Irenaeus and Genesis

In second-century Lyons, a bishop and his rivals argued over the opening chapters of the Bible. Irenaeus is often remembered for the rule of faith and the doctrine of recapitulation, but Thomas Holsinger-Friesen looks beneath those landmarks to something more central: the way Irenaeus actually read Scripture. His test cases are two verses on the making of humankind, Genesis 1:26 and 2:7, which both sides held indispensable. His foil is the Gnostic Christians on the church's fringe, whose vision of where faith leads many found compelling.

The study reads Irenaeus and his competitors sympathetically, asking why his interpretations came to seem more plausible, faithful and fruitful within the mainstream church. It also brings that ancient dispute to bear on present questions of power, truth and interpretive method. A careful scholarly work for students of patristics, early Christian thought and the history of biblical interpretation.