Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
A demonstration that there can be neither more nor fewer than four Gospels.
Luke, companion and disciple of the apostles, tells of Zacharias and Elizabeth—the parents from whom, by God's promise, John was born—saying: "Both were upright before God, conducting themselves without fault in every command and statute of the Lord." And again, of Zacharias he writes: "It happened that, as he was serving in the priesthood before God, taking his turn in the order assigned to his division, the lot fell to him to offer incense, and he entered the Lord's temple." Speaking plainly, directly, and with full conviction, in his own words Zacharias acknowledges as Lord and God the one who had chosen Jerusalem and established the priestly ordinance, whose messenger is also Gabriel. For he recognized no other besides this one; had he grasped some notion of a God and Lord more perfect than this one, he would surely not, plainly and entirely, have acknowledged as Lord and God the one he knew to be descended from the [patriarchal] loins, as we showed earlier. And concerning John he likewise declares: "He will be great before the Lord, and will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God; he will go ahead of him, endowed with the spirit and strength of Elijah, to make a people ready for the Lord." For whom, then, was he preparing a people, and before whom, as Lord, did he become great? Surely before him of whom it is said that John was something greater than a prophet, and that "of those born of women none surpasses John the Baptist"—he who indeed made the people ready for the Lord's arrival, announcing repentance ahead of time to his fellow servants and urging them to repent, so that, turning back to the one from whom, through their sins and trespasses, they had grown estranged, they might obtain pardon at the Lord's coming; even as David likewise says: "The wicked stray from birth, they wander from the womb." And so, turning them back to their Lord, he made ready for the Lord a people fit for him, endowed with the spirit and strength of Elijah. And again, speaking of the angel, he says: "At that time the angel Gabriel was sent by God, who also spoke to the Virgin, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace with God.'" And of the Lord he says: "He will be great, and will be named Son of the Highest; the Lord God will grant him his father David's throne, and he will rule over Jacob's house forever, his kingdom having no end." But who else rules the house of Jacob without interruption forever, except Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God Most High, who through the Law and the Prophets pledged that his salvation would be made plain to every creature, so that he might become Son of Man, in order that man might in turn become son of God? For this reason Mary, rejoicing, cried out prophetically on the Church's behalf: "My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has found gladness in God my Deliverer... He has come to the aid of his servant Israel, calling to mind his mercy, just as he told our ancestors, toward Abraham and his descendants forever."
Through these and many further witnesses, the Gospel demonstrates that the God who addressed the patriarchs is the very one who, by Moses, delivered the law—the law by which it became known to us that he had addressed the patriarchs. This same God, out of his abundant goodness, poured his compassion out upon us, and in that compassion the "Dawn from on high" looked down on us and "shone upon those seated in darkness and death's shadow, directing our steps onto the path of peace"; just as Zacharias too, once his muteness ended—a condition brought on by his disbelief—filled with a fresh spirit, praised God anew. Everything had become new, the Word freshly ordering his coming in flesh, so that the man estranged from God could be counted again as God's own; for this reason people were taught to honor God in a renewed manner—not a different God, however, since there is but a single God, who declares righteous both the circumcised through faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. And Zacharias, speaking as a prophet, said: "Praised is the Lord, Israel's God, for he has come to his people and accomplished their ransom, raising up for us a strong deliverer within the house of David his servant, just as he promised through the mouths of his holy prophets from ages past: rescue from our foes and from the grip of every hand that hates us; mercy shown toward our ancestors, remembrance of his sacred covenant, the vow he made to our father Abraham—that we, freed without terror from the grip of our enemies, might serve him in devotion and uprightness in his presence all our lives." Then, addressing John, he says: "And you, child, will be named prophet of the Highest, for you will go ahead of the Lord to make his paths ready, to bring his people the understanding of deliverance through the pardon of their sins." This, then, was the understanding of deliverance still lacking to them—an understanding of the Son of God—which John provided, declaring: "Look, the Lamb of God, who removes the sin of the world. This is the one about whom I said, One is coming behind me who ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me; and from his abundance we have all received." Such, then, is the understanding of deliverance; not a different God, nor a different Father, nor Bythus, nor a Pleroma composed of thirty Aeons, nor a Mother of the Ogdoad—rather, the understanding of deliverance was understanding of the Son of God, who is himself both deliverance and Deliverer, rightly named and truly the one who delivers. "Deliverance," as it is written: "For your rescue I have waited, Lord." "Deliverer," again: "See, my God, my rescuer—I will put my trust in him." "Delivering," likewise: "God has revealed his rescuing power before the nations." For he is truly Deliverer, being the Son and Word of God; and delivering, being the Spirit—for it is written, "the breath of our own countenance, Christ the Lord"; and deliverance, being flesh—for "the Word became flesh and made his home among us." This understanding of deliverance, then, John was conveying to those who turned in repentance and put their trust in the Lamb of God, who removes the sin of the world.
