Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
How the prophets are members of Christ, and how each of them, according to what member he was, prophesied accordingly; and how the prophets foretold everything that Christ did; and that the prophets and Christ are from one and the same God.
Since they themselves, each one, belonged as members to Christ, every one of them, in keeping with whatever member he was, displayed openly that arrangement of God's plan, all jointly prefiguring one single man and heralding matters belonging to that one. For just as through our various bodily members the activity of the entire body becomes visible, while the shape of the complete man appears not through a lone member but through the whole together, so likewise the whole company of prophets pictured beforehand one and the same Christ; yet each one, matching the member he stood for, also carried out his portion of the arrangement, foreshadowing that particular work of Christ answering to that member. Some, beholding him in splendor, saw his glorious abode at the right hand of the Father; some other prophets beheld him arriving upon the clouds as Son of Man, and, speaking of him, said, "they shall gaze upon him whom they stabbed," pointing to his arrival, concerning which he himself asked, "yet when the Son of Man arrives, will he discover faith upon the earth?" Regarding this Paul likewise declares that it is a just thing before God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give rest, alongside us, to you who are afflicted, at the unveiling of the Lord Jesus out of heaven together with the messengers of his might, amid blazing flame. Still others, styling him Judge, and the day of the Lord as a scorching furnace, one who gathers the grain into his storehouse yet consumes the husks with unquenchable flame, spoke warnings against the unbelieving, of whom the Lord himself likewise declared, "go from me, you accursed, into fire without end, made ready by my Father for the devil and his messengers." And the Apostle in turn states that such persons will pay the penalty of everlasting ruin, banished from the Lord's presence and from his mighty splendor, at the hour when he arrives to be exalted amid his holy ones and marveled at among every believer. And those texts declaring, "you surpass in beauty the sons of men"; and, "God, your God, has poured upon you the oil of joy beyond your companions"; and, "strap your blade upon your hip, O mightiest one, in splendor and majesty; ride onward in triumph and rule," for the sake of truth, gentleness, and justice — together with whatever else of this kind is spoken concerning him — pointed to the loveliness and radiance of his reign, its unmatched brilliance, and its lifting above all those governed beneath him, so that hearers might yearn to have their place there, doing what pleases God. And those who further ask, "who is this one, and who will recognize him?" together with, "I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son, whose name is proclaimed Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God," along with those who foretold his birth from a Virgin, Emmanuel, disclosed the joining of God's Word to his own creation: that the Word would take on flesh, becoming Son of God and Son of Man — the Pure One purely unlocking the pure womb that brings men to rebirth for God, a womb he himself rendered pure — and, having taken on this very condition that we too share, he remains Mighty God, possessed of an origin beyond description. Those texts saying, "the Lord has spoken forth out of Zion, and raised his voice from Jerusalem"; and, "God is made known throughout Judah," pointed to his arrival within Judea. Yet those declaring that God would come from the south, from the shaded and wooded mountain, spoke of the arrival of him who hails from Bethlehem, as we have already demonstrated in the preceding volume. From there, too, came the one appointed to shepherd and nourish his Father's people. And those describing his arrival thus — that the lame would bound like a deer, and the tongue of the mute would speak with ease, and the eyes of the sightless would open, and the ears of the deaf would perceive sound, and slack hands and weakened knees would be made firm; and that those lying in the tombs would rise again from among the dead; and that he himself would carry off our weaknesses and bear our sicknesses — these foretold the cures that he would perform.
