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 wrote a number of books, but the most important that survives is the " Against Heresies ", normally referred to by its Latin title Adversus Haereses which is an important source regarding the Gospel according to the Hebrews.

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.

" 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.

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

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.

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 ".

According to Irenaeus, a 2nd century Church Father, the church at Rome was founded directly by the apostles Peter and Paul.

However, the earlier references by Eusebius and Irenaeus indicate veneration of images and reported miracles associated with them as early as the 2nd century.

St. Irenaeus (; Greek: ), ( 2nd century AD – c. 202 ) was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire ( now Lyons, France ).

Irenaeus was born during the first half of the 2nd century ( the exact date is disputed: between the years 115 and 125 according to some, or 130 and 142 according to others ), Irenaeus is thought to have been a Greek from Polycarp's hometown of Smyrna in Asia Minor, now İzmir, Turkey.

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 recently discovered Gospel of Judas dates close to the period when Irenaeus lived ( late 2nd century ), and scholars typically regard this work as one of many Gnostic texts, showing one of many varieties of Gnostic beliefs of the period.

The concept of original sin was first alluded to in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in his controversy ( written in Greek ) with the dualist Gnostics.

Many early Christian writers from the 2nd century, such as pseudo-Barnabas, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr and Hippolytus of Rome followed rabbinic Judaism ( the Mishna ) in interpreting Sabbath not as a literal day of rest, but as a thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, which would follow six millennia of world history.

Irenaean theodicy, posited by Irenaeus ( 2nd century AD – c. 202 ), has been reformulated by John Hick.

It is the term given to the predominant form of the New Testament text witnessed in the Old Latin translation from the Greek ; and also in quotations from certain 2nd and 3rd-century Christian writers, including Cyprian, Tertullian and Irenaeus.

The Shepherd of Hermas (; ; sometimes just called The Shepherd ) is a Christian literary work of the 1st or 2nd century, considered a valuable book by many Christians, and considered canonical scripture by some of the early Church fathers such as Irenaeus.

In the 2nd century Church Father Irenaeus writes:

Irenaeus, the late 2nd century bishop of Lyon was an outspoken premillennialist.

* Irenaeus gives a 2nd century description of the eschaton

In the 2nd century Church Father Irenaeus writes:

Epistula Apostolorum, a little known 2nd century text, which is roughly contemporary with the above work of Irenaeus, seems to have been written as a direct refutation of the teachings of Cerinthus.

Scholars generally agree on a date in the mid-to late-2nd century AD, since there are two 2nd century documents, the Epistula Apostolorum and Irenaeus ' Adversus haereses, which refer to a story of Jesus ' tutor telling him, " Say beta ," and him replying, " First tell me the meaning of alpha.