Volume II Part 15 (1/2)

When did Irenaeus, however, really write his work against Heresies?

Although our sources of credible information regarding him are exceedingly limited, we are not without materials for forming a judgment on the point Irenaeus was probably born about a.d. 140-145, and is generally supposed to have died at the beginning of the third century (a.d. 202).(1) We know that he was deputed by the Church of Lyons to bear to Eleutherus, then Bishop of Rome, the Epistle of that Christian community describing their sufferings during the persecution commenced against them in the seventeenth year of the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (7th March, 177--178).(2) It is very improbable that this journey was undertaken, in any case, before the spring of a.d. 178 at the earliest, and, indeed, in accordance with the given data, the

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persecution itself may not have commenced earlier than the beginning of that year, so that his journey need not have been undertaken before the close of 178 or the spring of 179, to which epoch other circ.u.mstances might lead us.(1) There is reason to believe that he remained some time in Rome. Baronius states that Irenaeus was not appointed Bishop of Lyons till a.d. 180, for he says that the see remained vacant for that period after the death of Pothinus in consequence of the persecution. Now certain expressions in his work show that Irenaeus did not write it until he became Bishop.(2) It is not known how long Irenaeus remained in Rome, but there is every probability that he must have made a somewhat protracted stay, for the purpose of making himself acquainted with the various tenets of Gnostic and other heretics then being actively taught, and the preface to the first Book refers to the pains he took. He wrote his work in Gaul, however, after his return from this visit to Rome.

This is apparent from what he himself states in the Preface to the first Book: ”I have thought it necessary,” he says, ”after having read the Memoirs [------] of the disciples of Valentinus as they call themselves, and _having had personal intercourse with some of them_ and acquired full knowledge of their opinions, to unfold to thee,”(3) &c. A little further on, he claims from the friend to whom he addresses his work indulgence for any defects of style on the score of his being resident amongst the Keltae.(4) Irenaeus no doubt during his stay in Rome came in

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contact with the school of Ptolemaeus and Heracleon, if not with the Gnostic leaders themselves, and shocked as he describes himself as being at the doctrines which they insidiously taught, he undertook, on his return to Lyons, to explain them that others might be exhorted to avoid such an ”abyss of madness and blasphemy against Christ.”(1) Irenaeus gives us other materials for a.s.signing a date to his work. In the third Book he enumerates the bishops who had filled the Episcopal Chair of Rome, and the last whom he names is Eleutherus (a.d. 177--190), who, he says, ”now in the twelfth place from the apostles, holds the inheritance of the episcopate.”(2) There is, however, another clue which, taken along with this, leads us to a close approximation to the actual date.

In the same Book, Irenaeus mentions Theodotion's version of the Old Testament: ”But not as some of those say,” he writes, ”who now [------]

presume to alter the interpretation of the Scripture: 'Behold the young woman shall conceive, and bring forth a son,' as Theodotion, the Ephesian, translated it, and Aquila of Pontus, both Jewish proselytes.”(3) Now we are informed by Epiphanius that Theodotion published his translation during the reign of the Emperor Commodus(4) (a.d. 180--192). The Chronicon Paschale adds that it was during the Consuls.h.i.+p of Marcellus, or as Ma.s.suet(5) proposes to read Marullus, who, jointly with aelia.n.u.s, a.s.sumed office a.d. 184. These dates decidedly agree with the pa.s.sage of Irenaeus and with the other data, all of which lead

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us to about the same period within the episcopate of Eleutherus (+ c.

190).(1) We have here, therefore, a clue to the date at which Irenaeus wrote. It must be remembered that at that period the multiplication and dissemination of books was a very slow process. A work published about 184 or 185 could scarcely have come into the possession of Irenaeus in Gaul till some years later, and we are, therefore, brought towards the end of the episcopate of Eleutherus as the earliest date at which the first three books of his work against Heresies can well have been written, and the rest must be a.s.signed to a later period under the episcopate of Victor (+ 198--199).(2)

At this point we must pause and turn to the evidence which Tischendorf offers regarding the date to be a.s.signed to Heracleon.(3) As in the case of Ptolemaeus, we shall give it entire and then examine it in detail. To the all-important question: ”How old is Heracleon?” Tischendorf replies: ”Irenaeus names Heracleon, together

3 Canon Westcott adds no separate testimony. He admits that: ”The history of Heracleon, the great Valentinian Commentator, is full of uncertainty. Nothing is known of his country or parentage.” On the Canon, p. 263, and in a note: ”The exact chronology of the early heretics is very uncertain,” p. 264, note 2. p 2

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with Ptolemaeus II. 4, -- 1, in a way which makes them appear as well-known representatives of the Valentinian school. This interpretation of his words is all the more authorized because he never again mentions Heracleon. Clement, in the 4th Book of his Stromata, written shortly after the death of Commodus (193), recalls an explanation by Heracleon of Luke xii. 8, when he calls him the most noted, man of the Valentinian school [------] is Clement's expression).

