Irenaeus: Proof of The Apostolic Preaching
June 18, 2010 by editor · Leave a Comment
A Work Discovered After the Ante-Nicene Fathers Set Was Compiled
The following is a summary of the article that Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed wrote in the journal, The Biblical World:
In 1904 a native scholar found in Erivan in Armenia an Armenian manuscript containing a lost work of Irenaeus, In Proof of the Apostolic Preaching. Up to that time only one complete work of Irenaeus was known to be extant, his famous treatise Against Heresies, written about A.D. 180. However, here there was restored to us a large book which no one, previous to this discovery, could ever have hoped to see. Irenaeus was born probably at Smyrna, a few miles from Ephesus, within half a century of the traditional date of the apostle John’s death. He enjoyed the instruction of Polycarp, who was a pupil of the apostle John. Irenaeus may have accompnied Polycarp on his journey to Rome in connection with the Easter controversy (A.D. 154).
At any rate, Irenaeus was a missionary to Gaul. Under the persecution of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 177), he witnessed there the terrible torture and death of many of his fellow Christians. In A.D. 178 he was elected bishop of Lyons, and for the rest of his life this great man and most superb scholar of his generation labored with pen and tongue for Christianity. His writings prove conclusively that in the churches of his day strong emphasis was put upon the New Testament and other Scripture, upon the Apostolic Creed, and upon episcopal organization. In the work previously known, he had made hundreds of quotations from the New Testament in his ardent defense of the “faith delivered to the saints.” It ought to be almost awe inspiring for any devout Christian to read a new literary and spiritual work from the pen of this commanding figure in early Christian literature.
“The newly discovered work,” says Dr. Goodspeed, “was evidently addressed to the laity.” It sets forth in a simple and telling way the apostolic type of Christianity which Irenaeus maintained, and shows its agreement with numerous Old Testament prophecies. Irenaeus’ usual method is to describe an incident in the gospel story and then quote some prophecy which he believes is fulfilled in it. The work shows Irenaeus at the task of teaching his Gallic flock to defend their Christian faith in all its aspects by appeal to the Old Testament. Many New Testament books are reflected in it, but here, as in the older work of Irenaeus, no use is made of Hebrews or Revelations. As a result, it seems clearer than ever that these books were not part of the New Testament he used. It will be remembered that in the second century many theologians were inclined to look upon Hebrews as edifying literature but not as inspired Scripture, and Irenaeus may have seriously objected to Revelation because of the Montanist controversy which made so much of this work.
Origen: Commentary on Revelation
June 18, 2010 by editor · Leave a Comment
A Work Discovered After the Ante-Nicene Fathers Set Was Compiled
The following is taken from an article written by the early church scholar, Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed:
In July, 1911, Constantine Diobouniotis, a Privat Docent in the University of Athens, sent to Berlin a copy he had made of a short work on the Apocalypse which had been found in a tenth century manuscript in the Meteoron monastery in the north of Greece. The monastery is one of those so picturesquely situated on the summits of the rocky detached pinnacles of the Pindus Mountains, which have to be reached by the aid of basket, rope, and windlass. The commentary was anonymous, but Diobouniotis thought it might be the work of Hippolytus, one of whose treatises had already been found in the same manuscript.
The Berlin scholars at once recognized in it a work of Origen, the founder of Christian interpretation and of systematic theology, the leading theologian of Christian antiquity, and the father of ecclesiastical science. Origen was the most voluminous of ancient Christian writers. Ephiphanius says that he left six thousand works, but this enumeration must have included individual sermons, lectures, and addresses, as well as greater works, like the Hexapla, which was so huge that it was never copied. Part of Origen’s prolificness was due to his friend and patron, Ambrose, who supplied him with stenographers and secretaries so that he might have every facility to record the results of his studies. Ambrose so eagerly urged him on in his work that Origen calls him his ‘taskmaster’ who left him no leisure for meals or rest.
These thirty-seven paragraphs of the commentary on Revelation are a new and unexpected legacy from the first great interpreter of the New Testament. It is true that it had not been known that Origen ever wrote a commentary or even a set of scholia on Revelation. But it is an interesting fact that in his commentary on Matthew he expressed the intention of producing a commentary on it. More than this, the commentary on Matthew was one of the latest of Origen’s works, and falls between A.D. 245 and 249. It was in A.D. 249 or 250 that the persecution of Decius overtook Origen,and the tortures he then endured eventually resulted in his death in his seventieth year. It has been suggested that these comments on Revelation may have been his last work and that they broke off before the whole book had been covered, because the outbreak of the persecution interrupted Origen in the midst of his task.
Filed under Topics · Tagged with Decius, Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed, Ephiphanius, Hexapla, Origen, Origen's Commentary on Revelation, University of Athens