Irenaeus

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For other uses, see Irenaeus (disambiguation).
Saint Irenaeus

An engraving of St Irenaeus, Bishop of Lugdunum in

Gaul (now Lyons, France)
Bishop and Martyr
130
Born Smyrna in Asia Minor (modern-day İzmir,
Turkey)
202
Died Lugdunum in Gaul (modern-day Lyons,
France)
Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Honored
Oriental Orthodox Church
in
Lutheran Church
Anglican Communion
June 28 (Roman Catholic Church,
Feast Anglican Communion); August 23
(Eastern Orthodox Church)

Irenaeus (/aɪrəˈniːəs/; Greek: Εἰρηναῖος) (early 2nd century – c. AD 202), referred to by some as
Saint Irenaeus, was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire (now Lyon,
France). He was an early Church Father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the
early development of Christian theology. He was a hearer of Polycarp,[1] who in turn was
traditionally a disciple of John the Evangelist.

Irenaeus' best-known book, Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies (c. 180), is a detailed attack
on Gnosticism, which was then a serious threat to the Church, and especially on the system of
the Gnostic Valentinus.[2] As one of the first great Christian theologians, he emphasized the
traditional elements in the Church, especially the episcopate, Scripture, and tradition.[2] Against
the Gnostics, who said that they possessed a secret oral tradition from Jesus himself, Irenaeus
maintained that the bishops in different cities are known as far back as the Apostles and that the
bishops provided the only safe guide to the interpretation of Scripture.[3] His writings, with those
of Clement and Ignatius, are taken as among the earliest signs of the developing doctrine of the
primacy of the Roman see.[2] Irenaeus is the earliest witness to recognition of the canonical
character of all four gospels.[4]

Irenaeus is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox
Church. His feast day is on June 28 in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, where it was
inserted for the first time in 1920; in 1960 it was transferred to July 3, leaving June 28 for the
Vigil of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, but in 1969 it was returned to June 28, the day of his
death.[5] The Lutheran Church[6][7] commemorates[8] Irenaeus on that same date for his life of
exemplary Christian witness. In the Orthodox Church his feast day is 23 August.

Contents
 1 Biography
 2 Writings
 3 Scripture
 4 Apostolic authority
 5 Irenaeus' theology and contrast with Gnosticism
 6 Irenaeus mariology
 7 Prophetic Exegesis
o 7.1 Rome and Ten Horns

o 7.2 Antichrist

o 7.3 Time, Times and Half a Time

o 7.4 666

o 7.5 Millennium

o 7.6 Exegesis

 8 See also
 9 Footnotes
 10 References
 11 Further reading
  12 External links

Biography
Irenaeus was born during the first half of the 2nd century (the exact date is disputed: between the
years 115 and 125 according to some, or 130 and 142 according to others), and he is thought to
have been a Greek from Polycarp's hometown of Smyrna in Asia Minor, now İzmir, Turkey.[9]
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was brought up in a Christian family rather than
converting as an adult.

During the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor from 161–180, Irenaeus was a
priest of the Church of Lyon. The clergy of that city, many of whom were suffering
imprisonment for the faith, sent him in 177 to Rome with a letter to Pope Eleuterus concerning
the heresy Montanism, and that occasion bore emphatic testimony to his merits. While Irenaeus
was in Rome, a massacre took place in Lyon. Returning to Gaul, Irenaeus succeeded the martyr
Saint Pothinus and became the second Bishop of Lyon.[10]

During the religious peace which followed the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the new bishop
divided his activities between the duties of a pastor and of a missionary (as to which we have but
brief data, late and not very certain). Almost all his writings were directed against Gnosticism.
The most famous of these writings is Adversus haereses (Against Heresies). Irenaeus alludes to
coming across Gnostic writings, and holding conversations with Gnostics, and this may have
taken place in Asia Minor or in Rome.[11] However, it also appears that Gnosticism was present
near Lyon: he writes that there were followers of 'Magus the Magician' living and teaching in the
Rhone valley.[12]

Little is known about the career of Irenaeus after he became bishop. The last action reported of
him (by Eusebius, 150 years later) is that in 190 or 191, he exerted influence on Pope Victor I
not to excommunicate the Christian communities of Asia Minor which persevered in the practice
of the Quartodeciman celebration of Easter.[13]

Nothing is known of the date of his death, which must have occurred at the end of the 2nd or the
beginning of the 3rd century. The Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church celebrate him
as a martyr.[14] He was buried under the Church of Saint John in Lyon, which was later renamed
St Irenaeus in his honour. The tomb and his remains were utterly destroyed in 1562 by the
Huguenots.

