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Preface
Chapter I: The Apostles Did Not Commence To Preach The Gospel, Or To Place Anything On Record, Until They Were Endowed With The Gifts And Power Of The Holy Spirit. They Preached One God Alone, Maker Of Heaven And Earth.
Chapter II: The Heretics Follow Neither Scripture Nor Tradition.
Chapter III: A Refutation Of The Heretics, From The Fact That, In The Various Churches, A Perpetual Succession Of Bishops Was Kept Up.
Chapter IV: The Truth Is To Be Found Nowhere Else But In The Catholic Church, The Sole Depository Of Apostolical Doctrine. Heresies Are Of Recent Formation, And Cannot Trace Their Origin Up To The Apostles.
Chapter V: Christ And His Apostles, Without Any Fraud, Deception, Or Hypocrisy, Preached That One God, The Father, Was The Founder Of All Things. They Did Not Accommodate Their Doctrineto The Prepossessions Of Their Hearers.
Chapter VI: The Holy Ghost, Throughout The Old Testament Scriptures, Made Mention Of No Other God Or Lord, Save Him Who Is The True God.
Chapter VII: Reply To An Objection Founded On The Words Of St. Paul (2 Cor. IV. 5). St. Paul Occasionally Uses Words Not In Their Grammatical, Sequence.
Chapter VIII: Answer To An Objection, Arising From The Words Of Christ (Matt. VI. 24). God Alone Is To Be Really Called God And Lord, For He Is Without Beginning And End.
Chapter IX: One And The Same God, The Creator Of Heaven And Earth, Is He Whom The Prophets Foretold, And Who Was Declared By The Gospel. Proof Of This, At The Outset, From St. Matthew's Gospel.
Chapter X: Proofs Of The Foregoing, Drawn From The Gospels Of Mark And Luke.
Chapter XI: Proofs In Continuation, Extracted From St. John's Gospel. The Gospels Are Four In Number, Neither More Nor Less. Mystic Reasons For This.
Chapter XII: Doctrine Of The Rest Of The Apostles.
Chapter XIII: Refutation Of The Opinion, That Paul Was The Only Apostle Who Had Knowledge Of The Truth.
Chapter XIV: If Paul Had Known Any Mysteries Unrevealed To The Other Apostles, Luke, His Constant Companion And Fellow-Traveller, Could Not Have Been Ignorant Of Them; Neither Could The Truth Have Possibly Lain Hid From Him, Through Whom Alone We Learn Many And Most Important Particulars Of The Gospel History.
Chapter XV: Refutation Of The Ebionites, Who Disparaged The Authority Of St. Paul, From The Writings Of St. Luke, Which Must Be Received As A Whole. Exposure Of The Hypocrisy, Deceit, And Pride Of The Gnostics. The Apostles And Their Disciples Knew And Preached One God, The Creator Of The World.
Chapter XVI: Proofs From The Apostolic Writings, That Jesus Christ Was One And The Same, The Only Begotten Son Of God, Perfect God And Perfect Man.
Chapter XVII: The Apostles Teach That It Was Neither Christ Nor The Saviour, But The Holy Spirit, Who Did Descend Upon Jesus. The Reason For This Descent.
Chapter XVIII: Continuation Of The Foregoing Argument. Proofs From The Writings Of St. Paul, And From The Words Of Our Lord, That Christ And Jesus Cannot Be Considered As Distinct Beings; Neither Can It Be Alleged That The Son Of God Became Man Merely In Appearance, But That He Did So Truly And Actually.
Chapter XIX: Jesus Christ Was Not A Mere Man, Begotten From Joseph In The Ordinary Course Of Nature, But Was Very God, Begotten Of The Father Most High, And Very Man, Born' Of The Virgin.
Chapter XX: God Showed Himself, By The Fall Of Man, As Patient, Benign, Merciful, Mighty To Save. Man Is Therefore Most Ungrateful, If, Unmindful Of His Own Lot, And Of The Benefits Held Out To Him, He Do Not Acknowledge Divine Grace.
Chapter XXI: A Vindication Of The Prophecy In Isaiah (VII. 14) Against The Misinterpretations Of Theodotion, Aquila, The Ebionites, And The Jews. Authority Of The Septuagint Version. Arguments In Proof That Christ Was Born Of A Virgin.
Chapter XXII: Christ Assumed Actual Flesh, Conceived And Born Of The Virgin.
Chapter XXIII: Arguments In Opposition To Tatian, Showing That It Was Consonant To Divine Justice And Mercy That The First Adam Should First Partake In That Salvation Offered To All By Christ.
Chapter XXIV: Recapitulation Of The Various Arguments Adduced Against Gnostic Impiety Under All Its Aspects. The Heretics, Tossed About By Every Blast Of Doctrine, Are Opposed By The Uniform Teaching Of The Church, Which Remains So Always, And Is Consistent With Itself.
Chapter XXV: This World Is Ruled Providence Of One God, Who Is Both Endowed With Infinite Justice To Punish The Wicked, And With Infinite Goodness To Bless The Pious, And Impart To Them Salvation.
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About St. Irenaeus of Lyons, ca. 140 AD -- ca. 202 AD
William A. Jurgens' The Faith of the Early Fathers has this to say about St. Irenaeus:
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St. Irenaeus was the second bishop of Lyons, succeeding the martyred bishop St. Pothinus in the year 177 or 178 A.D., when he himself was perhaps about 37 years old. He was a native of Asia Minor, probably of Smyrna, where in his youth he had been a pupil of St. Polycarp. His passage to Gaul, where we meet him as an esteemed presbyter of the Church of Lyons immediately before the death of his episcopal predecessor, is one of history's mysteries. To exchange figs for frogs is incredible.
True to his name of Peacemaker, as Eusebius remarks, it was Irenaeus who sought to make peace between Victor of Rome and Polycrates of Ephesus, when Victor was threatening excommunication against the latter. After this incident of about the year 190 A.D., Irenaeus disappears from history and is presumed to have died about the year 202 A.D. Not until Gregory of Tours wrote his History of the Franks do we find Irenaeus mentioned as a martyr; and such late testimony is necessarily suspect, especially in view of the fact that Eusebius, who has good knowledge of Irenaeus, says nothing of his supposed martyrdom.
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A note from EWTN
(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)
Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi = ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute = ' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe, when necessary.
Another note from EWTN
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in 1867. (ANF 1, Roberts and Donaldson.) The digital version is by The Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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