anti-marcionite function of the Parable of Two Debtors

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Giuseppe
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anti-marcionite function of the Parable of Two Debtors

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There is a contradiction in Luke 7:36-50 :
36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, so Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. 37 A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume. 39 When the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this, he thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman touching him is a sinner!”
40 Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
Simon said, “Teacher, tell me.”
41 Jesus said, “Two people owed money to the same banker. One owed five hundred coins and the other owed fifty. 42 They had no money to pay what they owed, but the banker told both of them they did not have to pay him. Which person will love the banker more?”
43 Simon, the Pharisee, answered, “I think it would be the one who owed him the most money.”
Jesus said to Simon, “You are right.” 44 Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss of greeting, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet. 47 I tell you that her many sins are forgiven, so she showed great love. But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The people sitting at the table began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”
According to the parable of the two men who owed money to the same banker, the two men have to love the banker only after their sins are forgiven.

While in the episode of the woman who poured perfume on Jesus's feet, she loves Jesus (the presumed ''banker'' of the parable) and only after her sins are forgiven.

This fact makes me suspect that the parable of the banker (verses 40-43) are an anti-marcionite interpolation. His goal is to eclipse the idea of a marcionite Jesus who loves and forgives all and all, without difference between sinners and innocent.

Therefore the original marcionite episode was the following:

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, so Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. 37 A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume. 39 When the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this, he thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman touching him is a sinner!”

44 Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss of greeting, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet. 47 I tell you that her many sins are forgiven, so she showed great love. But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The people sitting at the table began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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Giuseppe
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Location: Italy

Re: anti-marcionite function of the Parable of Two Debtors

Post by Giuseppe »

So Mark 14:
3 Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, who had a skin disease. While Jesus was eating there, a woman approached him with an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She opened the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head.
4 Some who were there became upset and said to each other, “Why waste that perfume? 5 It was worth a full year’s work. It could have been sold and the money given to the poor.” And they got very angry with the woman.
6 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why are you troubling her? She did an excellent thing for me. 7 You will always have the poor with you, and you can help them anytime you want. But you will not always have me. 8 This woman did the only thing she could do for me; she poured perfume on my body to prepare me for burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached in all the world, what this woman has done will be told, and people will remember her.”
It is not explained why in Mark Simon is Leper. But Marcion knew the answer. Simon is Leper as indirect evidence that Jesus, being in the his home, is forgiving just his same sins during the same time when he is forgiving the sins of the woman (and is attacked by Simon in virtue of that). So the point of the episode in the Earliest Gospel is again and again the following: no distinction between sinners and innocent people in the eyes of the marcionite Jesus, even if the sinners remain such.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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