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Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920
Chapter 32
Whence then is the substance of the first-formed (man)? From the Will and the Wisdom of God, and from the virgin earth.1 For God had2 not sent rain, the Scripture says, upon the earth, before man was made; and there was no man to till the earth. From this, then, whilst it was still virgin, God took dust of the earth and formed the man, the beginning of mankind. So then the Lord, summing up afresh this man, took the same dispensation of entry into flesh, being born from the Virgin by the Will and the Wisdom of God; that He also should show forth the likeness of Adam’s entry into flesh,3 and there should be that which was written in the beginning,4 man after the image and likeness5 of God.
Notes
- Almost the same words are here used as in III, xxx. 1: “Et quemadmodum protoplastus ille Adam de rudi terra et de adhuc virgine—nondum enim pluerat Deus, et homo non erat operatus terram—habuit substantiam et plasmatus est manu Dei, id est, Verbo Dei—omnia enim per ipsum facta sunt—et sumpsit Dominus limum a terra et plasmavit hominem: ita recapitulans in se Adam ipse Verbum existens ex Maria, quae adhuc erat virgo, recte accipiebat generationem Adae recapitulationis.” Cf. III, xix. 6: also Ephraim’s Commentary on the Diatessaron (Moesinger, p. 21): “In Virginis conceptione disce quod qui sine conjugio Adamum ex virginea terra protulit, is etiam Adamum secundum in utero virginis formaverit.” Cf. also Tertullian, De carne Christi, 17; Firmicus Maternus, De errore prof. relig., 25.
- Gen. ii. 5.
- III, xxxi. 1: τὴν αὐτὴν ἐκείνῳ τῆς γεννήσεως ἔχειν ὁμοιότητα.
- V, ii. 1: “restaurans suo plasmati quod dictum est in principio factum esse hominem secundum imaginem et similitudinem Dei:” and below, c. 97.
- Gen. i. 26.