.
95 Haer. 4.37.4.
96 Haer. 4.38.4.
97 Haer. 4.38.1.
98 Behr, Asceticism, 46–7. See also Dennis Minns, Irenaeus, 73–4.
Genesis, the Creation, and the Divine Economy The sections spanning Haer. 4.38.1–4 contain a series of echoes of Gen
1:26, Gen 2:7, Gen 1:28, and Gen 3:5 that are untied through a series of verbal connections or catchwords, prosopological interpretation, and narrative arrangements. In this context, Irenaeus combines an echo of the formation of humankind in Gen 2:7 with 1 Cor 3:2–3 and Heb 5:12–14 in Haer. 4.38.1–2 to examine the infantile nature of Adam and Eve that necessitated growth and maturity toward perfection in the divine life.99 Irenaeus uses the images of moving from milk to solid food, to exemplify the way that Adam and Eve, who were created as infants, would slowly become accustomed to participate in the divine life in Christ. The catchword "infant" links these passages with Irenaeus' understanding of Adam and Eve's formation. In Haer. 4.38.3 he weaves together Gen 1:26, Gen 1:28, Gen 2:7, and Wis 6:19 as exemplary of the harmonious creation where Adam and Eve were perfectly situated to receive growth and advancement towards God. Finally, in Haer. 4.38.4 his combination of Gen 1:26, Gen 3:5, Psalm 81(82):6–7, and 1 Cor 15:53 anticipates the future resurrection and glorification of the faithful who are at last perfected in the image and likeness of God.
5.13.1
Creation and Ascendancy Toward Perfection: Haer. 4.38.1–2 (Gen 2:7) This section has been the source of much debate going back to the work of Wendt and his fundamental distinction between the restorative and transformative line of Irenaean soteriology.100 Wingren corrected Wendt by noting the concept of "growth" and the formation of Adam as a "child" to be the formal link between this soteriological bifurcation.101 Steenberg's treatment of Adam and Eve as infants begins with a citation of this passage, and addresses the philosophical nature of the imperfection of creation. Steenberg regards Haer.
4.38.1 as the "single most important passage" in the discussion of Adam and Eve as children in paradise.102 These studies reveal the significance of this section, but do not address the intertextual references that participate in Irenaeus' reading of Gen 1–2. Alluding to the description of God's formative creation of Adam in Gen 2:7, Irenaeus argues that the infantile and corporeal form in which Adam was fashioned was incapable of receiving the full divine perfection that God could grant. He reasons that even if God imparted to Adam
99 Orbe identifies an echo of Heb 7:19 in the language proximamus as Deum.
100 H.H. Wendt, Die christlich Lehre von der menschlichen Volkommenhiet (Göttingen, 1882),
22.
101 Wingren, Man and the Incarnation, 101.
102 Steenberg, "Children in Paradise," 15.
chapter 5 complete divine perfection, his immature state could not have contained divine perfection, much less retain it throughout his life.103 What is more, the reason the Son of God came into the world as an infant was to prepare humankind to receive God.104
Irenaeus also appeals to several texts to support his assumption that Adam and Eve are created as children in Gen 2:7. In Haer. 4.38.1–2 he illustrates this ascendancy toward perfection by alluding to a baby that is nourished with his mother's milk before receiving strong food, derived from 1 Cor 3:2–3 and Heb 5:12–14.105 In a similar way, the Son prepares the faithful for immortality through nourishment that increases during the course of life. The passages are linked through the concepts of the immature nature of Adam in Gen 2:7 and the imagery of food and drink in 1 Cor 3:2–3 and Heb 5:12–14. The faithful learn of their nature of growth and increase when they transition from the "milk"
(lac, 1 Cor 3:2) to the "meat" (escam, Heb 5:12–14), which is the transition from the advent of the Lord to the reception of the Spirit. In the same way that an infant transitions from milk (Christ) to solid food (the Spirit), so also would
Adam and Eve, who were created as children, slowly become accustomed to participate in the divine life through Christ. Not everyone, however, was able to receive the Spirit. Alluding to the narrative of Acts 8:17–19, Simon the Magician could not receive the Spirit from Peter and John, so he offered to buy it.106 In doing so, Irenaeus identifies those who are not able to receive the Spirit, such as Simon and those at Corinth, to the original formation of Adam that was undisciplined and incapable of receiving the divine perfection.107
5.13.2
Growth, Perfection, and the Original Creation: Haer. 4.38.3 (Gen 1:26, Gen 1:28, Gen 2:7) In this section, Irenaeus carries on the theme of growth and increase creation with a more detailed discussion of Adam's formation. The act of creating Adam was not a singular event of a purely transcendent deity, but the work of an imminent Creator shaping the very matter of creation. It is, as Behr describes,
103 Haer. 4.38.2.
104 Orbe makes the intriguing connection to the description of the Lord's growth in wisdom in Luke 2:40. He points to Justin for a similar comparison in Dial 88.2; Orbe, Teología IV,
517 n. 30.
