The Lost and Hostile Gospels: An Essay on the Toledoth Jeschu, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the First Three Centuries of Which Fragments RemainBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
The Lost and Hostile Gospels: An Essay on the Toledoth Jeschu, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the First Three Centuries of Which Fragments Remain
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Apocryphal Gospels
In Marcion’s text we have therefore the ἀδικαίοι shut and cast out, and
the δικαίοι sitting overthroned in the kingdom of God. It can scarcely be
doubted that this is the correct reading, and that “Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob,” was substituted for δικαίοι at a later period with a conciliatory
purpose.
The rest of the chapter, 31‐35, is not to be found in Marcion’s Gospel.
The first who are to be last, and the last first, not obscurely means that
the Gentiles shall precede the Jews. This was in the “Gospel of the Lord,”
which was, however, without the warning given to Christ, “Get thee out,
and depart hence; for Herod will kill thee,” and the lamentation of the
Saviour over the holy city, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the
prophets,” &c. Why Marcion should omit this is not clear. It was probably
not in the Gospel of Sinope.
23. Luke xiv. 7‐11. The same may be said of the parable put forth to those
bidden to a feast, when Christ marked how they chose out the chief rooms.
It has been supposed by critics that Marcion omitted it, lest Jesus should
seem to sanction feasting; but this reason is far‐fetched, and it must be
remembered that he did retain Luke v. 29 and 33.
24. Luke xv. 11‐32. The parable of the Prodigal Son is omitted. That it is
left out, as is suggested by some critics, because the elder son signifies
mystically the Jewish Church, and the prodigal son represents the Heathen
world, is to transfer such allegorical interpretations back to an earlier
age than we are justified in doing. Marcion was not bound to admit such an
interpretation of the parable, if received in his day. Marcion, moreover,
opposed allegorizing the sayings of Scripture, and insisted on their
literal interpretation. Neander says, “The other Gnostics united with
their theosophical idealism a mystical, allegorizing interpretation of the
Scriptures. Marcion, simple in heart, was decidedly opposed to this
artificial method of interpretation. He was a zealous advocate of the
literal interpretation which prevailed among the antagonists of
Gnosticism.”(466) It is therefore most improbable that a popular
interpretation of this parable, if such an interpretation existed at that
time, should have induced Marcion to omit the parable.
25. Luke xvi. 12: “If ye have not been faithful in that which is another
man’s, who will give you that which is mine?” Surely a reading far
preferable to that in the Canonical Gospel, “who will give you that which
is your own?”
26. Luke, xvi. 17: “One tittle of my words shall not fall,” in place of,
“One tittle of the Law shall not fall.” As has been already remarked, the
reading in St. Luke is evidently corrupt, altered deliberately by the
party of conciliation. Marcion’s is the genuine text.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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