"An angel of the Lord appeared," it says, "to the shepherds, bringing them news of joy, for a Deliverer had been born in David's town, who is Christ the Lord." Then "a company of the heavenly army," praising God, declared: "Glory to God in the heights, and on earth, peace—goodwill among men." These messengers, the false Gnostics claim, issued from the Ogdoad and disclosed the descent of the Christ from above. But they contradict themselves once again when they say that he who is above, the Christ and Savior, was never actually born, but that only after his baptism did the being belonging to the dispensation of Jesus settle upon him in the shape of a dove. So the Ogdoad's messengers are lying, deceiving their hearers, when they proclaim: "Today, in David's town, a Deliverer has been born for you, who is Christ the Lord." For by their own account, neither Christ nor the Deliverer was born at that moment; rather it was the being tied to the dispensation of Jesus, son of the world's maker, into whom—after his baptism, that is, thirty years later—they claim the Supernal Deliverer descended.
But what further point did they intend by locating this happening "in David's town," except to announce the fulfillment of the pledge God had given David, that a King from his own bodily line would rule without end? Indeed, the maker of the entire universe was the one who gave this pledge to David, as David himself states: "My aid comes from the Lord, maker of sky and earth." And elsewhere: "The farthest reaches of the earth rest in his hand, and the mountain heights belong to him; the sea too is his, for he formed it, and his hands shaped the dry ground. Come, let us bow and kneel before him, and let us weep before the face of the Lord, our maker, since he is our God." Through David, the Spirit of God speaks openly to any who will listen, declaring that some would come to scorn the one who fashioned us, who alone is God. This is why he uttered these predictions, meaning: do not wander off—apart from this one, or beyond this one, no other God deserves such regard; readying us to be reverent and thankful toward the one who made and set all things in order, and who has thereby been recognized as his own maker. The angels acted no differently. For in proclaiming, "Glory to God in the heights, and on earth peace," they were praising, through these very words, the maker of the heights—that is, of what lies above the heavens—and the founder of everything on the earth below. For upon his own handiwork, mankind, he sent down from heaven his own generous salvation. For this reason the shepherds too, it says, went back, praising God for everything they had heard and seen, exactly as they had been told. The shepherds of Israel were not praising some other God, but the very one proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets, maker of all things, whom the angels also glorified. But if the angels from the Ogdoad were praising one God, while the shepherds praised another, then those Ogdoad angels brought them falsehood, not truth.
Luke also relates of the Lord: "When the time for her purifying was complete, they carried him up to Jerusalem to set him before the Lord, since it stands written in the Lord's law that every firstborn male shall be dedicated as holy to the Lord; and to make an offering as prescribed in the Lord's law—a couple of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" — in doing so, unmistakably naming as "Lord" the very one who gave that law. Simeon too, it says, gave praise to God, declaring: "Now, Master, release your servant in peace, for my own eyes have witnessed the salvation you have made ready before every nation's gaze—a light to be unveiled to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel." And Anna the prophetess, in turn, it says, praised God upon seeing Christ, and spoke of him to everyone awaiting Jerusalem's ransom. Through all of this, then, one God is revealed, opening to humanity, by his Son's fresh arrival, the covenant belonging to the new order of liberty.
For this reason Mark also, Peter's interpreter and companion, opens his Gospel account in this way: "The start of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God—just as it stands written among the prophets: Look, I am sending my herald ahead of you, who will get your road ready. A voice calling out in the desert: Get the Lord's road ready, straighten out his paths before our God." Clearly stating that the Gospel's start lies in the utterances of the holy prophets, and indicating beforehand that the one these very prophets acknowledged as Lord and God is the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who likewise promised to dispatch his messenger ahead of him — that being John, calling out in the desert with the spirit and strength of Elijah, "Get the Lord's road ready, straighten out his paths before our God." For the prophets, without exception, did not proclaim separate gods but one and the same, though through varied signs and numerous names. The Father is indeed manifold and abundant, as we established in the book prior to this, and as we shall continue to demonstrate as our argument moves through the prophets themselves. And near the close of his Gospel, Mark writes: "Thus the Lord Jesus, once he had finished speaking to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at God's right hand" — bearing out what the prophet had foretold: "The Lord declared to my lord, Take your seat at my right hand, until I make your foes a footstool beneath your feet." So then, one and the same God and Father is he who was proclaimed by the prophets and made known to us through the Gospel, whom Christians revere and cherish with their entire heart, maker of heaven and earth and everything they contain.