Writings
Irenaeus wrote a number of books, but the most important that survives is the Against Heresies
(or, in its Latin title, Adversus Haereses). In Book I, Irenaeus talks about the Valentinian
Gnostics and their predecessors, who go as far back as the magician Simon Magus. In Book II he
attempts to provide proof that Valentinianism contains no merit in terms of its doctrines. In Book
III Irenaeus purports to show that these doctrines are false, by providing counter-evidence
gleaned from the Gospels. Book IV consists of Jesus' sayings, and here Irenaeus also stresses the
unity of the Old Testament and the Gospel. In the final volume, Book V, Irenaeus focuses on
more sayings of Jesus plus the letters of Paul the Apostle.[15]

The purpose of "Against Heresies" was to refute the teachings of various Gnostic groups;
apparently, several Greek merchants had begun an oratorial campaign in Irenaeus' bishopric,
teaching that the material world was the accidental creation of an evil god, from which we are to
escape by the pursuit of gnosis. Irenaeus argued that the true gnosis is in fact knowledge of
Christ, which redeems rather than escapes from bodily existence. Until the discovery of the
Library of Nag Hammadi in 1945, Against Heresies was the best-surviving description of
Gnosticism. According to some biblical scholars, the findings at Nag Hammadi have shown
Irenaeus' description of Gnosticism to be largely inaccurate and polemic in nature.[16][17] Though
correct in some details about the belief systems of various groups, Irenaeus' main purpose was to
warn Christians against Gnosticism, rather than catalog those beliefs. He described Gnostic
groups as sexual libertines, for example, when some of their own writings advocated chastity
more strongly than did orthodox texts—yet the gnostic texts cannot be taken as guides to their
actual practices, about which almost nothing is reliably known today.[18][19] However, at least one
scholar, Rodney Stark, claims that it is the same Nag Hammadi library that proves Ireneaus right.
[20]

It seemed that Irenaeus's critiques against the gnostics were exaggerated, which led to his
scholarly dismissal for a long time.[citation needed] For example, he wrote: "They declare that Judas
the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as
no other did, accomplished the mystery of betrayal; by him all things were thus thrown into
confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of
Judas."[21] These claims turned out to be truly mentioned in the Gospel of Judas where Jesus
asked Judas to betray him. In any case the gnostics were not a single group, but a wide array of
sects. Some groups were indeed libertine because they considered bodily existence meaningless;
others praise chastity, and strongly prohibited any sexual activity, even within marriage.[22]

Irenaeus also wrote The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching (also known as Proof of the
Apostolic Preaching), an Armenian copy of which was discovered in 1904. This work seems to
have been an instruction for recent Christian converts.[23][24]

Eusebius attests to other works by Irenaeus, today lost, including On the Ogdoad, an untitled
letter to Blastus regarding schism, On the Subject of Knowledge, On the Monarchy or How God
is not the Cause of Evil.[25][26][27]

Irenaeus exercised wide influence on the generation which followed. Both Hippolytus and
Tertullian freely drew on his writings. However, none of his works aside from Against Heresies
and The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching survive today, perhaps because his literal
hope of an earthly millennium may have made him uncongenial reading in the Greek East.[28]
Even though no complete version of Against Heresies in its original Greek exists, we possess the
full ancient Latin version, probably of the third century, as well as thirty-three fragments of a
Syrian version and a complete Armenian version of books 4 and 5.[29]
Irenaeus' works were first translated into English by John Keble and published in 1872 as part of
the Library of the Fathers series.

