Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-c. 202) · CatalogIrenaeus of LyonsIrenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-c. 202) · CatalogBishop of Lyons and early theologian who wrote against Gnosticism.
Author
Irenaeus of Lyons
c. 130-c. 202 · Bishop of Lyons and early theologian who wrote against Gnosticism
Irenaeus (c. 130–c. 202) grew up in Smyrna in Asia Minor, where as a boy he heard the aged bishop Polycarp, who had known the apostle John. He moved to Gaul and became a presbyter at Lyons. In 177, during a violent persecution there, he was sent to Rome with a letter; on his return he succeeded the martyred bishop Pothinus. He wrote in Greek, but most of his great work survives complete only in an early Latin translation, alongside a shorter Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching preserved in Armenian. Later tradition says he died a martyr around 202, but there is no early evidence for this.
Against Heresies, more fully titled The Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So Called, is a five-book work written around 180 by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul. Its target is the variety of second-century movements now usually grouped as Gnosticism, especially the school of the teacher Valentinus.