5.
They show, further, that that Horos of theirs, whom they call by a variety of names, has two faculties,--the one of supporting, and the other of separating; and in so far as he supports and sustains, he is Stauros, while in so far as he divides and separates, he is Horos. They then represent the Saviour as having indicated this twofold faculty: first, the sustaining power, when He said, "Whosoever doth not bear his cross (Stauros), and follow after me, cannot be my disciple;" 1 and again, "Taking up the cross, follow me;" 2 but the separating power when He said, "I came not to send peace, but a sword." 3
They also maintain that John indicated the same thing when he said, "The fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge the floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable." 4 By this declaration He set forth the faculty of Horos. For that fan they explain to be the cross (Stauros), which consumes, no doubt, all material 5 objects, as fire does chaff, but it purifies all them that are saved, as a fan does wheat. Moreover, they affirm that the Apostle Paul himself made mention of this cross in the following words: "The doctrine of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God." 6
And again: "God forbid that I should glory in anything 7 save in the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world."
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Luke xiv. 27. It will be observed that the quotations of Scripture made by Irenaeus often vary somewhat from the received text. This may be due to various reasons--his quoting from memory; his giving the texts in the form in which they were quoted by the heretics; or, as Harvey conjectures, from his having been more familiar with a Syriac version of the New Testament than with the Greek original. ↩
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Matt. x. 21. ↩
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Matt. x. 34. ↩
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Luke iii. 17. ↩
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Hence Stauros was called by the agricultural name Carpistes, as separating what was gross and material from the spiritual and heavenly. ↩
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1 Cor. i. 18. ↩
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Gal. vi. 14. The words en medeni do not occur in the Greek text. ↩
