es, for there is a vast difference between the Christ of Paul and
the Christ of the supposedly inspired Jewish Apocalypses; and also that
the agency in producing this conjunction may be traced back to the
oldest time; but the union of a precise Christological Gnosis, such as
we find in Irenaeus and Tertullian, with the retention in their integrity
of the imaginative series of thoughts about Antichrist, Christ as the
warrior hero, the double resurrection, and the kingdom of glory in
Jerusalem, is really a historical novelty. There is, however, no doubt
that the strength of the old Catholic theology in opposition to the
Gnostics lies in the accomplishment of this union, which, on the basis
of the New Testament, appeared to the Fathers possible and necessary.
For it is not systematic consistency that secures the future of a
religious conception within a church, but its elasticity, and its
richness in dissimilar trains of thought. But no doubt this must be
accompanied by a firm foundation, and this too the old Catholic Fathers
possessed--the church system itself.

As regards the details of the eschatological hopes, they were fully set
forth by Irenaeus himself in Book V. Apart from the belief that the
returning Nero would be the Antichrist, an idea spread in the West
during the third century by the Sibylline verses and proved from
Revelation, the later teachers who preached chiliastic hopes did not
seriously differ from the Gallic bishop; hence the interpretation of
Revelation is in its main features the same. It is enough therefore to
refer to the fifth Book of Irenaeus.[624] There is no need to show in
detail that chiliasm leads to a peculiar view of history, which is as
much opposed to that resulting from the Gnostic theory of redemption, as
this doctrine itself forbids the hope of a bliss to be realised in an
earthly kingdom of glory. This is not the proper place to demonstrate to
what extent the two have been blended, and how the chiliastic scheme of
history has been emptied of its content and utilised in the service of
theological apologetics.

But the Gnostics were not the only opponents of chiliasm. Justin, even
in his time, knew orthodox Christians who refused to believe in an
earthly kingdom of Christ in Jerusalem, and Irenaeus (V. 33 ff.),
Tertullian, and Hippolytus[625] expressly argued against these. Soon
after the middle of the second century, we hear of an ecclesiastical
party in Asia Minor, which not only r