553 Isa. lvii. 1.
552 This is following Harvey's conjectural emendation of the text, viz., "taleis" for "talis." He considers the pins here as symbolical of the nails by which our Lord was fastened to the cross. The whole passage is almost hopelessly obscure, though the general meaning maybe guessed.
554 [If it be remembered that we know Irenaeus here, only through a most obscure Latin rendering, we shall be slow to censure this conclusion.]
556 Book i. p. 334, this volume.
557 Illorum; following the Greek form of the comparative degree.
561 Jer. vii. 3; Zech. vii. 9, 10, viii. 17; Isa. i. 17-19.
569 No other of the Greek Fathers quotes this text as above; from which fact Grabe infers that old Latin translator, or his transcribers, altered the words of Irenaeus [N.B.-From one example infer the rest.] to suit the Latin versions.
572 This is Massuet's conjectural emendation of the text, viz., archetypum for arcaetypum. Grabe would insert per before arcae, and he thinks the passage to have a reference to 1 Pet. iii. 20. Irenaeus, in common with the other ancient Fathers, believed that the fallen angels were the "sons of God" who commingled with "the daughters of men," and thus produced a race of spurious men. [Gen. vi. 1, 2, 3, and Josephus.]
573 Jude 7. [And note "strange flesh" (Gr. Sarkoj eteraj) as to the angels. Gen. xix. 4, 5.]
577 Matt. v. 35. Instead of placing a period here, as the editors do, it seems to us preferable to carry on the construction.
589 Luke xv. 11.
595 Luke xiii. 34; Matt. xxiii. 37.
604 Luke xii. 45, 46; Matt. xxiv. 48, 51.
619 [If we but had the original, this would doubtless be found in all respects a noble specimen of primitive theology.]
623 That is, that man's human nature should not prevent him from becoming a partaker of the divine.
634 Matt. xiii. 34. [Applicable to the origin of heresies.]
636 The old Latin translator varies from this (the Greek of which was recovered by Grabe from two ancient Catenae Patrum), making the clause run thus, that is, the transgression which he had himself introduced, making the explanatory words to refer to the tares, and not, as in the Greek, to the sower of the tares.
637 Following the reading of the LXX. Autoj sou thrhsei kefalhn.
1 Ex ratione universis ostensionibus procedente. The words are very obscure.
3 "Initium facturae," which Grabe thinks should be thus translated with reference to Jas. i. 18.
4 [Compare Clement, cap. 49, p. 18, this volume.]
6 In allusion to the mixture of water in the eucharistic cup, as practixed in these primitive times. The Ebionites and others used to consecrate the element of water alone.
8 Viz., the Son and the Spirit.
13 [Again, the carefully asserts that the bread is the body, and the wine (cup) is the blood. The elements are sanctified, not changed materially.]
14 The Greek text, of which a considerable portion remains here, would give, "and the Eucharist becomes the body of Christ."
19 This is Harvey's free rendering of the passage, which is in the Greek (as preserved in the Catena of John of Damascus): kai dia touto hnesxeto o Qeoj thn eij thn ghn hmwn analusin. In the Latin: Propter hoc passus est Deus fieri in nobis resolutionem. See Book iii. cap. xx. 2.
21 We have adopted here the explanation of Massuet, who considers the preceding period as merely parenthetical. Both Grabe and Harvey, however, would make conjectural emendations in the text, which seem to us to be inadmissable.
22 The ancients erroneously supposed that the arteries were air-vessels, from the fact that these organs, after death, appear quite empty, from all the blood stagnating in the veins when death supervenes.
29 The old Latin has "audivimus," have heard.
30 1 Thess. v. 23. [I have before referred the student to the "Biblical Psychology" of Prof. Delitzsch (translation), T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1868.]
46 Grabe, Massuet, and Stieren prefer to read, "the face of the living God;" while Harvey adopts the above, reading merely "Domini," and not "Dei vivi."
51 This is adopting Harvey's emendation of "voluntatem" for "voluntate."
54 Lev. xi. 2; Deut. xiv. 3, etc.
57 1 Cor. ii. 14, iii. 1, etc.
58 1 Cor. xv. 50.
68 Matt. xxiv. 42, xxv. 13; Mark xiii. 33.
73 The Latin has, "sed infusionem Spiritus attrahens."
91 Following Harvey's explanation of a somewhat obscure passage.
95 Mark v. 22. Irenaeus confounds the ruler of the synagogue with the high priest. [Let not those who possess printed Bibles and concordances and commentaries, and all manner of helps to memory, blame the Fathers for such mistakes, until they at least equal them in their marvellous and minute familiarity with the inspired writers.]
