logical, whereas Irenaeus
has both; the Apologists base their speculations on the Old Testament,
Marcion on a New Testament, Irenaeus on both Old and New.

Irenaeus expressly refused to investigate what the divine element in
Christ is, and why another deity stands alongside of the Godhead of the
Father. He confesses that he here simply keeps to the rule of faith and
the Holy Scriptures, and declines speculative disquisitions on
principle. He does not admit the distinction of a Word existing in God
and one coming forth from him, and opposes not only ideas of emanation
in general, but also the opinion that the Logos issued forth at a
definite point of time. Nor will Irenaeus allow the designation "Logos"
to be interpreted in the sense of the Logos being the inward Reason or
the spoken Word of God. God is a simple essence and always remains in
the same state; besides we ought not to hypostatise qualities.[551]
Nevertheless Irenaeus, too, calls the preexistent Christ the Son of God,
and strictly maintains the personal distinction between Father and Son.
What makes the opposite appear to be the case is the fact that he does
not utilise the distinction in the interest of cosmology.[552] In
Irenaeus' sense we shall have to say: The Logos is the revelation
hypostasis of the Father, "the self-revelation of the self-conscious
God," and indeed the eternal self-revelation. For according to him the
Son _always_ existed with God, _always_ revealed the Father, and it was
always the _full_ Godhead that he revealed in himself. In other words,
he is God in his specific nature, _truly_ God, and there is no
distinction of essence between him and God.[553] Now we might conclude
from the strong emphasis laid on "always" that Irenaeus conceived a
relationship of Father and Son in the Godhead, conditioned by the
essence of God himself and existing independently of revelation. But the
second hypostasis is viewed by him as existing from all eternity, just
as much in the quality of Logos as in that of Son, and his very
statement that the Logos has revealed the Father from the beginning
shows that this relationship is always within the sphere of revelation.
The Son then exists because he gives a revelation. Little interested as
Irenaeus is in saying anything about the Son, apart from his historical
mission, naively as he extols the Father as the direct Creator of the
universe, and anxious as he is to repress all speculations that lead
beyond the H