Against Heresies 4.27.1-2:
1. For instance, I have heard
from a certain Presbyter, who has heard it from the apostles, whom he had also
seen, as also from their disciples, that a deserving punishment [as is clear]
from the Scriptures was dealt out to the ancients for acting without the
Spirit’s counsel. For, since God is not a respecter of persons, he dealt out a
suitable punishment for things not done according to his will. For example,
when David suffered the persecution from Saul on account of justice, and fled
from King Saul and did not take revenge on his enemy, he was really singing of
Christ’s coming and instructing the Gentiles with wisdom, and doing all things
according to the Spirit’s counsel, and was pleasing to God. But when, because
of his lust, he took Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, to himself, Scripture said of
him, But the thing which David had done
displeased the Lord. And the Prophet Nathan was sent to him to manifest his
sin to him, that he, by passing sentence on himself and condemning himself,
might obtain mercy and forgiveness from Christ: For the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he said to him, “There were two
men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very
many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb,
which he had brought up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used
to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup, and it was like a daughter to him.
Now, there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of
his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer, who had come to him, but he
took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man that was come to him.
Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan,
“As the Lord lives, the man that has done this deserves to die, and he shall
restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no
pity on the poor man.” And Nathan said to him, “You are the man who did this.” Then he continues with the rest:
He upbraids him, enumerates the benefits of God toward him and that he had
angered the Lord by his deed. For such deeds do not please God; on the
contrary, great anger hangs over his house. At this David was moved to compunction
and said, “I have sinned against the
Lord,” and he sang the Psalm of Confession. And he awaited the Lord’s
coming, who would wash and cleanse man held bound by sin.
The same is true of Solomon,
while he continued to judge rightly and asked for wisdom, and when he built the
type of the true temple, and when he told of the glories of God and announced
the peace that would come to the Gentiles, and foreshadowed Christ’s reign, and
spoke three thousand canticles in praise of God, and when he gave a natural
explanation of God’s wisdom in creation in regard to all the trees, and all the
plants, and all the birds, quadrupeds and fishes, and said, Will God indeed dwell with men on earth?
Behold the heavens cannot contain him. Also when he pleased God, and all
men admired him, and all the kings of the earth sought his favor, that they
might listen to his wisdom which God had given him. The Queen of the South came
to him from the ends of the earth to learn the wisdom that he possessed. The
Lord, too, said that she would rise in judgment against the generation of those
who hear his words but do not believe in him, and would condemn them, because
she was submissive to the wisdom announced by God’s servant, whereas these
despise the wisdom offered by God’s Son; for Solomon was a servant, but Christ
was God’s Son and Solomon’s Lord. So while Solomon served God blamelessly and
ministered to his economies, then he was praised. But when he took wives from
all the Gentiles and permitted idols to be erected in Israel, Scripture says of
him: Now King Solomon loved women, and
took to himself foreign women. For when Solomon was old his heart was not
wholly true to the Lord his God, for the foreign women turned away his heart
after other gods. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as
David his father. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was
not wholly true to the Lord, like the heart of David his father. Scripture
strongly rebuked him, as the Presbyter said, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
2. For this reason, too, the Lord
descended into the regions below the earth, to proclaim the good news of his
coming also to them and that remission of sins existed for those who believe in
him. Now all those who hoped in him believed in him, that is, the just and the
Patriarchs and the Prophets who foretold his coming and ministered to his
economies. He forgave their sins as well as ours, and so we may not impute the
sins to them without showing contempt for God’s grace. For just as they did not
impute to us our uncontrolled deeds that we did before Christ was manifested in
us, so it is not right for us to impute the sins to those who sinned before
Christ’s coming. For all men fell short
of the glory of God; they are, however, not justified by themselves, but
through the Lord’s coming if they direct their attention toward his light.
However, their deeds were written down
for our instruction, that we might know, first, that our God and theirs is
one and the same who is not pleased with sins, even if they are committed by
people in high standing; and, second, that we should abstain from evil.
