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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



6793
Irenaeus, Refutation Of All Heresies, 5.3.1


nanThe Apostle Paul has, moreover, in the most lucid manner, pointed out that man has been delivered over to his own infirmity, lest, being uplifted, he might fall away from the truth. Thus he says in the second [Epistle] to the Corinthians: "And lest I should be lifted up by the sublimity of the revelations, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. And upon this I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me. But he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for strength is made perfect in weakness. Gladly therefore shall I rather glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me." What, therefore? (as some may exclaim:) did the Lord wish, in that case, that His apostles should thus undergo buffering, and that he should endure such infirmity? Even so it was; the word says it. For strength is made perfect in weakness, rendering him a better man who by means of his infirmity becomes acquainted with the power of God. For how could a man have learned that he is himself an infirm being, and mortal by nature, but that God is immortal and powerful, unless he had learned by experience what is in both? For there is nothing evil in learning one's infirmities by endurance; yea, rather, it has even the beneficial effect of preventing him from forming an undue opinion of his own nature (non aberrare in natura sua). But the being lifted up against God, and taking His glory to one's self, rendering man ungrateful, has brought much evil upon him. [And thus, I say, man must learn both things by experience], that he may not be destitute of truth and love either towards himself or his Creator. But the experience of both confers upon him the true knowledge as to God and man, and increases his love towards God. Now, where there exists an increase of love, there a greater glory is wrought out by the power of God for those who love Him.


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

9 results
1. Hebrew Bible, Isaiah, 7.9 (8th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

7.9. וְרֹאשׁ אֶפְרַיִם שֹׁמְרוֹן וְרֹאשׁ שֹׁמְרוֹן בֶּן־רְמַלְיָהוּ אִם לֹא תַאֲמִינוּ כִּי לֹא תֵאָמֵנוּ׃ 7.9. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not have faith, surely ye shall not be established.’"
2. New Testament, 1 Thessalonians, 5.23 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

5.23. May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. New Testament, 2 Corinthians, 12.2-12.3 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

4. New Testament, Ephesians, 1.10, 4.5-4.6 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

1.10. to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in him; 4.5. one Lord, one faith, one baptism 4.6. one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.
5. New Testament, Galatians, 4.13-4.14 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

4.13. but youknow that because of weakness of the flesh I preached the gospel to youthe first time. 4.14. That which was a temptation to you in my flesh,you didn't despise nor reject; but you received me as an angel of God,even as Christ Jesus.
6. New Testament, Romans, 3.30, 5.19, 8.11 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

3.30. since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. 5.19. For as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one will many be made righteous. 8.11. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
7. Irenaeus, Refutation of All Heresies, 1.6-1.7, 2.19.6, 2.28.1-2.28.3, 2.29.3, 3.10.2, 3.17.2, 3.20.1-3.20.2, 3.21, 3.21.10, 3.22.4, 3.23.4-3.23.6, 4.2.7, 4.14.1, 4.32.1, 4.37.1, 4.37.4, 4.38.3, 4.39.1-4.39.3, 4.40.3, 5.1.1, 5.1.3, 5.2.3, 5.3.2-5.3.3, 5.6.1-5.6.2, 5.12.5, 5.13.3-5.13.4, 5.15.2-5.15.4, 5.21.2-5.21.3, 5.22.1, 5.23.1, 5.24.4 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