Scripture
See also: Development of the New Testament canon

Irenaeus pointed to Scripture as a proof of orthodox Christianity against heresies, classifying as

Scripture not only the Old Testament but most of the books now known as the New Testament,[2]
while excluding many works, a large number by Gnostics, that flourished in the 2nd century and
claimed scriptural authority.[30]

Before Irenaeus, Christians differed as to which gospel they preferred. The Christians of Asia
Minor preferred the Gospel of John. The Gospel of Matthew was the most popular overall.[31]
Irenaeus asserted that four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were canonical scripture.[32]
Thus Irenaeus provides the earliest witness to the assertion of the four canonical Gospels,
possibly in reaction to Marcion's version of the Gospel of Luke, which Marcion asserted was the
original one and only true gospel (a minority of scholars holds that Marcion´s text was actually
the basis for the later "orthodox" redaction of Luke).[4][23]

Based on the arguments Irenaeus made in support of only four authentic gospels, some
interpreters deduce that the fourfold Gospel must have still been a novelty in Irenaeus' time.[33]
Against Heresies 3.11.7 acknowledges that many heterodox Christians use only one gospel while
3.11.9 acknowledges that some use more than four.[34] The success of Tatian's Diatessaron in
about the same time period is "... a powerful indication that the fourfold Gospel
contemporaneously sponsored by Irenaeus was not broadly, let alone universally, recognized."[35]

Irenaeus is also our earliest attestation that the Gospel of John was written by John the Apostle,
[36]
and that the Gospel of Luke was written by Luke, the companion of Paul.[37]

The apologist and ascetic Tatian had previously harmonized the four gospels into a single
narrative, the Diatesseron (c 150–160).

Scholars[specify] contend that Irenaeus quotes from 21 of the 27 New Testament Texts:

Matthew (Book 3, Chapter 16)

Mark (Book 3, Chapter 10)
Luke (Book 3, Chapter 14)
John (Book 3, Chapter 11)
Acts of the Apostles (Book 3, Chapter 14)
Romans (Book 3, Chapter 16)
1 Corinthians (Book 1, Chapter 3)
2 Corinthians (Book 3, Chapter 7)
Galatians (Book 3, Chapter 22)
Ephesians (Book 5, Chapter 2)
Philippians (Book 4, Chapter 18)
Colossians (Book 1, Chapter 3)
1 Thessalonians (Book 5, Chapter 6)
2 Thessalonians (Book 5, Chapter 25)
1 Timothy (Book 1, Preface)
2 Timothy (Book 3, Chapter 14)
Titus (Book 3, Chapter 3)
1 Peter (Book 4, Chapter 9)
1 John (Book 3, Chapter 16)
2 John (Book 1, Chapter 16)
Revelation to John (Book 4, Chapter 20)

He may refer to Hebrews (Book 2, Chapter 30) and James (Book 4, Chapter 16) and maybe even
2 Peter (Book 5, Chapter 28) but does not cite Philemon, 3 John or Jude.[citation needed]

Apostolic authority
In his writing against the Gnostics, who claimed to possess a secret oral tradition from Jesus
himself, Irenaeus maintained that the bishops in different cities are known as far back as the
Apostles and that the bishops provided the only safe guide to the interpretation of Scripture.[38] In
a passage that became a locus classicus of Catholic-Protestant polemics, he emphasized the
unique position of the bishop of Rome.[39][40]

With the lists of bishops to which Irenaeus referred, the later doctrine of the apostolic succession
of the bishops could be linked.[39] This succession was important to establish a chain of custody
for orthodoxy. He felt it important, however, to also speak of a succession of elders (presbyters).
[41]

Irenaeus' point when refuting the Gnostics was that all of the Apostolic churches had preserved
the same traditions and teachings in many independent streams. It was the unanimous agreement
between these many independent streams of transmission that proved the orthodox Faith, current
in those churches, to be true.[42] Had any error crept in, the agreement would be immediately
destroyed.[citation needed]

Irenaeus' theology and contrast with Gnosticism

The central point of Irenaeus' theology is the unity and the goodness of God, in opposition to the
Gnostics' theory of God; a number of divine emanations (Aeons) along with a distinction
between the Monad and the Demiurge. Irenaeus uses the Logos theology he inherited from Justin
Martyr. Irenaeus was a student of Polycarp, who was said to have been tutored by John the
Apostle.[36] (John had used Logos terminology in the Gospel of John and the letter of 1 John).
Irenaeus prefers to speak of the Son and the Spirit as the "hands of God".

