CURIOUS STATEMENTS OF IRENAEUS.

The special importance of the evidence of Irenaeus, is due to the fact
that of all the Fathers whose undisputed works have come down to us he
is the only one who can be considered to have been anything like in
touch with the Apostles. As an acquaintance of the aged Polycarp, who
is said to have been in his youth a pupil of the aged Evangelist and
Apostle St. John and to have met yet other Apostles, Irenaeus had
opportunities for ascertaining facts concerning the life and death of
Jesus which the other Fathers upon whose works we rely did not possess.

What, then, does this important witness have to say, which bears upon
the points at issue? As a matter of fact, very little.

There are, however, two passages in the works of Irenaeus which it
would not be right to altogether ignore.

In the first of these passages Irenaeus mentions that some Christians
believed that Simon of Cyrene was executed instead of Jesus, owing to
the power of Jesus to metamorphose himself and others having been
exercised with that object in view.[31] This power is referred to more
than once in our Gospels, for instance in the account of the so-called
"Transfiguration" upon the Mount; the Greek word rendered in our Bibles
as "transfigured" being the word which in translations of the older
Greek classics is rendered "metamorphosed."

Even if we pass by this belief of certain of the early Christians that
Jesus was never executed, a question here arises which should at least
be stated, and that is the question how, if Jesus was metamorphosed
upon the Mount, as the Gospels tell us, he can be said to have died as