They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures; and, to use a common proverb, they strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavour to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another, they succeed in deluding many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions.<\/p>\n
Their manner of acting is just as if one, when a beautiful image of a king has been constructed by some skilful artist out of precious jewels, should then take this likeness of the man all to pieces, should rearrange the gems, and so fit them together as to make them into the form of a dog or of a fox, and even that but poorly executed; and should then maintain and declare that this was the beautiful image of the king which the skilful artist constructed, pointing to the jewels which had been admirably fitted together by the first artist to form the image of the king, but have been with bad effect transferred by the latter one to the shape of a dog, and by thus exhibiting the jewels, should deceive the ignorant who had no conception what a king\u2019s form was like, and persuade them that that miserable likeness of the fox was, in fact, the beautiful image of the king.<\/p>\n
— Irenaeus, Against Heresies<\/em>, Bk. 1 Ch. 8<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures; and, to use a common proverb, they strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavour to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irenaeus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21866,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/on-the-septuagint\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":0},"title":"On the Septuagint","author":"Nemo","date":"February 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"God, then, was made man, and the Lord did Himself save us, giving us the token of the Virgin. But not as some allege, among those now presuming to expound the Scripture, \u201cBehold, a young woman shall conceive, and bring forth a son,\u201d as Theodotion the Ephesian has interpreted, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":405,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/irenaeus-eucharist\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":1},"title":"Irenaeus: Eucharist","author":"Nemo","date":"March 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"But vain in every respect are they who despise the entire dispensation of God, and disallow the salvation of the flesh, and treat with contempt its regeneration, maintaining that it is not capable of incorruption. But if this indeed do not attain salvation, then neither did the Lord redeem us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":755,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/on-the-authorship-of-the-new-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":2},"title":"On the Authorship of the New Testament","author":"Nemo","date":"January 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark, the follower of Peter, while Peter publicly preached the Gospel at Rome before some of C\u00e6sar\u2019s equites, and adduced many testimonies to Christ, in order that thereby they might be able to commit to memory what was spoken, of what was spoken by Peter, wrote entirely what is called\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church Fathers"","block_context":{"text":"Church Fathers","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/church-fathers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":315,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/irenaeus-christ-recapitulating-adam-and-mankind-in-himself\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":3},"title":"Irenaeus: Christ Recapitulating Adam and Mankind in Himself","author":"Nemo","date":"February 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"And as the protoplast himself Adam, had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil (\u201cfor God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground\u201d), and was formed by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, for \u201call things were made\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":207,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/irenaeus-against-heresies\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":4},"title":"Irenaeus: Against Heresies","author":"Nemo","date":"January 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Conscience in Sacrifice For at the beginning God had respect to the gifts of Abel, because he offered with single-mindedness and righteousness; but He had no respect unto the offering of Cain, because his heart was divided with envy and malice, which he cherished against his brother, as God says\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1275,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/on-the-rule-of-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":5},"title":"On the Rule of Faith","author":"Nemo","date":"October 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Aristides"","block_context":{"text":"Aristides","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/aristides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peqR9l-4X","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}