Origen, at the beginning of his quotation from Heracleon, says that he was held to be a friend of Valentinus [------]. Hippolytus mentions him, for instance, in the following way: (vi. 29); 'Valentinus, and Heracleon, and Ptolemaeus, and the whole school of these, disciples of Pythagoras and Plato....' Epiphanius says (Hser. 41): 'Cerdo (the same who, according to Irenaeus III. 4, -- 3, was in Rome under Bishop Hyginus with Valentinus) follows these (the Ophites, Kainites, Sethiani), and Heracleon.' After all this Heracleon certainly cannot be placed later than 150 to 160. The expression which Origen uses regarding his relation to Valentinus must, according to linguistic usage, be understood of a personal relation.”(1)

We have already pointed out that the fact that the names of Ptolemaeus and Heracleon are thus coupled together affords no clue in itself to the date of either, and their being mentioned as leading representatives of the school of Valentinus does not in any way involve the inference that they were not contemporaries of Irenaeus, living and working at the time he wrote. The way in which Irenaeus mentions them in this the only pa.s.sage throughout his whole work in which he names

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Heracleon, and to which Tischendorf pointedly refers, is as follows: ”But if it was not produced, but was generated by itself, then that which is void is both like, and brother to, and of the same honour with, that Father who has before been mentioned by Valentinus; but it is really more ancient, having existed long before, and is more exalted than the rest of the aeons of Ptolemseus himself, and of Heracleon, and all the rest who hold these views.”(1) We fail to recognize anything special, here, of the kind inferred by Tischendorf, in the way in which mention is made of the two later Gnostics. If anything be clear, on the contrary, it is that a distinction is drawn between Valentinus and Ptolemaeus and Heracleon, and that Irenaeus points out inconsistencies between the doctrines of the founder and those of his later followers.

It is quite irrelevant to insist merely, as Tischendorf does, that Irenaeus and subsequent writers represent Ptolemaeus and Heracleon and other Gnostics of his time as of ”the school” of Valentinus. The question simply is, whether in doing so they at all imply that these men were not contemporaries of Irenaeus, or necessarily a.s.sign their period of independent activity to the lifetime of Valentinus, as Tischendorf appears to argue? Most certainly they do not, and Tischendorf does not attempt to offer any evidence that they do so. We may perceive how utterly worthless such a fact is for the purpose of affixing an early date by merely considering the quotation which Tischendorf himself makes from Hippolytus: ”Valentinus, therefore, and Heracleon and Ptolemaeus, and

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the whole school of these, disciples of Pythagoras and Plato.... ”(l) If the statement that men are of a certain school involves the supposition of coincidence of time, the three Gnostic leaders must be considered contemporaries of Pythagoras or Plato, whose disciples they are said to be. Again, if the order in which names are mentioned, as Teschendorf contends by inference throughout his whole argument, is to involve strict similar sequence of date, the principle applied to the whole of the early writers would lead to the most ridiculous confusion.

Teschendorf quotes Epiphanius: ”Cerdo follows these (the Ophites, Kainites, Sethiani), and Heracleon.”

Why he does so it is difficult to understand, unless it be to give the appearance of multiplying testimonies, for two sentences further on he is obliged to admit: ”Epiphanius has certainly made a mistake, as in such things not unfrequently happens to him, when he makes Cerdo, who, however, is to be placed about 140, follow Heracleon.”(2) This kind of mistake is, indeed, common to all the writers quoted, and when it is remembered that such an error is committed where a distinct and deliberate affirmation of the point is concerned, it will easily be conceived how little dependence is to be placed on the mere mention of names in the course of argument. We find Irenaeus saying that ”neither Valentinus, nor Marcion, nor Saturninus, nor Basilides” possesses certain knowledge,(3) and elsewhere: ”of such an one as Valentinus, or Ptolemaeus, or Basilides.”(4) To base

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an argument as to date on the order in which names appear in such writers is preposterous.

Tischendorf draws an inference from the statement that Heracleon was said to be a [------] of Valentinus, that Origen declares him to have been his friend, holding personal intercourse with him. Origen, however, evidently knew nothing individually on the point, and speaks from mere hearsay, guardedly using the expression ”said to be” [------]. But according to the later and patristic use of the word, [------] meant nothing more than a ”disciple,” and it cannot here be necessarily interpreted into a ”contemporary.”(1) Under no circ.u.mstances could such a phrase, avowedly limited to hearsay, have any weight. The loose manner in which the Fathers repeat each other, even in serious matters, is too well known to every one acquainted with their writings to require any remark. Their inaccuracy keeps pace with their want of critical judgment We have seen one of the mistakes of Epiphanius, admitted by Tischendorf to be only too common with him, which ill.u.s.trates how little such data are to be relied on. We may point out another of the same kind committed by him in common with Hippolytus, pseudo-Tertullian and Philastrius.