We must now turn to the great Heresiarch of the second century, Marcion,
and consider the evidence regarding our Gospels which may be derived
from what we know of him. The importance, and at the same time the
difficulty, of arriving at a just conclusion from the materials within
our reach have rendered Marcion's Gospel the object of very elaborate
criticism, and the discussion of its actual character has continued with
fluctuating results for nearly a century.
Marcion was born at Sinope, in Pontus, of which place his father was
Bishop,(1) and although it is said that he aspired to the first place in
the Church of Rome,(2) the Presbyters refused him communion on account
of his peculiar views of Christianity. We shall presently more fully
refer to his opinions, but here it will be sufficient to say that he
objected to what he considered the debasement of true Christianity by
Jewish elements, and he upheld the teaching of Paul alone, in opposition
to that of all the other Apostles, whom he accused of mixing
{80}
up matters of the law with the Gospel of Christ, and falsifying
Christianity,(1) as Paul himself had protested.(9) He came to Rome about
a.d. 139--142,(3) and continued teaching for some twenty years.(4) His
high personal character and elevated views produced a powerful effect
upon his time,(5) and, although during his own lifetime and long
afterwards vehemently and with every opprobrious epithet denounced by
ecclesiastical writers, his opinions were so widely adopted that in the
time of Epiphanius his followers were to be found throughout the whole
world.(6)
Marcion is said to have recognized as his sources of Christian doctrine,
besides tradition, a single Gospel and ten Epistles of Paul, which in
his collection stood in the following order;--Epistle to Galatians,
Corinthians (2), Romans, Thessalonians (2), Ephesians (which he had with
{81}
the superscription "to the Laodiceans"),(1) Colossians, Philippians,
and Philemon.(2) None of the other books which now form part of
the canonical New Testament were either mentioned or recognized by
Marcion.(3) This is the oldest collection of Apostolic writings of
which there is any trace,(4) but there was at that time no other "Holy
Scripture" than the Old Testament, and no New Testament Canon had yet
been imagined. Marcion neither claimed canonical authority for
these writings,(5) nor did he associate with them any idea of divine
inspiration.(6) We have already seen the animosity expressed by
contemporaries of Marcion against the Apostle Paul.
The principal interest in connection with the collection of Marcion,
however, centres in his single Gospel, the nature, origin, and identity
of which have long been actively and minutely discussed by learned men
of all shades of opinion with very varying results. The work itself is
unfortunately no longer extant, and our only knowledge of it is derived
from the bitter and very inaccurate opponents of Marcion. It seems to
have borne much the same analogy to our third Canonical Gospel which
existed between the Gospel according to
{82}
the Hebrews and our first Synoptic.(1) The Fathers, whose uncritical
and, in such matters, prejudiced character led them to denounce every
variation from their actual texts as a mere falsification, and without
argument to assume the exclusive authenticity and originality of our
Gospels, which towards the beginning of the third century had acquired
wide circulation in the Church, vehemently stigmatized Marcion as an
audacious adulterator of the Gospel, and affirmed his evangelical work
to be merely a mutilated and falsified version of the "Gospel according
to Luke."(2)
This view continued to prevail, almost without question or examination,
till towards the end of the eighteenth century, when Biblical criticism
began to exhibit the earnestness and activity which have ever since
more or less characterized it. Semler first abandoned the prevalent
tradition, and, after analyzing the evidence, he concluded that
Marcion's Gospel and Luke's were different versions of an earlier
work,(3) and that the so-called heretical Gospel was one of the numerous
Gospels from amongst which the Canonical had been selected by the
Church.(4) Griesbach about the same time also rejected the ruling
opinion, and denied the close relationship usually asserted to exist
between the two Gospels.(5) Loffler(6) and Corrodi(7) strongly supported
Sender's
{83}
conclusion, that Marcion was no mere falsifier of Luke's Gospel, and J.
E. C. Schmidt(1) went still further, and asserted that Marcion's Gospel
was the genuine Luke, and our actual Gospel a later version of it
with alterations and additions. Eichhorn,(2) after a fuller and more
exhaustive examination, adopted similar views; he repudiated the
statements of Tertullian regarding Marcion's Gospel as utterly
untrustworthy, asserting that he had not that work itself before him at
all, and he maintained that Marcion's Gospel was the more original
text and one of the sources of Luke. Bolten,(3) Bertholdt,(4)
Schleiermacher,(5) and D. Schulz(6) likewise maintained that Marcion's
Gospel was by no means a mutilated version of Luke, but, on the
contrary, an independent original Gospel A similar conclusion was
arrived at by Gieseler,(7) but later, after Hahn's criticism, he
abandoned it, and adopted the opinion that Marcion's Gospel was
constructed out of Luke.(8)
On the other hand, the traditional view was maintained by Storr,(9)
Arneth,(10) Hug,(11) Neander,(12) and Gratz,(13) although with little
originality of investigation or argument; and
{84}
Paulus(1) sought to reconcile both views by admitting that Marcion had
before him the Gospel of Luke, but denying that he mutilated it, arguing
that Tertullian did not base his arguments on the actual Gospel
of Marcion, but upon his work, the "Antitheses." Hahn,(2) however,
undertook a more exhaustive examination of the problem, attempting
to reconstruct the text of Marcion's Gospel(3) from the statements of
Tertullian and Epiphanius, and he came to the conclusion that the
work was a mere version, with omissions and alterations made by the
Heresiarch in the interest of his system, of the third Canonical Gospel.
