Marcion versus Mark about the (presumed) Inward Cleanliness

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Giuseppe
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Marcion versus Mark about the (presumed) Inward Cleanliness

Post by Giuseppe »

So the Marcion's Gospel:

37 And as he spake, a certain Pharisee asked him to breakfast with him:
and he went in, and lay down.
38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed
before the breakfast.
39 And the Lord said unto him,
Now do ye Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the platter;
but your inside is full of extortion and wickedness.
40 Foolish ones, did not he that made the outside
make the inside also?

41 But give as alms the things in your power;
and, behold, all things are clean unto you.

http://gnosis.org/library/marcion/Gospel3.html#Woe

In a marcionite view, there is only a possible candidate for the role of 'he that made the outside make the inside also': the demiurge.

So the Pharisees fail to see the vanity of 'making clean' what is hopelessly corrupt: the entire creation and hence the same 'inside' of the men. Even the soul of the man is a demiurgical creation. In this Marcion was even more radical than the Gnostics, who conceded at least the presence of a divine fire hidden in the pneuma of any man.

The only way of salvation is to give up anything of this world and of the god of this world.

Mark (Judaizing editor) could have corrected Marcion on this point, in order to reduce the entire question to a mere discussion of a Jewish custom, and not in a discussion of the goodness (or not) of the work of the creator:

7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.[a])
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe[c] your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.


(Mark 7:7-15)

In this way, in Mark, the God who is meant is always the creator and the creator alone. The collateral effect is that the Pharisees' customs are despised as very dangerously similar to the Gnostic contempt of the material world.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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