Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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Luke 15

1Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him.

2The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”

3He told them this parable:

4“Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?

5When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

6When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’

7I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

8“Or what woman, if she had ten drachma coins, if she lost one drachma coin, wouldn’t light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she found it?

9When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost!’

10Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”

11He said, “A certain man had two sons.

12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them.

13Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.

14When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.

15He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

16He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.

17But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!

18I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

19I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’

20“He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.

21The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.

23Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate;

24for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.

25“Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

26He called one of the servants to him and asked what was going on.

27He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’

28But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and begged him.

29But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

30But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’

31“He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

32But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”

Early Christian commentary

c. 182–188 AD (historical editorial dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

2. And for this reason did the Lord most plainly manifest Himself and the Father to His disciples, lest, forsooth, they might seek after another God besides Him who formed man, and who gave him the breath of life; and that men might not rise to such a pitch of madness as to feign another Father above the Creator. And thus also He healed by a word all the others who were in a weakly condition because of sin; to whom also He said, "Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee:" pointing out by this, that, because of the sin of disobedience, infirmities have come upon men. To that man, however, who had been blind from his birth. He gave sight, not by means of a word, but by an outward action; doing this not without a purpose, or because it so happened, but that He might show forth the hand of God, that which at the beginning had moulded man. And therefore, when His disciples asked Him for what cause the man had been born blind, whether for his own or his parents' fault. He replied, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." Now the work of God is the fashioning of man. For, as the Scripture says, He made [man] by a kind of process: "And the Lord took clay from the earth, and formed man." Wherefore also the Lord spat on the ground and made clay, and smeared it upon the eyes, pointing out the original fashioning [of man], how it was effected, and manifesting the hand of God to those who can understand by what [hand] man was formed out of the dust. For that which the artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb, [viz. the blind man's eyes], He then supplied in public, that the works of God might be manifested in him, in order that we might not be seeking out another hand by which man was fashioned, nor another Father; knowing that this hand of God which formed us at the beginning, and which does form us in the womb, has in the last times sought us out who were lost, winning back His own, and taking up the lost sheep upon His shoulders, and with joy restoring it to the fold of life.

Commentary · Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter 15, Section 2 · Original source · Irenaeus of Lyons; The Writings of Irenaeus, Volume II, Ante-Nicene Christian Library IX; translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambaut; T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1869. Existing transcription supplied by Wikisource contributors. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.