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.

Irenaeus also wrote The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, an Armenian copy of which was discovered in 1904.

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.

Irenaeus, wrote of 2nd century believers with the gift of prophecy, while Justin Martyr argued in his Dialogue with Trypho that prophets were not found among the Jews in his time, but that the church had prophets.

" Similarly, Irenaeus wrote that the Christian " will not be commanded to leave idle one day of rest, who is constantly keeping sabbath ", and Tertullian argued " that we still more ought to observe a sabbath from all servile work always, and not only every seventh-day, but through all time ".

* Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson ( 1858 – 1942 ), author of Imre: A Memorandum, who wrote under the pseudonym Xavier Mayne.

Irenaeus of Lyons wrote in the late 2nd century that since there are four quarters of the earth ... it is fitting that the church should have four pillars ... the four Gospels ( Against Heresies, 3. 11. 8 ), and then shortly thereafter made the first known quotation from a fourth gospel — the canonical version of the Gospel of John.

In the 2nd century, Saint Irenaeus was fascinated by the Transfiguration and wrote: " the glory of God is a live human being and a truly human life is the vision of God ".

Apart from Papias ' comment, we do not hear about the author of the Gospel until Irenaeus around 185 who remarks that Matthew issued a written Gospel of the Hebrews ( Against Heresies 3. 1. 1 ) Pantaenus, Origen and other Church Fathers also believed Matthew wrote the Gospel of the Hebrews ( Church History 5. 10. 3, 6. 25. 4 ) None of these Church Fathers asserted that Matthew wrote his Gospel in Greek.

Irenaeus wrote that they used only Matthew's Gospel ( Against Heresies, 1. 26. 2 ) and, Eusebius wrote that the Ebionites used only the Gospel of the Hebrews ( Church History, 3. 27. 4 ) Epiphanius stated that the Ebionites used a Gospel of the Hebrews which he considered was a corrupted version of Greek Matthew ( Panarion, 30 ).

Irenaeus wrote that " Polycarp also was not only instructed by the apostles, and conversed with many who had seen the Lord, but was also appointed bishop by apostles in Asia and in the church in Smyrna " and that he himself had, as a boy, listened to " the accounts which ( Polycarp ) gave of his intercourse with John and with the others who had seen the Lord ".

On this occasion Irenaeus and Polycrates of Ephesus wrote to Victor ; Irenaeus reminding Victor of his predecessor Anicetus's more tolerant attitude, and Polycrates defending the Asian practice.

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, wrote in the latter half of the 2nd century that the Ebionites rejected Paul as an apostate from the law, using only a version of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, known as the Gospel of the Ebionites.

For example, Irenaeus, wrote of second century believers with the gift of prophecy, while Tertullian, writing of the church meetings of the Montanists ( to whom he belonged ), described in detail the practice of prophecy in the second century church.

To refute it Irenaeus wrote a vast five-volume book ( On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis commonly referred to as Against Heresies ).

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.

Gnostics were condemned as heretics, and prominent Church fathers such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Hippolytus of Rome wrote against Gnosticism.

In his Against the Heresies, Irenaeus wrote, " Although there are many dialects in the world, the force of the tradition is one and the same.

It took its name from a poem by St. Irenaeus, a 2nd-century Bishop of Lyon who wrote: The glory of God is a man truly alive.

In his work Redating Matthew, Mark and Luke Wenham wrote regarding the book of Matthew the following: " The fathers are almost unanimous in asserting that Matthew the tax-collector was the author, writing first, for Hebrews in the Hebrew language: Papias ( c. 60-130 ), Irenaeus ( c. 130-200 ), Pantaenus ( died c. 190 ), Origen ( c. 185-254 ), Eusebius ( c. 260-340 ), Epiphanius of Salamis ( c. 315-403 ), Cyril of Jerusalem ( c. 315-86 ) and others write in this vein.

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.

So Irenaeus tells of the system of Simon Magus, of the system of Menander, of the system of Saturninus, in which the number of these angels is reckoned as seven, and of the system of Carpocrates.

Theodoret, who here copies Irenaeus, turns this into the plural number “ powers ,” and so Epiphanius represents Cerinthus as agreeing with Carpocrates in the doctrine that the world was made by angels.

Irenaeus pointed to Scripture as a proof of orthodox Christianity against heresies, classifying as Scripture not only the Old Testament but most of the books now known as the New Testament, while excluding many works, a large number by Gnostics, that flourished in the 2nd century and claimed scriptural authority.

