Irenaeus

Worth knowing

• From Smyrna, where he heard Polycarp as a boy — which puts him two steps from the apostles, and he knew it.
• He became bishop of Lyons in Gaul, at the far end of the empire from where he started.
• Against Heresies is the reason we know what the gnostics actually taught: he set out their systems at length before answering them, and much of what he quotes survives nowhere else.
• The Greek original is largely lost. The work survives complete only in an ancient Latin translation, with pieces in Armenian and Syriac.

The 3 books

Irenaeus Frag.Irenaeus, Against Heresies (fragment)ChristologyAgainst HeresiesIrenaeus, Against Heresies (five books)ChristologyExegesisIrenaeus’ CorpusThe Works of Irenaeus of LyonsChristologyExegesis

Who else was alive

Irenaeus against everyone else in the game.