Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
How the tradition of the elders was contrary to the Law given through Moses. Their own tradition, which they pretended to observe on the basis of the Law, was in fact contrary to the Law given through Moses. On this account Isaiah too declares: 'Your innkeepers dilute wine with water' -- indicating that the elders diluted God's rigorous commandment with a watered-down tradition, that is, that they were introducing a corrupted law that ran counter to the true Law, exactly as the Lord likewise made evident when he asked them: 'Why do you overstep God's commandment on account of your own tradition?' Nor was this the only transgression by which they emptied God's Law of its force through diluting it like wine with water; they further erected, in the Law's place, a law of their own devising -- the one known even now as the Pharisaic law. Within it they subtract certain things, append others, and construe still others as they see fit, and every one of their teachers handles it after his own fashion. In their eagerness to uphold these traditions, they would not submit to the Law of God, which had been instructing them toward Christ's coming; they even censured the Lord for healing on the Sabbath, though, as already noted, the Law forbade no such thing. In fact they themselves carried out certain tasks on the Sabbath -- circumcising a man on that very day -- yet they never turned this charge against themselves, even though through their tradition and the Pharisaic law just mentioned they were overstepping God's commandment, and were not holding fast to the Law's true precept -- namely, love toward God and one's neighbor, on which, it is said, the entire Law and the Prophets depend. He himself introduced no commandment surpassing this one; rather he restated this very precept for his disciples, instructing them to love God with the whole of their heart, and their neighbor as themselves. Yet had he descended from some Father other than the God of the Law, he would hardly have relied, above all else, on the Law's supreme precept; instead he would surely have labored by every means to put forward some loftier commandment issuing from a more perfect Father, rather than one already given by the God of the Law. Paul likewise states: 'Love brings the Law to its fulfillment'; and that once all else is stripped away, faith, hope, and love endure, and love surpasses them all; and that understanding devoid of love toward God achieves nothing, nor does the comprehension of mysteries, nor faith, nor prophecy -- all these amount to nothing and are hollow apart from love; whereas love brings a man to maturity, and whoever loves God has reached maturity, in the present age as much as in the age still to come. For our love of God has no end; the more we gaze upon him, the deeper our love grows.