Irenaeus's Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

A Theological Commentary and Translation

Iain M. MacKenzie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138717770
• eBook ISBN: 9781351766371
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This title was first published in 2002. The theology of Irenaeus, and the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching in particular, is pivotal in showing the way in which the fathers of the church interpreted scripture and distilled doctrine. The Demonstration is an important hinge showing how the doctrine of the fourth century with its definitive councils and definitions of faith, opens out from the new testament apostolic and evangelical witness. Presenting the full translation of the Demonstration of Irenaeus by Dean Armitage Robinson, this book offers a detailed theological commentary by Canon Iain MacKenzie on this foundational doctrinal text. MacKenzie sets out the main theological themes throughout Irenaeus' work, and explores his method of systematic theology, Athanasius's dependence on Irenaeus, and Irenaeus' influence on doctrine in the fourth century - particularly the works of Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. Highlighting the importance of this second century theologian for theology today, this commentary and theological interpretation offers an incentive to study Irenaeus in the wider development of Christian doctrine as a cardinal figure in the appreciation of systematic theology.

Chapter 1
Section 1: The Title — Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

The title itself is significant. Throughout the expression of the thought of Irenaeus there is no disjunction between word and act. There is no indulgence in 'bare words' of abstractions, philosophy for the sake of philosophy only, or of reducing the faith to a 'plausible system'¹. Irenaeus condemns all such and regards the Christian faith as standing over against all such theorizing exercises. The faith is rather a matter of an active and demonstrable theology which speaks out to, and takes stock of, the realities of humanity and creation as seen in the light of the reality of the Creator. It speaks of the living and lively God who is as He acts and acts as He is. God demonstrates himself, and the Word is the demonstration of God. It is in this sense of 'active proof' that 'Demonstration' is used, as employed by Justin Martyr² citing to Trypho the prefigurement of the action and event of the resurrection and ascension of Christ in Psalm XXIV, and the antiphonal 'Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is this King of Glory', as the question asked by the hosts of heaven not recognizing the 'uncomely and dishonoured'figure of Christ at the gates of heaven as they are commanded by the Father to open them to the King of Glory, and answered by the Holy Spirit. Επιδειξιϱ – 'demonstration or proof' – as used here by Justin Martyr, is a word in which knowledge and being and action are involved. Irenaeus employs it likewise.

Theology is not concerned to ask 'Is there a God?' Irenaeus is not engaging in an apology for either the Gospel or its apostolic traditioning. He is setting out the one 'scope', that is (in the sense of σχοποϱ) the centre and horizon, the substance and the goal, of both scripture and tradition, for what it is in itself alone without any other consideration, and clearing the ground so that it can be perceived and allowed to speak for itself on its own terms. Irenaeus speaks of this in his larger work in terms of Christ being the 'treasure hid in the Scriptures'.³ The primary question with which theology is concerned is 'Is there a Word of God?' For by His Word God demonstrates himself to be active and eternal Being who does not need to be discovered by the initiative of any philosophical system devised by human beings, but is himself his own proof. The Word made flesh means the Self-revelation of the invisible, immeasurable, incomprehensible and eternal God as the God who, in his grace, is involved with and committed to this observable, quantitative, physical and temporal creation. What God is eternally in Himself, He is towards us in Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is the 'scope' of the faith, for

in no other way could we have learned the things of God, unless our Master, existing as the Word, had becomc man. For no other being had the power of revealing to us the things of the Father, except his own proper Word. For what other person 'knew the mind of the Lord' or who else 'has become His counsellor?' Again we could have learned in no other way than by seeing our Teacher and hearing His voice with our own ears, that, having become imitators of His works as well as doers of His words, we may have communion with Him ... as the mighty Word and very man.⁴

This is the identity and nature of the Apostolic preaching or for that 'kerugma' is the proclamation of that which has been demonstrated by God in Person by His incarnation, and which those who have heard and seen the Word of life have demonstrated correspondingly by their faith and godliness.

For Irenaeus there is a double demonstration – primarily of God's act involving His being in the incarnation of the Word, and secondarily of those who witness to this by their words and acts which point to Christ as the substance and circumference, the centre and the horizon, of their proclamation. The first is the σχοοποϱ of the second. Faith, and the preaching of, and living out, the faith, if they be faith in truth, preaching in propriety, and that life which is in correspondence to God, are not detached from the Person of Christ. Any such disjunction would mean that they had become something else. 'Demonstration' as applied to the activity of the faithful, is the stamp, the impression, the likeness, of the Word made flesh upon them. By their words and action, the Word made flesh is perceived; through them He is made audible and visible and therefore demonstrated. This active faith is set out in sections 2 and 3 of the Demonstration.

Section 1: Faith and Godliness

The work is addressed in endearing terms to 'Marcianos'. Eusebius notes⁵ that Irenaeus 'wrote a work dedicated to a brother Marcian'. The language used here in Section 1, the introduction, of the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, would suggest that the name was indeed that of a friend and not a stylized device. In his youth, Irenaeus had seen, heard and been given a lasting impression of Polycarp (c.AD69-155), Bishop of Smyrna whom he eulogizes.⁶ If not born in Smyrna, he at least had his early upbringing there and was of the Christian community in that place, hence his acquaintance with Polycarp. In the Epistle of the Smyrnaens Concerning the Martyrdom of Polycarp, mention is made of one Marcianos.⁷ Euarestus, on behalf of the church at Smyrna, was the scribe who wrote of the circumstances of, and described, the recent martyrdom of Polycarp, producing this epistle which was then entrusted to Marcianos to carry it to Philomelium as the representative of the Christian community at Smyrna. This Marcianos must have been held in a position of regard by that church to be given this task. Whether or not this is the same Marcianos of Irenaeus's acquaintance must remain a conjecture, though the fact of the mutual link with Smyrna could point in this direction. Again, whether or not Marcianos is the 'dear friend' mentioned in the beginning of each of the books of Adversus Haereses, is also but surmise. However, if Marcianos were an individual known to Irenaeus, it would appear from the description in this first section of the present work as a 'compendium of basic tenets', or 'a manual of essentials'⁸ and that it is so commended as a handier, succinct book as opposed to the lengthier, more detailed work (Adversus Haereses), that Marcianos was regarded as being familiar with that latter work, and could well have been the same person accorded the place of close acquaintance in both works. That the larger work referred to in this first section is indeed Adversus Haereses, is clear from the reference in section 99 – 'as we have shown in the Exposure and Overthrow of Knowledge falsely so-called' – the other title of that work.