Olshausen(4) arrived at the same result, and with more or less of
modification but no detailed argument, similar opinions were expressed
by Credner,(5) De Wette,(6) and others.(7)
Not satisfied, however, with the method and results of
{85}
Hahn and Olshausen, whose examination, although more minute than any
previously undertaken, still left much to be desired, Ritschl(l) made a
further thorough investigation of the character of Mansion's Gospel, and
decided that it was in no case a mutilated version of Luke, but, on the
contrary, an original and independent work, from which the Canonical
Gospel was produced by the introduction of anti-Marcionitish passages
and readings. Baur(2) strongly enunciated similar views, and maintained
that the whole error lay in the mistake of the Fathers, who had, with
characteristic assumption, asserted the earlier and shorter Gospel of
Marcion to be an abbreviation of the later Canonical Gospel, instead of
recognizing the latter as a mere extension of the former. Schwegler(3)
had already, in a remarkable criticism of Marcion's Gospel declared
it to be an independent and original work, and in no sense a mutilated
Luke, but, on the contrary, probably the source of that Gospel.
Kostlin,(4) while stating that the theory that Marcion's Gospel was
an earlier work and the basis of that ascribed to Luke was not very
probable, affirmed that much of the Marcionitish text was more original
than the Canonical, and that both Gospels must be considered versions of
the same original, although Luke's was the later and more corrupt.
These results, however, did not satisfy Volkmar,(5) who entered afresh
upon a searching examination of the whole subject, and concluded that
whilst, on the one hand, the
{86}
Gospel of Marcion was not a mere falsified and mutilated form of the
Canonical Gospel, neither was it, on the other, an earlier work, and
still less the original Gospel of Luke, but merely a Gnostic compilation
from what, so far as we are concerned, may be called the oldest codex
of Luke's Gospel, which itself is nothing more than a similar Pauline
edition of the original Gospel. Volkmar's analysis, together with
the arguments of Hilgenfeld, succeeded in convincing Ritschl,{1} who
withdrew from his previous opinions, and, with those critics, merely
maintained some of Marcion's readings to be more original than those
of Luke,{2} and generally defended Marcion from the aspersions of the
Fathers, on the ground that his procedure with regard to Luke's Gospel
was precisely that of the Canonical Evangelists to each other;{3} Luke
himself being clearly dependent both on Mark and Matthew.{4} Baur was
likewise induced by Volkmar's and Hilgenfeld's arguments to modify his
views;{5} but although for the first time he admitted that Marcion had
altered the original of his Gospel frequently for dogmatic reasons, he
still maintained that there was an older form of the Gospel without the
earlier chapters, from which both Marcion and Luke directly constructed
their Gospels;--both of them stood in the same line in regard to the
original; both altered it; the one abbreviated, the other extended
it.{6} Encouraged by this success, but not yet satisfied, Volkmar
immediately undertook a further and more exhaustive examination of the
text of Marcion, in the hope of finally settling the
{87}
discussion, and he again, but with greater emphasis, confirmed his
previous results.(1) In the meantime Hilgenfeld(2) had seriously
attacked the problem, and, like Hahn and Volkmar, had sought to
reconstruct the text of Marcion, and, whilst admitting many more
original and genuine readings in the text of Marcion, he had also
decided that his Gospel was dependent on Luke, although he further
concluded that the text of Luke had subsequently gone through another,
though slight, manipulation before it assumed its present form. These
conclusions he again fully confirmed after a renewed investigation of
the subject.(3)
This brief sketch of the controversy which has so long occupied the
attention of critics will at least show the uncertainty of the data upon
which any decision is to be based. We have not attempted to give more
than the barest outlines, but it will appear as we go on that most of
those who decide against the general independence of Mansion's Gospel,
at the same time admit his partial originality and the superiority of
some of his readings over those of the third Synoptic, and justify
his treatment of Luke as a procedure common to the Evangelists, and
warranted not only by their example but by the fact that no Gospels had
in his time emerged from the position of private documents in limited
circulation.
Marcion's Gospel not being any longer extant, it is important to
establish clearly the nature of our knowledge regarding it, and the
exact value of the data from which various attempts have been made to
reconstruct the text. It is manifest that the evidential force of any
deductions from a reconstructed text is almost wholly
{88}
dependent on the accuracy and sufficiency of the materials from which
that text is derived.
The principal sources of our information regarding Marcion's Gospel are
the works of his most bitter denouncers Tertullian and Epiphanius, who,
however, it must be borne in mind, wrote long after his time,--the work
of Tertullian against Marcion having been composed about A.D. 208,(1)
and that of Epiphanius a century later. We may likewise merely mention
here the "_Dialogus de recta in deum fide_," commonly attributed to
Origen, although it cannot have been composed earlier than the middle of
the fourth century.(3) The first three sections are directed against the
Marcionites, but only deal with a late form of their doctrines.(3) As
Volkmar admits that the author clearly had only a general acquaintance
with the "Antitheses," and principal proof passages of the Marcionites,
but, although he certainly possessed the Epistles, had not the Gospel of
Marcion itself,(4) we need not now more particularly consider it.
