Not greater than the creator

In chapters 29-32 Irenaeus focuses on the blasphemous claims made by some heretics that being spiritual they are greater than the Creator God (Demiurge) who is animal.

In this section we also get some interesting opinions on:

The Role and future of the Body

"those acts which are deemed righteous are performed in bodies...God, when He resuscitates our mortal bodies which preserved righteousness, will render them incorruptible and immortal."

Statement of Apostolic Tradition

"But there is one only God, the Creator...He it is whom the law proclaims, whom the prophets preach, whom Christ reveals, whom the apostles make known to us, and in whom the Church believes. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: through His Word, who is His Son, through Him He is revealed and manifested to all to whom He is revealed; for those [only] know Him to whom the Son has revealed Him. But the Son, eternally co-existing with the Father, from of old, yea, from the beginning, always reveals the Father to Angels, Archangels, Powers, Virtues, and all to whom He wills that God should be revealed."

On the Contemporary Nature of the Miraculous Spiritual Gifts

"Wherefore, also, those who are in truth His disciples, receiving grace from Him, do in His name perform [miracles]... For some do certainly and truly drive out devils...Others have foreknowledge of things to come: they see visions, and utter prophetic expressions. Others still, heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole. Yea, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for many years."

Marconites

To take craziness to frontiers it has never reached before, seems to have been the motto of the followers of Marcus. Irenaeus describes him as a gnostic magician, who used his tricks to seduce and take advantage of rich women, single or married. Marcus' follows the Valentinus system, adding in a greater concern with numerology, especially Gematria.

In his rebuke of Marcus, it is important to note that Irenaeus does not refute his prophecy by claiming that the gift of prophecy had ceased, rather he refers to it as a fraud or demon-inspired.

Another good question from Trypho

In chapter 87 Trypho asks another of his good questions. Basically he wants to know how Justin can claim that Christ is pre-existent and at the same time apply Isaiah 11:1 to him, if this verse suggests that the root of Jesse has yet to receive "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety: and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him".

For once, Justin gives a straight (not short chs 87-89!) answer and avoids patronizing Trypho. For Justin this means not that Christ needed these gifts; but rather that they find their fulfilment in him. Rather more controversially he argues in chapter 89 that the descent of the Spirit on Christ when he was baptised was not for his sake, but for the sake of the faith of humans.

Two significant theological points to make are:

(i) Justin sees the "charismatic" spiritual gifts as still being in operation, and women being recipients of such gifts alongside men.
(ii) Justin understands both angels and humans as having free will, and that they receive blessing or punishment according to how they exercise this free will.

Justin's Eschatology

Justin's eschatology can be summarized in the following words from Chapter 80

"But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare."

As regards debates on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the following from Chapter 82 is of note:

"For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to the present time."