SOURCE: An introduction to St. Irenaeus: Proof of the Apostolic Teaching, translated by Joseph P. Smith, The Newman Press, 1952, pp. 3–44.

In the essay below, Smith examines the history, form, style, and structure of Irenaeus's Proof of the Apostolic Preaching. Smith states that Irenaeus's motivation for writing the treatise was to prove that what the apostles preached was true, and that his intention was not to provide an exposition on apostolic preaching.

A. Author and Works. Publications of the Proof.

1. the Author.

St. Irenaeus (end of second century) comes in the history of patrology after the “Apostolic Fathers,” and the “Apologists,” and in some ways constitutes a link between the latter and the Alexandrians. He may be said to belong to the third generation of Christian teachers, for in his youth in Asia Minor he had known the celebrated Polycarp, and the latter had himself known our Lord's own...