( Irenaeus, c. 180 )

Irenaeus ' best-known book, Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies ( c. 180 ) is a detailed attack on Gnosticism, which was then a serious threat to the Church, and especially on the system of the Gnostic Valentinus.

Additionally, the earliest manuscript of the Gospel, dated circa AD 200, ascribes the work to Luke ; as did Irenaeus, writing circa AD 180 ; and the Muratorian fragment from AD 170.

The writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD 180 reflect a belief that Peter " founded and organised " the Church at Rome.

The earliest witness is Irenaeus, who in about the year 180 wrote: " The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate.

Clement is put after Linus and Cletus / Anacletus in the earliest ( c. 180 ) account, that of Irenaeus, who is followed by Eusebius of Caesarea.

A four gospel canon ( the Tetramorph ) was first asserted by Irenaeus, c. 180.

Korah is also mentioned by Irenaeus in his anti-Gnostic work Adversus Haereses ( Against Heresies ), written in about 180.

Gnosticism and the New Testament is the connection between the Christian sects described by Irenaeus ( c. 180 ), and other writers, as gnostikos, and the New Testament, and also the use of the New Testament in the Nag Hammadi texts ( c. 300-400 ).

Since it was known to the church father Irenaeus, it must have been written before around AD 180.

The doctrine that Eve mated with the serpent, or with Satan, to produce Cain also appears in early Gnostic writings such as the Gospel of Philip ( c. 350 ); however, this teaching was explicitly rejected as heresy by Irenaeus ( c. 180 ) and later mainstream Christian theologians.

It is believed to have been written by Gnostic followers of Jesus, rather than by Judas himself, and, since it contains late 2nd century theology, probably dates from no earlier than the 2nd century ( which is much later than the dating attributed to the 4 gospels of the modern Bible Gospel # First accounts ) In 180 A. D., Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons, wrote a document in which he railed against this gospel, indicating the book was already in circulation.

The Gospel of Judas was condemned by Irenaeus in his anti-Gnostic work Adversus Haereses ( Against Heresies ), written in about 180.

The genuineness of Pauline authorship was accepted by Church orthodoxy as early as c. 180 AD, as evidenced by the surviving testimony of Irenaeus and the author of the Muratorian fragment.

However, Irenaeus ( writing c. 180 CE ) is the earliest author to clearly and unequivocally describe the Pastorals.

Irenaeus complained that all heretics always introduce this passage.

And Irenaeus ( c. 184 ), in Against Heresies 3: 10. 6, explicitly cited Mark 16: 19, stating that he was quoting from near the end of Mark's account.

The presence of Peter in Rome, not explicitly affirmed in but consistent with the New Testament, is explicitly affirmed by Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyon and other early Christian writers.

It is probably fair to say that the idea of death is more profound in Irenaeus than the idea of sin is.

He adds that the idea cannot be squeezed out of Irenaeus ' words.

The initial translators might have been misled by Irenaeus ' summary, which although an exciting idea was not necessarily accurate.

Irenaeus also refers to a succession of presbyters who preserve the tradition " which originates from the apostles ".

In a response to the Gnostic teaching, Irenaeus created the first document describing what is now called apostolic succession.

With the lists of bishops to which Irenaeus referred, the later doctrine of the apostolic succession of the bishops could be linked.

Irenaeus is also known as one of the first theologians to use the principle of apostolic succession to refute his opponents.

" Other scholars and historians disagree, citing the historical records of St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Irenaeus who recorded the linear succession of Bishops of Rome ( the popes ) up until their own times.

Irenaeus of Lyon ( AD 189 ) believed that Peter and Paul had been the founders of the Church in Rome and had appointed Pope Linus to the office of the episcopate, the beginning of the Apostolic succession of the Roman see.

Hegesippus and Irenaeus, both of whom stayed some time in Rome soon after the death of Pius, both give the order of succession as Pius, Anicetus, Soter, Eleutherus.

Irenaeus, who had heard him preach in his youth, said of him: " a man who was of much greater weight, and a more steadfast witness of truth, than Valentinus, and Marcion, and the rest of the heretics ".

According to Irenaeus, Polycarp told the story that John the Apostle, in particular, is said to have so detested Cerinthus that he once fled a bathhouse when he found out Cerinthus was inside, yelling " Let us flee, lest the building fall down ; for Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside!

The fact that the name occurs on these gems in connection with representations of figures with the head of a cock, a lion, or an ass, and the tail of a serpent was formerly taken in the light of what Irenaeus says about the followers of Basilides:

During the early formation of Christianity, church authorities ( Fathers of the Church ) exerted considerable amounts of energy attempting to weed out what were considered to be false doctrines ( e. g. Irenaeus ' On the Detection and Overthrow of False Gnosis ).

It is noteworthy that in the " Dialogue " he no longer speaks of a " seed of the Word " in every man, and in his non-apologetic works the emphasis is laid upon the redeeming acts of the life of Christ rather than upon the demonstration of the reasonableness and moral value of Christianity, though the fragmentary character of the latter works makes it difficult to determine exactly to what extent this is true and how far the teaching of Irenaeus on redemption is derived from him.

* In the second century, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons ( about 130 — 200 ), arguably the most important Christian theologian of his time, said that God " became what we are in order to make us what he is himself.

* In the second century, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons ( about 130 — 200 ), arguably the most important Christian theologian of his time, said that God " became what we are in order to make us what he is himself.

Adversus Haereses ( 1: 23-28 ) gives, in what seems intended for chronological order, a list of heresies, beginning with Simon Magus and ending with Tatian, and adds in a kind of appendix a description of a variety of Gnostic sects deriving their origin, as Irenaeus maintains, from the heresy of Simon Magus.

In the 2nd century Church Father Irenaeus continued this tradition and stated: " so that what we had lost in Adam-namely to be according to the image and likeness of God-that we might recover in Christ Jesus.

Irenaeus compared this abuse of Homer to what he considered as abuse of the New and Old Testaments by the gnostics.

In the passage of Adversus Haereses under consideration, Irenaeus is clear that after receiving baptism at the age of thirty, citing Luke 3: 23, Gnostics then falsely assert that " He preached only one year reckoning from His baptism ," and also, " On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced age.

Irenaeus likens death to the big fish that swallowed Jonah: it was only in the depths of the whale's belly that Jonah could turn to God and act according to the divine will.

Among the very mixed bag of works classified as gnostic was a series of writings which could be associated with Valentinus, particularly the Coptic text called the Gospel of Truth which bears the same title reported by Irenaeus as belonging to a text by Valentinus.

But, Irenaeus noted, Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp to forgo the observance inasmuch as these things had been always observed by John the disciple of the Lord, and by other apostles with whom he had been conversant ; nor did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to keep it: Anicetus said that he must hold to the way of the elders before him. Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus was able to persuade the other to his position, but neither did they consider the matter of sufficient importance to justify a schism.