Day 1070 · Year 3 · The Great Tradition
Irenaeus on the unity of the Bible
Against early teachers who pitted Testaments against each other.
Today's passage
Luke 24:25-27
25Then Jesus said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
26Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?”
27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
In the second century, teachers were trying to tell Christians that the God of the Old Testament was a lesser, angrier God than the Father of Jesus. Irenaeus of Lyons stood against them and insisted: the Bible tells one story, with one God, from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus himself, on the road to Emmaus, opens 'Moses and all the Prophets' and shows the disciples how the Hebrew Scriptures pointed to him. If you are confused by parts of the Old Testament, you are in good company. The path forward is not to throw them out; it is to read them looking for Christ.
From the great tradition · paraphrased
Irenaeus of Lyons · Apologists & Early Church · 2nd c. · Gaul
Irenaeus argued that there is one God across the whole canon, and that all of Scripture finds its shape in Christ, who recapitulates and restores what was broken in Eden.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- What does Jesus do for the disciples in verse 27?
- Why does it matter that the Bible tells one story, not two?
- What part of the Old Testament have you been avoiding? What would change if you read it looking for Christ?
A prayer to pray
Ask Jesus to open the Scriptures to you the way he did to the Emmaus disciples — beginning with Moses and all the Prophets.