Romans 1 thoughts from Irenaeus


Romans chapter 1 and select verses from Against Heresies


These are some passages that Irenaeus quotes around Romans 1 18-21
50 Romans 1:3–4 (Haer. 3.22.1); 1:1–4 (3.16.3); 1:17 (4.34.2); 1:18 (4.27.4); 1:21 (4.33.1); 1:25 (2.9.2);
1:28 (4.29.1); 2:4–7 (4.37.1); 2:5 (4.33.15); 3:8 (1.25.3); 3:20 (3.10.2); 3:21 (4.34.20); 3:23 (4.27.2); 3:30 (5.22.1;
4.22.2); 4:3 (4.5.3; 4.8.1); 4:12 (4.7.2); 5:14 (3.18.7; 3.22.3); 5:15, 6–10 (3.16.9); 5:19 (3.18.5; 3.21.10); 5:20
(3.23.8); 6:3–4, 9 (3.16.9); 6:7 (3.23.7); 6:12–13 (5.14.4); 7:4, 18, 24 (3.20.3); 7:18 (4.36.8); 8:3 (3.20.2); 8:8, 9,
10–11, 13–14 (5.10.2); 8:9 (5.8.1); 8:11 (3.16.9; 5.7.1); 8:15 (3.6.1; 4.9.2; 5.8.1); 8:19–21 (5.32.1); 9:21, 17
Taken from an essay: 
DID IRENAEUS USE A NEW TESTAMENT CANON?
Stephen O. Stout
Associate Professor, Carolina Graduate School of Divinity, Greensboro N.C.;
Charlotte Christian College and Theological Seminary, Charlotte N.C.;
Ph.D., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C.

This List was a great help, it means that we can now look in more detail at these passages. 
Before we start this work a little bit of background is needed.  At the time of Irenaeus there were a lot of false teaching about Christianity.   There were many groups that believed there was this secret knowledge and that the material world was completely evil.  These systems were about the soul leaving the prison of the body.
Romans       Book                      Chapter                   section
1:17                  (4.                         34.                             2);
1:18                  (4.                         27.                               4);
1:21                  (4.                         33.                               1);
1:25                  (2.                         9.                                  2);
1:28                 (4.                          29.                                1);

So from the above list we find that the quotations are mainly from book 4 and focused in six chapters. Chapters 27 to 34

Here are some references.  Obviously, there were a lot of heresies at the time of Irenaeus and there still are.   The language is fierce because he is fighting for the truth of the Gospel.  I get the feeling from these sections that Irenaeus is dealing with revelation at different levels.  One of those levels is that there is a moral order in the world that God has put in place.  Marcion and the Valentinians made a hash of the scriptures to suite their own selfish ends. Irenaeus put a fight on to protect the Bible, Old and New Testaments and to show that the same God was found in both Testaments.  Marcion rejected this.   Remember that Irenaeus was in the direct line from the Apostles.  St John taught Polycarp and Polycarp taught Irenaeus.   These are some reasons to reject a lot of the teaching from the liberal schools of theology because they tend to put Marcion on a pedestal but in fact he was an enemy of the Gospel.   From my point of view, I find it difficult to understand that Some Christian theologians want to throw away this fight for the Gospel away.  Barth was right when he turned his back on a lot of the liberal theology… In his lecture on the Humanity of God Barth clearly shows that God was marginalised in the so-called evangelical world of the learned and it was all about Man (The Humanity of God by Karl Barth; 1971; page 37)

A lot of Liberal Theologians still ‘don’t get it (the point).’  St Pauls fought for the Gospel tooth and nail as he says in Galatians chapter 1 verse 6
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be  accursed! Galatians 1:6-8
NASB


As you will see in these two sections Irenaeus followed this same tradition and it is a tradition that has continued to this day.  The Reformation and the counter- reformation are sometimes played down but both roads had a road map wanting to return to the purity of the Gospel with different understandings that followed Luther and Erasmus.
Considering this… What do I make of Heikki Räisänen’s book Marcion, Muhammad and The Mahatma…?

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