AH 4.20.1-4a: Supremacy over All Things (Gen 1:26, Gen 2:7)

This section presents another shift in Irenaeus’ work with great attention given to Old Testament prophecy. The focal point of this section may be characterized by the well-known Irenaean axiom: “the glory of God is a living person” (gloria enim Dei vivens homo).60 He believes the Son takes the creation into his divine life and, as a result, creation participates in the glory of God.61 The Valentinian emphasis on

56 _{The discussion of circumcision links Gen 17:9-11, Deut 10:16, and Col 2:11.} 57 _{Orbe, Teología IV, 208.}

58 _{Noormann, Irenäus, 198.}

59 _{Orbe, Teología IV, 207 n. 10. Irenaeus will develop this argument in AH 5.33.2.} 60_{AH 4.20.7.}

61 _{Orbe, “Gloria Dei vivens homo: Análisis de Ireneo, adv. haer. IV, 20, 1-7,” Greg 73.2 (1992): 205-68.}

ignorance is directly opposed to Irenaeus’ identification of God’s goodness or love as the primary motivation for creation.62 He cites Gen 1:26 and Gen 2:7 in AH 4.20.1, and these connect with a network of texts spanning AH 4.20.2-4a that argue for the creation of all things by means of the Word and Wisdom.63 The language of “all things” (omnia) links these passages, as well as a general-to-particular rhetorical argumentation.64 The end of this section is signified by summary statement that God has formed all things by his Word and Wisdom in AH 4.20.4a.

In AH 4.20.1 Irenaeus describes the greatness of God and its relationship to the notion of creatio ex nihilo and utilizes a general-to-particular mode of

argumentation. This is not a God who forms from preexistent matter, but a God who creates out of nothing.65 God in Himself, Irenaeus argues, has “established, selected, adorned and contains all things, and among all things is us and this world”

(constituit et fecit et adornavit et continet omnia, in omnibus autem et nos et hunc mundum).66 In this claim Irenaeus distinguishes himself from the Gnostic and Middle-Platonic doctrines of the origin of the world.67 In this context he is not concerned with the Gnostics interpretation of Gen 1:26 but with their doctrine of God informing their reading.68 Irenaeus makes the general point that all things have been made by God and nothing exists that God has not created. At the same time, he wants to particularly emphasize humankind and the world as a subset within “all things” (omnia) that God has created. Gen 2:7 describes the particularity of the creation of humankind within “all things” (omnia) when reaching down “God formed the man, taking the dust of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life” (Et plasmavit Deum hominem, limum terrae accipiens, et insufflavit in faciem ejus flatum vitae). Irenaeus uses Gen 1:26, on the other hand, to depict the means by which God created, namely God created humankind within God.69 His argument, as

62_{AH 1.2.3; Steenberg, Irenaeus, 36-8; Mackenzie, Irenaeus’s Demonstration, 95.} 63 _{Donovan, 116.}

64_{cf. Shotwell, Biblical Exegesis, 32-33.} 65_{AH 2.10.4; cf. Theophilus, AdAutol 2.4.} 66_{AH 4.20.1.}

67 _{Gerhard may, Creatio ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of ‘Creation out of Nothing’ in Early Christian Thought, trans.}

A. S. Worrall (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1994), 168; Orbe, Teología IV, 276; cf. AH 4.38.3; AH 2.25.3; and AH 5.4.2.

68 _{Steenberg, Of God and Man, 25.}

69 _{If we break down Gen 2:7 into three sections: Gen 2:7a “God reached down taking dust from the}

earth and formed the man,” Gen 2:7b: “and breathed into the man the breath of life,” Gen 2:7c: “and the man became a living being.” This is the only occasion where he provides a complete citation of Gen 2:7ab and at no point does Irenaeus cite Gen 2:7 in full.