We are, therefore, dependent upon the "dogmatic and partly blind and
unjust adversaries"(5) of Marcion for our only knowledge of the text
they stigmatize; and when the character of polemical discussion in
the early centuries of our era is considered, it is certain that great
caution must be exercised, and not too much weight attached to the
statements of opponents who regarded a heretic with abhorrence, and
attacked him with an acrimony which carried them far beyond the limits
of fairness and truth. Their religious controversy bristles with
{89}
misstatements, and is turbid with pious abuse. Tertullian was a master
of this style, and the vehement vituperation with which he opens(1) and
often interlards his work against "the impious and sacrilegious Marcion"
offers anything but a guarantee of fair and legitimate criticism.
Epiphanius was, if possible, still more passionate and exaggerated
in his representations against him.(2) Undue importance must not,
therefore, be attributed to their statements.(3)
Not only should there be caution exercised in receiving the
representations of one side in a religious discussion, but more
particularly is such caution necessary in the case of Tertullian,
whose trustworthiness is very far from being above suspicion, and whose
inaccuracy is often apparent.(4) "Son christianisme," says Reuss, "est
ardent, sincere, profondement ancre dans son ame. L'on voit qu'il en
vit. Mais ce christianisme est apre, insolent, brutal, ferrailleur. II
est sans onction et sans charite, quelquefois merae sans loyaute, des
qu'il se trouve en face d'une opposition quelconque. C'est un soldat
qui ne sait que se battre et qui oublie, tout en se battant, qu'il faut
aussi respecter son ennemi. Dialecticien subtil et ruse, il excelle
h, ridiculiser ses adversaires. L'injure, le sarcasme, un langage
qui rappelle parfois en verite le genre de Rabelais, une effronterie
d'affirmation dans les moments de faiblesse qui frise et atteint meme
la mauvaise foi, voila ses armes. Je sais ce qu'il faut en cela mettre
surde compte de l'epoque.... Si, au second siecle,
{90}
tous les partis, sauf quelques gnostiques, sont intolerants, Tertullian
Test plus que tout le monde."(1)
The charge of mutilating and interpolating the Gospel of Luke is first
brought against Marcion by Irenaeus,(2) and it is repeated with still
greater vehemence and fulness by Tertullian,(3) and Epiphanius;(4) but
the mere assertion by Fathers at the end of the second and in the
third centuries, that a Gospel different from their own was one of the
Canonical Gospels falsified and mutilated, can have no weight whatever
in itself in the inquiry as to the real nature of that work.(5) Their
arbitrary assumption of exclusive originality and priority for the four
Gospels of the Church led them, without any attempt at argument, to
treat every other evangelical work as an offshoot or falsification of
these. The arguments by which Tertullian endeavours to establish that
the Gospels of Luke and the other Canonical Evangelists were more
ancient than that of Marcion(6) show that he had no idea of historical
or critical evidence.(7) We are, however, driven back upon such actual
data regarding the text and contents of Marcion's Gospel as are given
by the Fathers, as the only basis, in the absence of the Gospel itself,
upon which any hypothesis as to its real character can be built. The
question therefore is: Are these data sufficiently ample and trustworthy
for a decisive judgment
{91}
from internal evidence? if indeed internal evidence in such a case can
be decisive at all.
All that we know, then, of Marcion's Gospel is simply what Tertullian
and Epiphanius have stated with regard to it. It is, however,
undeniable, and indeed is universally admitted, that their object in
dealing with it at all was entirely dogmatic, and not in the least
degree critical(1). The spirit of that age was indeed so essentially
uncritical(2) that not even the canonical text could waken it into
activity. Tertullian very clearly states what his object was in
attacking Marcion's Gospel. After asserting that the whole aim of the
Heresiarch was to prove a disagreement between the Old Testament and the
New, and that for this purpose he had erased from the Gospel all that
was contrary to his opinion, and retained all that he had considered
favourable, Tertullian proceeds to examine the passages retained,(3)
with the view of proving that the Heretic has shown the same "blindness
of heresy" both in that which he has erased and in that which he has
retained, inasmuch as the passages which Marcion has allowed to remain
are as opposed to his system, as those which he has omitted. He conducts
the controversy in a free and discursive manner, and whilst he appears
to go through Marcion's Gospel with some regularity, it will be
apparent, as we proceed, that
{92}
mere conjecture has to play a large part in any attempt to reconstruct,
from his data, the actual text of Marcion. Epiphanius explains his
aim with equal clearness. He had made a number of extracts from the
so-called Gospel of Marcion which seemed to him to refute the heretic,
and after giving a detailed and numbered list of these passages, which
he calls [------], he takes them consecutively and to each adds his
"Refutation." His intention is to show how wickedly and disgracefully
Marcion has mutilated and falsified the Gospel, and how fruitlessly he
has done so, inasmuch as he has stupidly, or by oversight, allowed much
to remain in his Gospel by which he may be completely refuted.(1)
As it is impossible within our limits fully to illustrate the procedure
of the Fathers with regard to Marcion's Gospel, and the nature and value
of the materials they supply, we shall as far as possible quote the
declarations of critics, and more especially of Volkmar and Hilgenfeld,
who, in the true and enlightened spirit of criticism, impartially state
the character of the data available for the understanding of the text.
