Irenaeus the Gnostic-busterAs strange as this whole religious system may seem to us today, it swept the ancient world and posed a great threat to the Church. A bishop from Lyons (in modern-day France) named Irenaeus decided that someone had to take them on. And so he wrote a lengthy work called Against the Knowledge Falsely So-Called (a.k.a. Against Heresies) that did more than expose the ridiculous and illogical doctrine of the Gnostics. As an antidote to the poison of the heretics, Irenaeus offered a full exposition of the truth of the gospel. First of all, he had to deal with the issue of legitimacy. How are we supposed to know what Jesus truly taught and who he really was? Who is to say that the Gnostic Jesus is not the original one? To the Gnostic argument of a secret tradition, Irenaeus did not respond with a sola scriptura argument. He didn’t say “forget tradition–only Scripture is infallible.” That wouldn’t have worked since it was hotly contested which gospels were the authentic ones. Rather, Irenaeus just used common sense. If Jesus had secret, deeper knowledge to pass down, wouldn’t he have entrusted it to the twelve confidants called apostles whom he personally selected? And towards the end of their lives, would not these have entrusted these secrets to their successors, and so on?. Yet, protests Irenaeus around the year 185AD, the Catholic bishops of apostolic cities such as Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, can all trace back their lineage in a continual unbroken line to the apostles. Since they know nothing of the silly doctrines of the Gnostics, it proves that these doctrines did not come from Jesus and his followers. And to give one example of how clearly each bishop knew his pedigree, he gives the example of the Roman Church and traces the pope of his day all the way back to Peter, naming every Pope in between. This doctrine of apostolic succession of bishops makes clear which Scriptures were authentic – namely, those continuously read in the churches founded by the apostles. And it makes clear where the authentic Christian tradition is to be found –it is the tradition guarded by those churches, taught by the apostles’ successors. Having exposed Gnostic nonsense and established the legitimacy of the Catholic tradition, Irenaeus goes on to preach the true teaching of a material world that is a blessing, not a curse, a savior who truly becomes one of us, dies for us, and continues to nourish us through sacraments, material realities that become transmitters of holiness, vehicles for God’s saving power. So what happens to Gnosticism after Irenaeus’ blistering attack? Not long after his book is written, Gnosticism fades out of the picture . When darkness is exposed, it vanishes, swallowed up by the light. Though this esoteric religion initially appealed to a generation thirsty for spiritual life, it failed to satisfy. So the Gnostic gospels were lost, buried under the sands of time. The only reason that we have the Gospel of Thomas today is because the sand that entombed it was the arid sand of Egypt, which is too dry for the bacteria that causes decay. In 1946 a famous archeological dig unearthed a copy of this document that confirms Irenaeus’ description of ancient Gnosticism.
