ABSTRACT
In this chapter on the sixth section of Demonstration, Irenaeus puts the making of man in the context of its background in the preceding sections concerning ail creation, particularly the heavenly, and the glory it gives to God. The creation of humanity is singled out as that which is accomplished, in contradistinction to all the other creative activity of God, in a particular way by 'the hands of God'. The man is made by God from that which is 'purest and finest' from the earth. Two points are: the first is that 'purest and finest' indicates the essential goodness of man so made: this is opposed to the dualism of the heretics in which all that is material or corporeal is regarded as evil and the product of evil. The second is the linking of 'purest and finest' and 'virgin' soil. Irenaeus dwells constantly elsewhere on the quality of the dust so used by God.
