ABSTRACT

Irenaeus established the narrative of Christ as proclaimed by the evangelists to be the canonical center that holds the prophetic scriptures and the apostolic witness together. Irenaeus demonstrated the harmony between the Old Testament and the Gospels. Having demonstrated the harmony between the prophets and the fourfold gospel of Christ, Irenaeus seeks to show that the same harmony exists between the Gospels and the letters of Paul. The horizontal and narrative dimensions of God's communication with humanity are evident in the dynamic way Irenaeus relates the old and new covenants throughout the book of Adversus Haereses. In the communion, the church experiences the fundamental truth that "God's power is perfected in weakness" (AH v, 2, 3). Irenaeus begins his interpretation of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness by rooting it in his own doctrine of recapitulation. Irenaeus emphasizes the flesh and its passions as the setting for the temptation by referring to the hunger ascribed to Jesus in the wilderness.