In fact, if those men of old, who
surpassed us in gifts but for whose sake God’s Son had not yet suffered, were
disgraced so much because they sinned in some manner and catered to the lusts
of the flesh, what will not those suffer who are living now who despised the
Lord’s coming and catered to their pleasures? For the former the Lord’s death
was healing and forgiveness of sins, but for those who now sin, Christ will never die again, death no longer has
dominion over him; but the Son will
come in the glory of the Father to demand with interest from his stewards
the money which he has entrusted to them; and from those to whom he had given
the most, he will demand the most. And so we must not, as that Presbyter said,
be proud or reprove the ancients, but we must fear lest after having had the
knowledge of Christ, we should do something unpleasing to God and should no
longer receive forgiveness of our sins, but should be excluded from his
kingdom. With this in mind Paul said, For
if he did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you, you who
though a wild olive shoot, were grafted to the richness of the olive tree, and
have become a sharer in its richness. (St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Against
Heresies Books 4 & 5 [trans. Dominic Unger and Scott D. Moringiello;
Ancient Christian Writers 72; Mahwah, N.J.: The Newman Press, 2024], 76-78)
Against Heresies 5.31.1-2:
1. Certain people who are thought
of as orthodox believers go beyond the plain order for the promotion of the
just. They are also ignorant of the methods of disciplining themselves for
imperishability. They harbor within themselves heretical thoughts. For heretics
hold God’s handiwork in contempt and do not admit salvation for their flesh;
and they despise God’s promise and pass over and beyond God altogether in their
thinking. They assert that as soon as they die, they pass over and beyond the
heavens and the Creator and go to Mother [Wisdom] or to their imagined Father.
Now they reject total resurrection and, as far as they are able, put it out of
existence. It is strange they do not know the order of resurrection, since they
refuse to understand that if things were as they say, the Lord, in whom they
profess to believe, would certainly not have risen on the third day. Instead,
when he expired on the cross, he would directly have departed on high, leaving
the body on earth. But as it is he stayed three days in the place where the
dead were, just as the Prophet says of him: “The Lord remembered his holy dead,
who had previously fallen asleep in the earth, and he went down to them to
liberate them and save them.”
And the Lord himself said: For as Jonah was three days and three nights
in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth.
And the Apostle says, But in saying “He
ascended” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts
of the earth? David, too, prophesied of Christ, Thou hast delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. Moreover,
when he rose on the third day, he appeared first to Mary and said to her: Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended
my Father; but go to the disciples and say to them: “I am ascending to my
Father and to your Father.”
2. Consequently, if the Lord
observed the law for the dead, so that he might be the Firstborn of the dead and sojourned until the third day in the
lower parts of the earth, and then rose in the flesh that he might show the
prints of the nails to the disciples, and in that manner ascended to the
Father, how are they not confounded who assert that the lower parts are this
world of ours, and that their inner man leaves the body here below, while it
ascends to the supercelestial place? For since the Lord departed to the midst of the shadow of death, where
the souls of the dead were, and then rose bodily, and after the resurrection
was taken up, it is evident that also the souls of his disciples, on account of
whom the Lord wrought these things, will go to the invisible place determined
for them by God and will sojourn there until the resurrection, awaiting the
resurrection. Then they will receive their bodies and rise integrally, that is,
bodily, so that just as the Lord rose, they also will come to the vision of
God. For a disciple is not above his teacher, but every one when he is fully
taught will be like his teacher. Consequently, as our Teacher did not
directly fly away but awaited the time of his resurrection as appointed by the
Father, which was also disclosed by Jonah, and then rose after three days and
was taken up, so we too ought to await the time of our resurrection appointed
by God, which was foretold by the Prophets, and on rising thus be taken up,
[that is] all whom the Lord will deem worthy of this. (St. Irenaeus of
Lyons: Against Heresies Books 4 & 5 [trans. Dominic Unger and Scott D.
Moringiello; Ancient Christian Writers 72; Mahwah, N.J.: The Newman Press,
2024], 192-93)
