Abstract
In recent years, it has become common to point to the early church's Rule of Faith as evidence for the reading of Scripture as an overarching story. Appeal is typically made to Irenaeus's accounts of the Rule of Faith with particular importance being attached to the rehearsal of the Rule in the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching. It has been argued that in Irenaeus's Demonstration the lacuna between the statement about God the Creator and the salvific events of the life of Christ are filled out with the story of God's dealings with Israel. This article reexamines Irenaeus's understanding of the Rule of Faith and argues that accounts of this sort are mistaken and involve a misreading of the Demonstration. Irenaeus does not present a metanarrative that stretches from creation to consummation; rather, he works with a two-part OT canon and shows how both parts prefigure and predict salvation in Jesus Christ. The article concludes with a reconsideration of the relationship between narrative and the Rule of Faith and how Israel is to be figured into Christian faith.