John, the Lord's own disciple, proclaiming this identical faith, sought, by his proclamation of the Gospel, to strip away the error sown among men by Cerinthus, and, well before him, by those termed Nicolaitans, an offshoot of that falsely titled "knowledge"; his aim was to refute them and convince all that a single God made everything by means of his Word — not, as they claim, one maker apart from another, higher Father of the Lord, with the maker's son being one figure and the Christ from the upper regions another — who, so they assert, stayed free of suffering, settling down upon Jesus the maker's son, then afterward soaring back up into his own Pleroma; and that the origin was the Only-begotten, while the Word was the genuine offspring of that Only-begotten; and that the creation surrounding us was not fashioned by the first God, but by some inferior power stationed far beneath, cut off from any contact with what is unseen and beyond naming. Meaning, then, to sweep aside every such notion, and to fix in the Church the standard of truth — that there exists a single almighty God, who made everything, seen and unseen, by his Word — and showing further that through this same Word, by whom God brought the creation to completion, he also granted salvation to its inhabitants, he opened his Gospel's teaching thus: "At the origin existed the Word, and the Word existed alongside God, and the Word was God; this one existed at the origin alongside God. Everything came to be through him, and apart from him nothing came to be. What had come to be was, in him, life, and that life was mankind's light; and the light shines within darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it." "Everything," he states, "came to be through him"; so this creation surrounding us must fall under "everything," since they cannot be allowed to claim that all that lies beneath their Pleroma is excepted. For should this creation too lie within their Pleroma, then this immense creation is not external to it, as was shown in the volume preceding this; yet should these things lie outside the Pleroma — which indeed seems unworkable — then their Pleroma would no longer be "everything"; hence this immense creation cannot be external to it either. John himself stripped from us every such evasion, stating: "He existed in this world, and the world came to be through him, yet the world did not recognize him. He arrived among his own people, and his own people did not welcome him." Yet according to Marcion and his followers, the world was not made through him at all, nor did he arrive among his own, but rather among what belonged to someone else. Certain Gnostics claim instead that angels, under the Demiurge, made it. For the Demiurge, they say, labored to fashion copies imitating the realities above, saying that "the Demiurge was bringing the fabric of creation to completion." They further claim that the Mother sent out both the Lord and her Demiurge for this arrangement concerning creation, and that through him, as they hold, this world came into being — while the Gospel states plainly that everything came to be through the Word, who existed at the origin alongside God; and this Word, it says, "became flesh and made his dwelling among us."
But according to them, it was not the Word, nor the Christ, nor the one formed out of all the Aeons as Savior, who became flesh. Indeed, they hold that the Word and the Christ never even came into this world; that the Savior was not made flesh and did not suffer, but descended like a dove upon that Jesus who was formed by the dispensation, and, after he had proclaimed the unknown Father, ascended again into the Pleroma. As for who was incarnate and suffered, some of them say it was that Jesus of the dispensation, who they claim passed through Mary as water passes through a pipe; others say it was the son of the Demiurge, upon whom that dispensation-Jesus descended; still others say that Jesus was simply born of Joseph and Mary, and that upon him descended the Christ from the regions above, existing without flesh and incapable of suffering. According to none of the heretics' opinions, then, did the Word of God become flesh. For if one examines the rules of belief of all of them, he will find that every one of them represents the Word of God, and the Christ who is above, as fleshless and incapable of suffering. Some think he was manifested as a man who had been transfigured, yet say he was neither born nor made flesh; others say he did not even take on the form of a man, but descended like a dove upon that Jesus who was born of Mary. Unmasking all these as false witnesses, the disciple whom the Lord loved states: 'The Logos became flesh and pitched his tent among us.' And lest we ask which God's Logos it was that took on flesh, he goes on to teach, stating: 'A man appeared, sent from God, and his name was John; this man came as a witness, to testify concerning the light. He was not himself the light, but came so as to testify concerning the light.' John, then, this forerunner who testifies concerning the light — under which God's authority was he dispatched? Surely under the one whose messenger is Gabriel, who also announced the good tidings of