Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons. In his letter to Florinus, an extract from which is given above, Saint Irenaeus calls himself a disciple of Saint Polycarp, a disciple of the holy Apostle John. The birth of Irenaeus is attributed to the year 130. He spent his youth in Smyrna, where he became acquainted with the works of Greek poets and philosophers; in adulthood he was sent by Saint Polycarp to Gaul (present-day France) to spread Christianity; after the death of Bishop Pothinus of Lyons, in 177, he was elected his successor and died in 202.

To the lot of Saint Irenaeus fell the struggle (in word and pen) against heresies. He wrote many works in defense of Christianity, but only one has come down to us: "The Denunciation and Refutation of Falsely Named Knowledge," better known as "Five Books Against Heresies" (see Preobrazhensky's translation of 1871).

In this work there are the following testimonies about the Gospels:

1) In the 3rd book (Chapter 1, pp. 272-273) Irenaeus says: "We learned about the dispensation of our salvation not through anyone else, but through those through whom the Gospel came to us, which they preached orally, and then, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures. Thus, Matthew published the Scriptures of the Gospel among the Jews in their own language, while Peter and Paul in Rome preached and founded the Church. After their departure, Mark, Peter's disciple and interpreter, gave us in writing what was preached by Peter. And Luke, Paul's companion, set forth in a book the Gospel which he had preached. Then John, the disciple of the Lord, reclining on His breast, also published the Gospel during his sojourn in Ephesus of Asia." 2)

Quoting in the same 3rd book, in chapters 10-11 (pp. 293-310), verbatim from these Gospels everything relating to the birth of John the Baptist, the preaching of the Gospel to Mary, the birth of Jesus Christ, the meeting with Simeon, Irenaeus says: "Such are the first principles of the Gospel. And so great is the authenticity of these Gospels that the heretics themselves bear witness to them, and, proceeding from them, each of them tries to confirm his teaching." 3)

Speaking of the fact that the heretic Marcion and his followers, recognizing the Gospel of Luke, abbreviate it for their own purposes, St. Irenaeus defends the authority of the Evangelists in the following terms: "The Apostles simply and in spite of no one taught to all that which they had been taught by the Lord. In the same way, Luke, in spite of no one, handed down to us what he had learned from them, as he himself testifies, saying: "As those who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word from the beginning handed down to us" (p. 340). Luke preached together with Paul, was called beloved by him (Col. 4:14), preached the gospel with him, and was authorized by him to deliver the Gospel to us" (p. 339).

In this work of St. Irenaeus there are so many verbatim borrowings from the Gospels that if they were quoted here, it would be necessary to rewrite most of all four Gospels.

Tatian, a disciple of St. Justin the Philosopher, who lived in the second century (died about 175), wrote, according to the testimony of Eusebius and Jerome, a great many books; but only his "Oration Against the Hellenes" has come down to us, in which he denounces the madness of the pagan religion and proves the divinity of the Holy Scriptures (see "The Works of Ancient Christian Apologists", transl. by Preobrazhensky, 1895).

In this "Speech" Tatian speaks of his conversion from paganism to Christ: "I have traveled to many countries, I myself have studied your sciences as a sophist, I have studied the arts and various inventions (v. 35, p. 41). While my mind was contemplating all that was best, I fell upon certain books which are older than the Hellenic teachings, and so divine that they cannot be compared with their errors; and I believed these books, because of the simplicity of their speech, the artlessness of their writers, the intelligibility of the explanation of the whole creation, the foresight of the future, the superiority of the rules, and, finally, the doctrine of one Sovereign over all, v. 29, p. 36. Being enlightened by the knowledge of them, I resolved to reject pagan errors as childish ravings (v. 30, p. 36); I have bid farewell to the arrogance of Rome, and to the cold eloquence of Athens, and to the various teachings" (v. 35, p. 41).

In the same speech against the Greeks, Tatian expounds in detail the doctrine of the Word (vv. 5-7, pp. 14-16), borrowing much from the Gospel of John, and even cites the authentic words of this Evangelist, for example: "darkness did not envelop the light" (Jn. 1:5) (v. 13, p. 22), and "all things were created by Him, and without Him nothing was created" (Jn. 1:3) (v. 19, p. 29).

Tatian later joined the sect of the Encratites; at this time, according to the testimony of the historian Eusebius (Book 4:30), he compiled a collection of four Gospels, omitting from them the genealogy of Jesus Christ and other passages proving His descent in the flesh from David. This collection of Gospels, called the diatessaron, was used not only by the followers of Tatian, but also by Orthodox Christians. Theodoret (+456) found more than 200 copies of the diatessaron in the churches of his district, selected them and replaced them with the Gospels of the four Evangelists.

Clement of Alexandria, a pupil of Pantaenus, a man of higher education at that time, shortly before the year 200 became the head of the famous School of Alexandria.

Of his numerous works, "Exhortation to the Gentiles", "Pedagogue", "Mixture or Stromata" and "Which of the Rich Will Be Saved?" have come down to us.

In the "Stromata" he expresses himself about philosophy as follows: "Philosophy is a real example of truth, a divine gift to the Hellenes (p. 2). It was given by the Lord to the Greeks before they were called to the faith, because it also led them to Christ, as the law of the Jews (p. 28). Philosophy seeks truth; the truth is understood to be that of which the Lord Himself said: "I am the truth" (p. 33). However, we do not simply accept any philosophy, but that which recognizes Providence and immortality (p. 97)."