As these two critics have, by their able and learned investigations,
done more than any others to educe and render possible a decision of the
problem, their own estimate of the materials upon which a judgment has
to be formed is of double value.
With regard to Tertullian, Volkmar explains that his desire is totally
to annihilate the most dangerous heretic of his time,--first (Books
i.--iii.), to overthrow Marcion's system in general as expounded in
his "Antitheses,"--and then (Book iv.) to show that even the Gospel of
Marcion
{93}
only contains Catholic doctrine (he concludes, "_Christus Jesus in
Evangelio tuo mens est_" c. 43); and therefore he examines the Gospel
only so far as may serve to establish his own view and refute that
of Marcion. "To show," Volkmar continues, "wherein this Gospel was
falsified or mutilated, _i.e._, varied from his own, on the contrary,
is in no way his design, for he perceives that Marcion could retort the
reproach of interpolation, and in his time proof from internal grounds
was hardly possible, so that only exceptionally, where a variation seems
to him remarkable, does he specially mention it."(1) On the other hand
Volkmar remarks that Tertullian's Latin rendering of the text of Marcion
which lay before him,--which, although certainly free and having
chiefly the substance in view, is still in weightier passages verbally
accurate,--directly indicates important variations in that text. He goes
on to argue that the silence of Tertullian may be weighty testimony
for the fact that passages which exist in Luke, but which he does
not mention, were missing in Marcion's Gospel, but he does so with
considerable reservation. "But his silence _alone_," he says, "can only
under certain conditions represent with diplomatic certainty an omission
in Marcion. It is indeed probable that he would not lightly have passed
over a passage in the Gospel of Marcion which might in any way be
contradictory to its system, if one altogether similar had not preceded
it, all the more as he frequently drags in by force such proof passages
from Marcion's text, and often plainly with but a certain sophistry
tries to refute his adversary out of the words of his own Gospel. But it
remains always possible that in his eagerness he has
{94}
overlooked much; and besides, he believes that by his replies to
particular passages he has already sufficiently dealt with many others
of a similar kind; indeed, avowedly, he will not willingly repeat
himself. A certain conclusion, therefore, can only be deduced from the
silence of Tertullian when special circumstances enter."(l) Volkmar,
however, deduces with certainty from the statements of Tertullian
that, whilst he wrote, he had not before him the Gospel of Luke, but
intentionally laid it aside, and merely referred to the Marcionitish
text, and further that, like all the Fathers of the third Century, he
preferred the Gospel according to Matthew to the other Synoptics, and
was well acquainted with it alone, so that in speaking of the Gospel
generally he only has in his memory the sense, and the sense alone of
Luke except in so far as it agrees or seems to agree with Matthew.(2)
With regard to the manner in which Tertullian performed the work he had
undertaken, Hilgenfeld remarks: "As Tertullian, in going through the
Marcionitish Gospel, has only the object of refutation in view, he very
rarely states explicitly what is missing in it; and as, on the one hand,
we can only venture to conclude from the silence of Tertullian that a
passage is wanting, when it is altogether inexplicable that he should
not have made use of it for the purpose of refutation; so, on the other,
we must also know how Marcion used and interpreted the Gospel, and
should never lose sight of Tertullian's refutation and defence."(3)
Hahn substantially expresses the same opinions. He
{95}
says: "Inasmuch as Tertullian goes through the Mar-cionitish text with
the view of refuting the heretic out of that which he accepts, and not
of critically pointing out all variations, falsifications, and passages
rejected, he frequently quotes the falsified or altered Marcionitish
text without expressly mentioning the variations.(1)... Yet he cannot
refrain--although this was not his object--occasionally, from noticing
amongst other things any falsifications and omissions which, when he
perhaps examined the text of Luke or had a lively recollection of it,
struck and too grievously offended him."(2)
Volkmar's opinion of the procedure of Epiphanius is still more
unfavourable. Contrasting it with that of Tertullian, he characterizes
it as "more superficial," and he considers that its only merit is its
presenting an independent view of Marcion's Gospel. Further than this,
however, he says: "How far we can build upon his statements, whether
as regards their completeness or their trustworthiness is not yet made
altogether clear."(3) Volk-mar goes on to show how thoroughly Epiphanius
intended to do his work, and yet that, although from what he himself
leads us to expect, we might hope to find a complete statement of
Marcion's sins, the Father himself disappoints such an expectation by
his own admission of incompleteness. He complains generally of his
free and misleading method of quotation, such, for instance, as his
alteration of the text without explanation; alteration of the same
passage on different occasions in more than one way; abbreviations, and
omissions of parts of quotations; the sudden breaking off of passages
just commenced with
{96}
the indefinite [------], without any indication how much this may
include.(1)
Volkmar, indeed, explains that Epiphanius is only thoroughly trustworthy
where, and _so far as_, he wishes to state in his Scholia an omission or
variation in Marcion's text from his own Canonical Gospel, in which
case he minutely registers the smallest point, but this is to be clearly
distinguished from any charge of falsification brought against Marcion