his birth, and who had likewise, through the prophets, given his word that he would dispatch his own messenger ahead of the face of his Son to make ready his path — that is, to testify concerning the light, moving in Elijah's spirit and strength. And Elijah, for his part — to whom did he belong as servant and prophet? He belonged to the one who fashioned sky and earth, as Elijah himself admits. Dispatched, then, by the builder and craftsman of this cosmos, how could John possibly testify to a light descending from those regions that lie beyond naming and beyond sight? For all the heretics have laid it down that the Demiurge knows nothing of the power situated above him — yet John turns out to be the one who witnesses to and unveils that very power. It is for this reason that the Lord declared him greater than a prophet, and so indeed he was. For every other prophet proclaimed the arrival of the Father's light, longing to be judged worthy of beholding the one they announced; but John did what the others did in foretelling him ahead of time, yet also beheld him upon his arrival and singled him out, winning many over to trust in him — so that he occupied the office of both prophet and apostle at once. He surpasses a prophet, indeed, being first an apostle and only then a prophet; yet every one of these gifts flows from one and the same God. In like manner, the wine produced in the vineyard, through God's arrangement of the created order, and served first — nobody who tasted it had any complaint, and the Lord himself shared in drinking it. Yet finer still was the wine the Logos produced swiftly and effortlessly out of water, for those summoned to the marriage feast to enjoy. For though the Lord might have supplied wine for the company and stocked food for the hungry from absolutely nothing already existing in creation, he chose otherwise; rather, taking loaves drawn from the soil and offering thanks, and once more converting water into wine, he provided for those seated at the meal and poured drink for the wedding guests — thereby demonstrating that the God who fashioned the earth and ordered it to yield fruit, who set the waters in place and called forth springs, is that very same one who, in these final times, through his Son, confers on humankind the boon of nourishment and the favor of drink: the incomprehensible disclosed by means of the comprehensible, the unseen through the seen, since he does not stand apart from the Son but abides within the Father's breast. For, so he states, 'God has at no time been seen by anyone; the only-begotten Son of God, situated within the Father's breast, is the one who has disclosed him.' Because the Father cannot be seen, the Son, dwelling within his breast, makes him known to every one. For this cause he becomes known to those the Son has chosen to reveal him to, and likewise the Father, by way of the Son, imparts recognition of his Son to those holding him dear. Through him, too, Nathanael came, once instructed, to recognize him — Nathanael, concerning whom the Lord testified that he was a genuine Israelite lacking all deceit. This Israelite recognized his own sovereign, and declared to him, 'Teacher, you are God's Son, you are Israel's King.' Through him as well Peter came, once instructed, to recognize the Anointed One, Son of the God who lives, of whom it is written: 'Look, my dearly loved Son, in whom my favor rests; I will set my Spirit upon him, and he will announce justice to the nations. He shall not contend, nor shout aloud, nor shall anyone catch his voice out in the open streets; a battered reed he shall not snap, and smoldering wick he shall not douse, until he carries justice through to triumph, and the nations will place their hope in his name.'
These, then, stand as the underlying tenets of the Gospel: that there exists a single God, builder of this entire cosmos, the very one heralded by the prophets, and who by means of Moses set in place the arrangement of the Law — declaring him to be Father to our Lord Jesus Christ, admitting no God besides him, and no other Father whatsoever. Such is the certainty surrounding these Gospels that even the heretics offer testimony to them, each starting from these same texts in an attempt to build his own doctrine. The Ebionites, for example, relying solely on the Gospel according to Matthew, are shown by that same Gospel to be mistaken concerning the Lord. Marcion, meanwhile, having hacked apart the Gospel according to Luke, stands exposed, through what still survives of it among his adherents, as a blasphemer against the sole true God. Those who split Jesus apart from Christ, maintaining that Christ stayed immune to suffering while Jesus suffered, and who favor the Gospel according to Mark, may be corrected should they approach it out of genuine devotion to truth. Those who follow Valentinus, making the fullest possible use of the Gospel according to John to demonstrate their pairings of Aeons, are shown by that very Gospel to be saying nothing correctly, as we have already shown in the first book. Since, then, those who contradict us themselves bear witness on our behalf and make use of these Gospels, our demonstration concerning them stands firm and true.
