Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 5.djvu/365

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Book iii.]
IRENÆUS AGAINST HERESIES.
339

of whom the prophet declared, "He is also a man, and who shall know him?"[1] He was likewise preached by Paul; "For I delivered," he says, "unto you first of all, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures."[2] It is plain, then, that Paul knew no other Christ besides Him alone, who both suffered, and was buried, and rose again, who was also born, and whom he speaks of as man. For after remarking, "But if Christ be preached, that He rose from the dead,"[3] he continues, rendering the reason of His incarnation, "For since by man came death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead." And everywhere, when [referring to] the passion of our Lord, and to His human nature, and His subjection to death, he employs the name of Christ, as in that passage: "Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died."[4] And again: "But now, in Christ, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."[5] And again: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree."[6] And again: "And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died;"[7] indicating that the impassible Christ did not descend upon Jesus, but that He Himself, because He was Jesus Christ, suffered for us; He, who lay in the tomb, and rose again, who descended and ascended,—the Son of God having been made the Son of man, as the very name itself doth declare. For in the name of Christ is implied. He that anoints. He that is anointed, and the unction itself with which He is anointed. And it is the Father who anoints, but the Son who is anointed by the Spirit, who is the unction, as the Word declares by Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me,"[8]—pointing out both the anointing Father, the anointed Son, and the unction, which is the Spirit.

4. The Lord Himself, too, makes it evident who it was

  1. Jer. xvii. 9.
  2. 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4.
  3. 1 Cor. xv. 12.
  4. Rom. xiv. 15.
  5. Eph. ii. 13.
  6. Gal. iii. 13; Deut. xxi. 23.
  7. 1 Cor. viii. 11.
  8. Isa. lxi. 1.