Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Proof that Christ the Word is one and the same. That John recognizes a single, identical Word of God—this one being the Only-Begotten, this one having become flesh for our salvation—Jesus Christ our Lord—we have already shown sufficiently from John's own words. But Matthew too, recognizing this same single Jesus Christ, laying out that birth of his which follows the human line, from the Virgin—just as God pledged to David that he would set upon the throne, from the fruit of his own body, an everlasting King, having given that same pledge earlier still to Abraham—writes: 'A record of the origin of Jesus Christ, descendant of David, descendant of Abraham.' Then, to clear our mind of any doubt concerning Joseph, he writes: 'The origin of Christ came about thus. His mother Mary, while pledged in marriage to Joseph, before their union, was discovered to be carrying a child by the Holy Spirit.' Then, when Joseph considered sending Mary away quietly, since she was with child, an angel of God appeared to him and said: 'Have no fear in taking Mary as your wife, for what she carries comes from the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for it is he who will rescue his people from their sins. All this took place so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled: See, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and his name will be called Emmanuel,' which is translated, 'God with us'—clearly revealing that the promise given to the fathers stands fulfilled, in that the Son of God came into being from a virgin, and that this very one is the Christ and Savior the prophets had foretold—not, as they themselves claim, that Jesus is merely the one born of Mary while Christ is a separate being who descended from above. Otherwise Matthew might simply have written, 'Now the origin of Jesus came about thus'; instead the Holy Spirit, foreseeing the corrupters and guarding against their deceit, had Matthew write, 'Now the origin of Christ came about thus'; and given that this one is Emmanuel, lest we take him for a mere man—seeing that the Word became flesh through neither fleshly desire nor human will, but through the will of God—we ought not imagine Jesus to be someone distinct from Christ, but should recognize them as one and the same. Paul explained this very point writing to the Romans: 'Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, singled out for the Gospel of God, announced beforehand by his prophets in the sacred writings, regarding his Son, who came from David's line according to the flesh, and who was marked out as Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, through rising from among the dead—Jesus Christ our Lord.' And again, addressing the Romans concerning Israel, he writes: 'To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes Christ, who is God over all things, blessed for ever.' And again, in his letter to the Galatians: 'But when the appointed time arrived, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born subject to the law, so as to buy back those held under the law, that we might obtain adoption as sons'—clearly revealing that there is one God, who made the promise about the Son through the prophets; and one Jesus Christ our Lord, descended from David according to that birth which comes through Mary; this same one destined to be Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, through rising from among the dead, so that he might be firstborn of the dead just as he is firstborn of the whole creation; the Son of God rendered Son of Man, so that through him we might obtain that adoption, humanity taking up, receiving, and holding fast the Son of God.
For this reason Mark too writes: 'The start of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God, just as it stands written in the prophets'—acknowledging one identical Son of God, Jesus Christ, foretold by the prophets, who is, from the fruit of David's body, Emmanuel, the herald of the mighty counsel of the Father, by whom God brought about, for the house of David, the rising of the Dayspring and the Just One, raising up for him a horn of salvation and lifting up his witness in Jacob—just as David, explaining the grounds of his lineage, states: 'He set up a decree in Israel, so that a coming generation might come to know it—the children yet to be born—who would in turn rise and declare it to their own children, so that they would fix their trust in God and search out his commands.' And again the angel, delivering good news to Mary, states: 'This one will be great and will be named Son of the Most High, and the Lord, his God, will grant him the throne of David his father'—acknowledging him who is Son of the Highest to be this same one whom David also names his own son. And it was concerning this same one that David, knowing through the Spirit the plan of his coming, by which he holds dominion over all the living and the dead, acknowledged him as Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father Most High. And Simeon too, who had received word from the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Christ, the Lord's Anointed, took this one, the firstborn of the Virgin, into his arms, praised God, and declared: 'Now, Master, release your servant, according to your word, in peace, for my eyes have witnessed your salvation, which you have made ready before the face of every people: a light for revealing to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel'—acknowledging that the infant held in his arms, born of Mary, is himself the Christ, the Son of God, a light for all, and the glory belonging to Israel itself, and the peace and rest of those who have fallen asleep.
