a man at Calvary? For if upon the Mount of Transfiguration, or at any
other time previous to the scene at Calvary, Jesus was metamorphosed,
the form which was the result of the process of re-metamorphosis
necessary to make him recognisable again cannot be said to have been
born of the Virgin Mary, and can have been human only in appearance.

The other passage in the writings of Irenaeus which deserves our
notice, is neither more nor less than an emphatic declaration, by
Irenaeus himself, that Jesus was not executed when a little over thirty
years of age, but lived to be an old man. Explain it away how we will,
the fact remains; and it certainly ought not to be ignored.

At first sight this statement of Irenaeus would decidedly seem to
support the theory advanced by some, that, as the Roman Procurator
Pontius Pilate admittedly did not want to carry out the extreme penalty
in the case of Jesus, though he reluctantly consented to do so in order
to pacify the Jews and allowed Jesus to be fixed to a stauros and
suspended in public view, he took care to manage things so that Jesus
should only appear to die. The idea of course is that if Pilate wished
to preserve the life of Jesus he could easily have had him taken down
while in a drugged condition, have had the farce of burial carried out
at the earliest possible moment, and then have had him resuscitated and
removed to some region where he could dwell in safety.

What Irenaeus says concerning Jesus is that


"He passed through every age, becoming an infant for
infants. . . . So likewise he was an old man for old
men, that he might be a perfect Master for all, not