EVIDENCE OF MARCION'S PRIORITY ON MARK ABOUT A PRECISE POINT: THE TESTING OF JESUS IN SHEOL
“In addition to his blasphemy against God Himself, he advanced this also, truly speaking as with the mouth of the devil, and saying all things in direct opposition to the truth—that Cain, and those like him, and the Sodomites, and the Egyptians, and others like them, and, in fine, all the nations who walked in all sorts of abomination, were saved by the Lord, on His descending into Hades, and on their running unto Him, and that they welcomed Him into their kingdom.” But the serpent which was in Marcion declared that Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and those other righteous men who sprang from the patriarch Abraham, with all the prophets, and those who were pleasing to God, did not partake in salvation. For since these men, he says, knew that their God was constantly tempting them, so now they suspected that He was tempting them, and did not run to Jesus, or believe His announcement: and for this reason he declared that their souls remained in Hades. From Book I, chap. 27,Against Heresies) |
27 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28 “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?” 29 Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!” 31 They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ …” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) 33 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” (Mark 11:27-33) |
Do you see what both the episodes, despite of the great difference of context, have in common ?
The sin of the interlocutors of Jesus is not take position abous his identity.
- The souls don't know how to decide if he comes from YHWH or from the Alien God.
- The pharisees don't know how to decide if John the Baptist was an usurper or a divine Revealer.
The goal of "Mark" (editor) is to refer to John on the earth an ambiguous testing originally about Jesus and happened in Sheol.
Evidently because the original episode in Marcion, with OT prophets being the sinners and not the pharisees, was too much embarrassing for the Judaizer named "Mark".
But especially because in the original episode, among the sinners in Sheol, there was the prophet John also, as last of the OT prophets (as author of anti-pauline Revelation).
By placing himself on the side of John the Baptist and joining the Messianic Secret with the difficulty to recognize the John's identity, the message of the Mark's Jesus is: John is a prophet of YHWH just as I am the Messiah of YHWH, he is not an evil agent of the demiurge YHWH. Nor I am the Son of the Unknown Father ("Bar-Abbas")