Irenaeus on the Scriptures

At the beginning of this work we promised to set out, as occasion required, the words of the ancient presbyters and writers of the church in which they handed down in writing the traditions that had come to them about the books of the covenant. Irenaeus was one of them, so let us set out his words too, and first what he says about the holy Gospels: [a] “Matthew published a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own language, while Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel in Rome and founding the church there. [b] After their departure Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also handed down to us in writing what Peter had preached. And Luke, the follower of Paul, set down in a book the gospel that Paul preached. [c] Then John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned back on his breast, himself published the Gospel while he was living at Ephesus in Asia.” [d]

He says these things in the third book of the work already mentioned. In the fifth book he writes as follows about the Revelation of John and the number of the Antichrist’s name: “Since these things are so, and this number is found in all the good and ancient copies, and those very people who saw John face to face bear witness to it, and reason teaches us that the number of the beast’s name appears through the letters in it according to the Greek way of counting …” [e] And further down he says about the same: “So we will not run the risk of making any positive statement about the name of the Antichrist. For if his name had needed to be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have been told by the one who also saw the revelation. For it was seen not long ago, but almost in our own generation, toward the end of Domitian’s reign.” [f]

This is what the writer we have mentioned relates about the Revelation. He also mentions the first letter of John, drawing a great many proofs from it, and likewise the first letter of Peter. And he not only knows but also accepts the book of the Shepherd, saying: “Rightly, then, does the Scripture speak that says, ‘First of all, believe that God is one, who created all things and completed them’ and so on. [g] He also uses some phrases from the Wisdom of Solomon, all but saying, The sight of God brings about incorruption, and incorruption makes one near to God.” He mentions, too, the recollections of a certain apostolic presbyter whose name he passes over in silence, and he sets out his explanations of the divine Scriptures. [h] He also makes mention of Justin the martyr and of Ignatius, again using testimonies from their writings, and he promises to answer Marcion out of Marcion’s own writings in a separate work. [i]

On the translation of the inspired Scriptures by the Seventy, hear what he writes, word for word: “So God became man, and the Lord himself saved us, giving the sign of the virgin. But it is not as some say who now dare to translate the Scripture, ‘Behold, the young woman will conceive and bear a son,’ as Theodotion of Ephesus and Aquila of Pontus translated it, both of them converts to Judaism. Following them, the Ebionites say that he was born of Joseph.” [j]

A little later he adds: “For before the Romans had established their empire, while the Macedonians still held Asia, Ptolemy the son of Lagus was eager to adorn the library he had built in Alexandria with the writings of all people, as many as were of value. So he asked the people of Jerusalem to have their Scriptures translated into the Greek language. [k] They, since they were still subject to the Macedonians at that time, sent Ptolemy seventy elders, the most skilled among them in the Scriptures and in both languages; and God was bringing about what he willed. [l] Ptolemy wanted to test them one by one, and he was wary lest they agree together and hide by their translation the truth that was in the Scriptures. So he separated them from one another and ordered all of them to write the same translation. He did this for all the books. When they came together before Ptolemy and each compared his own translation with the others, God was glorified and the Scriptures were recognized as truly divine. All of them had rendered the same things in the same words and the same names from beginning to end, so that even the Gentiles who were present knew that the Scriptures had been translated by the inspiration of God. [m] And it is nothing to marvel at that God did this. For when the Scriptures were destroyed in the people’s captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews went back to their own country after seventy years, he afterward, in the times of Artaxerxes king of the Persians, inspired Ezra the priest, of the tribe of Levi, to set in order again all the words of the earlier prophets and to restore to the people the law given through Moses.” So much from Irenaeus. [n]