The rule of faith

Abstract

Both Irenaeus and Tertullian address the issue of “the rule of faith” in a context where they fight adversaries or heretics. The argument of both writers reaches a climax when they point out how cento-writers composed new stories or texts by lifting lines verbatim from classical epics. Thus, they kept the words (verba) and altered the stories (res or sensus). This article takes this analogy as point of departure in a way not yet done, and finds that ancient rhetoric, with ideals of literary composition, arrangement and order, is decisive for how both Irenaeus and Tertullian present the rule of faith. This applies to both terminology and the illustrations they use. The rule of faith is the intended story of Scripture, which is naturally discerned from there in a way analogous to how historians were expected to arrange their stories. Lucian of Samosata and Dionysius of Halicarnassus provide helpful analogies.