The Greek original of Irenaeus of Lyon's Adversus haereses has been lost for a very long time. Only the Latin tradition, complete in five books, and the Armenian tradition, with only the last two books, remain. In the unique Armenian manuscript, we read in chapter 20.1 of Book V the word եւթնոստեան (which has seven branches) to which correspond in the Latin manuscripts the words eptamyxos, eptomyxos or eptonixos. These adjectives respectively qualify աշտանակ and lucerna, words meaning candelabra or lamp. We don't know exactly which Greek word the Armenian translator translated and which the Latin translator merely transcribed, and which some copyists altered. This difference in treatment raises questions. If the Greek word meant "which has seven branches", the Latin translation was not be a problem. And if, quite rightly, the Latin translator did not translate, why did the Armenian? The divergent understandings of the Greek term are the starting point for the present study.

We have two clues to try to provide an answer. On the one hand, there is a second occurrence of the word եւթնոստեան in Irenaeus's work. It is located in the Epideixis, in chapter 9, where the author Christianizes the description of pagan cosmology in seven concentric heavens, like so many interlocking caves. On the other hand, the word eptamyxos read in manuscripts of the Latin tradition, sometimes also spelled eptomyxos or eptonixos, possibly transcribes Ἑπτάμυχος, a word that the Suda associates with the cosmological work of the pre-Socratic mythographer Pherecydes of Syros (Φερεκύδης). These two facts have one thing in common: cosmology. But if Latin transliterates ἑπτάμυχος or ἑπτάμυξος, adjectives that can be translated as “which has seven wicks”, this directs us towards the oil lamps of antiquity whose wicks were burned. This reading is then compatible with եւթնոստեան աշտանակ, the seven-branched candlestick, which refers us to the menorah. But this does not explain why the Latin translator did not translate this Greek word precisely.

So if cosmology isn't just a coincidence, is it possible that Irenaeus knew Phecydes' work? This dossier cannot say. The question remains speculative and open.