His emphasis on the unity of God is reflected in his corresponding emphasis on the unity of
salvation history. Irenaeus repeatedly insists that God began the world and has been overseeing it
ever since this creative act; everything that has happened is part of his plan for humanity. The
essence of this plan is a process of maturation: Irenaeus believes that humanity was created
immature, and God intended his creatures to take a long time to grow into or assume the divine
likeness. Thus, Adam and Eve were created as children. Their Fall was thus not a full-blown
rebellion but rather a childish spat, a desire to grow up before their time and have everything
with immediacy.

Everything that has happened since has therefore been planned by God to help humanity
overcome this initial mishap and achieve spiritual maturity. The world has been intentionally
designed by God as a difficult place, where human beings are forced to make moral decisions, as
only in this way can they mature as moral agents. Irenaeus likens death to the big fish that
swallowed Jonah: it was only in the depths of the whale's belly that Jonah could turn to God and
act according to the divine will. Similarly, death and suffering appear as evils, but without them
we could never come to know God.

According to Irenaeus, the high point in salvation history is the advent of Jesus. Irenaeus
believed that Christ would always have been sent, even if humanity had never sinned; but the
fact that they did sin determines his role as a savior. He sees Christ as the new Adam, who
systematically undoes what Adam did: thus, where Adam was disobedient concerning God's
edict concerning the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Christ was obedient even
to death on the wood of a tree. Irenaeus is the first to draw comparisons between Eve and Mary,
contrasting the faithlessness of the former with the faithfulness of the latter. In addition to
reversing the wrongs done by Adam, Irenaeus thinks of Christ as "recapitulating" or "summing
up" human life.[43] This means that Christ goes through every stage of human life, from infancy
to old age, and simply by living it, sanctifies it with his divinity. Although it is sometimes
claimed that Irenaeus believed Christ did not die until he was older than is conventionally
portrayed, the bishop of Lyons simply pointed out that because Jesus turned the permissible age
for becoming a rabbi (30 years old and above), he recapitulated and sanctified the period
between 30 and 50 years old, as per the Jewish custom of periodization of human life, and so
touches the beginning of old age when one becomes 50 years old. (see Adversus Haereses, book
II, chapter 22).

In the passage of Adversus Haereses under consideration, Irenaeus is clear that after receiving
baptism at the age of thirty, citing Luke 3:23, Gnostics then falsely assert that "He [Jesus]
preached only one year reckoning from His baptism," and also, "On completing His thirtieth year
He [Jesus] suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to
advanced age." Irenaeus argues against the Gnostics by using scripture to show that Jesus lives at
least several years after his baptism by referencing 3 distinctly separate visits to Jerusalem. The
first is when Jesus makes wine out of water, He goes up to the Paschal feast-day, after which He
withdraws and is found in Samaria. The second is when Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for Passover
and cures the paralytic, after which He withdraws over the sea of Tiberias. The third mention is
when He travels to Jerusalem, eats the Passover, and suffers on the following day.[44]

Irenaeus quotes scripture, which we reference as John 8:57, to suggest that Jesus ministers while
in his 40's. In this passage, Jesus' opponents want to argue that Jesus has not seen Abraham,
because Jesus is too young. Jesus' opponents argue that Jesus is not yet 50 years old. Irenaeus
argues that if Jesus was in his thirties, his opponents would've argued that He's not yet 40 years,
since that would make Him even younger. Irenaeus' argument is that they would not weaken
their own argument by adding years to Jesus' age. Irenaeus also writes that "The Elders witness
to this, who in Asia conferred with John the Lord's disciple, to the effect that John had delivered
these things unto them: for he abode with them until the times of Trajan. And some of them saw
not only John, but others also of the Apostles, and had this same account from them, and witness
to the aforesaid relation."[44]

In Demonstration (74) Irenaeus reinforced his view that Jesus was at least 45 with the statement
"For Herod the king of the Jews and Pontius Pilate, the governor of Claudius Caesar, came
together and condemned Him to be crucified."[45] This would place the crucifixion no earlier than
AD 42.[46]

Irenaeus conceives of our salvation as essentially coming about through the incarnation of God
as a man. He characterizes the penalty for sin as death and corruption. God, however, is immortal
and incorruptible, and simply by becoming united to human nature in Christ he conveys those
qualities to us: they spread, as it were, like a benign infection. Irenaeus therefore understands the
atonement of Christ as happening through his incarnation rather than his crucifixion, although
the latter event is an integral part of the former.