98 The two miracles of raising the widow's son and the rabbi's daughter are here amalgamated.
103 The original Greek text is preserved here, as above; the Latin translator inserts, "insecunda ad Corinthios." Harvey observes: "The interpretation of the Scriptural reference by the translator suggests the suspicion that the greater number of such references have come in from the margin."
106 Agreeing with the Syriac version in omitting "the Lord" before the word "Jesus," and in reading aei as ei, which Harvey considers the true text.
110 The Syriac translation seems to take a literal meaning out of this passage: "If, as one of the men, I have been cast forth to the wild beasts at Ephesus."
111 This is in accordance with the Syriac, which omits the clause, eiper ara nekroi ouk egeirontai.
117 One of the mss.MSS; . reads here: Sanguis pro sanguine ejus effundetur.
118 Matt. xxiii. 35, etc. Luke xi. 50.
124 "Et sanguine ejus redhibitus," corresponding to the Greek term apokatastaqeij. "Redhibere" is properly a forensic term, meaning to cause any article to be restored to the vendor.
126 Harvey restores the Greek thus, kai ton autou anqrwpon bebaiwsj ekdexomenoj, which he thinks has a reference to the patient waiting for "Christ's second advent to judge the world." The phrase might also be translated, and "receiving stedfastly His human nature."
155 The Greek is preserved here, and reads, dia thj qeiaj ektasewj twn xeirwn-literally, "through the divine extension of hands." The old Latin merely reads, "per extensionem manuum."
157 From this passage Harvey infers that Irenaeus held the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son,-a doctrine denied by the Oriental Church in after times. [Here is nothing about the "procession:" only the "mission" of the Spirit is here concerned. And the Easterns object to the double procession itself only in so far as any one means thereby to deny "quod solus Pater est divinarum personarum, Principium et Fons,"-riza kai phgh. See Procopowicz, De Processione, Gothae, 1772].
158 Grabe and Harvey insert the words, "quod est conditionis," but on slender authority.
164 The text reads "invisiblilter," which seems clearly an error.
168 The text is here most uncertain and obscure.
169 [This word patroness is ambiguous. The Latin may stand for Gr. Antilhyij,-a person called in to help, or to take hold of the other end of a burden. The argument implies that Mary was thus the counterpart or balance of Eve.]
170 The text reads "porro," which makes no sense; so that Harvey looks upon it as a corruption of the reading "per Horum."
171 "Et eandem figuram ejus quae est erga ecclesiam ordinationis custodientibus." Grabe supposes this refers to the ordained ministry of the Church, but Harvey thinks it refers more probably to its general constitution.
172 [He thus outlines the creed, and epitomizes "the faith once delivered to the saints," as all that is requisite to salvation.]
174 That is, the private Christian as contrasted with the sophist of the schools.
179 thrhsei and teresei have probably been confounded.
185 The Latin of this obscure sentence is: Quae ergo fuit in Paradiso repletio hominis per duplicem gustationem, dissoluta est per eam, quae fuit in hoc mundo, indigentiam. Harvey thinks that repletio is an error of the translation reading anaplhrwsij for anaphrwsij. This conjecture is adopted above.
188 This sentence is one of great obscurity.
190 Matt. iv. 10.
191 Matt. xii. 29 and Mark iii. 27.
213 [Well says Benjamin Franklin: "He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world." See Bancroft, Hist. U.S., vol. ix. p. 492.]
222 This may refer to Antiochus Epiphanes, Antichrist's prototype, who offered swine upon the altar in the temple at Jerusalem. The LXX. version has, edoqh epi thn qusian amaptia, i.e., sin has been given against (or, upon) the sacrifice.
227 The mss.MSS; . have "praemisit," but Harvey suggests "promisit," which we have adopted.
234 The Greek text is here preserved by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., iv. 18; but we are not told from what work of Justin Martyr it is extracted. The work is now lost. An ancient catena continues the Greek for several lines further.
249 This is quoted from the Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans, ch. iv. It is found in the two Greek recensions of his works, and also in the Syriac. See pp. 75 and 103 of this volume. The Latin translation is here followed: the Greek of Ignatius would give "the wheat of God," and omits "of God" towards the end, as quoted by Eusebius.
251 Matt. xxiv. 21.
252 en pasi toij spoudaioij kai arxaioij antigrafoij. This passage is interesting, as showing how very soon the autographs of the New Testament must have perished, and various readings crept into the mss.MSS; . of the canonical books.