For already he was stripping men bare, taking away their ignorance and giving them instead the knowledge of himself, and making a division among those who came to know him, just as Isaiah says: 'Call his name, Swift is the plunder, speedy is the spoil.' These, then, are the works of Christ. He, then, was the Christ whom Simeon, holding him, blessed the Most High for; whom the shepherds glorified God on hearing of; whom John, while still in his mother's womb, recognized as Lord while that Lord was still in the Virgin's womb, and greeted him with joy; whom the Magi, seeing and worshiping and offering the gifts we mentioned before, and prostrating themselves before the eternal King, went home by a different route, no longer going back along the road of the Assyrians. For 'before the child comes to know how to call upon father or mother, he will take up the strength of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria, in the face of the king of Assyria'—hidden, yet powerfully bringing all things to light, since the Lord waged war on Amalek with an unseen hand. For this reason too he rescued the children in the house of David, who happened by providence to be born in that same season, so that he could dispatch them ahead of himself into his own kingdom; he himself, while yet an infant, preparing infant men as martyrs on behalf of Christ, who came into the world at Bethlehem in Judah, the city of David, slain in accordance with the Scriptures.
For this reason too the Lord, after rising, said to his disciples: 'You senseless ones, sluggish in heart to trust everything the prophets declared. Was it not necessary for the Christ to endure these very things before entering into his glory?' And again he told them: 'These are my own words, spoken to you while I was still among you—that everything set down concerning me across the Law given through Moses, the writings of the Prophets, and the Psalms had to reach fulfillment.' Then he opened their minds, so they could grasp the Scriptures, and said to them: 'So it stands written, that Christ would suffer, and rise from the dead, and that turning from sin and forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to every nation.' And this is the one who was born of Mary. For, as he states, 'it is necessary for the Son of Man to endure much, to be cast aside, put to death, and to rise on the third day.' No other Son of Man, then, does the Gospel recognize besides this one born of Mary, who likewise suffered; nor does it recognize any Christ who fled the passion by abandoning Jesus beforehand; rather it recognizes this very one who was born, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and knows that this same one, once he had suffered, rose again—just as John, the Lord's disciple, affirms, saying: 'These things stand written so that you would come to trust that Jesus, God's own Son, is the Christ, and that trusting this you would hold life unending through his name'—anticipating in advance these blasphemous systems which, for their part, split the Lord apart, claiming he was composed of one substance and another. For this reason too he bore witness to us thus in his letter: 'Little children, it is the final hour; and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have already appeared; by this we recognize that it is the final hour. They departed from our company, yet they never truly belonged to us; had they belonged to us, they would certainly have stayed among us; but they left, so it would become plain that not all of them are truly ours. Know, then, that no falsehood has any part in the truth, nor comes from the truth. Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? Such a one is the Antichrist.'
That all those we have named, though with their tongue they confess one Jesus Christ, mock themselves, thinking one thing while saying another. For their arguments are varied, as we have shown: one group proclaims that the one who suffered and was born is Christ, and that he is different from the Demiurge's own — that is, from the one who is by "dispositio," or from the one who is from Joseph, whom they argue to be passible — while another of their Christs, they say, descended from the invisible and unspeakable realms, and this one they affirm to be invisible, incomprehensible, and impassible. In this they wander from the truth, because their opinion falls away from him who is truly God. They do not know that the only-begotten Word of this God, who is always present to the human race, joined and blended with his own handiwork in keeping with the Father's benevolent will, and became flesh, being that very Jesus Christ our Lord and Master — who also suffered for us, and rose again for us, and will come again in the glory of the Father, to raise up all flesh, to show forth salvation, and to display the rule of just judgment to all who have been made subject to him. There is, therefore, as we have shown, a single God who is Father, and a single Christ who is Jesus our Lord, who passes through the whole economy and gathers all things together within himself (Eph. 1). Now man, the handiwork of God, is contained among "all things"; therefore in summing up man in himself he became visible though invisible, comprehensible though incomprehensible, and passible though impassible; and the Word became man, drawing all things together within his own person — so that, even as the Word of God possesses the chief place in the realm above the heavens, spiritual and unseen, so likewise he might possess the chief place in the realm that is seen and bodily, taking to himself the primacy, and setting himself as head of the Church, that he may draw all things to himself at the fitting time.
