ABSTRACT
In the first of his five books on the 'Refutation and Contradiction of Gnosis falsely so called', Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180) 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.1 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
