Irenaeus: Life, Scripture, Legacy

The Writings of Irenaeus

xi The Writings of Irenaeus Two genuine works of Irenaeus survive: Against the Heresies and the Demonstration. 1. Refutation and Overthrow of the Knowledge Falsely So Called, or Against the Heresies The main witnesses for the text of Against the Heresies are: (a) extensive fragments of the original Greek, including the evidence of two damaged and fragmentary papyri: (i) P. Oxy 405, dated palaeographically to the beginning of the third century and containing portions of III.9.2-3;1 (ii) a Jena papyrus, probably of the early fourth century, containing portions of V.3.2–13.1;2 (b) a Latin version of all five books; and (c) an Armenian version of the whole of books IV and V, together with fragments of the other books. The best edition is published in ten volumes in the Sources chrétiennes series: Adelin Rousseau and Louis Doutreleau, eds., Irénée de Lyon, Contra les hérésies, Livre I, 2 vols, SCh 263 and 264 (Paris: du Cerf, 1979); ———, Irénée de Lyon, Contra les hérésies, Livre II, 2 vols., SCh 293 and 294 (Paris: du Cerf, 1982); ———, Irénée de Lyon, Contra les hérésies, Livre III, 2 vols., SCh 210 and 211 (Paris: du Cerf, 1974); Adelin Rousseau, with Bertrand Hemmerdinger, Louis Doutreleau, and Charles Mercier, eds., Irénée de Lyon, Contra les hérésies, Livre IV, 2 vols., SCh 100 (Paris: de Cerf, 1965); Adelin Rousseau, Louis Doutreleau, and Charles Mercier, eds., Irénée de Lyon, Contra les hérésies, Livre V, 2 vols., SCh 152 and 153 (Paris: de Cerf, 1969). The Armenian of books IV and V was published, from a manuscript then as now in Yerevan, by Karapet Ter-Mekerttschian and Erwand Ter-Minassianz, Irenaeus, Gegen die Häretiker, ΕΛΕΓΧΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΑΤΡΟΠΗ ΤΗΣ ΨΕΥΔΩΝΥΜΟΥ ΓΝΩΣΕΩΣ, Buch IV u. xii Writings of Irenaeus V in armenischer Version, TU 35.2 (Leipzig: Heinrichs, 1910); its evidence is factored in to the edition by Rousseau. There is a full English translation by Archibald Roberts and W. H. Rambaut in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, reprinted from The Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vols 5 and 9 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1868–1869) and available online. It is basically accurate and reliable, if rather woodenly Victorian, though it does not, of course, reflect the very significant improvements that have been made to the text of Irenaeus in the past century and a half. F. R. Montgomery Hitchcock published an abridged translation, The Treatise of Irenaeus of Lugdunum, Against the Heresies, 2 vols (London: SPCK, 1916), and excerpts are translated in Robert M. Grant, Irenaeus of Lyons, Fathers of the Church (New York: Routledge, 1977). Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against the Heresies, Book I, trans. D. J. Unger, rev. J. J. Dillon, Ancient Christian Writers 55 (Westminster: Newman, 1992), contains the first book with extensive notes. Book III, by Ungar and Irenaeus M. C. Steenberg, appeared in the same series at the beginning of 2012, and further volumes are promised. A complete one-volume translation is being prepared by Paul and Sara Parvis and Denis Minns. 2. Demonstration (Epideixis) of the Apostolic Preaching. The Demonstration is mentioned by Eusebius (HE V.26) but was only published from the same Armenian manuscript that contains Haer. IV and V, in 1907: Karapet TerMekerttschian and Erwand Ter-Minassianz, Des heiligen Irenäus, Schrift zum Erweise der apostolischen Verkündigung, ΕΙΣ ΕΠΙΔΕΙΞΙΝ ΤΟΥ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΙΚΟΥ ΚΗΡΥΓΜΑΤΟΣ, in armenischer Version, with notes by Adolf Harnack, TU 31.1 (Leipzig: Heinrichs, 1907). Reliable English translations include: The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, trans. J. A. Robinson (London: SPCK, 1920); Proof of the Apostolic Preaching, trans. J. P. Smith, Ancient Christian Writers 16 (Westminster: Newman , 1952); Saint Irenaeus of Lyons On the Apostolic Preaching, trans. John Behr (Crestwood: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997). Eusebius of Caesarea, writing shortly before 300, gives the titles of six other works, quoting fragments from three of them: 3. A letter Against Blastus, On Schism (HE V.20.1); 4. A letter Against Florinus, On the Monarchy, or On the Fact That God Is Not the Maker of Evil (HE V.20.1, with a fragment at V.20.4-8); 5. A treatise On the Ogdoad, written “because of Florinus” (HE V.20.1, with a fragment at V.20.2); 6. A letter to Victor of Rome, written “on behalf of the brethren throughout Gaul over whom he was presiding” on the controversy with the churches of Asia [3.140.185.170] Project...