For with him nothing is out of order or untimely, just as nothing is incongruous with the Father. All these things were foreknown by the Father, but they are accomplished by the Son, as is fitting and consistent, at the proper time. For this reason, when Mary was hastening toward the wondrous sign of the wine, and wished to partake of the shortcut cup before the time, the Lord, restraining her untimely haste, said: "What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come" — awaiting that hour which had been foreknown by the Father. For this reason too, when men often wished to seize him, "no one," it says, "laid hands on him"; for the hour of his seizure had not yet come, nor the time of the passion, which had been foreknown by the Father, just as the prophet Habakkuk also says... But Paul too says: "When the completion of the appointed time arrived, God dispatched his own Son." By which it is made clear that all the things which had been foreknown by the Father, our Lord accomplished in their foreknown order, time, and hour — he being one and the same, yet rich and manifold. For he serves the rich and manifold will of the Father, since he himself is the one who rescues those being rescued, and rules as Lord over those under his rule, and stands as God of the things that were made, and the only-begotten of the Father, and the Christ who was preached, and the Word of God made incarnate, when the fullness of time had come, in which it was fitting for the Son of Man to become the Son of God. All those, therefore, are outside the divine economy who, under the pretense of knowledge, understand one Jesus and another Christ, and another Only-begotten, and yet another Word again distinct from him, and another Savior — whom the disciples of this error call an emission of the Aeons who fell into deficiency. Outwardly these are sheep, for by the speech they use externally they appear like us, speaking the same things we speak, but inwardly they are wolves. For their opinion is murderous, fabricating many gods and feigning many fathers, and cutting up and dividing the Son of God into many pieces. Against these the Lord warned us to be on guard, and his disciple John, in the epistle mentioned above, commanded us to flee from them, saying: "Many seducers have gone forth into this world, refusing to acknowledge that Jesus Christ arrived in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what you have worked for." And again in the epistle he says: "Many false prophets... By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that severs Jesus Christ apart is not from God, but belongs instead to the Antichrist." This matches what is stated in the Gospel, namely that the Word became flesh and took up dwelling among us. For which reason he cries out again in the epistle: "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" — knowing one and the same Jesus Christ, to whom the gates of heaven are openly shown on account of his taking on of flesh; who will likewise return in that identical flesh in which he bore suffering, unveiling his Father's splendor.
And Paul too, in agreement with this, addressing the Romans, says: "Much more shall those who receive the abundance of grace and of righteousness reign unto life through the one Jesus Christ." He therefore does not know one who flew away as "Christ" apart from Jesus, nor does he know as Savior the one who is above and whom they call impassible. For if one suffered while another remained impassible, and one was born while the other descended into the one who was born and then left him again — then not one but two are shown. But since the Apostle knows him as one — both the one who was born and the one who suffered — as Christ Jesus, he says: "Just as Christ rose from the dead, so we too should walk in newness of life." And again, signifying that Christ underwent suffering and that this very one is God's own Son, who perished on our behalf and bought us back with his own blood at the fitting moment, he says: "For while we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly at the right time. God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ perished for us; how much more, then, being now made righteous by his blood, shall we be rescued through him from wrath. For if, when we stood as foes, we were brought back into harmony with God through his Son's death, how much more, now restored, shall we be rescued by his life." This same one who was seized and suffered and poured out his blood for us — this Christ, this Son of God — he most plainly proclaims, who also rose and was taken up into the heavens, as he himself says, and likewise: "Christ died, or rather rose again, who is at the right hand of God"; and again: "knowing that Christ, once raised up from among the dead, will die no longer." For, foreseeing by the Spirit the subdivisions introduced by wicked teachers, and wishing to cut off every occasion for their dissension, he said what was foretold: "But if the Spirit of the one who awakened Jesus from among the dead makes his home in you, the one who awakened Christ from among the dead will likewise vivify your mortal bodies." With this single testimony he cries out, as it were, to those willing to hear: "Do not err; one and the same is Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who through his suffering restored us to harmony with God, and was raised up from among the dead, and sits at the Father's right side, and lacks nothing in his perfection — who, when he was struck, did not strike back; who, when he suffered, did not threaten; and when he endured tyranny, prayed the Father to forgive those who had crucified him. He himself is the true deliverer; he himself is God's own Word; he himself the sole-begotten of the Father, namely Christ Jesus our Lord." Concerning him who descended by the Spirit itself, the Apostles could never have said that Christ descended into Jesus, or that the higher Savior descended into the one belonging to the dispensation, or that the one from the invisible realms descended into the one belonging to the