eius
verbum." The Logos is God as God, nay, for us he is God himself, in so
far as his work is the work of God. Thus, and not in a modalistic sense,
we must understand passages like II. 30. 9: "fabricator qui fecit mundum
per semitipsum, hoc est per verbum et per sapientiam suam," or hymnlike
statements such as III. 16. 6: "et hominem ergo in semetipsum
recapitulans est, invisibilis visibilis factus, et incomprehensibilis
factus comprehensibilis et impassibilis passibilis et verbum homo" (see
something similar in Ignatius and Melito, Otto, Corp. Apolog. IX, p. 419
sq.). Irenaeus also says in III. 6. 2: "filius est in patre et habet in
se patrem," III. 6. 1.: "utrosque dei appellatione signavit spiritus, et
eum qui ungitur filium et eum, qui ungit, id est patrem." He not only
says that the Son has revealed the Father, but that the Father has
revealed the Son (IV. 6. 3: IV. 7. 7). He applies Old Testament passages
sometimes to Christ, sometimes to God, and hence in some cases calls the
Father the creator, and in others the Son ("pater generis humani verbum
dei", IV. 31. 2). Irenaeus (IV. 4. 2) appropriated the expression of an
ancient "immensum patrem in filio mensuratum; mensura enim patris
filius, quoniam et capit eum." This expression is by no means intended
to denote a diminution, but rather to signify the identity of Father and
Son. In all this Irenaeus adhered to an ancient tradition; but these
propositions do not admit of being incorporated with a rational system.]

[Footnote 554: Logos and Sophia are the hands of God (III. 21. 10: IV.
20): also IV. 6. 6: "Invisibile filii pater, visibile autem patris
filius." Judging from this passage, it is always doubtful whether
Irenaeus, like Tertullian, assumed that transcendency belonged to the
Father in a still higher sense than to the Son, and that the nature of
the Son was more adapted for entering the finite than that of the Father
(on the contrary see IV. 20. 7 and especially IV. 24. 2: "verbum
naturaliter quidem invisibile"). But it ought not to have been denied
that there are passages, in which Irenaeus hints at a subordination of
the Son, and deduces this from his origin. See II. 28. 8 (the knowledge
of the Father reaches further than that of the Son and the Father is
greater than the Son); III. 6. 1 (the Son _receives_ from the Father the
sovereignty); IV. 17. 6 (a very important passage: the Father owns the
name of Jesus Christ as his, first, because it is the name