Orbe points out, inverts the Gnostic notions of the distinctive creative actions of the Demiurge.70 As Irenaeus argued in AH 4.14.1-2 and throughout AH 1, God stands in need of nothing to accomplish creation, because he possess his own Hands, that is the Son and the Spirit. This is God creating all things within God when the Father speaks to the Son and the Spirit saying, “Let Us make humankind after our image and likeness” (Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem).71 There is, of course, much debate around the Trinitarian discussions of these pre-Nicene Fathers and anachronism is always a danger. But while some have argued Irenaeus is

“terminologically-contradictory,” the degree of overlapping Trintarian terminology is unmistakable.72 Mackenzie goes so far as to say, “There is little, if anything, in the Nicene formulae which is not present in embryonic or directional form in the works of Irenaeus.”73 Conceptually speaking the act of creation necessarily includes the activity of all three persons, so that “He taking from Himself” (ipse a semetipso) formed all things by means of the Son and the Spirit communicates the creation of humanity is the corporate action united in will and purpose. The Father provided the substance of the clay, the Son acted as the paradigm for the formation of the man, and the Spirit enlivened the form.74 This presentation of the “mutual

interrelatedness of the Trinitarian persons” is a striking example of the theological interpretation of Gen 1:26 and Gen 2:7.75 For this reason, the creation of human life, Irenaeus asserts, could not have been the work of angels, or powers, or any other creature, because they “are not able to create an image of God” (neque… poterant imaginem facere Dei, Gen 1:26).76

This theological reading is structurally connected to a cento of eight

passages that are laced together through there connection to the notion of creatio ex nihilo and his reading of Gen 1:26 and Gen 2:7.77 The texts in AH 4.20.2 are arranged in the following order: Mand 1, Mal 2:10, Eph 4:6, Matt 11:27, Rev 3:7, John 1:3, 1 Pet 2:23, and Col 1:18, while the passages in AH 4.20.3 include: Prov 3:19-20, Prov 8:22-25,

70 _{Orbe, Teología IV, 276.}

71_{AH 4.20.1. Parallel uses are found in Epid. 55; AH 5.1.3; and AH 5.15.4.} 72 _{Steenberg, Irenaeus, 64.}

73 _{Mackenzie, Irenaeus’ Demonstration, 29; Wingren, Man and the Incarnation, 105.} 74 _{Behr, Asceticism, 87; Orbe, Teología IV, 275 n. 9.}

75 _{Steenberg, Irenaeus, 114.}

76_{AH 4.20.1; cf. AH 1.5.5; AH 1.18.6; AH 1.30.4-5.}

77_{AH 4.20.2-3. For a discussion of creatio ex nihilio in Irenaeus: Orbe, “San Ireneo y la creation”; J.}

Fantino, La téologie, 265-337; Fantino, La crátion ex nihilo chez saint Irénée” RSPT 76.3, (1992), 421-42; Steenberg, Irenaeus, 38-49.

and Prov 8:27-31. It is observable that Irenaeus makes the same general-to-

particular argument as he did in the first section and the links between these texts is the language and concept of “all things” (omnia). The first four passages (Mand 1, Mal 2:10, Eph 4:6, and Matt 11:27) all contain the language of “all things” (omnia) and are related to the creation of all things generally to Gen 1:26 and the creation of humans in particular to Gen 2:7. He provides only brief commentary; in Irenaeus’ thinking the connections between these texts are self-explanatory and explicit. These texts are themselves commentary on Gen 1:26 and Gen 2:7. Hermas describes how God, “established all things” (omnia constituit), while Mal 2:10 uses the same language asking the rhetorical questions, “Is there not one God who has established us? Have we not all one Father?” (Nonne unus Deus qui constituit nos? Nonne Pater unus est omnibus nostrum?).78 Eph 4:6 describes God the Father as “above all and in us all” (super omnes et in omnibus nobis), while Matt 11:27 records the Lord saying, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father” (Omnia… mihi tradita sunt a Patre meo).79 Although Irenaeus is not explicit about the timing of God’s deliverance of all things to the Son (Matt 11:27), it seems right that, as Orbe suggests, this transpires at the Incarnation where the Son assumes the same substance of Adam’s

formation.80 In addition to the catchword omnia, Orbe carefully observes that this intertextual argumentation draws together an Old Testament reference (Mal 2:10), an apostle (Eph 4:6) and the words of the Lord (Matt 11:27).81 The canonical linkage is a means for Irenaeus to marshal the entire corpus of divine revelation in one continuous witness to the Father’s creation of all things by means of the Word.

In the remaining passages of Acts 10:42, Rev 3:7, John 1:14, 1 Pet 2:23, and Col 1:18, the emphasis is placed upon “all” human persons as a subset within all

things.82 These latter five texts do not use the language or conceptual imagery of “all things” and, as a result, require commentary and connection. First of all, given

78 _{O’Neill argues the citation of Hermes elevates it to ‘creedal status” of creation ex nihilo, but}

Steenberg rightly notes this overstates the case. J. C. O’Neill, “How early is the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo?” JTS 53.2 (2002), 455, 63; Steenberg, ‘Scripture graphe, and the status of Hermas in Irenaeus,’ SVTQ 53.1 (2008): 29-66.

