6. For “no man,” he says, “hath seen God at any time,” unless “the only-begotten Son
of God, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared [Him].”796 For He, the Son
who is in His bosom, declares to all the Father who is invisible. Wherefore they know Him
to whom the Son reveals Him; and again, the Father, by means of the Son, gives knowledge
of His Son to those who love Him. By whom also Nathanael, being taught, recognised [Him],
he to whom also the Lord bare witness, that he was “an Israelite indeed, in whom was no
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guile.”797 The Israelite recognised his King, therefore did he cry out to Him, “Rabbi, Thou
art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel.” By whom also Peter, having been taught,
recognised Christ as the Son of the living God, when [God] said, “Behold My dearly beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon Him, and He shall show judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the
streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, until He
send forth judgment into contention;798 and in His name shall the Gentiles trust.”799
7. Such, then, are the first principles of the Gospel: that there is one God, the Maker of
this universe; He who was also announced by the prophets, and who by Moses set forth the
dispensation of the law,—[principles] which proclaim the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and ignore any other God or Father except Him. So firm is the ground upon which these
Gospels rest, that the very heretics themselves bear witness to them, and, starting from these
[documents], each one of them endeavours to establish his own peculiar doctrine. For the
Ebionites, who use Matthew’s Gospel800 only, are confuted out of this very same, making
false suppositions with regard to the Lord. But Marcion, mutilating that according to Luke,
is proved to be a blasphemer of the only existing God, from those [passages] which he still
retains. Those, again, who separate Jesus from Christ, alleging that Christ remained impass-
ible, but that it was Jesus who suffered, preferring the Gospel by Mark, if they read it with
a love of truth, may have their errors rectified. Those, moreover, who follow Valentinus,
making copious use of that according to John, to illustrate their conjunctions, shall be proved
to be totally in error by means of this very Gospel, as I have shown in the first book. Since,
then, our opponents do bear testimony to us, and make use of these [documents], our proof
derived from them is firm and true.
8. It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they
are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds,801
796 John i. 18.
797 John i. 47.
798 The reading νεῖκος having been followed instead of νῖκος, victory.
799 John i. 49, John vi. 69; Matt. xii. 18.
800 Harvey thinks that this is the Hebrew Gospel of which Irenæus speaks in the opening of this book; but
comp. Dr. Robert’s Discussions on the Gospels, part ii. chap. iv.
801 Literally, “four catholic spirits;” Greek, τέσσαρα καθολικὰ πνεύματα: Latin, “quatuor principales spiritus.”
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Chapter XI—Proofs in continuation, extracted from St. John’s Gospel. The…