142 Irenaeus: Life, Scripture, Legacymer they thought indicated in Greek literature by the occurrence of some form of the
phrase Father of all from Timaeus 28c.^4 The latter, the biblical, they thought indicated
by the occurrence of some form of the absolute phrase the Father, which, together with
the phrases, my Father, and your Father, they regarded as typical of New Testament
usage.^5 The phrase Father of all occurs once in the Bible at Ephesians 4:6.
As Justin had before him, Irenaeus refers to God as Father using both types of
phrases interchangeably.^6 He quotes texts from the Old Testament, the Synoptic Gos-
pels, and the Pauline epistles in which God is referred to as Father, as had Justin, but in
contrast to his predecessor, there is no doubt that Irenaeus knew the Gospel of John,
and many of his New Testament quotations in which God is referred to as Father come
from it.^7 Irenaeus also quotes Ephesians 4:6 on a number of occasions, a verse not
quoted by Justin.
Although Irenaeus quotes material from the Timaeus,^8 Homer, and other Greek
texts, unlike Justin, he does not quote Timaeus 28c or any other passage from a Greek
text in which God is referred to as Father. Indeed, Irenaeus’s use of Ephesians 4:6 ren-
ders the division of fatherhood usage into the two traditions, Greek and biblical, not
especially helpful for analyzing Irenaeus’s use of the word Father for God, although it
should be borne in mind that the Father of all phrase occurs seldom in the writings of
Origen and not at all in those of Athanasius, for whom God is Father strictly of the Son
and those who have been adopted as sons.^9 In none of the instances in which Irenaeus
cites biblical verses in which God is referred to as “Father” does he comment on the
occurrence of the word Father. As Irenaeus portrays his opponents’ views in Hae r.,
they too referred to God as “Father” in the same manner as he, using both types of
phrase and quoting biblical verses in which God is called “Father.” They no more than
he questioned the appropriateness of ascribing the appellation to God. Their disagree-
ment lay in the identity of the one to whom the word applied.
Irenaeus does not discuss the question of whether and how language applies to
God. The attributes he assigns to the God who is to be referred to as “Father” are
those commonly used by the Middle Platonists to characterize divine transcendence
and among them is that God is “indescribable.” In Haer. II.13.3, charging his oppo-
nents with attributing human “emotions and passions” to God, Irenaeus claims that the
“Father of all” is at a great remove from such things, for God is “simple, not composite,
without diversity of members, completely similar and equal to himself, inasmuch as
he is all intellect, all spirit, all intellection, all thought, all Word, all hearing, all eye,
all light, and entirely the source of all good things.” Irenaeus then sums up the argu-
ment by concluding that God “is above this and therefore is indescribable [inenarrabi-
lis] .”^10 In Haer. IV.20.5, he describes God’s “goodness” as “indescribable” (inenarrabilis,
ἀνεξήγητος); and in the following section, he links “indescribable” with “invisible,” the
latter being one of his favorite ways of characterizing God. The one “who works all
in all,” he explains, “is invisible [invisibilis] and indescribable [inenarrabilis] as to his
greatness and his power, to all beings made by him.”^11 On the other hand, however,
Irenaeus can also maintain that God has “titles.” In Haer. II.35.3, in the course of argu-
ing that the “diverse words” (diuersas dictiones) used for God in the Old Testament,
such as Sabaoth and Adonai, all refer to one and the same being, Irenaeus gives a list