Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Why Paul says that he labored more than all.
For this reason Paul too, since he was the Apostle of the Gentiles, says: "My labors outdid those of them all." For the others found the catechesis easy, holding as they did proofs drawn from the Scriptures, and those who heeded Moses and the prophets promptly accepted the one first raised from among the dead, the prince who holds God's own life — him who, by the stretching-out of his hands upon the tree, was recognized through the plague that struck Egypt and through the crossing of the Red Sea accomplished by trust in him. The Apostle, by contrast, had first to instruct the Gentiles — as we showed in the previous book — to turn away from the superstitious worship of idols and to reverence the one God, maker of heaven and earth and fashioner of every created thing; and to teach that this God's Son is his Word, by whom he framed all things, and that this Word, in the final age, became a man among men, and remade the human race, ruined and defeated man's enemy, and handed to his own creature the victory over the one opposing it. Even so, although those of the circumcision did not scorn the words of God, they had already been taught not to commit adultery or fornication, not to steal or cheat, and that whatever brings ruin upon one's neighbors counts as evil, hateful to God. For this reason they willingly agreed to hold back from such things, having already had it taught to them beforehand.
But the Gentiles had to learn this very point on its own, that deeds of that sort are wicked, ruinous, and worthless, and do harm to those who commit them. For this reason the man entrusted with the apostolate to the Gentiles toiled harder than those proclaiming the Son of God to the circumcised. For the latter had the Scriptures to back them — Scriptures the Lord bore out and brought to completion when he arrived in the very manner foretold of him — while for the Gentiles this amounted, so to speak, to an unfamiliar course of instruction and a novel doctrine: that the nations' gods are not merely non-gods but idols standing for demons; that there exists one God, set above every rule, authority, power, and every title that can be named; that this God's Word, unseen by its own nature, was rendered tangible and visible among mankind, and went down even into death, and a death by crucifixion at that; and that those trusting in him will be free of decay and suffering in the last age, and will inherit the heavenly kingdom. All this was proclaimed to the Gentiles by spoken word alone, apart from the Scriptures — which is why those who brought the message to the Gentiles bore the heavier labor. And once more, the faith held by the Gentiles proves the nobler, since they took hold of God's Word without any prior grounding from the