204 Irenaeus: Life, Scripture, Legacyits zenith. Still, the speed with which his works travelled overseas is notable. Irenaeus
felt himself very much to be “out in the hinterlands,” among the Celtic barbarians,^28 yet
in his own lifetime his works traversed the Empire.^29
They also traversed the Empire’s linguistic divides. Irenaeus of course wrote in
Greek, the native language of his Asiatic origins (and, we should recall from the tes-
timony of, for example, Hippolytus, the language of some theological writing even in
Rome^30 ). Yet very quickly his Refutation was translated into Latin. Several scholars
have tried to date the Latin version to sometime in the mid- to late-fourth century,
on the evidence that Augustine was supposedly the first to refer to it.^31 This, however,
ignores the evidence of Tertullian, who quotes from it in his Adversus Valentinianos,
written sometime between c. 208–212.^32 We can more appropriately date the Latin
translation to sometime in the first years of the third century, when, in the words of
Unger, “Gnosticism” was “still a force to be reckoned with.”^33 This puts Irenaeus’s Greek
original in Africa within his own lifetime, and a (presumably complete) Latin transla-
tion in the region within approximately ten to twenty years of his death^34 —a fairly
significant achievement.
Irenaeus’s contemporaries show that the spread of his works was accompanied
by their employment in ecclesiastical considerations. Clement (c. 150–215) reads
and makes use of his Greek edition in Alexandria,^35 as does Hippolytus (c. 170–236)
in Rome.^36 The Roman connection needn’t surprise us; the Alexandrian connection
should at least encourage us. Irenaeus’s articulation of the apostolic faith, framed
in a manner aimed to thwart gnosticizing traditions, clearly found a ready home in
African battles against such movements. Perhaps it was specifically because he man-
aged to craft his polemic and apologetic in a manner that went beyond the disputes
themselves, into the realm of a positive expression of doctrine, that his works were so
widely and immediately received; though in both Clement and Hippolytus, Irenaeus
was employed for exclusively heresiological ends.
So we have Irenaeus in Gaul, Italy, and Africa in what we might consider his more
or less immediate timeframe. Was he also a voice in Roman Asia? Kraft and others
have posited an ongoing Asia-Gaul link, given the importance of the city as a trading
center; but this view has been challenged by others.^37 Nonetheless, Irenaeus’s apparent
familiarity with the works of Theophilus, together with his ongoing expression of Asi-
atic concerns and views, might suggest that there was some interaction between him
and the eastern realms of the Empire, just as there was with the southern. But here we
can only speculate, as least as regards these earliest days of his legacy.
Reflecting on the extent of Irenaeus’s contemporary influence, Osborn was to note,
“This shows the speed with which his ideas concerning concord between different tra-
ditions influenced the whole church.”^38 We can rightly question this particular assess-
ment. There is far less evidence to support a view of his reputation travelling because
of these concord-inducing characteristics than there is of it travelling because it was an
effective tool against the various sects and factions rampant across the Empire.^39 Still,
it travelled, and to a degree that is significant in the period.