ABSTRACT
Irenaeus neither boasts of familiar knowledge with, nor indulges in speculation concerning, any detailed hierarchy or precise commission and office of angels, other than to remark on their service to creation and that the angels in this world were set under 'the archangel' as 'steward'. He shuns any such claim or conjecture. Both the dominion of angels theory and their relation to God as instanced from the writing of Justin Martyr have the potential and vulnerability for development into gnostic systems, and Irenaeus's approach to the subject of angels is much more circumspect than to allow such. In arguing and safeguarding against various gnostic theories regarding angels both generally as to the nature of their being and particularly as agents of, or even creators in, the making of the universe, Irenaeus emphasizes that all creation is God's own possession and territory.