1.6. But Anaximenes, who himself was also a native of Miletus, and son of Eurystratus, affirmed that the originating principle is infinite air, out of which are generated things existing, those which have existed, and those that will be, as well as gods and divine (entities), and that the rest arise from the offspring of this. But that there is such a species of air, when it is most even, which is imperceptible to vision, but capable of being manifested by cold and heat, and moisture and motion, and that it is continually in motion; for that whatsoever things undergo alteration, do not change if there is not motion. For that it presents a different appearance according as it is condensed and attenuated, for when it is dissolved into what is more attenuated that fire is produced, and that when it is moderately condensed again into air that a cloud is formed from the air by virtue of the contraction; but when condensed still more, water, (and) that when the condensation is carried still further, earth is formed; and when condensed to the very highest degree, stones. Wherefore, that the domit principles of generation are contraries - namely, heat and cold. And that the expanded earth is wafted along upon the air, and in like manner both sun and moon and the rest of the stars; for all things being of the nature of fire, are wafted about through the expanse of space, upon the air. And that the stars are produced from earth by reason of the mist which arises from this earth; and when this is attenuated, that fire is produced, and that the stars consist of the fire which is being borne aloft. But also that there are terrestrial natures in the region of the stars carried on along with them. And he says that the stars do not move under the earth, as some have supposed, but around the earth, just as a cap is turned round our head; and that the sun is hid, not by being under the earth, but because covered by the higher portions of the earth, and on account of the greater distance that he is from us. But that the stars do not emit heat on account of the length of distance; and that the winds are produced when the condensed air, becoming rarified, is borne on; and that when collected and thickened still further, clouds are generated, and thus a change made into water. And that hail is produced when the water borne down from the clouds becomes congealed; and that snow is generated when these very clouds, being more moist, acquire congelation; and that lightning is caused when the clouds are parted by force of the winds; for when these are sundered there is produced a brilliant and fiery flash. And that a rainbow is produced by reason of the rays of the sun failing on the collected air. And that an earthquake takes place when the earth is altered into a larger (bulk) by heat and cold. These indeed, then, were the opinions of Anaximenes. This (philosopher) flourished about the first year of the LVIII . Olympiad. 1.7. After this (thinker) comes Anaxagoras, son of Hegesibulus, a native of Clazomenae. This person affirmed the originating principle of the universe to be mind and matter; mind being the efficient cause, whereas matter that which was being formed. For all things coming into existence simultaneously, mind supervening introduced order. And material principles, he says, are infinite; even the smaller of these are infinite. And that all things partake of motion by being moved by mind, and that similar bodies coalesce. And that celestial bodies were arranged by orbicular motion. That, therefore, what was thick and moist, and dark and cold, and all things heavy, came together into the centre, from the solidification of which earth derived support; but that the things opposite to these - namely, heat and brilliancy, and dryness and lightness - hurried impetuously into the farther portion of the atmosphere. And that the earth is in figure plane; and that it continues suspended aloft, by reason of its magnitude, and by reason of there being no vacuum, and by reason of the air, which was most powerful, bearing along the wafted earth. But that among moist substances on earth, was the sea, and the waters in it; and when these evaporated (from the sun), or had settled under, that the ocean was formed in this manner, as well as from the rivers that from time to time flow into it. And that the rivers also derive support from the rains and from the actual waters in the earth; for that this is hollow, and contains water in its caverns. And that the Nile is inundated in summer, by reason of the waters carried down into it from the snows in northern (latitudes). And that the sun and moon and all the stars are fiery stones, that were rolled round by the rotation of the atmosphere. And that beneath the stars are sun and moon, and certain invisible bodies that are carried along with us; and that we have no perception of the heat of the stars, both on account of their being so far away, and on account of their distance from the earth; and further, they are not to the same degree hot as the sun, on account of their occupying a colder situation. And that the moon, being lower than the sun, is nearer us. And that the sun surpasses the Peloponnesus in size. And that the moon has not light of its own, but from the sun. But that the revolution of the stars takes place under the earth. And that the moon is eclipsed when the earth is interposed, and occasionally also those (stars) that are underneath the moon. And that the sun (is eclipsed) when, at the beginning of the month, the moon is interposed. And that the solstices are caused by both sun and moon being repulsed by the air. And that the moon is often turned, by its not being able to make head against the cold. This person was the first to frame definitions regarding eclipses and illuminations. And he affirmed that the moon is earthy, and has in it plains and ravines. And that the milky way is a reflection of the light of the stars which do not derive their radiance from the sun; and that the stars, coursing (the firmament) as shooting sparks, arise out of the motion of the pole. And that winds are caused when the atmosphere is rarified by the sun, and by those burning orbs that advance under the pole, and are borne from (it). And that thunder and lightning are caused by heat falling on the clouds. And that earthquakes are produced by the air above falling on that under the earth; for when this is moved, that the earth also, being wafted by it, is shaken. And that animals originally came into existence in moisture, and after this one from another; and that males are procreated when the seed secreted from the right parts adhered to the right parts of the womb, and that females are born when the contrary took place. This philosopher flourished in the first year of the LXXXVIII . Olympiad, at which time they say that Plato also was born. They maintain that Anaxagoras was likewise prescient.
8. Irenaeus, Demonstration of The Apostolic Teaching, 2, 8, 11 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

