SOURCE: “Irenaeus of Lyons,” in The Early Christian Apologists and Greek Philosophy, Van Gorcum & Comp., B.V., 1973, pp. 23-39.

In the essay below, Timothy examines the content and structure of Irenaeus's Adversus haereses, demonstrating Irenaeus's skill in refuting the arguments of the Gnostics.

In the manner of a surgeon performing a major operation, though not quite so methodically, Irenaeus, in the first book of the Adversus haereses, begins to lay bare the nerves and sinews and so take us to the very heart of the Gnostic heresy which he knew from all too close acquaintance with it in the valley of the Rhone and had, it seems probable, encountered before then when he was passing from youth to manhood in the province of Asia.

He describes it as “the many-headed Lernaean hydra” sprung from the Valentinian school¹ and likens it in respect of the rapidity of its self-proliferation...