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Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920
Chapter 94
So then by the new calling a change of hearts in the Gentiles came to pass through the Word of God, when He was made flesh and tabernacled with men; as also His disciple John says: And his Word was made flesh and dwelt among1 us. Wherefore the Church beareth much fruit of the redeemed: because no longer Moses (as) mediator nor Elijah (as) messenger,2 but the Lord Himself has redeemed us, granting many more children to the Church than to the first Synagogue;3 as Isaiah declared, saying: Rejoice thou barren,4 that didst not bear. The barren is the Church, which never at all in former times presented sons to God. Cry out and call, thou that didst not travail: for the children of the desolate are more than of her which hath an husband. Now the first Synagogue had as husband the Law.
Notes
- John i. 14.
- Rendering the Greek ἄγγελος. Cf. c. 88.
- Both the German translations take the passage to mean: “granting many children to the Church, the assembly of the firstborn.” But it is hard to get this out of the Armenian text, which has “first” and not “first-born.” It seems certain that there is a contrast between “the Church” and “the first Synagogue” (whose husband was the Law, as is said below). The text can easily be amended so as to give the meaning required. Cf. IV, xlviii. 1. f: “duae synagogae . . . fructificantes . . . filios vivos vivo Deo”; III, vi. 1: “Ecclesia, haec enim est synagoga Dei.” For the quotation and its interpretation cf. Just. M. Ap. I, 53.
- Isa. liv. 1; Gal. iv. 27.