prior to me: and of His fulness have all we received."[1] This, therefore, was the knowledge of salvation: but [it did not consist in] another God, nor another Father, nor Bythus, nor the Pleroma of thirty Æons, nor the Mother of the (lower) Ogdoad: but the knowledge of salvation was the knowledge of the Son of God, who is both called and actually is, salvation, and Saviour, and salutary. Salvation, indeed, as follows: "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord."[2] And then again, Saviour: "Behold my God, my Saviour, I will put my trust in Him."[3] But as bringing salvation, thus: "God hath made known His salvation (salutare) in the sight of the heathen."[4] For He is indeed Saviour, as being the Son and Word of God; but salutary, since [He is] Spirit; for he says: "The Spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord."[5] But salvation, as being flesh: for "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."[6] This knowledge of salvation, therefore, John did impart to those repenting, and believing in the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.
4. And the angel of the Lord, he says, appeared to the shepherds, proclaiming joy to them: "For[7] there is born in the house of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Then [appeared] a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace, to men of good will."[8] The falsely-called Gnostics say that these angels came from the Ogdoad, and made manifest the descent of the superior Christ. But they are again in error, when saying that the Christ and Saviour from above was not born, but that also, after the baptism of the dispensational Jesus, he, [the Christ of the Pleroma,] descended upon him as a dove. Therefore, according to
- ↑ John i. 29, 15, 16.
- ↑ Gen. xlix. 18.
- ↑ Isa. xii. 2.
- ↑ Ps. xcviii. 2.
- ↑ Lam. iv. 20, after LXX.
- ↑ John i. 14.
- ↑ Luke ii. 11, etc.
- ↑ Thus found also in the Vulgate. Harvey supposes that the original of Irenæus read according to our textus receptus, and that the Vulgate rendering was adopted in this passage by the transcribers of the Latin version of our author. There can be no doubt, however, that the reading εὐδοκίας is supported by many and weighty ancient authorities.