in his Refutations; for only while earlier drawing up his Scholia had
he the Mar-cionitish Gospel before him and compared it with Luke; but in
the case of the Refutations, on the contrary, which he wrote later,
he did not at least again compare the Gospel of Luke. "It is, however,
altogether different," continues Volkmar, "as regards the statements of
Epiphanius concerning the part of the Gospel of Luke which is preserved
in Marcion. Whilst he desires to be _strictly literal_ in the account of
the _variations_, and also with two exceptions _is_ so, he so generally
adheres _only to the purport_ of the passages retained by Marcion,
that altogether literal quotations are quite exceptional; _throughout_,
however, where passages of greater extent are referred to, these are
not merely abbreviated, but also are quoted in _very free_ fashion,
and nowhere can we reckon that the passage in Marcion ran verbally as
Epiphanius quotes it."(2) And to this we may add a remark made further
on: "We cannot in general rely upon the accuracy of his statements in
regard to that which Marcion had in common with Luke."(3) On the other
hand Volkmar had previously
{97}
said: "Absolute completeness in regard to that which Marcion's Gospel
did not contain is not to be reckoned upon in his Scholia. He has
certainly not intended to pass over anything, but in the eagerness which
so easily renders men superficial and blind much has escaped him."(l)
Hahn bears similar testimony to the incompleteness of Epiphanius. "It
was not his purpose," he says, "fully to notice all falsifications,
variations, and omissions, although he does mark most of them, but
merely to extract from the Gospel of Marcion, as well as from
his collection of Epistles, what seemed to him well suited for
refutation."(2) But he immediately adds: "When he quotes a passage
from Marcion's text, however, in which such falsifications occur, he
generally,--but not always,--notes them more or less precisely, and
he had himself laid it down as a subsidiary object of his work to pay
attention to such falsifications."(3) A little further on he says: "In
the quotations of the remaining passages which Epiphanius did not find
different from the Gospel of Luke, and where he therefore says nothing
of falsification or omission, he is often very free, neither adhering
strictly to the particular words, nor to their arrangement, but his
favourite practice is to give their substance and sense for the purpose
of refuting his opponent. He presupposes the words known from the Gospel
of Luke."(4)
It must be stated, however, that both Volkmar(5) and Hilgenfeld(6)
consider that the representations of
{98}
Tertullian and Epiphanius supplement each other and enable the contents
of Marcion's Gospel to be ascertained with tolerable certainty. Yet
a few pages earlier Volkmar had pointed out that: "The ground for a
certain fixture of the text of the Marcionitish Gospel, however, seems
completely taken away by the fact that Tertullian and Epiphanius, in
their statements regarding its state, not merely repeatedly seem to, but
in part actually do, directly contradict each other."(1) Hahn endeavours
to explain some of these contradictions by imagining that later
Marcionites had altered the text of their Gospel, and that Epiphanius
had the one form and Tertullian another;(2) but such a doubt only
renders the whole of the statements regarding the work more uncertain
and insecure. That it is not without some reason, however, appears from
the charge which Tertullian brings against the disciples of Marcion:
"for they daily alter it (their Gospel) as they are daily refuted by
us."(3) In fact, we have no assurance whatever that the work upon
which Tertullian and Epiphanius base their charge against Marcion of
falsification and mutilation of Luke was Marcion's original Gospel at
all, and we certainly have no historical evidence on the point.(4)
The question even arises, whether Tertullian, and indeed Epiphanius, had
Marcion's Gospel in any shape before them when they wrote, or merely his
work the
{99}
"Antitheses."(1) In commencing his onslaught on Marcion's Gospel,
Terlullian says: "Marcion seems (videtur) to have selected Luke,
to mutilate it."(2) This is the first serious introduction of his
"mutilation hypothesis," which he thenceforward presses with so much
assurance, but the expression is very uncertain for so decided a
controversialist, if he had been able to speak more positively.(3)
We have seen that it is admitted that Epiphanius wrote without again
comparing the Gospel of Marcion with Luke, and it is also conceded that
Tertullian at least had not the Canonical Gospel, but in professing to
quote Luke evidently does so from memory, and approximates his text
to Matthew, with which Gospel, like most of the Fathers, he was better
acquainted. This may be illustrated by the fact that both Tertullian
and Epiphanius reproach Marcion with erasing passages from the Gospel of
Luke, which never were in Luke at all.(4) In one place Tertullian says:
"Marcion, you must also remove this from the Gospel: 'I am not sent but
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel,'(3) and: 'It is not meet
to take the children's bread, and give it to dogs,'(6) in order, be
it known, that Christ may not seem to be an Israelite."(7) The "Great
African"
{100}
thus taunts his opponent, evidently under the impression that the two
passages were in Luke, immediately after he had accused Marcion of
having actually expunged from that Gospel, "as an interpolation,"(1) the
saying that Christ had not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but
to fulfil them,(2) which likewise never formed part of it. He repeats
a similar charge on several other occasions.(3) Epiphanius commits the
same mistake of reproaching Marcion with omitting from Luke what is
only found in Matthew.(4) We have, in fact, no certain guarantee of the
accuracy or trustworthiness of their statements.
