7.2.3 The Grammatical Construction of Prf 10 does Not Permit Lanne's Reading
Irenaeus of Lyons and the Theology of the Holy Spirit and forms the various 'powers,' so rightly is the Son called Word and the Spirit the Wisdom of God.
Here, Irenaeus quotes Ps. 33:6 (32:6 LXX) to make his case for the creative agency of the Son and Spirit. The quotation of this particular verse, however, also provides Irenaeus with the occasion to illustrate the creative agency of the Spirit in the arrangement and formation of 'the various "powers".'58 Thus, just a few chapters prior to Prf 10, we find a text that brings together the observations we made from AH 2.30.3 and AH 4.20.1 to establish that Irenaeus regards Powers to be created beings who are separate from the One God who creates. Therefore, the identification of the Cherubim and Seraphim as Powers in Prf 10 precludes their identification with the Son and Holy Spirit.
Lanne's argument, then, not only lacks a basis for understanding the Cherubim and Seraphim to be uncreated beings, but other statements by Irenaeus render his position untenable. Nevertheless, neither of these factors is the largest obstacle to his interpretation of the passage because the grammatical construction of Prf 10 does not admit Lanne's reading.
7.2.3 The Grammatical Construction of Prf 10 does Not Permit Lanne's Reading Though he fails to draw the attention of his readers to it, Lanne would require us to alter the forms of three words. We would need to substitute the genitive singular, սորա (of this), for the genitive plural, սոցա (of these), and we would need to substitute the nominative forms, բանu (the Word) and իմատութիւն (Wisdom), for the genitive forms, բանիu (of the Word) and իմատութիան (of Wisdom).59 These substitutions are not only problematic in themselves, since there is no textual basis for their existence, but as Rousseau has observed, they produce a tautological pair of sentences for which no satisfactory explanation exists. The passage with Lanne's emendations would read: 'This God, then, is glorified by his Word, who is his Son, continually, and by the Holy Spirit, who is the Wisdom of the Father of all.
And the Powers of this one (of the Father), the Word and the Wisdom, which are called Cherubim and Seraphim, glorify God by their unceasing voices.'60
58 Rousseau, in his discussion of Prf 10, points to a similar statement in Apostolic Constitution
8.12.8, wherein God creates by his Son the invisible beings, first among which are the Cherubim and Seraphim (SC 406 1995: 247).
59 Rousseau, SC 406 (1995: 248). Rousseau observes, 'Curiously, F. Lanne does not breathe a word of this accumulation of corrections.'
60 Ibid. 248; the second, theoretical, sentence is a modification of Rousseau's proposal.