Deconstructing heresy

In chapters 15-20 of Book 2 Ireneaus continues to deconstruct his opponents ideas, at times showing a sense of humour as when he replies to his critics claims that he is ignorant because he is in a lower Aeon, he replies that anyone can postulate an unlimited number of Aeons and place their opponents in the lower realms.

In contrast to the gnostic complexity, his view of creation is that "this God, the Creator, who formed the world, is the only God, and that there is no other God besides Him — He Himself receiving from Himself the model and figure of those things which have been made".

Thinking just a bit outside the box, I started to wonder whether the later classical insistence on the impassibility of God was not in part a reaction to the simply bizarre nature of the gnostic theogenies.

At the end of this section Ireneaus deals with bizarre claims trying to link Judas and the suffering of Christ to the sufferings of a twelfth Aeon. In reply he presents his understanding of Christ's death as:
"but the Lord suffered that He might bring those who have wandered from the Father, back to knowledge and to His fellowship...but the Lord, having suffered, and bestowing the knowledge of the Father, conferred on us salvation...His passion gave rise to strength and power. For the Lord, through means of suffering, “ascending into the lofty place, led captivity captive, gave gifts to men,” (Psa_68:18; Eph_4:8) and conferred on those that believe in Him the power “to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and on all the power of the enemy,” (Luk_10:19; [Mar_16:17, Mar_16:18]) that is, of the leader of apostasy. Our Lord also by His passion destroyed death, and dispersed error, and put an end to corruption, and destroyed ignorance, "