Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Moral of the holy fable: Marcion was a demon-possessed.

Giuseppe wrote:Moral of the holy fable: Marcion was a demon-possessed.

Are you attempting to claim that Marcion was the demon who recognized who Jesus really was in the Gospels? Are they secretly mocking him in this somehow?

Giuseppe wrote:Moral of the holy fable: Marcion was a demon-possessed.

According to Polycarp, Marcion was the first-born of Satan.

"Marcion met Polycarp on one occasion, and said, "Do you know me?" Polycarp replied, "I do know you, the first-born of Satan."...Irenaeus (c. 180) 1.416

lsayre wrote:

Giuseppe wrote:Moral of the holy fable: Marcion was a demon-possessed.

Are you attempting to claim that Marcion was the demon who recognized who Jesus really was in the Gospels? Are they secretly mocking him in this somehow?

No. It is only mine irony. Marcion was not meant here, but the too-much-antinomian Christians surely, I believe.

The demons fear the MAN Jesus of Nazaret and escape from him. They don't fear the celestial status of Jesus as Christ (since they already know him).

This repulsion or rejection of the humanity of Jesus by demons in Mark remembers closely the Gnostic despise of the carnal Jesus, the Jesuophobes (a term of Bob Price).

Vice versa, in Judea, the Jews fear the blasphemy of a mere (son of) man claiming identity with Christ etc.

The first implication is that the Gospel of Mark was written in a period when there were already around gentile Jesuophobes and Jewish ebionites.

Mark was written at least from the 100 CE.

Mark used his Jesus as propagandistic tool to persuade the Jesuophobes to accept the humanity (historicity) of Jesus.

And to persuade the ebionites (followers of the Pillars) to accept the high-christological status of Jesus.


In both the cases, it seems that the opponents of Mark were unaware of the existence of a historical Jesus, at the time he wrote the Gospel. Mark is describing in advance their different reaction to the first news about a ''historical Jesus''.

He knows in advance the hostility that the Jesuophobes will show against his invention.

Just as he knows in advance the hostility that the ebionites will show about the pauline Jesus.

John T wrote:

Giuseppe wrote: Moral of the holy fable: Marcion was a demon-possessed.

According to Polycarp, Marcion was the first-born of Satan.

"Marcion met Polycarp on one occasion, and said, "Do you know me?" Polycarp replied, "I do know you, the first-born of Satan."...Irenaeus (c. 180) 1.416

• It could have been Irenaeus who was averring that.