We have said enough, we trust, to show that the sources for the
reconstruction of a text of Marcion's Gospel are most unsatisfactory,
and no one who attentively studies the analysis of Hahn, Ritschl,
Volkmar, Hilgenfeld, and others, who have examined and systematized
the data of the Fathers, can fail to be struck by the uncertainty which
prevails throughout, the almost continuous vagueness and consequent
opening, nay, necessity, for conjecture, and the absence of really sure
indications. The Fathers had no intention of showing what Marcion's text
actually was, and their object being solely dogmatic and not critical,
their statements are very insufficient for the purpose.(5) The materials
have had to be ingeniously collected and sifted from polemical writings
whose authors, so far from professing to furnish them, were only bent
upon seeking in Marcion's Gospel such points as could legitimately, or
by sophistical skill, be used against him. Passing observations, general
{101}
remarks, as well as direct statements, have too often been the only
indications guiding the patient explorers and, in the absence of certain
information, the silence of the angry Fathers has been made the basis
for important conclusions. It is evident that not only is such a
procedure necessarily uncertain and insecure, but that it rests upon
assumptions with regard to the intelligence, care and accuracy of
Tertullian and Epiphanius, which are not sufficiently justified by
that part of their treatment of Marcion's text which we can examine and
appreciate. And when all these doubtful landmarks have failed, too many
passages have been left to the mere judgment of critics, as to whether
they were too opposed to Marcion's system to have been retained by him,
or too favourable to have been omitted. The reconstructed texts, as
might be expected, differ from each other, and one Editor finds the
results of his predecessors incomplete or unsatisfactory,1 although
naturally at each successive attempt, the materials previously collected
and adopted have contributed to an apparently more complete result.
After complaining of the incompleteness and uncertainty of the
statements of Tertullian and Epiphanius, Ritschl affirms that they
furnish so little solid material on which to base a hypothesis, that
rather by means of a hypothesis must we determine the remains of the
Gospel from Tertullian.(3) Hilgenfeld quotes this with approval, and
adds, that at least Ritschl's opinion is so far right, that all the
facts of the case can no longer be settled from external data, and that
the general view regarding the
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Gospel only can decide many points.(1) This means of course that
hypothesis is to supply that which is wanting in the Fathers. Volkmar,
in the introduction to his last comprehensive work on Marcion's Gospel,
says: "And, in fact, it is no wonder that critics have for so long, and
substantially to so little effect, fought over the protean question,
for there has been so much uncertainty as to the very basis (Fundament)
itself,--the precise text of the remarkable document,--that Baur has
found full ground for rejecting, as unfounded, the supposition on which
that finally-attained decision (his previous one) rested."(2) Critics
of all shades of opinion are forced to admit the incompleteness of
the materials for any certain reconstruction of Marcion's text and,
consequently, for an absolute settlement of the question from internal
evidence,(3) although the labours of Volkmar and Hilgenfeld have
materially increased our knowledge of the contents of his Gospel.
We must contend, however, that, desirable and important as it is to
ascertain as perfectly as possible the precise nature of Marcion's text,
the question of its origin and relation to Luke would not by any means
be settled even by its final reconstruction. There would, as we shall
presently show, remain unsolved the problem of its place in that
successive manipulation of materials by which a few Gospels gradually
absorbed and displaced the rest. Our own synoptics
{103}
exhibit unmistakable traces of the process, and clearly forbid our
lightly setting aside the claim of Marcion's Gospel to be considered a
genuine work, and no mere falsification and abbreviation of Luke.
Before proceeding to a closer examination of Marcion's Gospel and the
general evidence bearing upon it, it may be well here briefly to refer
to the system of the Heresiarch whose high personal character exerted so
powerful an influence upon his own time,(1) and whose views continued
to prevail widely for a couple of centuries after his death. It was the
misfortune of Marcion to live in an age when Christianity had passed
out of the pure morality of its infancy, when, untroubled by complicated
questions of dogma, simple faith and pious enthusiasm had been the one
great bond of Christian brotherhood, into a phase of ecclesiastical
development in which religion was fast degenerating into theology, and
complicated doctrines were rapidly assuming that rampant attitude which
led to so much bitterness, persecution, and schism. In later times
Marcion might have been honoured as a reformer, in his own he was
denounced as a heretic.(2) Austere and ascetic in his opinions, he aimed
at superhuman purity, and although his clerical adversaries might scoff
at his impracticable doctrines regarding marriage and the subjugation of
the flesh, they have had their parallels amongst those whom the Church
has since most delighted to honour; and at least the whole tendency
of his system was markedly towards the side of virtue.(3) It would of
course be foreign to our
{104}
purpose to enter upon any detailed statement of its principles, and we
must confine ourselves to such particulars only as are necessary to an
understanding of the question before us.
