Historical Jesus

[dejuror]

It must be noted that Irenaeus was supposedly a bishop of the Church of Lyons so the argument in Against Heresies 2 that Jesus was about 50 years old when he suffered which means Jesus was allegedly crucified c 49-50 CE would completely destroy the chronology of the apostles and Paul in Acts of the Apostles and the so-called Pauline writings.

Against Heresies 2.22...........

from the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline towards old age, which our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify; those who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of the Lord, [affirming] that John conveyed to them that information. And he remained among them up to the times of Trajan. Some of them, moreover, saw not only John, but the other apostles also, and heard the very same account from them, and bear testimony as to the [validity of] the statement.

In Acts of the Apostles, the apostles received the power of the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues sometime during the governorship of Pilate c 27-37 CE and in the so-called Pauline Epistle a writer implied he was already converted in the time of Aretas who died c 41 CE.

It is clear to me that one of the authors of Against Heresies writing c 175 CE knew nothing at all of Acts of the Apostles and the so-called Pauline Epistles.. The stories of Saul/Paul in Acts of the Apostles and the so-called Pauline letters are later additions to "Against Heresies".

[Leucius Charinus]

It is clear to me that one of the authors of Against Heresies writing c 175 CE knew nothing at all of Acts of the Apostles and the so-called Pauline Epistles.. The stories of Saul/Paul in Acts of the Apostles and the so-called Pauline letters are later additions to "Against Heresies".

Irenaeus was also supposed to be a Greek writer but there are no Greek manuscripts written in the name of Irenaeus. The only manuscripts for Irenaeus are in Latin. The earliest is Codex Claremontanus dated to the 10th or 11th century by means of paleography. When Erasmus in 1526 CE was preparing to print an edition for this author he thinks Irenaeus was a Latin author. In 1713 CE Pfaff publishes Turin manuscript in Greek; but Harnack later declared it to be a forgery. The Greek fragment P. Oxy 405 has been put forward by some as from the hand of Irenaeus but those who make this claim rely on the Latin mss in the name of Irenaeus being translated to Greek.

The more likely explanation for all this is that the manuscripts in the name of Irenaeus represent a forgery of the Latin church industry sometime between the year 380 CE and the 10th or 11th century.