#Matthew

Venice church of Christvenicechurch
2026-02-11

Reading: 5:21-37
 
continued proclaiming the on the Mount. 

Irenaeus

Irenaeus of Lyons (circa 130-202 AD) is 1 of the most important theologians of the 2nd century. He’s often called the “Father of Catholic Theology.” He served as a crucial bridge between the era of the Apostles & the developed institutional Church of the later Roman Empire.

He was born in Smyrna (modern-day Turkey). He was a student of Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of John the Apostle. This connection to an actual eyewitness of Jesus gave Irenaeus a unique statue. In an era where secret teachings were being whispered in various sects, Irenaeus could claim a direct, public, & verifiable line of “transmission” back to the source.

Around 177 AD, he traveled to Lugdunum (Lyons, in modern-day France) to serve as a priest. Eventually, he became the bishop after his predecessor, Pothinus, was martyred.

Irenaeus’ legacy is defined by his battle against Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a diverse movement that threatened to dismantle early Christianity. Generally, Gnostics believed:

  • The material world was evil, created by a lesser, bumbling deity (Demiurge).
  • Salvation came through secret, esoteric knowledge (gnosis).
  • Jesus didn’t have a physical body (Docetism), as matter was inherently corrupt.

Irenaeus saw this as a total rejection of the Hebrew scriptures & the reality of the Incarnation. To counter this, he wrote his 5-volume masterpiece, “Against Heresies” (Adversus Haereses). Irenaeus’ theology’s centerpiece is the concept of Recapitulation. He argued that Jesus “summed up” all of humanity in Himself.

Just as the 1st Adam failed at the Tree of Knowledge, Jesus (the “new Adam”) succeeded on the tree of the Cross. Irenaeus taught that Jesus went through every stage of mortal human life (infancy, youth, & adulthood) to “sanctify” & “undo” the corruption introduced at each stage of the Fall.

Before Irenaeus’ time, there wasn’t the New Testament as we know it today. Different groups/sects used different, & various, gospels. This is where we get the infamous banned books of the Bible. Irenaeus was the 1st major figure to argue for the Four-Fold Gospel.

He insisted that there could be no more, & no fewer, than 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John), using a poetic justification: just as there are 4 zones of the world (or 4 corners) & 4 principal winds, the Church had to have 4 “pillars” of the Gospel. By doing this, he helped stabilize the core of the Christian Bible.

To fight the Gnostic claim of secret traditions, Irenaeus proposed 2 tests of “Truth”:

  • The Rule of Faith:
    • A summary of essential beliefs (a forerunner of the Apostles’ Creed) that all true churches held in common.
  • Apostolic Succession:
    • Irenaeus argued that if Jesus had secret knowledge, he would’ve given it to the bishops he appointed.

Irenaeus’ most profound contribution to theology is the concept of Recapitulation (anakephalaiosis). Using the math of his day, he sought to “sum up” the entire human experience through Christ.

To counter his Gnostic opponents, Irenaeus significantly develops Paul’s presentation of Christ as the Last Adam. Irenaeus’ presentation of Christ as the New Adam is based on Paul’s Christ-Adam parallel in Romans 5:12-21.

But also dervies significantly from the Johannine presentation of Adam-Christ typology. Irenaeus uses this parallel to demonstrate that Christ truly took human flesh. Irenaeus considered it important to emphasize this point because he understands the failure to recognize Christ’s full humanity links the various strains of Gnosticism together, as seen in his statement that “according to the opinion of no one of the heretics was the Word of God made flesh.”

Irenaeus believes that unless the Word became flesh, humans weren’t fully redeemed. He explains that by becoming man, Christ restored humanity to bring in the image & likeness of God, which they’d lost in the Fall of Man.

Just as Adam was the original head of humanity through whom all sinned, Christ is the new head of humanity who fulfills Adam’s role in the Economy of Salvation. The Economy of Salvation (a.k.a. Divine Economy) is that part of divine revelation in the Roman Catholic tradition that deals with God’s creation & management of the world, particularly his plan of salvation accomplished through the Church. Irenaeus calls this process of restoring humanity: Recapitulation.

Irenaeus emphasizes the importance of Christ’s reversal of Adam’s actions. Through His obedience, Christ undoes Adam’s disobedience. Irenaeus presents the Passion as the climax of Christ’s obedience, emphasizing how this obedience on the tree of the Cross undoes the disobedience that occurred through a tree.

Irenaeus’ interpretation of Paul’s discussion of Christ as the New Adam is significant because it helped develop the recapitulation theory of atonement.

