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IRENÆUS AGAINST HERESIES.
BOOK I.
PREFACE.
1.
NASMUCH[1] as certain men have set the truth aside, and bring in lying words and vain genealogies, which, as the apostle says,[2] "minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith," and by means of their craftily-constructed plausibilities draw away the minds of the inexperienced and take them captive, [I have felt constrained, my dear friend, to compose the following treatise in order to expose and counteract their machinations.] These men falsify the oracles of God, and prove themselves evil interpreters of the good word of revelation. They also overthrow the faith of many, by drawing them away, under a pretence of [superior] knowledge, from Him who founded and adorned the universe; as
- ↑ The Greek original of the work of Irenæus is from time to time recovered through the numerous quotations made from it by subsequent writers, especially by the author's pupil Hippolytus, and by Epiphanius. The latter preserves (Hær. xxxi. secs. 9–32) the preface of Irenæus, and most of the first book. An important difference of reading occurs between the Latin and Greek in the very first word. The translator manifestly read ἐπεὶ, quatenus, while in Epiphanius we find ἐπὶ, against. The former is probably correct, and has been followed in our version. We have also supplied a clause, in order to avoid the extreme length of the sentence in the original, which runs on without any apodosis to the words ἀναγκαῖον ἡγησάμην, "I have judged it necessary."
- ↑ 1 Tim. i. 4. The Latin has here genealogias infinitas, "endless genealogies," as in textus receptus of New Testament.