9. Tertullian, Against Marcion, 5.12 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

5.12. As to the house of this our earthly dwelling-place, when he says that we have an eternal home in heaven, not made with hands, 2 Corinthians 5:1 he by no means would imply that, because it was built by the Creator's hand, it must perish in a perpetual dissolution after death. He treats of this subject in order to offer consolation against the fear of death and the dread of this very dissolution, as is even more manifest from what follows, when he adds, that in this tabernacle of our earthly body we do groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with the vesture which is from heaven, 2 Corinthians 5:2-3 if so be, that having been unclothed, we shall not be found naked; in other words, shall regain that of which we have been divested, even our body. And again he says: We that are in this tabernacle do groan, not as if we were oppressed with an unwillingness to be unclothed, but (we wish) to be clothed upon. 2 Corinthians 5:4 He here says expressly, what he touched but lightly in his first epistle, where he wrote:) The dead shall be raised incorruptible (meaning those who had undergone mortality), and we shall be changed (whom God shall find to be yet in the flesh). 1 Corinthians 15:52 Both those shall be raised incorruptible, because they shall regain their body - and that a renewed one, from which shall come their incorruptibility; and these also shall, in the crisis of the last moment, and from their instantaneous death, while encountering the oppressions of anti-christ, undergo a change, obtaining therein not so much a divestiture of body as a clothing upon with the vesture which is from heaven. So that while these shall put on over their (changed) body this, heavenly raiment, the dead also shall for their part recover their body, over which they too have a supervesture to put on, even the incorruption of heaven; because of these it was that he said: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:53 The one put on this (heavenly) apparel, when they recover their bodies; the others put it on as a supervesture, when they indeed hardly lose them (in the suddenness of their change). It was accordingly not without good reason that he described them as not wishing indeed to be unclothed, but (rather as wanting) to be clothed upon; 2 Corinthians 5:4 in other words, as wishing not to undergo death, but to be surprised into life, that this moral (body) might be swallowed up of life, by being rescued from death in the supervesture of its changed state. This is why he shows us how much better it is for us not to be sorry, if we should be surprised by death, and tells us that we even hold of God the earnest of His Spirit 2 Corinthians 5:5 (pledged as it were thereby to have the clothing upon, which is the object of our hope), and that so long as we are in the flesh, we are absent from the Lord; 2 Corinthians 5:6 moreover, that we ought on this account to prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5:8 and so to be ready to meet even death with joy. In this view it is that he informs us how we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according as he has done either good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10 Since, however, there is then to be a retribution according to men's merits, how will any be able to reckon with God? But by mentioning both the judgment-seat and the distinction between works good and bad, he sets before us a Judge who is to award both sentences, 2 Corinthians 5:10 and has thereby affirmed that all will have to be present at the tribunal in their bodies. For it will be impossible to pass sentence except on the body, for what has been done in the body. God would be unjust, if any one were not punished or else rewarded in that very condition, wherein the merit was itself achieved. If therefore any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new; 2 Corinthians 5:17 and so is accomplished the prophecy of Isaiah. Isaiah 43:19 When also he (in a later passage) enjoins us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and blood (since this substance enters not the kingdom of God 1 Corinthians 15:50); when, again, he espouses the church as a chaste virgin to Christ, 2 Corinthians 11:2 a spouse to a spouse in very deed, an image cannot be combined and compared with what is opposed to the real nature of the thing (with which it is compared). So when he designates false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into likenesses of himself, 2 Corinthians 11:13 of course by their hypocrisy, he charges them with the guilt of disorderly conversation, rather than of false doctrine. The contrariety, therefore, was one of conduct, not of gods. If Satan himself, too, is transformed into an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11:14 such an assertion must not be used to the prejudice of the Creator. The Creator is not an angel, but God. Into a god of light, and not an angel of light, must Satan then have been said to be transformed, if he did not mean to call him the angel, which both we and Marcion know him to be. On Paradise is the title of a treatise of ours, in which is discussed all that the subject admits of. I shall here simply wonder, in connection with this matter, whether a god who has no dispensation of any kind on earth could possibly have a paradise to call his own - without perchance availing himself of the paradise of the Creator, to use it as he does His world - much in the character of a mendicant. And yet of the removal of a man from earth to heaven we have an instance afforded us by the Creator in Elijah. 2 Kings 2:11 But what will excite my surprise still more is the case (next supposed by Marcion), that a God so good and gracious, and so averse to blows and cruelty, should have suborned the angel Satan- not his own either, but the Creator's - to buffet the apostle, 2 Corinthians 12:7-8 and then to have refused his request, when thrice entreated to liberate him! It would seem, therefore, that Marcion's god imitates the Creator's conduct, who is an enemy to the proud, even putting down the mighty from their seats. Is he then the same God as He who gave Satan power over the person of Job that his strength might be made perfect in weakness? How is it that the censurer of the Galatians Galatians 1:6-9 still retains the very formula of the law: In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established? 2 Corinthians 13:1 How again is it that he threatens sinners that he will not spare them 2 Corinthians 13:2 - he, the preacher of a most gentle god? Yea, he even declares that the Lord has given to him the power of using sharpness in their presence! 2 Corinthians 13:10 Deny now, O heretic, (at your cost,) that your god is an object to be feared, when his apostle was for making himself so formidable!


Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
adam and eve Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 217
angels Rowland, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament (2009) 396
anthropology Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 217
aristotle and aristotelianism, asceticism in Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 69
ascent to heaven Rowland, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament (2009) 396
asceticism, platonic-aristotelian pattern of Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 69
bible Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 191
body Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement (2000) 88, 89
church Rowland, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament (2009) 396
correction Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 103
devil Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 244
egkrateia Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 69
epicureans, psychological holism of Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
ethics Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 244
evil Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 244
exchange formula Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 103
faith, irenaeus on action arising from Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
faith Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 217
fall, the Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 217
flesh Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement (2000) 88, 89; Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 191, 244
gill, c. Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
glory of god Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 244
holy of holies Rowland, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament (2009) 396
image, of god Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement (2000) 89
irenaeus of lyons, action and change, psychology of Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
irenaeus of lyons, body, holiness for Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 69
irenaeus of lyons, epideixis Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
irenaeus of lyons, faith, on action arising from Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
irenaeus of lyons, holiness, on Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 69
irenaeus of lyons, ordering the self and Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
irenaeus of lyons, psychological holism of Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
irenaeus of lyons Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 69, 82
jesus christ Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 191
justification Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 103
man, creation of Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement (2000) 88, 89
martyrdom Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 244
martyrs Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 244
orbe, a. Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement (2000) 88
ordering of knowledge, epistemology in late antique world, irenaeus on ordering the self Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
paradise, pardes, entered pardes Rowland, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament (2009) 396
participation Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 191, 217, 244
paul Rowland, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament (2009) 396
paul and john Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 191, 217
plato and platonism, asceticism in Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 69
plato and platonism, soul, composition of Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
psychological holism Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
recapitulation Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 103
reciprocity of salvation Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 103
rule of truth Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 191
satan Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 217, 244
sex/sexuality, holiness of the body, irenaeus on Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 69
stoics and stoicism, psychological holism of Ayres Champion and Crawford, The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions (2023) 82
third heaven Rowland, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament (2009) 396
trinity' Osborne, Irenaeus of Lyons (2001) 191