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Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920
Chapter 89
That He would not send back the redeemed to the legislation of Moses—for the law was fulfilled in Christ—but would have them live1 in newness by the Word, through faith in the Son of God and love, Isaiah declared, saying: Remember not the2 former things, nor bring to mind the things that were in the beginning. Behold I make new (things), which shall now spring up, and ye shall know (them). And I will make in the wilderness a way, and in the waterless place streams, to give drink to my chosen race, and to my people whom I have purchased to declare my virtues.3 Now a wilderness and a waterless place was at first the calling of the Gentiles: for the Word had not passed through them,4 nor given them the Holy Spirit to drink;5 who fashioned the new way of godliness and righteousness, and made copious streams to spring forth, disseminating over the earth the Holy Spirit; even as it had been promised through the prophets, that in the end of the days He should pour out the Spirit upon the face of the earth.
Notes
- The word means more especially “to live in freedom.”
- Isa. xliii. 18 ff.
- Quoted in IV, lv. 5, with a brief comment.
- IV, xxv. 2.: “per omnes illos transiens Verbum,” in connexion with “the voice of many waters.”
- The Greek doubtless was: οὐδὲ πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπότισεν αὐτούς: and the context shows that πνεῦμα must be taken as accusative. For the general thought of the passage cf. III, xviii. 1 f.