Reading Gnosticism Through Its Enemies: Irenaeus and the Heresy Hunters
Until 1945, most of what anyone knew about the Gnostics came from a bishop who wanted them gone. His name was Irenaeus, he ran the church in Lyons around the year 180, and he wrote five volumes explaining why these people were wrong. Scholars read him for their facts the way you might read a prosecutor’s closing argument to learn about the defendant. Then a farmer dug up a jar near Nag Hammadi, and the defendants got to speak. I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog with what they said. I want to go back to the prosecutor now and ask a fair question: how good was his case? ...