Context for understanding the Ransom Theory

[Secret Alias]

I will let you in on a little secret. Look at Philo. The Marcionite ransom theory is there. It's there in a whisper. Look at Philo's passages where he says that Jacob started out being devoted to Kurios and then at Peniel make Theos his new god. Philo makes it as if the end of the Peniel section is Jacob "singing" praise to his new god. That's the big secret of Marcionism. Irenaeus changed it. Origen changed it. Clement knew what Philo was talking about. The idea in Philo is something like all the stupid bad people (like Jacob) start out being attached to Yahweh/Kurios because they are bad and stupid. Then Jacob became adopted to Theos/Elohim who is also Abraham's god, the god of improvement. And then highest on the heavenly ladder is Isaac who knows the ultimate god of all being. So you can see how in one way the Marcionites, carrying on this Philonic legacy could be seen as "Jewish" (like Philo) but if you identify Judaism with Yahweh, Irenaeus could twist this into a hatred of Judaism and Yahweh.