The first known probable quotation in its text is from Irenaeus of Lyon, ca 185, which sets a latest possible date of authorship.

According to Irenaeus, the Basilidians believed the God of the Jews was inferior to the 365 sets of Archons above him, as well as the powers, principalities, Dynamis and Sophia, Phronesis, Logos, Nûs, and finally the Unbegotten Father.

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

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 ).

Although it is sometimes claimed that Irenaeus believed Christ did not die until he was older than is conventionally portrayed, the bishop of Lyons simply pointed out that because Jesus turned the permissible age for becoming a rabbi ( 30 years old and above ), he recapitulated and sanctified the period between 30 and 50 years old, as per the Jewish custom of periodization of human life, and so touches the beginning of old age when one becomes 50 years old.

According to Irenaeus, Christ, being born out of the Virgin Mary, created a totally new historical situation.

Irenaeus climaxes with the destruction of all kingdoms at the Second Advent, when Christ, the prophesied " stone ," cut out of the mountain without hands, smites the image after Rome ’ s division.

Justin Martyr ( in his Apologies, and in a lost work against heresies, which Irenaeus used as his main source ) and Irenaeus ( Adversus Haereses ) record that after being cast out by the Apostles he came to Rome where, having joined to himself a profligate woman of the name of Helen, he gave out that it was he who appeared among the Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father and among other nations as the Holy Spirit.

Justin, Athenagoras, Irenaeus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Lactantius, and others borrowed an opinion out of this book of Enoch, that the angels had connection with the daughters of men, of whom they had offspring (' the giants of the past ').

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!

" A similar claim comes out more clearly in a text by Irenaeus, but this testimony is later than ( and probably based on ) Papias.

For the same faith is held and handed down by the churches established in the German states, the Spains, among the Celtic tribes, in the East, in Libya, and in the central portions of the world …" In Book 3, Irenaeus continues his defense of the unity of the church around the bishop, writing, " By pointing out the apostolic tradition and faith announced to mankind, which has been brought down to our time by successions of bishops, in the greatest, most ancient, and well known church, founded and established by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, at Rome, we can confound all who in any other way … gather more than they ought.

The sole surviving work attributed to him is Polycarp's letter to the Philippians, a mosaic of references to the Greek Scriptures, preserved / produced in Irenaeus ' account of Polycarp's life.

Some believe that Hippolytus ' account is of a later, more developed form of Simonianism, and that the original doctrines of the group were simpler, close to the account given by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus ( this account however is also included in Hippolytus ' work ).

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

All the early Gnostics of whose opinions Irenaeus gives an account, in a section ( i. 23 sqq.

The earliest and most vivid account of Carpocrates and his followers comes from Irenaeus ( died 202 ) in his Against Heresies including an account of the theology and practice of the sect.

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 section of Hippolytus appears to have given a condensed account of the mythological story told by Irenaeus.

The great difference between the earlier and the later treatise of Hippolytus is that the former was a mere compilation, his account of the opinions of heresies being in the main derived from the lectures of Irenaeus ; but at the time of writing the latter, he had himself read several heretical writings, of which he gives an extract in his treatise.

In the section of Irenaeus immediately preceding that of which we have just given an account, there is a summary of a system which has been called Barbeliot, from its use of the name Barbelo to denote the supreme female principle.

His book An Historical Introduction to the Study of the Books of the New Testament, which was widely read, is an account of the reception and interpretation of the gospels in the early centuries of Christianity as seen through the writings of leaders such as Irenaeus and Eusebius.

To be sure, Justin's disciple Tatian placed the Gospel of John on the same level as the synoptics, but he also broke with the church on account of profound differences in faith -- poisoned, so Irenaeus thought, by the Valentinians and Marcion ( AH 1.

In the account given by Irenaeus, but contradicted by Hippolytus, it was Simon of Cyrene who was crucified in Jesus ' stead.

The initial translation of the Gospel of Judas was widely publicized but simply confirmed the account that was written in Irenaeus and known Gnostic beliefs, leading some scholars to simply summarize the discovery as nothing new.