Whatever the case, Irenaeus makes it appear that he was writing to someone domiciled at a distance from him – 'Would that it were possible for us to be always together ... at the present time we are distant from one another in body . . . '– presumably he being in Lyons and the recipient possibly in his well-known Smyrna. But once more surmise it must remain.

On the other hand, though the introduction would seem to be ruled out as a mere stylistic or literary device because of its specific address and detailed comments of a personal nature, the name Marcianos could have been employed as a personalized representation for the purpose of addressing the work to a particular body of persons – the Μαϱχιαυοι Marcianoi, the appellation used by Justin Martyr for the followers of the heretic Marcion. That the argument of this work could be directed towards persuading perhaps hesitant followers of Marcionism may be supported (though there is no direct attack on that heresy in the Demonstration) by several emphases of Irenaeus implying a criticism of that heretical scheme.

First, the place he gives to the prophets of the Old Testament in relation to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the God who is both Creator and Redeemer.⁹ Second, the oft-repeated, emphatic linking of 'Father' with 'Creator' and the insistence that there is no disjunction between creation and Lordship, that is, there is not a Creator God and another God who is now Lord over that which is the work of the other.¹⁰ Third, and following this as an extension (though it is equally applicable to various Gnostic tenets), the censure 'none should imagine God the Father to be other than our Creator, as the heretics imagine'¹¹ is significant as a principal statement in the summing up of the reasons for producing this work. This points back to Irenaeus's giving priority of place in the preceding argument to the title Father¹² and it is this which was to be paralleled so closely by Athanasius later in his assertion that God is known essentially through the Son as Father, that he has always been Father, and that he was not always Creator.¹³ This will be discussed below in Chapter 13.

While there may be some grounds for supposing that Marcianus is the epitome of the disillusioned followers of Marcion against whose division of the Creator God of the Old Testament and the Good God of the New so much of the Demonstration is directed, the work contains no such phrase as the observation that the two covenants, the Old and the New, were

ursius et eisudem substantiae – of one and the same substance

Utraque autem tcstamcnta unus ct idem paterfamilias produxit, Verbum Dei, Dominus noster Jesus Chrislus. qui et Abrahae et Moysi colluctus est – But one and the same householder produced both covenants, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke with both Abraham and Moses¹⁴

as might he expected in an anti-Marcion work. Irenaeus saw Marcion as the forerunner of much that led to the work of the gnostic Valentinus, and traces an evolution of gnosticism from him.¹⁵ Irenaeus emphasizes the orthodox answer to that basically dualistic thought, from which sprang all the heresies he confronted, and which had their origin, in his view, beyond Marcion in the spawner of all heresies, the heresiarch Simon Magus, the Simon of Samaria mentioned in Acts VIII,¹⁶ but at first are so clearly stated in the views of Marcion. Irenaeus has a unitary way of thinking, as opposed to a dualistic tendency in which Creator and creature, God and humanity, heaven and earth, spiritual and material, faith and works, are torn apart. His theological hallmark is to bracket all these profoundly together yet with their respective natures unimpaired. This unitary mode of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
• Introduction
• Chapter One Section 1: The Title – Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
• Chapter Two Section 2: The Duty and Dignity of Humanity
• Chapter Three Section 3: Truth and Faith
• Chapter Four Sections 3 (cont.)–4: The Deification of Man: God the Sole Lord of Creation
• Chapter Five Sections 5–8: God as Spirit: the Relation of Humanity and Creation to the Triune God
• Chapter Six Sections 9–10: The Heavens in the Service of God: the Background to the Making of Man
• Chapter Seven Sections 11–12: The Substance and Production of Humanity: the Image of God
• Chapter Eight Sections 12 (cont.)–15: The Dominion, Place and Nature of Humanity
• Chapter Nine Sections 16–17: The Fall and its Consequences
• Chapter Ten Sections 18–42: The History and Fulfilment of the Blessings of God (1) – Sections 18–24: Adam's Seed to Abraham's Seed
• Chapter Eleven Sections 18–42: The History and Fulfilment of the Blessings of God (2) – Sections 25–29: Moses
• Chapter Twelve Sections 18–42: The History and Fulfilment of the Blessings of God (3) – Sections 29–42: The Pre-eminence of the Word
• Chapter Thirteen Sections 43–51: The Pre-existence of the Word
• Chapter Fourteen Sections 52–66: The Names and Places of the Word in His Obedience
• Chapter Fifteen Sections 67–82: The Sufferings of the Word in His Obedience (1) – Sections 67–73: The Spirit and the Nature of the Obedience of the Word
• Chapter Sixteen Sections 67–82: The Sufferings of the Word in His Obedience (2) – Sections 74–82: The Nature of the Sufferings of the Word Made Flesh
• Chapter Seventeen Sections 83–88: The Resurrection and Ascension of the Word Made Flesh
• Chapter Eighteen Sections 89–100: In Newness of Life
• Bibliography
• Index