By comparison, according to the Gnostic view of Salvation, creation was perfect to begin with; it
did not need time to grow and mature. For the Valentinians, the material world is the result of the
loss of perfection which resulted from Sophia's desire to understand the Forefather. Therefore,
one is ultimately redeemed, through secret knowledge, to enter the pleroma of which the
Achamoth originally fell.

According to the Valentinian Gnostics, there are three classes of human beings. They are the
material, who cannot attain salvation; the psychic, who are strengthened by works and faith (they
are part of the church); and the spiritual, who cannot decay or be harmed by material actions.[47]
Essentially, ordinary humans—those who have faith but do not possess the special knowledge—
will not attain salvation. Spirituals, on the other hand—those who obtain this great gift—are the
only class that will eventually attain salvation.

In his article entitled "The Demiurge," J.P. Arendzen sums up the Valentinian view of the
salvation of man. He writes, "The first, or carnal men, will return to the grossness of matter and
finally be consumed by fire; the second, or psychic men, together with the Demiurge as their
master, will enter a middle state, neither heaven (pleroma) nor hell (whyle); the purely spiritual
men will be completely freed from the influence of the Demiurge and together with the Saviour
and Achamoth, his spouse, will enter the pleroma divested of body (húle) and soul (psuché)."[48]

Irenaeus is also known as one of the first theologians to use the principle of apostolic succession
to refute his opponents.

In his criticism of Gnosticism, Irenaeus made reference to a Gnostic gospel which portrayed
Judas in a positive light, as having acted in accordance with Jesus' instructions. The recently
discovered Gospel of Judas dates close to the period when Irenaeus lived (late 2nd century), and
scholars typically regard this work as one of many Gnostic texts, showing one of many varieties
of Gnostic beliefs of the period.[49]

Irenaeus mariology
Irenaeus of Lyons is perhaps the earliest of the Church Fathers to develop a thorough mariology.
It is certain that, while still very young, Irenaeus had seen and heard Bishop Polycarp (d. 155) at
Smyrna.[50] Irenaeus sets out a forthright account of Mary's role in the economy of salvation.

 Even though Eve had Adam for a husband, she was still a virgin... By disobeying, Eve
became the cause of death for herself and for the whole human race. In the same way
Mary, though she had a husband, was still a virgin, and by obeying, she became the cause
of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.[51]

According to Irenaeus, Christ, being born out of the Virgin Mary, created a totally new historical
situation.[52] This view influences later Ambrose of Milan and Tertullian, who wrote about the
virgin birth of the Mother of God. The donor of a new birth had to be born in a totally new way.
The new birth being that what was lost through a woman, is now saved by a woman.[53]

Prophetic Exegesis
The first four books of Against Heresies constitute a minute analysis and refutation of the
Gnostic doctrines. The fifth is a statement of positive belief contrasting the constantly shifting
and contradictory Gnostic opinions with the steadfast faith of the church. He appeals to the
prophecies to demonstrate the truthfulness of Christianity.[54]

Rome and Ten Horns

Irenaeus shows the close relationship between the predicted events of Daniel 2 and 7. Rome, the
fourth prophetic kingdom, would end in a tenfold partition. The ten divisions of the empire are
the "ten horns" of Daniel 7 and the "ten horns" in Revelation 17. A "little horn," which is to
supplant three of Rome's ten divisions, is also the still future "eighth" in Revelation. Irenaeus
climaxes with the destruction of all kingdoms at the Second Advent, when Christ, the prophesied
"stone," cut out of the mountain without hands, smites the image after Rome's division.[55][56][57]

Antichrist

Irenaeus identified the Antichrist, another name of the apostate Man of Sin, with Daniel's Little
Horn and John's Beast of Revelation 13. He sought to apply other expressions to the Antichrist,
such as "the abomination of desolation," mentioned by Christ (Matt. 24:15) and the "king of a
most fierce countenance," in Gabriel's explanation of the Little Horn of Daniel 8. But he is not
very clear how "the sacrifice and the libation shall be taken away" during the "half-week," or
three and one-half years of the Antichrist's reign.[58][59][60]
Under the notion that the Antichrist, as a single individual, might be of Jewish origin, he fancies
that the mention of "Dan," in Jeremiah 8:16, and the omission of that name from those tribes
listed in Revelation 7, might indicate the Antichrist's tribe. This surmise became the foundation
of a series of subsequent interpretations by others.[61][62]