105 Haer. 4.38.2.
106 The only other uses of this passage are located in Irenaeus' anti-Gnostic polemic. See
Haer. 1.23.1 and Haer. 2.32.3.
107 Haer. 4.38.2. cf. Acts 8:17–19.
Genesis, the Creation, and the Divine Economy a "hands-on affair."108 The "hands" imagery is a classic Irenaean anthropomorphic image of God and the only consistent anthropomorphism he uses to depict the creative activity of God.109 This description of the personal activity of God and the progressive nature of human perfection is, for Irenaeus, grounded in the textual references to Gen 1:26, Gen 2:7, Gen 1:28 and Wis 6:19.
He argues God's power and goodness are simultaneously exhibited in a harmonious creation fashioned ex nihilo. With an intricate intertextual weaving,
Irenaeus depicts the divine activity in these three crucial creation texts in a narrative fashion that anticipates the way God works throughout the unfolding of the divine economy.
The nature of Irenaeus' intertextual reading is a natural consequence of his anthropological perspective of the ascendancy towards perfection reflected in this trinitarian reading of Gen 1:26, Gen 1:28, and Gen 2:7. In the earlier portion of this chapter, he has already described how all creation itself is one harmonious and consistent whole.110 This extended chronological trajectory orients the faithful towards growth into the image and likeness of God. He alludes to Gen 1:26 and the command to create Adam in the image and likeness of God.
This command initiates the actualization of creation described in Gen 2:7 and the augmentation of the newly created person in Gen 1:28. Irenaeus frames these three texts (Gen 1:26, Gen 2:7, and Gen 1:28) with an economic trinitarian perspective with the Father planning and commanding (Gen 1:26), the Son executing and performing the work of creating (Gen 2:7), and the Spirit nourishing and increasing the creation (Gen 1:28).111 This theological and intertextual depiction of creation orients humanity toward the "growth" of humankind in the image and likeness of God.112
His description, however, gives more detail about how humankind is created with the capacity to progress toward the divine likeness.113 In a narrative fashion he describes this process of growth in a series of stages including:
"creation" ( factum, Gen 2:7), "to grow" (augeri, Gen 1:28), "to strengthen"
108 Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology, 38.
109 Fantino, Théologie d'Irénée, 306.
110 Haer. 4.38.3.
111 Holsinger-Friesen assumes Irenaeus imposes the notion of ascendancy on Gen 1:26, but clearly this notion is drawn from Gen 1:28. Holsinger-Friesen, Irenaeus, 136–137.
112 Steenberg highlights the relationship between Gen 1:26 and Gen 2:7, but Irenaeus' argument actually hangs on the combination of all three texts in their proper theological interaction. Steenberg, Irenaeus, 106.
113 Behr, Asceticism, 124–5.
chapter 5 (corroborari),114 "to abound" (multiplicari, Gen 1:28), "to recover" (convalescere), "to glorify" (glorificare), and finally "to see" (videre) God. The two initial commands of Gen 1:28: "be fruitful" (augeri) and "multiply" (multiplicari) are linguistically connected to the aspects of growth and abounding in this progression.115 Although he neglects the connection to growth (augeri), Orbe identifies "to abound" (multiplicari) as an allusion to Gen 1:28 and interprets this as a reference to multiplication through procreation.116 Given the connection to Gen 1:28 and the progression of sanctification, it is difficult to imagine that Irenaeus merely has procreation in view. Instead, he reads Gen 1:28 in continuity with Gen 1:26 and Gen 2:7, which forms a sanctifying paradigm for human history that assumes procreation, but is more concerned with the general nature of salvation. The other elements in the list, including the term
"to strengthen" (corroborari) and "recover" (convalescere), are not explicitly attributed to any particular passage, but continue the general theme of progress toward the divine likeness.117 The latter term, "to recover" (convalescere), according to Orbe, is equivalent to maturity that prepares the faithful for the next stage of glorification.118 Elsewhere the term refers to the "recovery" of the image and likeness in Christ that was lost in Adam.119 So it is not merely maturity, but soteriological restoration of the image and likeness that was lost in Adam's disobedience. Whereas growth characterizes the pre-lapsarian state, in the post-lapsarian state the disobedient Adam and Eve require strengthening and multiplication as God prepares the humanity for recovery
114 The related verb σθενόω is only found in 1 Pet 5:10 as part of a description of the perfection and glorification of the faithful.
