ABSTRACT
In the first of his five books on the 'Refutation and Contradiction of Gnosis falsely so called' , Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 1 80) illustrates the appearance of the Holy Scripture(s) by means of a remarkable comparison. He accuses gnostic exegetes of having changed the true order of the Scriptures and altered the true sense by falsifying the way the books are assembled. I This treatment of the Scriptures, he continues, seems to him to be
as if someone were to destroy the basic human shape of the image of a king made by a wise artist out of many-coloured stones, misplace and change around the stones, make the image of a dog or a fox, and at the same time try to explain and assert that this was still that beautiful image of a king which the wise artist made.2
