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Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920
Chapter 86
If then the prophets prophesied that the Son of God was to appear upon the earth, and prophesied also where on the earth and how and in what manner He should make known His appearance, and all these prophecies the Lord took upon Himself; our faith in Him was well-founded, and the tradition of the preaching (is) true: that is to say, the testimony of the apostles, who being sent forth by the Lord preached in all the world the Son of God, who came to suffer, and endured to the destruction of death and the quickening of the flesh: that by the putting away of the enmity towards God, which is unrighteousness, we should obtain peace with Him, doing that which is pleasing to Him. And this was declared by the prophets in the words: How beautiful are the feet1 of them that bring tidings of peace, and of them that bring tidings of good things.2 And that these were to go forth from Judaea and from Jerusalem, to declare to us the word of God, which is the law3 for us, Isaiah says thus: For from Sion shall come4 forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And that in all the earth they were to preach, David says: Into all the earth went forth5 their speech, and their words to the ends of the world.
Notes
- Rom. x. 15 (Isa. lii. 7).
- Quoted with a small difference in III, xiii. 1.
- See the comment on the same text in IV, lvi. 3 f.: “Si autem libertatis lex, id est, verbum Dei ab apostolis qui ab Hierusalem exierunt annuntiatum,” etc.
- Isa. ii. 3.
- Ps. xix. 4.