253 That is, C into EI, according to Harvey, who considers the whole of this clause as an evident interpolation. It does not occur in the Greek here preserved by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., v. 8).
257 Rev. vii. 5-7. [The Danites (though not all) corrupted the Hebrew church and the Levitical priesthood, by image-worship, (Judg. xviii.), and forfeited the blessings of the old covenant.]
258 [A very pregnant passage, as has often been noted. But let us imitate the pious reticence with which this section concludes.]
259 Massuet here quotes Cicero and Ovid in proof of the sun being termed Titan. The Titans waged war against the gods, to avenge themselves upon Saturn.
262 See the note, book iii. xx. 4.
271 The five following chapters were omitted in the earlier editions, but added by Feuardentius. Most mss.MSS; ., too, did not contain them. It is probable that the scribes of the middle ages rejected them on account of their inculcating millenarian notions, which had been long extinct in the Church. Quotations from these five chapters have been collected by Harvey from Syriac and Armenian mss.MSS; . lately come to light.
272 Or, "gradually to comprehend God."
276 Acts. vii. 5; Heb. xi. 13.
287 Matt. xix. 29; Luke xviii. 29, 30.
293 From this to the end of the section there is an Armenian version extant, to be found in the Spicil. Solesm. i. p. 1, edited by M. Pitra, Paris 1852, and which was taken by him from an Armenian ms. . in the Mechitarist Library at Venice, described as being of the twelfth century.
294 This word "true" is not found in the Armenian.
295 Or, following Arm. vers., "But if any one shall lay hold of an holy cluster."
296 The Arm. vers. is here followed; the old Latin reads, "Et reliqua autem poma."
297 [See pp. 151-154, this volume.]
321 Isa. lxv. 21.
322 The long quotation following is not found in Jeremiah, but in the apocryphal book of Baruch, chap. iv. 36, etc., and the whole of chap. v.
339 Thus in a Greek fragment; in the Old Latin, Deus.
346 1 Cor. ii. 9; Isa. lxiv. 4.
348 Grabe and others suppose that some part of the work has been lost, so that the above was not its original conclusion.
1 This fragment is quoted by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., v. 20. It occurred at the close of the lost treatise of Irenaeus entitled De Ogdoade.
2 This interesting extract we also owe to Eusebius, who (ut sup.) took it from the work De Ogdoade, written after this former friend of Irenaeus had lapsed to Valentinianism. Florinus had previously held that God was the author of evil, which sentiment Irenaeus opposed in a treatise, now lost, called peri monarxiaj.
3 Comp. p. 32, this volume, and Phil. iv. 22.
4 See pp. 31 and 312, of this volume. We are indebted again to Eusebius for this valuable fragment from the Epistle of Irenaeus to Victor Bishop of Rome (Hist. Eccl., v. 24; copied also by Nicephorus, iv. 39). It appears to have been a synodical epistle to the head of the Roman Church, the historian saying that it was written by Irenaeus, "in the name of (ek proswpon) those brethren over whom he ruled throughout Gaul." Neither are these expressions to be limited to the Church at Lyons, for the same authority records (v. 23) that it was the testimony "of the dioceses throughout Gaul, which Irenaeus superintended" (Harvey).
5 According to Harvey, the early paschal controversy resolved itself into two particulars: (a) as regards the precise day on which our Lord's resurrection should be celebrated; (b) as regards the custom of the feast preceding it.
6 Both reading and punctuation are here subjects of controversy. We have followed Massuet and Harvey.
7 "The observance of a day, though not everywhere the same, showed unity, so far as faith in the Lord's resurrection was concerned."-Harvey.
8 Following the reading of Rufinus, the ordinary test has met0 autouj, i.e., after them.
9 This practice was afterwards forbidden by the Council of Laodicea [held about A.D. 360].
10 It was perhaps in reference to this pleasing episode in the annals of the Church, that the Council of Arles, A. D. 314, decreed that the holy Eucharist should be consecrated by any foreign bishop present at its celebration.
11 Quoted by Maximus Bishop of Turin, A.D. 422, Serm. vii. de Eleemos., as from the Epistle to Pope Victor. It is also found in some other ancient writers.
12 One of the mss.MSS; . reads here tou Qeou, of God.
13 Also quoted by Maximus Turinensis, Op. ii. 152, who refers it to Irenaeus's Sermo de Fide, which work, not being referred bo by Eusebius or Jerome, causes Massuet to doubt the authenticity of the fragment. Harvey, however, accepts it.
