Primary source · Greek (surviving only in Armenian)
The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
Irenaeus of Lyon · c. AD 190
What this text is
Irenaeus's catechism-in-brief — creation, fall, incarnation, and the prophecies fulfilled — lost for seventeen centuries until an Armenian translation surfaced at Yerevan in 1904.
Public-domain translations
J. Armitage Robinson (1920)
This then is the order of the rule of our faith: God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible; one God, the creator of all things — this is the first point of our faith.
Manuscript witnesses
Yerevan, Matenadaran 3710 (olim Erevan 3710)
13th c.The Armenian codex, found in the church of the Mother of God at Yerevan in 1904, that alone preserves the Demonstration.
Provenance
Lyon, c. AD 190; lost until 1904
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- On the Apostolic Preaching (Popular Patristics 17)John Behr, 1997Faithful translation with introduction.
- Irénée de Lyon: Démonstration de la prédication apostolique (SC 406)Adelin Rousseau, 1995Critical edition with French translation.