Irenaeus took part in the Quartodeciman Controversy. When Victor I of Rome tried to force a universal practice of fasting until Easter to supersede the Jewish practice & prevent Christians from partaking of the Passover, Polycrates who led the Churches of Anatolia continued to hold old traditions of the paschal feast. For this reason Victor I wanted to excommunicate Polycrates & his supporters. But this was a step too far for Irenaeus & other bishops.

Tradition holds that he was martyred around 202 AD during the persecution of Emperor Septimius Severus. Thought historical records of his death are sparse compared to his writings.

In 2022, Pope Francis officially declared him a “Doctor of Unity” (Doctor Unitatis), acknowledging his role in bridging the Eastern & Western theological traditions.

One-Time Monthly Yearly

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$1.00 $5.00 $10.00 $1.00 $5.00 $10.00 $5.00 $10.00 $15.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly #130AD #177AD #202AD #2022 #2ndCentury #Adam #AdversusHaereses #AgainstHeresies #Anatolia #Apostles #ApostlesCreed #ApostolicSuccession #BannedFromTheBible #ChristianBible #Christianity #Christians #Demiurge #DivineEconomy #Docetism #DoctorOfUnity #Easter #EconomyOfSalvation #EmperorSeptimiusSeverus #Excommunication #FallOfMan #FourFoldGospel #France #Gnosis #Gnosticism #Gnostics #Gospel #IrenaeusOfLyons #Jesus #Johannine #John #JohnTheApostle #LastAdam #Lugdunum #Luke #Lyons #Mark #Matthew #PaschalFeast #Passover #PaulTheApostle #Polycrates #PopeFrancis #Pothinus #QuartodecimansControversy #Recapitulation #RomanCatholicism #RomanEmpire #Romans51221 #Smyrna #TheCross #TheFall #ThePassion #TreeOfKnowledge #Turkey #Valentinus #VictorIOfRome
❀𝓪𝓵𝓬𝓮𝓪𖤐 :yusaao: alcea@alceawis.com
2026-02-04
Yes.. #AnotherCodeR is so much better than #Recollections Remake of it

Cutting the part where Ashley made medicine for #Matthew is unacceptable

Also how Did they manage to make a game without voiceacting so good ?
It's better than its ""successor"" which had it.

There is good reason I disliked the Remake so much ...

#repost •acws #acws #AnotherCode #AnotherCodeRecollection #FavsAlcea #ThisIsHowYouMakeAnEducationalGame
Venice church of Christvenicechurch
2026-02-04

Reading: 5:13-20
 
continues His on the Mount. 

Marcion of Sinope

Marcion of Sinope was born in Sinope (a port city in Pontus, modern-day Turkey). He passed away in circa 160 CE. He was a theologian in early Christianity.

Marcion preached that God had sent Jesus, who was distinct from the “vengeful” God (Demiurge) who had created the world. He considered himself a follower for Paul the Apostle. Marcion believed that Paul was the only true apostle of Jesus. His doctrine is/was called Marcionism. Marcion published the earliest record of a canon of New Testament books.

Early Church writers such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, & Tertullian denounced Marcion as a heretic or antichrist. Marcion was excommunicated by the Church of Rome around 144. He published his own canon of Christian sacred scriptures, which contained 10 Pauline epistles (including the Epistle to the Laodiceans, while excluding the Pastoral epistles) & the Gospel of Marcion which historically is claimed to be an edited version of the Gospel of Luke.

This made Marcionism a catalyst in the process of the development of the New Testament canon by forcing the proto-orthodox Church to respond to his canon.

In the late 130s or early 140 CE, Marcion arrived in Rome, joined the Roman church, & donated 200,000 sesterces. This is equal to millions in today’s money. Sesterces are/was an ancient Roman coin, made from silver or brass. He was influential for several years until his “radical” teachings became harder to ignore.

In 144 CE, the Roman elders did something almost unheard of. They gave Marcion his money back! Then Marcion was promptly excommunicated.

Marcion was undeterred by his excommunication. He just switched tactics. He used his shipping routes (he was a mariner & ship-master by trade) to start Marcionite churches all along the Mediterranean. By the end of the 2nd century, the Church Father Tertullian complained that Marcion’s “heretical swarms” were everywhere.

After Marcion’s death, his churches retained their following & survived Christian controversy & imperial disapproval for several centuries.

