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God therefore has borne all these things for our sake, in order
that, having been instructed through all things, henceforth we
may be scrupulous in all things and, having been taught how to
love God in accordance with reason, remain in his love: God ex-
hibiting patience [magnanimitatem] in regard to the apostasy of
human beings, and human beings being taught by it, as the
prophet says: “Your own apostasy shall heal you.” (Haer. 4.37.7; Jer.
2:19)

Irenaeus further suggests that God could have created the human being as per-
fect or as a “god” from the beginning, for all things are possible to him. How-
ever, created things, by virtue of being created, are necessarily inferior to the
One who created them, and so fall short of the perfect: they are of a later date,
infantile, and so unaccustomed to, and unexercised in, perfect conduct (Haer.
4.38.1). He describes Adam and Eve as children at their creation. It would be
possible for God to have given us perfection at the beginning, just as a mother
can give an infant meat; but we were still in our infancy, and could not have
received this perfection. He is not suggesting that God’s creation was imper-
fect, but rather that it was not yet fully complete, just as an infant might have
perfect limbs, but be unable to walk or run: the infant needs to learn, by expe-
rience, by falling down and getting bruised, before it can run. Moreover, the
perfection Irenaeus has in mind is that shown by Christ, not the perfection of
perfectly formed limbs, but the perfection of love, laying down one’s life for
others. We are not born with such love (otherwise it would not be free love),
but we learn to grow into such love, the life of God himself.

As an example of this divine pedagogy, Irenaeus gives the case of Jonah.
By God’s arrangement, Irenaeus points out, Jonah was swallowed up by the
whale, not that he should perish, but that, having been cast out, he might be
more obedient to God, and so glorify more the One who had unexpectedly
saved him. Irenaeus then continues:

… so also, from the beginning, God did bear human beings to be
swallowed up by the great whale, who was the author of trans-
gression, not that they should perish altogether when so engulfed,
but arranging in advance the ?nding of salvation, which was ac-
complished by the Word, through the “sign of Jonah” (Mt
12.39-40), for those who held the same opinion as Jonah regarding
the Lord, and who confessed, and said, “I am a servant of the
Lord, and I worship the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea

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