115 The succession comprises: creation, growth (αὐξῆδαι), strengthen, multiply (πληθυνθῆναι), recover, and be glorified. The term αὐξῆδαι is only found in Eph 4:16 and Col 2:19. See Haer.
4.32.2.
116 Orbe, Teología IV, 517 n. 32.
117 The former term is found in references to the sinful state of humankind necessitating strength to overcome their lowly state. Irenaeus frequently uses the language of "strengthen" (corroborari) to characterize the depraved state of humanity that requires the impartation of the Spirit. Cf. Haer. 3.6.4, Haer. 3.12.3, 6, Haer. 3.19.3, Haer. 3.20.1–3,
Haer. 4.6.2, Haer. 4.33.11, Haer. 5.2.3, and Haer. 5.3.1. In Haer. 3.5.2 he cites the Lord's description of himself as a physician come to heal the sick and, in the next paragraph, describes the work of God over creation saying God "by means of His creation, did nourish, increase, strengthen, and preserve them" (per conditionem suam aleret et augeret et constabiliret et eis esse praestaret). The reason for this act of preservation is so that the faithful might be prepared for glorification.
118 Orbe, Teología IV, 517 n. 33.
119 Haer. 3.18.1.
Genesis, the Creation, and the Divine Economy and glorification throughout the divine economy. These texts, along with Wis
6:19, depict the glorification of the faithful who partake in immortality. In this sense, Gen 1:26 and Wis 6:19 form the bookends of Irenaeus' anthropological progression toward immortality, while the language of creation in Gen 2:7 is complemented by the progressive language of Gen 1:28 that anticipates the glorification and salvation of the faithful. Together, Gen 1:26, Gen 2:7, and Gen
1:28 form a theological paradigm for understanding the divine intention of Adam's progression toward the divine likeness from the beginning.
5.13.3
Creation, Resurrection, and Glorification: Haer. 4.38.4 (Gen 1:26, Gen 3:5) In the final paragraph of Haer. 4.32.4, Irenaeus concludes his discussion with a summary of glorification that draws together Psalm 81(82):6–7, Gen 1:26, Gen
3:5, and 1 Cor 15:53. For the Bishop of Lyons, God's goodness endowed humankind with free will that allows growth and development into the divine likeness. Contra the Valentinians, the divine economy comprises a single linage of corporal humanity (rather than three distinctive human natures) that follows a trajectory culminating in the salvation and glorification of the faithful. God did so, Irenaeus argues, because human nature could not have sustained the power of divinity if God had given it to them originally. God did not make humanity
"gods" in the beginning out of envy or rivalry, as the Gnostics assume, but out of goodness and compassion. This reality, for Irenaeus, is expressed most clearly in Psalm 81(82):6–7, where the Psalmist says "You are gods" (Dii estis) announcing the goodness of God in the divine promise of glorification. Psalm 81(82):7, on the other hand, reflects upon the infantile nature of humankind that could not possibly bear the power of divinity because they will "die as humans" (velut homines moriemini) and be subject to the conditions of mortality.120 The reason Irenaeus emphasizes the teaching of the Psalmist is that, contrary to the Valentinians, the God of the Old Testament makes this proclamation, so that the process of glorification began at creation. Therefore, glorification was not a revelation peculiar to the New Testament or Pauline literature, but was taught by the Psalmist and, more importantly, characteristic of the creation accounts themselves.
Through his reading of Psalm 81(82):6–7, Irenaeus laces together 1 Cor 15:53, Gen 1:26, and Gen 3:5 to illustrate this trajectory of salvation. The focal text is
Psalm 81(82):6–7 that evidences the two-fold narratival trajectory moving from mortality and death to immorality and glorification. He links the language of becoming "like god" in Psalm 81(82):6 with Gen 1:26, Gen 3:5, while the imagery
120 Orbe, Teología IV, 519 n. 45.