Against Heresies — Book 4, Chapter 25

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[Note, the Gentile Church was the old religion and was Catholic; in Christ it became Catholic again: the Mosaic system was a parenthetical thing of fifteen hundred years only. Such is the luminous and clarifying scheme of Irenæus, expounding St. Paul (Gal. iii. 14–20). Inferences: (1) They who speak as if the Mosaic system covered the whole Old Testament darken the divine counsels. (2) The God of Scripture was never the God of the Jews only.]

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Gen. xxxviii. 28, etc.

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John iv. 37.

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1 Cor. iii. 7.

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Jer. ix. 2. [A “remote dwelling-place” rather (σταθμὸν ἔσχατον according to LXX.) to square with the argument.]

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[The touching words which conclude the former paragraph are illustrated by the noble sentence which begins this paragraph. The childlike spirit of these Fathers recognises Christ everywhere, in the Old Testament, prefigured by countless images and tokens in paternal and legal (ceremonial) forms.]

Book 4 · Chapter 25

Both covenants were prefigured in Abraham, and in the labour of Tamar; there was, however, but one and the same God to each covenant.

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Notes