Irenaeus believed that Christ would always have been sent, even if humanity had never sinned ; but the fact that they did sin determines his role as a savior.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp, along with other documents of the Apostolic Fathers plays a central role in bridging the New Testament and emerging Christian writers in the latter half of the second century, such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.

In the 2nd century, Church Father Saint Irenaeus expressed his views of salvation as in terms of the imitation of Christ and his theory of " recapitulation ".

For Irenaeus the imitation of Christ is based on God's plan of salvation, which involved Christ as the second Adam.

For Irenaeus, salvation was achieved by Christ restoring humanity to the image of God, and he saw the Christian imitation of Christ as a key component on the path to salvation.

Irenaeus drew a number of parallels, e. g. just as in the fall of Adam resulted from the fruit of a tree, Irenaeus saw redemption and salvation as the fruit of another tree: the cross of crucifixion.

According to Irenaeus, the high point in salvation history is the advent of Jesus.

Irenaeus conceives of our salvation as essentially coming about through the incarnation of God as a man.

In this perspective, which was discussed in detail by Irenaeus, supported by Jerome, and then grew further, the vow of obedience and virginity of Mary positioned her as the " Second Eve " as part of the plan of salvation, just as Jesus was positioned as the Second Adam.

Perhaps no church father saw this concurrence of the unique and the universal as clearly, or formulated it as precisely, as Irenaeus.

As Origen interprets the end of history on the basis of its beginning, so Irenaeus portrays the story of Adam on the basis of the story of Christ.

Irenaeus does not regard Adam and Eve merely as private individuals, but as universal human beings, who were and are all of humanity.

Recent research on Irenaeus, however, makes it evident that he does not consistently maintain this distinction.

There is no justification for systematizing the random statements of Irenaeus about the image of God beyond this, nor for reading into his imprecise usage the later theological distinction between the image of God ( humanity ) and the similitude of God ( immortality ).

He was, in the words of Irenaeus, `` beguiled by another under the pretext of immortality ''.

Because he interprets the primitive state of man as one of mere potentiality or capacity and believes that Adam and Eve were created as children, Irenaeus often seems inclined to extenuate their disobedience as being `` due, no doubt, to carelessness, but still wicked ''.

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

This emphasis upon death rather than sin as man's fundamental problem Irenaeus shares with many early theologians, especially the Greek-speaking ones.

In the system described by Irenaeus, " the Unbegotten Father " is the progenitor of Nous, and from Nous Logos, from Logos Phronesis, from Phronesis Sophia and Dynamis, from Sophia and Dynamis principalities, powers, and angels, the last of whom create " the first heaven.

69, 73 f .) appears to follow partly Irenaeus, partly the lost Compendium of Hippolytus.

( c. 4 ), who likewise follows Hippolytus's Compendium, adds some further particulars ; that ' Abraxas ' gave birth to Mind ( nous ), the first in the series of primary powers enumerated likewise by Irenaeus and Epiphanius ; that the world, as well as the 365 heavens, was created in honour of ' Abraxas ;' and that Christ was sent not by the Maker of the world but by ' Abraxas.

By a probably euphonic inversion the translator of Irenaeus and the other Latin authors have Abraxas, which is found in the magical papyri, and even, though most sparingly, on engraved stones.

It was first used by Irenaeus late in the 2nd century.

) and Irenaeus ( 180 ) introduce explicitly the idea of the bishop's succession in office as a guarantee of the truth of what he preached in that it could be traced back to the apostles.

Irenaeus ( c. 115 – 202 ) assumes it as a conceded point.

Those who favour the later date appeal to the earliest external testimony, that of the Christian father Irenaeus ( c. 150-202 ), who wrote that he received his information from people who knew John personally.

The earlier date, first proposed in modern times by John Robinson in a closely argued chapter of " Redating the New Testament " ( 1976 ), relies on the book's internal evidence, given that no external testimony exists earlier than that of Irenaeus, noted above, and the earliest extant manuscript evidence of Revelation ( P98 ) is likewise dated no earlier than the late 2nd century.

In the 2nd century, with his theory of " recapitulation ", Saint Irenaeus connected " Christ the Creator " with " Christ the Savior ", relying on (" when the times reach their fulfillment – to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ ") to gather together and wrap up the cycle of the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ.