e clear ones, not vice
versa;[513] but this principle being in itself ambiguous, it is rendered
quite unequivocal by the injunction to interpret everything according to
the rule of faith[514] and, in the case of all objectionable passages,
to seek the type.[515] Not only did Irenaeus explain the Old Testament
allegorically, in accordance with traditional usage;[516] but according
to the principle: "with God there is nothing without purpose or due
signification" ("nihil vacuum neque sine signo apud deum") (IV. 21. 3),
he was also the first to apply the scientific and mystical explanation
to the New Testament, and was consequently obliged to adopt the Gnostic
exegesis, which was imperative as soon as the apostolic writings were
viewed as a New Testament. He regards the fact of Jesus handing round
food to those _lying_ at table as signifying that Christ also bestows
life on the long dead generations;[517] and, in the parable of the
Samaritan, he interprets the host as the Spirit and the two denarii as
the Father and Son.[518] To Irenaeus and also to Tertullian and
Hippolytus all numbers, incidental circumstances, etc., in the Holy
Scriptures are virtually as significant as they are to the Gnostics, and
hence the only question is what hidden meaning we are to give to them.
"Gnosticism" is therefore here adopted by the ecclesiastical teachers in
its full extent, proving that this "Gnosticism" is nothing else than the
learned construction of religion with the scientific means of those
days. As soon as Churchmen were forced to bring forward their proofs and
proceed to put the same questions as the "Gnostics," they were obliged
to work by their method. Allegory, however, was required in order to
establish the continuity of the tradition from Adam down to the present
time--not merely down to Christ--against the attacks of the Gnostics and
Marcion. By establishing this continuity a historical truth was really
also preserved. For the rest, the disquisitions of Irenaeus, Tertullian,
and Hippolytus were to such an extent borrowed from their opponents that
there is scarcely a problem that they propounded and discussed as the
result of their own thirst for knowledge. This fact not only preserved
to their works an early-Christian character as compared with those of
the Alexandrians, but also explains why they frequently stop in their
positive teachings, when they believe they have confuted their
adversaries. Thus we find neither in Irena