14 We owe this fragment also to Maximus, who quoted it from the same work, de Fide, written by Irenaeus to Demetrius, a deacon of Vienne. This and the last fragment were first printed by Feuardentius, who obtained them from Faber; no reference, however, being given as to the source from whence the Latin version was derived. The Greek of the Fragment vi. is not extant.
15 Taken from a work (Quaes. et Resp. ad Othod.) ascribed to Justin Martyr, but certainly written after the Nicene Council. It is evident that this is not an exact quotation from Irenaeus, but a summary of his words. The "Sunday" here referred to must be Easter Sunday. Massuet's emendation of the text has been adopted, ep autou for ap autwn.
16 Cited by Leontius of Byzantium, who flourished about the year A.D. 600; but he does not mention the writing of Irenaeus from which it is extracted. Massuet conjectures that it is from the De Ogdoade, addressed to the apostate Florinus.
17 This fragment and the next three are from the Parallela of John of Damascus. Frag. ix. x. xii. seem to be quotations from the treatise of Irenaeus on the resurrection. No. xi. is extracted from his Miscellaneous Dissertations, a work mentioned by Eusebius, biblion ti dialecewn diaforwn.
19 This sentence in the original seems incomplete; we have followed the conjectural restoration of Harvey.
20 "This extract is found in (Ecumenius upon 1 Pet. c. iii. p. 198; and the words used by him indicate, as Grabe has justly observed, that he only condensed a longer passage."-Harvey.
21 From the Contemplations of Anastasius Sinaita, who flourished A.D. 685. Harvey doubts as to this fragment being a genuine production of Irenaeus; and its whole style of reasoning confirms the suspicion.
24 The Greek reads the barbarous word aqricia, which Massuet thinks is a corruption of aqanansia, immortality. We have, however, followed the conjecture of Harvey, who would substitute aplhcia, which seems to agree better with the context.
25 This and the eight following fragments may be referred to the Miscellaneous Dissertations of our author; see note on Frag. ix. They are found in three mss.MSS; . in the Imperial Collection at Paris, on the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.
28 Compare the statement of Clemens Romanus (page 6 of this volume), where, speaking of St. Paul, he says: "After preaching both in the east and west . . . . having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west."
29 See Judg. vi. 27. It is not very clear how Irenaeus makes out this allegory, but it is thought that he refers to the initial letter in the name Ihsouj, which stands for ten in the Greek enumeration. Compare the Epistle of Barnabas, cap. ix. p. 143, of this volume.
31 Harvey conceives the reading here (which is doubtful) to have been ton neon siton, the new wheat; and sees an allusion to the wave-sheaf of the new corn offered in the temple on the morning of our Lord's resurrection.
33 Massuet seems to more than doubt the genuineness of this fragment and the next, and would ascribe them to the pen of Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, a contemporary of Irenaeus. Harvey passes over these two fragments.
37 The conjectural emendation of Harvey has been adopted here, but the text is very corrupt and uncertain.
39 From one of the mss.MSS; . Stieren would insert en tw idiw swmati, in His own body; see 1 Pet. ii. 24.
44 It is not certain from what work of Irenaeus this extract is derived; Harvey thinks it to be from his work peri episthmhj, i.e., concerning Knowledge.
47 2 Kings vi. 6. Comp. book v. chap. xvii. 4.
49 Edited by P. Possin, in a Catena Patrum on St. Matthew. See book iii. chap. xi. 8.
50 From the same Catena. Compare book v. chap. xvii. 4.
52 First edited in Latin by Corderius, afterwards in Greek by Grabe, and also by Dr. Cramer in his Catena on St. Luke.
53 Massuet's Fragment xxxii. is here passed over; it is found in book iii. chap. xviii. 7.
54 See Josephus' Antiquities, book ii. chap. x., where we read that this king's daughter was called Tharbis. Immediately upon the surrender of this city (Saba, afterwards called Meroë) Moses married her, and returned to Egypt. Whiston, in the notes to his translation of Josephus, says, "Nor, perhaps, did St. Stephen refer to anything else when he said of Moses, before he was sent by God to the Israelites, that he was not only learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, but was also mighty in words and in deeds" (Acts vii. 22).
57 Harvey considers this fragment to be a part of the work of Irenaeus referred to by Photius under the title De Universo, or de Substantia Mundi. It is to be found in Codex 3011 of the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
58 This and the next fragment first appeared in the Benedictine edition reprinted at Venice, 1734. They were taken from a ms. . Catena on the book of Kings in the Coislin Collection.
59 2 Kings v. 14.