Demiurge. They neither knew nor said any such thing; had they known it, they would certainly have said it. But what was the case, that is what they said: that the Spirit of God came down upon him in the manner of a dove — this Spirit concerning whom Isaiah declared, "And the Spirit of God shall settle upon him," as we have said before. And again: "Upon me rests the Spirit of the Lord, for he has anointed me." This is the Spirit of whom the Lord says: "For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." And again, giving the disciples the power of regeneration in God, he said to them: "Go, make disciples of every nation, immersing them into the title of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." For he promised to pour out this Spirit through the prophets in the last days upon his servants and handmaids, that they might prophesy; and hence he descended also upon the Son of God become Son of Man, becoming used to make his home together with him among mankind, and to rest upon men, and to dwell in the handiwork of God, working the Father's will in them, and renewing them from oldness into the newness of Christ. This Spirit David sought for the human race, saying: "Confirm me with your governing Spirit." This is the Spirit whom Luke says descended upon the disciples at Pentecost after the Lord's ascension, having the power to open the way of life to all nations, and to open the new Testament; whence, joining together in all tongues, they sang a hymn to God, the Spirit bringing the scattered tribes into unity and offering the firstfruits of all nations to the Father. Hence too the Lord promised to send the Paraclete, who would fit us to God. For just as one lump cannot be made from dry wheat without moisture, nor one loaf; so neither could we, being many, become one in Christ Jesus, without the water that comes from heaven. And just as dry earth, if it does not receive moisture, bears no fruit, so we too, being originally dry wood, could never have yielded life-giving fruit apart from that freely-given rain descending from on high. For our bodies received unity, through the washing that leads to incorruption, and our souls received it through the Spirit. For this reason both are necessary, since both work together unto the life of God — our Lord having mercy on that Samaritan woman, that sinful woman, who had not kept to a single husband but had strayed into fornication through several marriages, and showing her, and promising her, living water, so that she would no longer thirst, nor be troubled with the laborious task of drawing water, having within her a spring welling up to eternal life — which the Lord, having received as a gift from the Father, himself also bestowed on those who share in him, sending the Holy Spirit into all the earth.
Foreseeing this grace of the gift, that Gideon of Israel, whom God selected to deliver the people of Israel out of the grip of foreign powers, changed his request, and prophesied a coming dryness upon the fleece of wool on which alone at first the dew had fallen — the fleece being a type of the people — that is, that God's Holy Spirit would no longer belong to them, just as Isaiah says: "I will command the clouds that they rain no more upon it"; but that dew, namely the Spirit of God that came down upon the Lord — the spirit granting wisdom and understanding, the spirit granting counsel and strength, the spirit granting knowledge and reverence, the spirit of fearing God — would descend over the whole earth. This same Spirit he gave again to the Church, sending the Paraclete from the heavens into all the earth, where too the Lord said he saw the devil cast down like lightning. Wherefore the dew of God is necessary to us, that we may not be burned up, nor become unfruitful; and where an accuser stands against us, there we may likewise possess an Advocate — the Lord entrusting to the Holy Spirit that man of his own who had fallen among bandits, on whom he himself had mercy, and whose wounds he bound up, giving two royal denarii, so that through the Spirit, receiving the image and inscription of the Father and the Son, we might bear fruit with the coin entrusted to us, returning it multiplied to the Lord's account.
Thus, the Spirit having descended upon this economy foretold, and the sole-begotten Son of God, being likewise the Father's Word, arriving once the appointed time had reached its completion, taking on human flesh for humanity's sake, and carrying out every element of the economy pertaining to man — Jesus Christ our Lord being one and the same, as the Lord himself testifies, the Apostles confess, and the prophets proclaim — all the doctrine of those who have invented supposed Ogdoads and Tetrads and devised subdivisions is shown to be false. For they do away with the Spirit, and understand one Christ and another Jesus, and hold that there was never a single Christ but rather several; and should they claim these are joined together, they nevertheless again show that one of them shared in the passion while the other remained impassible; that one ascended into the Pleroma while the other remained in the intermediate region; that one feasts and takes delight among the invisible and unnameable beings, while the other sits beside the Demiurge, emptying him of his power. For this reason it will be necessary for you, and for all who attend to this Scripture and are anxious for their own salvation, not to give way of your own accord when you hear their talk from outside. For though they speak things similar to the faithful, as we have said before, they hold not merely dissimilar but contrary opinions, and are, in every regard, laden with blasphemous claims, through which they ruin those who, misled by the resemblance of the wording, absorb into themselves the poison of their unlike disposition — just as one who gives gypsum mixed with water instead of milk deceives by the similarity of color, as someone before us has said, regarding all who, by whatever means, taint what belongs to God and falsify the truth: "Gypsum is wickedly mixed in with God's milk."