Esoteric Hermeneutics

In chapters 21-24 Ireneaus protests against the habit of his opponents of reading references to the Aeons in the NT. He also objects to their focus on numbers, syllables and letters in the Biblical text.

Chapter 22 is the most curious in this section. Ireneaus is arguing against the claim that Jesus exerted his ministry for one year. Against what he sees as a literalistic interpretation of Isaiah 61:2 he claims:
(i) That "the prophets have very often expressed themselves in parables and allegories, and [are] not [to be understood] according to the mere sound of the words."
(ii) The year of the Lord is to be understood as the whole period of time during which men here and receive the Gospel in faith.
(iii) That Jesus celebrated the Passover on more than one occasion, according to the Gospel of John and therefore his ministry lasted more than one year.
(iv) In a more bizarre fashion that Jesus died at the age of 50. Amongst his arguments for this are:
(a) That to redeem mankind Jesus had to go through all the ages up to old age [50 in his context]. Yet by that argument Jesus would also have to be a woman to redeem women.
(b) That when his opponents complained that Jesus was not yet 50 but claimed to have seen Abraham this suggests that he was over 40, otherwise they would have said that Jesus was not yet 40. In this argument he also declares that Jesus was not "a mere phantasm, but an actual being of flesh and blood"
(c) That to be considered a Master and a Teacher Jesus could not have been 30.
(d) That there was a tradition going back to John and other apostles that Jesus was crucified at 50.