62 This extract and the next three were discovered in the year 1715 by [Christopher Matthew] Pfaff, a learned Lutheran, in the Royal Library at Turin. The mss.MSS; . from which they were taken were neither catalogued nor classified, and have now disappeared from the collection. It is impossible to say with any degree of probability from what treatises of our author these four fragments have been culled. For a full account of their history, see Stieren's edition of Irenaeus, vol. ii. p. 381. [But, in all candor, let Pfaff himself be heard. His little work is full of learning, and I have long possessed it as a treasure to which I often recur. Pfaff's Irenaei Fragmenta was published at The Hague, 1715.]
69 Harvey's conjectural emendation, epiplokh for epilogh, has been adopted here.
72 taij deuteraij twn apostolwn diatacesi. Harvey thinks that these words imply, "the formal constitution, which the apostles, acting under the impuls of the Spirit, though still in a secondary capacity, gave to the Church."
74 Rev. v. 8. The same view of the eucharistic oblation, etc., is found in book iv. chap. xvii.: as also in Justin Martyr; see Trypho, cap. xli. supra in this volume.
79 Harvey explains this word antitupwn as meaning an "exact counterpart." He refers to the word where it occurs in Contra Haeresses, lib. i. chap. xxiv. (p. 349, this vol.) as confirmatory of his view.
80 Taken apparently from the Epistle to Blastus, de Schismate. Compare a similar passage, lib. iv. chap. xxxiii. 7.
83 "From the same collection at Turin. The passage seems to be of cognate matter with the treatise De Resurrec. Pfaff referred it either to the dialeceij diaforoi or to the epideicij apostolikou khrugmatoj."-Harvey.
84 This and the four following fragments are taken from mss.MSS; . in the Vatican Library at Rome. They are apparently quoted from the homiletical expositions of the historical books already referred to.
88 These words were evidently written during a season of persecution in Gaul; but what that persecution was, it is useless to conjecture.
90 That is, when he fled to the rock Etam, he typified the true believer taking refuge in the spiritual Rock, Christ.
91 Most probably from a homily upon the third and fourth chapters of Ezekiel. It is found repeated in Stieren's and Migne's edition as Fragment xlviii. extracted from a Catena on the Book of Judges.
92 We give this brief fragment as it appears in the editions of Stieren, Migne, and Harvey, who speculate as to its origin. They seem to have overlooked the fact that it is the Greek original of the old Latin, non facile est ab errore apprehensam resipiscere animam,-a sentence found towards the end of book iii. chap. ii.
93 With the exception of the initial text, this fragment is almost identical with No. xxv.
96 From the Catena on St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians, edited by Dr. Cramer, and reprinted by Stieren.
98 Extracted from a ms. . of Greek theology in the Palatine Library at Vienna. The succeeding fragment in the editions of Harvey, Migne, and Stieren, is omitted, as it is merely a transcript of book iii. ch. x. 4.
100 This fragment commences a series derived from the Nitrian Collection of Syriac mss.MSS;. in the British Museum.
101 The Syriac text is here corrupt and obscure.
102 See. No. viii., which is the same as the remainder of this fragment.
103 The Syriac ms. . introduces this quotation as follows: "From the holy Irenaeus Bp. of Lyons, from the first section of his interpretation of the Song of Songs."
104 This extract is introduced as follows: "For Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons, who was a contemporary of the disciple of the apostle, Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna, and martyr, and for this reason is held in just estimation, wrote to an Alexandrian to the effect that it is right, with respect to the feast of the Resurrection, that we should celebrate it upon the first day of the week." This shows us that the extract must have been taken from the work Against Schism addressed to Blastus.
105 From the same ms. . as the preceding fragment. It is thus introduced: "And Irenaeus Bp. of Lyons, to Victor Bp. of Rome, concerning Florinus, a presbyter, who was a partisan of the error of Valentinus, and published an abominable book, thus wrote."
106 This extract had already been printed by M. Pitra in his Spicilegium Solesmense, p. 6.
115 This extract from the Syriac is a shorter form of the next fragment, which seems to be interpolated in some places. The latter is from an Armenian ms. . in the Mechitarist Library at Venice.
116 This fragment is thus introduced in the Armenian copy: "From St. Irenaeus, bishop, follower of the apostles, on the Lord's resurrection."
117 The Armenian text is confused here; we have adopted the conjectural emendation of Quatremere.
118 From an Armenian ms. . in the Library of the Mechitarist Convent at Vienna, edited by M. Pitra, who considers this fragment as of very doubtful authority. It commences with this heading: "From the second series of Homilies of Saint Irenaeus, follower of the Apostles; a Homily upon the Sons of Zebedee."
120 That is, the wine which flows from the grapes before they are trodden out.