cessity of the death of
Christ and his abode in the lower world, V. 31. 1, 2. Here we trace the
influence of the recapitulation idea. It has indeed been asserted (very
energetically by Schultz, Gottheit Christi, p. 73 f.) that the Christ of
Irenaeus was not a personal man, but only possessed humanity. But that is
decidedly incorrect, the truth merely being that Irenaeus did not draw
all the inferences from the personal humanity of Christ.]

[Footnote 587: See Iren. V. 31. 2: "Surgens in carne sic ascendit ad
patrem." Tertullian, de carne 24: "Bene quod idem veniet de caelis qui
est passus ... et agnoscent qui eum confixerunt, utique ipsam carnem in
quam saevierunt, sine qua nee ipse esse poterit et agnosci;" see also
what follows.]

[Footnote 588: See Iren. IV. 33. 11.]

[Footnote 589: See Iren. IV. 20. 4; see also III. 19. 1.]

[Footnote 590: He always posits the unity in the form of a confession
without describing it. See III. 16. 6, which passage may here stand for
many. "Verbum unigenitus, qui semper humano generi adest, unitus et
consparsus suo plasmati secundum placitum patris et caro factus ipse est
Iesus Christus dominus noster, qui et passus est pro nobis et
ressurrexit propter nos.... Unus igitur deus pater, quemadmodum
ostendimus, et unus Christus Iesus domiuns noster, veniens per universam
dispositionem et omnia in semelipsum recapitulans. In omnibus autem est
et homo plasmatio del, et hominem ergo in semetipsum recapitulans est,
invisibilis visibilis factus, et incomprehensibilis factus
comprehensibilis et impassibilis passibilis et verbum homo." V. 18. 1:
"Ipsum verbum dei incarnatum suspensum est super lignum."]

[Footnote 591: Here Irenaeus was able to adopt the old formula "God has
suffered" and the like; so also Melito, see Otto l.c., IX. p. 416:
[Greek: ho Theos peponuen hupo dexias Israelitidos] (p. 422): "Quidnam
est hoc novum mysterium? iudex iudicatur et quietus est; invisibilis
videtur neque erubescit: incomprehensibilis prehenditur neque
indignatur, incommensurabilis mensuratur neque repugnat; impassibilis
patitur neque ulciscitur; immortalis moritur, neque respondit verbum,
coelestis sepelitur et id fert." But let us note that these are not
"doctrines," but testimonies to the faith, as they were always worded
from the beginning and such as could, if need were, be adapted to any
Christology. Though Melito in a fragment whose genuineness is not
universally admitted (Otto, l.c., p. 415 sq.) d