Time, Times and Half a Time

Like the other early church fathers, Irenaeus interpreted the three and one-half "times" of the
Little Horn of Daniel 7 as three and one-half literal years. Antichrist's three and a half years of
sitting in the temple are placed immediately before the Second Coming of Christ.[63][64][65]

They are identified as the second half of the "one week" of Daniel 9. Irenaeus says nothing of the
seventy weeks; we do not know whether he placed the "one week" at the end of the seventy or
whether he had a gap.[66]

666

Irenaeus is the first of the church fathers to consider the mystic number 666. While Irenaeus did
propose some solutions of this numerical riddle, his interpretation was quite reserved. Thus, he
cautiously states:

But knowing the sure number declared by Scripture, that is six hundred sixty and six, let them
await, in the first place, the division of the kingdom into ten; then, in the next place, when these
kings are reigning, and beginning to set their affairs in order, and advance their kingdom, [let
them learn] to acknowledge that he who shall come claiming the kingdom for himself, and shall
terrify those men of whom we have been speaking, have a name containing the aforesaid
number, is truly the abomination of desolation.[67][68]

Although Irenaeus did speculate upon three names to symbolize this mystical number, namely
Euanthas, Teitan, and Lateinos, nevertheless he was content to believe that the Antichrist would
arise some time in the future after the fall of Rome and then the meaning of the number would be
revealed.[69][70]

Millennium

See also: Millennialism

Irenaeus declares that the Antichrist's future three-and-a-half-year reign, when he sits in the
temple at Jerusalem, will be terminated by the second advent, with the resurrection of the just,
the destruction of the wicked, and the millennial reign of the righteous. The general resurrection
and the judgment follow the descent of the New Jerusalem at the end of the millennial kingdom.
[64][71][70]

Irenaeus calls those "heretics" who maintain that the saved are immediately glorified in the
kingdom to come after death, before their resurrection. He avers that the millennial kingdom and
the resurrection are actualities, not allegories, the first resurrection introducing this promised
kingdom in which the risen saints are described as ruling over the renewed earth during the
millennium, between the two resurrections.[72][73][74]

Irenaeus held to the old Jewish tradition that the first six days of creation week were typical of
the first six thousand years of human history, with Antichrist manifesting himself in the sixth
period. And he expected the millennial kingdom to begin with the second coming of Christ to
destroy the wicked and inaugurate, for the righteous, the reign of the kingdom of God during the
seventh thousand years, the millennial Sabbath, as signified by the Sabbath of creation week.[64]
[75][76][74]

In common with many of the fathers, Irenaeus did not distinguish between the new earth re-
created in its eternal state—the thousand years of Revelation 20—when the saints are with Christ
after His second advent, and the Jewish traditions of the Messianic kingdom. Hence, he applies
Biblical and traditional ideas to his descriptions of this earth during the millennium, throughout
the closing chapters of Book 5. This conception of the reign of resurrected and translated saints
with Christ on this earth during the millennium-popularly known as chiliasm—was the
increasingly prevailing belief of this time. Incipient distortions due to the admixture of current
traditions, which figure in the extreme forms of chiliasm, caused a reaction against the earlier
interpretations of Bible prophecies.[77]

Irenaeus was not looking for a Jewish kingdom. He interpreted Israel as the Christian church, the
spiritual seed of Abraham.[78][79]

At times his expressions are highly fanciful. He tells, for instance, of a prodigious fertility of this
earth during the millennium, after the resurrection of the righteous, "when also the creation,
having been renovated and set free, shall fructify with an abundance of all kinds of food." In this
connection, he attributes to Christ the saying about the vine with ten thousand branches, and the
ear of wheat with ten thousand grains, and so forth, which he quotes from Papias of Hierapolis.
[80][79]

Exegesis

Irenaeus' exegesis does not give complete coverage. On the seals, for example, he merely alludes
to Christ as the rider on the white horse. He stresses five factors with greater clarity and
emphasis than Justin:

1. the literal resurrection of the righteous at the second advent

2. the millennium bounded by the two resurrections
3. the Antichrist to come upon the heels of Rome's breakup
4. the symbolic prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse in their relation to the last times
5. the kingdom of God to be established by the second advent.[81]