And when the multitudes were gathering thick together,
he began to say,
This is an evil generation: it seeketh a sign;
and there shall no sign be given it .
Panarion 42
[ - vv.30-32]
33 No man, when he hath lighted a lamp,
putteth it into a secret place,
neither under the bushel, but on the lampstand,
that they which come in may see the light
he began to say,
This is an evil generation: it seeketh a sign;
and there shall no sign be given it .
Panarion 42
[ - vv.30-32]
33 No man, when he hath lighted a lamp,
putteth it into a secret place,
neither under the bushel, but on the lampstand,
that they which come in may see the light
http://gnosis.org/library/marcion/Gospel3.html
The "evil generation" are the Jews, for Marcion. They want a "sign", a "Mark" !
I believed, before now, that the "sign" wanted by the people of Nazareth had to be a visible, public miracle just in Nazareth by Jesus. The exact contrary of a Messianic Secret et similia.
But the verse 33 claims clearly that a sign can't be given in Nazareth since it would be similar to waste the light of a "lamp" under the "bushel", Nazareth being so irrelevant (not existing?) that a possible sign given in Nazareth would be itself irrelevant, too.
It is evident that this sign required by the Jews to accept Jesus has to be hidden, implicit, secret, just as it is hidden, implicit, secret the demiurge's will that only the Jews are the Chosen People.
If Jesus has to give a sign, a "Mark", then this sign will be given for all the gentiles, not only for the Jews.
So in this light the anti-marcionite goal of "Mark" (both as Gospel and as name for the author of a Gospel) is too much evident: Mark's Gospel was designed to give for the Jews in a invisible manner the SIGN (="Mark"!!) that, in Marcion, Jesus didn't want to give only for the Jews.