As we have already frequently had occasion to mention, there were
two broad parties in the primitive Church, and the very existence of
Christianity was in one sense endangered by the national exclusiveness
of the people amongst whom it originated. The one party considered
Christianity a mere continuation of the Law, and dwarfed it into an
Isrealitish institution, a narrow sect of Judaism; the other represented
the glad tidings as the introduction of a new system applicable to
all and supplanting the Mosaic dispensation of the Law by a universal
dispensation of grace. These two parties were popularly represented in
the early Church by the Apostles Peter and Paul, and their antagonism
is faintly revealed in the Epistle to the Galatians. Marcion, a gentile
Christian, appreciating the true character of the new religion and its
elevated spirituality, and profoundly impressed by the comparatively
degraded and anthropomorphic features of Judaism, drew a very sharp line
of demarcation between them, and represented Christianity as an entirely
new and separate system abrogating the old and having absolutely no
connection with it. Jesus was not to him the Messiah of the Jews, the
son of David come permanently to establish the Law and the Prophets, but
a divine being sent to reveal to man a wholly new spiritual religion,
and a hitherto unknown God of goodness and grace. The Creator [------],
{105}
the God of the Old Testament, was different from the God of grace
who had sent Jesus to reveal the Truth, to bring reconciliation and
salvation to all, and to abrogate the Jewish God of the World and of the
Law, who was opposed to the God and Father of Jesus Christ as Matter is
to Spirit, impurity to purity. Christianity was in distinct antagonism
to Judaism, the Spiritual God of heaven, whose goodness and love were
for the Universe, to the God of the World, whose chosen and peculiar
people were the Jews, the Gospel of Grace to the dispensation of the Old
Testament. Christianity, therefore, must be kept pure from the Judaistic
elements humanly thrust into it, which were so essentially opposed to
its whole spirit.
Marcion wrote a work called "Antitheses" [------], in which he
contrasted the old system with the new, the God of the one with the
God of the other, the Law with the Gospel, and in this he maintained
opinions which anticipated many held in our own time. Tertullian attacks
this work in the first three books of his treatise against Marcion,
and he enters upon the discussion of its details with true theological
vigour: "Now, then, ye hounds, yelping at the God of truth, whom the
Apostle casts out,(1) to all your questions! These are the bones of
contention which ye gnaw!"(2) The poverty of the "Great African's"
arguments keeps pace with his abuse. Marcion objected: If the God of the
Old Testament be good, prescient of the future, and able to avert evil,
why did he allow man, made in his own image, to be deceived
{106}
by the devil, and to fall from obedience of the Law into sin and
death?(1) How came the devil, the origin of lying and deceit, to be made
at all?(2) After the fall, God became a judge both severe and cruel;
woman is at once condemned to bring forth in sorrow and to serve her
husband, changed from a help into a slave; the earth is cursed which
before was blessed, and man is doomed to labour and to death.(3) The law
was one of retaliation and not of justice,--lex talionis--eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, stripe for stripe.(4) And it was not consistent, for in
contravention of the Decalogue, God is made to instigate the Israelites
to spoil the Egyptians, and fraudulently rob them of their gold and
silver;(5) to incite them to work on the Sabbath by ordering them to
carry the ark for eight days round Jericho;(6) to break the second
commandment by making and setting up the brazen serpent and the golden
cherubim.(7) Then God is inconstant, electing men, as Saul and Solomon,
whom he subsequently rejects;(8) repenting that he had set up Saul, and
that he had doomed the Ninevites,(9) and so on. God calls out: Adam,
where art thou? inquires whether he had eaten the forbidden fruit; asks
of Cain where his brother was, as if he had not yet heard the blood
of Abel crying from the ground, and did not already know all these
things.(10) Anticipating the results of modem criticism, Marcion denies
the applicability to Jesus of the so-called Messianic prophecies. The
Emmanuel of
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Isaiah (vii. 14, cf. viii. 4) is not Christ;(1) the "Virgin" his mother
is simply a "young woman" according to Jewish phraseology;(2) and the
sufferings of the Servant of God (Isaiah lii. 13--liii. 9) are not
predictions of the death of Jesus.(3) There is a complete severance
between the Law and the Gospel, and the God of the latter is the
Antithesis of that of the former.(4) "The one was perfect, pure,
beneficent, passionless; the other, though not unjust by nature,
infected by matter,--subject to all the passions of man,--cruel,
changeable; the New Testament, especially as remodelled by Marcion,(5)
was holy, wise, amiable; the Old Testament, the Law, barbarous, inhuman,
contradictory, and detestable."(6)
Marcion ardently maintained the doctrine of the impurity of matter,
and he carried it to its logical conclusion, both in speculation and
practice. He, therefore, asserting the incredibility of an incarnate
God, denied the corporeal reality of the flesh of Christ. His body was
a mere semblance and not of human substance, was not born of a human
mother, and the divine nature was not degraded by contact with the
flesh.(7) Marcion finds in Paul the purest promulgator of the truth as
he understands it, and emboldened by the Epistle to the Galatians, in
which that Apostle rebukes even Apostles for "not walking uprightly
according to the truth of the Gospel," he accuses the other Apostles of
having depraved the pure form of the Gospel doctrines delivered to them
by
5 We give this quotation as a resume by an English historian
and divine, but the idea of the "New Testament remodelled by
Marcion," is a mere ecclesiastical imagination.