Others again foretold that a man, weak and without glory, one who knew how to bear infirmity, riding upon a colt, the foal of an ass, would come to Jerusalem; that he would offer his back to the scourges and his cheeks to the palms of the hand; that he would be led like a sheep to the slaughter, given vinegar and gall to drink, forsaken by his friends and by those nearest to him; that he would stretch out his hands all the day long, be mocked and reviled by those who beheld him, that his garments would be divided and lots cast upon his vesture, and that he would be brought down into the mire of death. All these things, and all such as are foretold, they prophesied concerning his coming according to the flesh: how he entered Jerusalem, and in it suffered and was crucified, enduring everything that had been foretold. Others, saying, "The Lord, the Holy One, remembered his dead who had fallen asleep in the earth of clay, and descended to them, that he might raise them up to save them," gave the reason for which he suffered all these things. And the text declaring, "on that day, declares the Lord, I will make the sun go down while it is still noon, and I will bring darkness over the land in broad daylight; and I will turn your festivals into grief, and every one of your songs into a dirge," openly foretold that darkening of the sun which occurred at his crucifixion, beginning at the sixth hour; and that, once this had come about, the festivals and songs of those living under the Law would start being changed into grief and mourning, since they were given over into the hands of the nations. Jeremiah brings out this identical matter even more plainly, speaking thus concerning Jerusalem: "she who gave birth grew weak, her spirit failed within her; her sun set while daylight yet remained; she is covered in disgrace and bears scorn — those who remain of them I will hand over to the blade before their foes."
Others, again, who said that he fell asleep and took his rest and rose again, since the Lord received him, and who foretold, along with proclaiming his glory, his resurrection from among the dead by the Father, also foretold his reception into the heavens. And in that they said, "His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit unto the end of it again, and there is none that can hide himself from his heat," they meant that he was taken up to that place from which also he had descended, and that there is none who can escape his just judgment. And the text stating, "the Lord rules, let the nations rage; he who is enthroned upon the cherubim, let the ground shake," foretold in one sense the hostility toward the Church that would arise, following his ascension, among all nations, and the trembling of the whole ground against her; and in another sense, that when he arrives from the heavens accompanied by the messengers of his might, the entire ground will be shaken, just as he himself declares: "a mighty shaking of the ground will occur, unlike anything since the world began." And again where it is written: "let whoever stands condemned come forward; and let whoever is declared righteous approach the Servant of God"; and, "grief awaits you, for every one of you will wear away like a robe, and moths will consume you"; and, "every living thing will be brought low, while the Lord alone will be lifted on high" — this signifies that, following his suffering and ascent, God will place beneath his feet all who opposed him, and that he himself will be raised above every other, with none left who could be reckoned righteous beside him or set alongside him.
And the texts declaring that God would set up a fresh covenant with mankind, unlike the one made with the fathers upon Mount Horeb; and, "I will grant mankind a renewed heart, and a fresh spirit within them"; and once more, "Give no thought to what came before; behold, I bring about new things, soon to appear, and you shall come to recognize them; and I will open a path through the desert, and streams within the parched land, to give drink to the people I have chosen for myself, whom I have won as my own, so that they might tell of my wondrous deeds" — these openly proclaimed the liberty belonging to the New Covenant. And that fresh wine poured into fresh skins represents the trust placed in Christ, through which he made known the road of righteousness that has emerged in the desert, and the flowing streams of the Holy Spirit in a waterless region, giving drink to the people God has chosen and won for himself, so that his wondrous deeds might be told — yet not so that they should speak evil against him, the God responsible for these things.
And all the other things which we have shown throughout so long a course of Scripture that the prophets said, the man who is truly spiritual will interpret, discerning for each of the things spoken to what feature of the Lord's disposition it refers, and displaying the entire unified structure of the Son of God's undertaking — ever acknowledging the one same God, and ever recognizing the one same Word of God, notwithstanding that he has only now been disclosed to us, and ever recognizing the one same Spirit of God, notwithstanding that in these latter days he has been poured forth upon us in a manner not seen before, having nonetheless been present, from the world's founding clear through to its close, within the human race itself. It is from him that those trusting God and holding fast to his word obtain the deliverance that comes from him. But those who turn away from him, and hold his commands in contempt, and through their deeds dishonor the one who fashioned them, and through their thinking speak evil of the one who sustains them, pile up against themselves a most fitting sentence. He, then, examines all, but he himself is examined by no one; neither blaspheming his own Father, nor making void his dispositions, nor accusing the fathers, nor dishonoring the prophets, nor saying that they are from another God, nor again that the prophecies were of one substance and another, and another still. We shall speak, then, against all the heretics, and first of all against those who follow Marcion, and against those like them, who say that the prophets are from another God: read more carefully the Gospel that has been given to us by the Apostles, and read more carefully the prophets, and you will find the whole course of action, and the whole doctrine, and the whole passion of our Lord foretold in them.