Irenaeus of Lyons
Church father · died c. 202
Bishop of Lyons in Gaul from about 177. As a boy in Asia Minor he heard Polycarp, who had known the apostle John. His Against Heresies (about 180) answers the Gnostics, quoting nearly every book of the New Testament. It survives whole in an early Latin translation, with much of the Greek quoted by later writers.
Quoted For
- Mark 16:9–20 “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils …”
- Acts 8:37 “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”
- Acts 17:26 “blood”
The church fathers are the early Christian writers. Their quotations show which reading was known, where, and when, often earlier than any manuscript of the passage that survives.