The central point of Irenaeus ' theology is the unity and the goodness of God, in opposition to the Gnostics ' division of God into a number of divine " Aeons ", and their distinction between the utterly transcendent " High God " and the inferior " Demiurge " who created the world.

Irenaeus is the first of the church fathers to consider the mystic number 666.

" Although Irenaeus did speculate upon three names to symbolize this mystical number, namely Euanthas, Teitan and Lateinos, nevertheless he was content to believe that the Antichrist would arise some time in the future after the fall of Rome and then the meaning of the number would be revealed.

A four gospel canon ( the Tetramorph ) was asserted by Irenaeus, who refers to it directly in his polemic Against the Heresies, " It is not possible that the gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are.

Many of the writings of these Gnostics, and a large number of excerpts from the writings of Valentinus, existed only in quotes displayed by their orthodox detractors, until 1945, when the cache of writings at Nag Hammadi revealed a Coptic version of the Gospel of Truth, which is the title of a text that, according to Irenaeus, was the same as the Gospel of Valentinus mentioned by Tertullian in his Against All Heresies.

A book called the Apocryphon of John was referred to by Irenaeus in Adversus Haereses, written about 185 CE, among the writings that teachers in 2nd-century Christian communities were producing, " an indescribable number of secret and illegitimate writings, which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds of foolish people, who are ignorant of the true scriptures " — scriptures which Irenaeus himself was establishing as no more and no less than four, the " Fourfold gospel " that his authority helped make the canonical four.

The supreme power and source of being above all principalities and powers and angels ( such is evidently the reference of Epiphanius's αὐτῶν: Irenaeus substitutes " heavens ," which in this connexion comes to much the same thing ) is Abrasax, the Greek letters of whose name added together as numerals make up 365, the number of the heavens ; whence, they apparently said, the year has 365 days, and the human body 365 members.

Late in the 2nd century there are a number of quotations from all three Pastoral Epistles in Irenaeus ' work Against Heresies.

" The books considered to be authoritative by Irenaeus included the four gospels and many of the letters of Paul, although, based on the arguments Irenaeus made in support of only four authentic gospels, some interpreters deduce that the fourfold Gospel must have still been a novelty in Irenaeus's time.

100 AD or before ), as well as the various witnesses to canonicity extant among the writings of Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, etc., the four gospels and letters of Paul were universally held as scriptural, and only ~ 200 years were needed to finalize the canon ; from the beginning of the 2nd Century to the mid-4th Century, no book in the final canon was ever declared spurious or heretical, except for the Revelation of John which the Council of Laodicea in 363-364 AD rejected ( although it accepted all of the other 26 books in the New Testament ).

According to Irenaeus, Papias was " a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp, a man of primitive times ," who wrote a volume in " five books.

There are some passages in the writings of Irenaeus where the image of God and the similitude are sharply distinguished, so most notably in the statement: `` If the ( Holy ) Spirit is absent from the soul, such a man is indeed of an animal nature ; ;

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.

This theodicy was developed by the second-century Christian theologian, Irenaeus of Lyons, and its most recent and outspoken advocate has been the influential philosopher of religion, John Hick.

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.

* 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 Post-apostolic Age, he claims that Hermas, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Polycrates and Ignatius, who lived between 90 and 140 A. D., and Irenaeus, who died about 200 A. D, were either Oneness, modalist, or at most a follower of an " economic Trinity ", that is, a temporary Trinity and not an eternal one.

* 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.

Irenaeus and Justin represent two of the most outspoken premillennialists of the pre-Nicean church.

Shortly after Valentinus ' death, Irenaeus began his massive work On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis, better known as Adversus Haereses with a highly-colored and negative view of Valentinus and his teachings that occupies most of his first book.

Some of its most famous saints include St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Irenaeus, St. John Vianney the Cure of Ars, St. Joan of Arc, St. Bernadette, Louis IX of France, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

In briefly sketching this version of Basilidianism, which most likely rests on later or corrupt accounts, our authorities are fundamentally two, Irenaeus and the lost early treatise of Hippolytus ; both having much in common, and both being interwoven together in the report of Epiphanius.

Most evidence for the Valentinian theory comes from its critics and detractors, most notably Irenaeus, since he was especially concerned with refuting Valentinianism.

Irenaeus has been called the most important witness of the Christianity in the 2nd century.

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.