79_{AH 4.20.2.}

80 _{Orbe, Teología IV, 278 n. 16.} 81 _{Orbe, Teología IV, 280.}

82 _{Holsinger-Friesen uses this section to describe the immediacy of God within the creation through}

Gen 1:26, but he neglects the main point that inclusiveness of God’s creation is dependent upon Gen 1:26, while immediacy is dependent upon Gen 2:7. These readings are supported by a variety of intertexts. Holsinger-Friesen, Irenaeus, 118-119.

all things have been given over to the Son, now the Son has the authority to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). The inclusiveness of both the living and the dead comprises all persons, living and deceased. For this reason, alluding to Rev 3:7 and Rev 5:2, 3 and 9, only the Son has the authority to open the book of the Father because of his atoning sacrifice: a sacrifice, Irenaeus argues, that resulted in his receiving power over all things from the same God who “made all things by the Word and adorned them by his Wisdom (omnia Verbo facit et Sapientia adornavit).83 The Son alone has the power to judge all people, both the living and the dead. The preeminence of Christ over all things is also explained by the citation of John 1:14. The Son of God became flesh so that he might have “sovereignty in earth” (terra haberet principatum) as he has sovereignty in heaven. His sovereignty on earth, according to Irenaeus, is located in his righteous life depicted in 1 Pet 2:23. His authority over those things “under the earth,” (sub terra) is also, according to Col 1:18, established in the fact that he is the first-born from the dead. The result of his preeminence is that “all things … will behold their King” (et ut viderent omnia… suum Regem). This final allusion speaks of both the first and the second coming of the Lord where the incarnate Son returns to consummate the kingdom. Continuning his argument in AH 4.20.1, God has created all things and in all things are both the living and the dead. In this way, Gen 1:26 and Gen 2:7 are key texts that must be supplemented theologically with an array of supporting texts, all communicating the theological notion that God created all things generally and humankind in particular.

Following this eight verse cento, Irenaeus cites Prov 3:19-20, Prov 8:22-25, and Prov 8:27-31 in AH 4.20.3, but he reserves his commentary on these texts for the opening lines of AH 4.20.4. These texts convey that God the Father existed with the Son and Spirit before all creation and refer back to the commentary on Gen 1:26 in

AH 4.20.1. The two verbs fecit and aptavit, alongside the reference to Verbo and

Sapientia, inspire the links between these texts.84 Prov 3:19-20 describes how “God by wisdom founded the earth” (Deus sapientia fundavit terram).85 Likewise in Prov 8:22-25, it is Wisdom who is in the beginning with God before the creation of the

83_{AH 4.20.2.}

84 _{Orbe, Teología IV, 282.}

85_{AH 4.20.3. Orbe suggests that Verbo et Sapientia in the opening line refers to Psalm 32:6 LXX, but the}

earth, while Prov 8:27-31 describes how Wisdom rejoiced with God at the completion of creation.86 The Wisdom of Prov 8:22 is the personal Spirit that is imparted through the Word of God.87 These texts fill out the theological reality of the primordial world where the Son and the Spirit are present with the Father prior to creation in Genesis, and support the reality that the Father created all things by His Word and Wisdom in Gen 1:26. Through the intertextual reading of Gen 1:26, Prov 3:19-20, Prov 8:22-25, and Prov 8:27-31, Irenaeus is able to say in AH 4.20.4, with the confidence of his scriptural harmony: “There is therefore one God, who by the Word and Wisdom created and arranged all things” (Unus igitur Deus, qui Verbo et Sapientia fecit et aptavit omnia). In other words, in Irenaeus’ mind Gen 1:26, Prov 3:19- 20, Prov 8:22-25, and Prov 8:27-31 reflect the Father, Son and Spirit existing before the foundation of the world. Clearly Irenaeus is reading Gen 1:26 in correspondence with these texts expressing Christ’s preexistence and activity from the opening pages of the scriptural narrative. The proclamation of Gen 1:26, “Let Us make” (Faciamus), expresses a divine reality that is already true and supported by an array of interrelated scriptures. Irenaeus closes with the summary statement that the Father is known though the Word, “through whom he established all thing” (per quem constituit omnia), which connects with the similar language in Mand 1 and Mal 2:10 in AH 4.20.2 and the opening lines of AH 4.20.1.