Irenaeus
2nd-century Greek bishop and Doctor of the Church
b. c. 130 · d. c. 202
2nd Bishop of Lyon · c. 178–c. 202
Offices
- Bishop of Lyon № 2 · c. 178 – c. 202
Irenaeus was a Greek bishop in the second century, noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by opposing Gnostic interpretations of Christian Scripture and defending orthodoxy. Originating from Smyrna, he had seen and heard the preaching of Polycarp, who in turn was said to have heard John the Evangelist.
Related people
- Polycarp disciple of · traditional
- Pothinus succeeded · inferred
- Hippolytus of Rome teacher of · traditional
- Just of Lyon preceded · inferred
Events
Commemorated
Places
How we know
Recorded as a historical figure.
- Ecclesiastical History 6 claims — Irenaeus hears Polycarp at Smyrna; The martyrs of Lyons and Vienne; Irenaeus succeeds Pothinus at Lyon
Also recorded as
- Irenaeus possibly same
Documents
- Against Heresies author
Sayings
- Since therefore we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek the truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The image Irenaeus reaches for when he has finished listing bishops: the apostles did not hide the truth, they banked it, and the church is where anyone may draw on the account…
- To which course many nations of those barbarians who believe in Christ do assent, having salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit, without paper or… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Irenaeus’ answer to the question of what would have happened if the apostles had left no writings: whole nations already hold the faith without them. He is describing churches…
- The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate. Of this Linus, Paul makes… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The opening of the oldest list of the bishops of Rome, written about 180 and naming the men in order from the apostles. Every later Roman fasti this project holds descends from…
Show all 13
- For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre-eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The most argued-over sentence of the second century, and it has been read two ways for four hundred years: that every church must resort to Rome, or that Rome holds the faith…
- the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The oldest surviving statement that the church teaches one thing everywhere, made by a bishop in Gaul who had been taught in Asia and was writing about churches he names by…
- Where, therefore, the gifts of the Lord have been placed, there it behoves us to learn the truth, [namely,] from those who possess that succession of the… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The rule Irenaeus gives a reader who wants to know which teacher to believe: go to the churches that can show an unbroken line from the apostles, and look at how the men in them…
- But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Irenaeus saying he saw Polycarp himself, as a boy, and that Polycarp had been appointed at Smyrna by apostles. It is the shortest chain anywhere between the apostles and a named…
- It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The sentence this entire dataset is an attempt to make good on. Irenaeus is answering teachers who claimed the apostles had passed a secret doctrine to a chosen few, and his…
- But our opinion is in accordance with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion. For we offer to Him His own, announcing consistently… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Irenaeus arguing against teachers who denied that the flesh can be saved, and reaching for the one thing his readers did every week: they bring bread and wine and believe they…
- For the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God. For if the manifestation of God which is made by means of the creation… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The most quoted sentence Irenaeus ever wrote, and the one most often quoted without its second half. It is not a saying about human flourishing on its own terms: the clause that…
- for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Against teachers for whom the body was a mistake to escape from, Irenaeus insists that a man is not a soul wearing flesh but soul, spirit and flesh together, and that God made…
- Soter having succeeded Anicetus, Eleutherius does now, in the twelfth place from the apostles, hold the inheritance of the episcopate. In this order, and by… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The end of the same list, and the reason it can be dated: Irenaeus writes while Eleutherius is alive and counts him twelfth. It is the earliest surviving statement that a…
- For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace; but the Spirit is truth. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The sentence Irenaeus closes his third book with, and the one most often quoted from him after the succession lists. He has spent the book arguing from a chain of named men; he…
Glosses
- Who followed Peter at Rome The earliest list is Irenaeus, writing about 180 and quoted by Eusebius: Linus first after the apostles, then Anencletus, then Clement. Later Western tradition splits Anencletus into two men, Cletus and Anacletus, and…