Nor could there be a greater tally of Gospels than these, nor fewer either. For seeing that there are four directions of the earth we inhabit, and four cardinal winds, and given that the Church has been dispersed across the whole globe, and the Gospel serves as the Church's pillar and support and the breath of life, it stands to reason that she must possess four supports, exhaling incorruption from all quarters and imparting life to mankind. From this it becomes evident that the Word, craftsman of all things, seated above the Cherubim and sustaining everything in being, once revealed to mankind, granted us the Gospel in a fourfold shape, bound together by one and the same Spirit. As David likewise declares, entreating his arrival: 'You who are enthroned upon the Cherubim, appear in radiance.' For the Cherubim likewise possess four forms, their shapes being pictures of the divine plan for the Son of God. 'The first living creature,' so it reads, 'resembled a lion' — denoting his energetic power and his kingly, sovereign nature; 'the second resembled an ox' — denoting his role as priestly sacrifice; 'the third bore a face like that of a man' — clearly setting forth his coming in human fashion; 'and the fourth resembled an eagle in flight' — clarifying the Spirit's gift descending in flight upon the Church. The Gospels, therefore, correspond to these shapes, upon which Christ Jesus sits enthroned. One Gospel recounts his chief, mighty, and glorious begetting from the Father, speaking in this way: 'In the beginning existed the Word, and the Word existed alongside God, and the Word existed as God,' and, 'Through him all things came into being, and apart from him not one thing came into being.' For this reason that Gospel overflows with utter assurance, such being its character. The Gospel according to Luke, however, carrying a priestly stamp, opens with Zachariah the priest presenting sacrifice to God; for the fatted calf was even then being readied, the one destined to be killed at the recovery of the younger son. Matthew, for his part, recounts his begetting in human terms, stating: 'The record of the origin of Jesus Christ, David's son, Abraham's son,' and further, 'Now the birth of Christ came about thus.' This Gospel, accordingly, carries a human shape; hence, across its whole span, he is depicted as a man of lowly disposition and mild temper. Mark, by contrast, opened with the prophetic Spirit descending upon men from above, stating, 'The start of the Gospel, just as it stands written in Isaiah the prophet' — exhibiting the swift, winged likeness proper to the Gospel; for this reason too he made his proclamation terse and rapid, as befits the prophetic style. And the Word of God in person addressed the patriarchs who lived prior to Moses in keeping with his deity and splendor; upon those living beneath the Law he conferred a priestly and ministering role; and afterward, having taken on manhood on our behalf, he dispatched to every corner of the earth the gift of the Spirit from heaven, sheltering us beneath his wings. As, then, is the divine plan for the Son of God, so too is the shape of the living creatures; and as is the shape of the living creatures, so too is the character of the Gospel. The living creatures bear four shapes, the Gospel bears four shapes, and the Lord's plan bears four shapes. And on this account four covenants were granted to mankind: the first before the deluge, under Adam; a second, following the deluge, under Noah; a third, the granting of the Law, under Moses; and a fourth, which renews man and gathers all things up within itself — the covenant that comes by way of the Gospel, raising men up and equipping them with wings for the kingdom above.
These things being so, all those who annul the true form of the Gospel, and who introduce either more figures into the Gospel than have been named, or again fewer, are vain, unlearned, and moreover rash — some so as to seem to have discovered more than the truth, others so as to reject the dispensations of God. Marcion, for one, spurning the entire Gospel — or rather, severing himself from the Gospel altogether — nonetheless claims for himself a portion of the Gospel. Others, aiming to strip away the gift of the Spirit which, in these final times, by the Father's kind design, has been lavished upon mankind, decline to accept that shape of the Gospel found in John, wherein the Lord gave assurance that he would dispatch the Paraclete; and thus they cast off together both that Gospel and the prophetic Spirit. Wretched men indeed — desiring to count as prophets themselves, they nonetheless spurn the gift of prophecy within the Church, all the while tolerating others who, on account of certain hypocritical figures, go so far as to withdraw from fellowship with the brethren. It should be recognized that people of such a sort do not even receive the apostle Paul. For in his letter to the Corinthians he treated with care the matter of prophetic gifts, and he recognizes both men and women prophesying within the Church. Offending, then, against the Spirit of God in all these respects, they lapse into the sin that cannot be forgiven. Those, on the other hand, who follow Valentinus, showing no restraint whatsoever, put forward writings of their own devising and claim to hold more Gospels than genuinely exist. They have, in fact, carried their boldness so far as to attach the title 'Gospel of Truth' to a composition of their own recent making — a text that has nothing in common with the Gospels handed down by the apostles, so that not one of their Gospels is free from blasphemy. For if what they produce is indeed the Gospel of truth, and yet it is unlike what has been handed down to us by the Apostles, then anyone who wishes to learn can discover, from the Scriptures themselves, that what was handed down by the Apostles is, on their reckoning, not the Gospel of truth at all. But that only those four Gospels are true and reliable, and that there can be neither more nor fewer than have been stated, we have shown through so many and such weighty arguments. For since God made all things well-ordered and fitting, it was necessary that the form of the Gospel too should be well-ordered and well put together. Having examined, then, from their own first principles, the teaching of those who handed the Gospel down to us, let us turn also to the rest of the Apostles and inquire into their teaching about God; and after that let us give heed to the actual sayings of the Lord himself.