To Marcion, the God of the Old Testament isn’t the same as the New Testament. He proposed a dualism:

  • The Creator (The Demiurge):
    • The God of the Hebrew Bible. He’s just. But harsh, legalistic, & focused on “an eye for an eye.” He created this flawed, material world & is the God of the Jews.
  • The Heavenly Father:
    • A previously “Unknown God” of pure mercy & love. This God had no prior connection to humanity until He sent Jesus to save us from the Creator.

The Docetic Connection: Because Marcion believed the Creator made the physical world (flesh), he believed flash was inherently “dirty.” So, the “Good God” would never take on REAL flesh. In Marcion’s view, Jesus came down directly from Heaven to earth as a fully formed grown-up adult man. Jesus skipped birth (no Nativity), childhood (no 12 year old Jesus in the Temple), & biology entirely.

Marcion studied the Hebrew Bible (with some other writings circulating in the nascent Church), which led him to conclude that the teachings of Jesus weren’t compatible with the actions of Yahweh (the God of the Hebrew Bible).

Marcion developed a ditheistic system of belief around 144. The idea of 2 gods – a higher transcendent 1 & a lower world-creator & ruler – allowed Marcion to reconcile his perceived contradictions between Christian Covenant theology & the gospel proclaimed by the New Testament.

So Marcion created/came up with the first-ever “closed” list of Christian books, (which he edited to remove any “pro-Jewish” or “pro-material” sentiment:

  • The Gospel of Marcion:
    • A stripped-down version of Luke. He cut the birth narrative, the genealogy, & any mentions to Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophecy.
  • The Apostolikon:
    • 10 letters of Paul (Galatians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, & Philemon).
  • The Antitheses:
    • His own theological treatise explaining why the 2 gods were different.

The Church realized that if they didn’t act, Marcion would codify & define Christianity. This led to 3 major developments:

  • The Four Gospel Canon:
    • To counter Marcion’s “One Gospel,” the Church emphasized 4 (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) to show a diversity of eyewitnesses.
  • The Inclusion of the Old Testament:
    • The Church insisted that the God of Abraham is the Father of Jesus.
  • The Apostles’ Creed:
    • Lines like “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven & Earth” were specifically added to refute Marcion’s claim that the Creator was a lesser, separate deity.
One-Time Monthly Yearly

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$1.00 $5.00 $10.00 $1.00 $5.00 $10.00 $5.00 $10.00 $15.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

#144 #144CE #1stCorinthians #2ndCentury #2ndCorinthians #Abraham #ApostlesCreed #ChristianCovenant #Christianity #ChurchFather #Demiurge #Docetic #Early140CE #EpistleToTheLaodiceans #FourGospelCanon #Galatians #GospelOfLuke #GospelOfMarcion #HebrewBible #Irenaeus #Jesus #John #JustinMartyr #Late130s #Luke #MarcionOfSinope #Marcionism #Mark #Matthew #Mediterranean #Nativity #NewTestament #PastoralEpistles #PaulTheApostle #PaulineEpistles #Philemon #Philippians #Pontus #ProtoOrthodoxChurch #Romans #Rome #Sesterces #Temple #TheAntitheses #TheApostolikon #TheGospelOfMarcion #Turkey

Venice church of Christvenicechurch
2026-01-28

Reading: 5:1-12
 
began the on the Mount. 

GodStudies | Deep Dive Extragodstudies
2026-01-24

Deep Dive Extra launches tomorrow (Sunday, Jan 26) at 9 AM EST 📖

Matthew 10:23: "You will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes."

The key? Matthew 24:36, where Jesus claims ignorance about timing.

If He didn't know His return but spoke with certainty in 10:23, they must be different events.

Tomorrow: Jewish apocalyptic language, AD 70, and mission urgency.

groupbiblestudies.net/deepdive

a f a s i aafasia_arq
2026-01-22

Giles ift.tt/g41Js3G | posted by afasia | daily entries on contemporary art and architecture |

THE SPACE BETWEEN . LONDON Matthew Giles Architects . photos: © Lorenzo Z…

GodStudies | Deep Dive Extragodstudies
2026-01-22

Introducing Deep Dive Extra — exploring challenging biblical passages 📖

Episode 1 launches Sunday, Jan 26 at 9 AM EST.

Matthew 10:23: "You will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes."

2,000 years later, we're still here. Failed prophecy or misunderstanding?

The answer: Scripture interpreting Scripture (Matthew 24:36 provides the key).

groupbiblestudies.net/deepdive

Venice church of Christvenicechurch
2026-01-21

Reading: 4:12-23
 
began His

Client Info

Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.07
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst