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89 Chapter Seven The Man with No Name Who Is the Elder in Irenaeus’s Adversus haereses IV? Sebastian Moll In Adversus haereses IV.27-32, Irenaeus repeatedly refers to the teachings of a certain elder. Despite the fact that the teachings of this man seem to be of high importance to Irenaeus, he omits revealing his name. This omission on Irenaeus’s part has given rise to much speculation regarding the identity of his source, starting as early as in the 1575 edition of Irenaeus’s works by François Feuardent. For some time, however, the books on this issue appeared to be closed. Scholars started to content themselves with the anonymity of this elder as no satisfying solution could be found—until recently, when Charles Hill tried to demonstrate that this anonymous individual can be nobody else but Polycarp of Smyrna and thus renewed the debate.1 The complexity of Hill’s work makes it impossible to portray his thesis in full here, but there is one passage in his book that, from my perspective, sums up the key elements of his argument quite well: We must now observe that it is precisely in this letter to Florinus, on the sole sovereignty of God and against the notion of God being the creator of evil, a work written to refute some version of Marcionism, a work which parallels so closely the teaching of the elder in Haer. 4.27-32, that Irenaeus gives his wellknown description of Polycarp. It is this letter in which Irenaeus claims to have heard Polycarp on many occasions and to have listened so attentively that he could still reproduce many of his teacher’s actual words (HE 5.20.4)! Simply stated, in Haer. 4.27-32 Irenaeus recounts from memory the anti-Marcionite, oral teaching of a respected “presbyter, a disciple of apostles” (4.32.1), and in the letter to Florinus, a letter devoted to the very same aspects of Marcion’s teaching, Irenaeus claims he could remember much of the oral teaching of Polycarp of Smyrna, whom he calls “that blessed and apostolic presbyter” (HE 5.20.7). I submit that it would be too great a coincidence if these two apostolic presbyters were not the same individual, namely, Polycarp of Smyrna.2 In this passage we can find the three elements that Polycarp and the elder in Haer. 4.2732 have, according to Hill, in common, and which thus suggest the identity of the two: 90 Irenaeus: Life, Scripture, Legacy 1. Irenaeus was in close personal contact to them to the point that he can literally reproduce their teachings from memory; 2. their teaching is anti-Marcionite; 3. they are immediate disciples of the Apostles. Hill’s Theory Reconsidered Let us now take a closer look at the validity of these arguments. 1. In the letter to Florinus, to which Hill refers, Irenaeus informs us about his relation to Polycarp: For, while I was yet a boy, I saw thee in Lower Asia with Polycarp, distinguishing thyself in the royal court, and endeavouring to gain his approbation. For I have a more vivid recollection of what occurred at that time than of recent events (inasmuch as the experiences of childhood, keeping pace with the growth of the soul, become incorporated with it); so that I can even describe the place where the blessed Polycarp used to sit and discourse—his going out, too, and his coming in—his general mode of life and personal appearance, together with the discourses which he delivered to the people; also how he would speak of his familiar intercourse with John, and with the rest of those who had seen the Lord; and how he would call their words to remembrance. Whatsoever things he had heard from them respecting the Lord, both with regard to His miracles and His teaching, Polycarp having thus received [information] from the eye-witnesses of the Word of life, would recount them all in harmony with the Scriptures. These things, through God’s mercy which was upon me, I then listened to attentively, and treasured them up not on paper, but in my heart; and I am continually, by God’s grace, revolving these things accurately in my mind. (HE V.20.5-7)3 As far as the elder in Haer. V.27-32 is concerned, Irenaeus is actually quoting from his teachings in the said passages, and there is no particular reason to doubt the authenticity of...

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