Section 05: Scripture and Canon
St. Irenaeus stands at the headwaters of the Christian canon and of catholic exegesis. This section treats his witness to the fourfold Gospel and the wider New Testament, his defense of the Old Testament against Marcion, and his method of reading Scripture according to the apostolic “hypothesis” — the practice that became normative for Orthodox interpretation.
Contents
| File | Topic |
|---|---|
| The Fourfold Gospel and the Scriptures | The first defense of a closed four-Gospel canon (Against Heresies 3.11.8 — the four winds and four living creatures); the scholarly debate over whether Irenaeus reflects or creates the consensus; his Pauline corpus; his use of most New Testament books (23 of 27, per Metzger); Hermas and other edge cases; the Old Testament as Christian Scripture against Marcion |
| Exegesis: Reading Scripture by the Hypothesis | Scripture interpreted by Scripture and by the Rule of Faith; the mosaic and the Homeric cento; typology (Adam–Christ, Eve–Mary, the two trees); the economies (oikonomiai) as historical frame; the critique of gnostic proof-texting, with worked examples |
How to Use
- Read The Fourfold Gospel for what Irenaeus received as Scripture and how the limits of the canon stood at the end of the second century.
- Read Exegesis for how he interpreted that Scripture — the method, not just the content — and why the Rule of Faith governs the reading.
- The two files are complementary: the canon is the body of texts, the hypothesis is the key that opens them.
Cross-References
- For the hermeneutical key that governs Irenaean exegesis, see The Rule of Faith.
- For the anthropology of one Creator-Redeemer God that his canon and exegesis secure, see The Glory of God Is a Living Man.
- For the broader Orthodox doctrine of Scripture, the Septuagint, and patristic exegesis as normative, see Orthodoxy Guide: Holy Scripture.
- For the patristic tradition of canon formation that Irenaeus inaugurates and Athanasius completes, see St. Athanasius: Festal Letter 39.