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Jesus,(1) "mixing up matters of the Law with the words of the
Saviour."(2)
Tertullian reproaches Marcion with having written the work in which he
details the contrasts between Judaism and Christianity, of which we
have given the briefest sketch, as an introduction and encouragement to
belief in his Gospel, which he ironically calls "the Gospel according
to the Antitheses;"(3) and the charge which the Fathers bring against
Marcion is that he laid violent hands on the Canonical Gospel of Luke,
and manipulated it to suit his own views. "For certainly the whole
object at which he laboured in drawing up the 'Antitheses.'" says
Tertullian, "amounts to this: that he may prove a disagreement between
the Old and New Testament, so that his own Christ may be separated from
the Creator, as of another God, as alien from the Law and the Prophets.
For this purpose it is certain that he has erased whatever was contrary
to his own opinion and in harmony with the Creator, as if interpolated
by his partisans, but has retained everything consistent with his own
opinion."(4) The whole hypothesis that Marcion's Gospel is a mutilated
version of our third Synoptic in fact rested upon this accusation. It
is obvious that if it cannot be shown that Marcion's Gospel was our
Canonical Gospel merely garbled by the Heresiarch for dogmatic reasons
in the interest of his system,--for there could not be any other
conceivable
{109}
reason for tampering with it,--the claim of Marcion's Gospel to the rank
of a more original and authentic work than Luke's acquires double force.
We must, therefore, inquire into the character of the variations between
the so-called heretical, and the Canonical Gospels, and see how far the
hypothesis of the Fathers accord with the contents of Marcion's Gospel
so far as we are acquainted with it.
At the very outset we are met by the singular phenomenon, that both
Tertullian and Epiphanius, who accuse Marcion of omitting everything
which was unfavourable, and retaining only what was favourable to
his views, undertake to refute him out of what remains in his Gospel.
Tertullian says: "It will then be proved that he has shown the same
defect of blindness of heresy both in that which he has erased and that
which he has retained."(1) Epiphanius also confidently states that, out
of that which Marcion has allowed to remain of the Gospel, he can prove
his fraud and imposture, and thoroughly refute him.(2) Now if Marcion
mutilated Luke to so little purpose as this, what was the use of his
touching it at all? He is known as an able man, the most influential and
distinguished of all the heretical leaders of the second century, and
it seems unreasonable to suppose that, on the theory of his erasing or
altering all that contradicted his system, he should have done his work
so imperfectly.(3) The Fathers say that he endeavours to get rid of the
contradictory passages which remain by a system of false interpretation;
but surely he would not have allowed himself to be driven
{110}
to this extremity, leaving weapons in the hands of his opponents, when
he might so easily have excised the obnoxious texts along with the rest?
It is admitted by critics, moreover, that passages said to have been
omitted by Marcion are often not opposed to his system at all, and
sometimes, indeed, even in favour of it;(1) and on the other hand, that
passages which were retained are contradictory to his views.(2) This is
not intelligible upon any theory of arbitrary garbling of a Gospel in
the interest of a system.
It may be well to give a few instances of the anomalies presented, upon
this hypothesis, by Marcion's text. Some critics believe that the verses
Luke vii. 29--35, were wanting in Marcion's Gospel.(3) Hahn accounts for
the omission of verses 29, 30, regarding the baptism of John, because
they represented the relation of the Baptist to Jesus in a way which
Marcion did not admit.(4) But as he allowed the preceding verses to
remain, such a proceeding was absurd. In verse 26 he calls John a
prophet, and much more than a prophet, and in the next verse (27) quotes
respecting him the words of
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Malachi iii. 1: "This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." It
is impossible on any reasonable ground to account for the retention of
such honourable mention of the Baptist, if verses 29, 30 were erased
for such dogmatic reasons.(1) Still more incomprehensible on such a
hypothesis is the omission of Luke vii. 31--35, where that generation
is likened unto children playing in the market-place and calling to each
other: "We piped unto you and ye danced not," and Jesus continues: "For
John is come neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath
a devil (34). The Son of Man is come, eating and drinking; and ye say:
Behold a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and
sinners." Hahn attributes the omission of these verses to the sensuous
representation they give of Jesus as eating and drinking.(2) What was
the use of eliminating these verses when he allowed to remain unaltered
verse 36 of the same chapter,(3) in which Jesus is invited to eat with
the Pharisee, and goes into his house and sits down to meat? or v.
29--35,(4) in which Jesus accepts the feast of Levi, and defends his
disciples for eating and drinking against the murmurs of the Scribes and
Pharisees? or xv. 2,(5)
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where the Pharisees say of him: "This man receiveth sinners and eateth
with them?" How absurdly futile the omission of the one passage
for dogmatic reasons, while so many others were allowed to remain
unaltered.(1)
The next passage to which we must refer is one of the most important in
connection with Marcion's Docetic doctrine of the person of Jesus. It is
said that he omitted viii. 19: "And his mother and his brethren came to
him and could not come at him for the crowd," and that he inserted in
verse 21, [------]; making the whole episode in his Gospel read (20):
"And it was told him by certain which said: Thy mother and thy brethren
stand without desiring to see thee: 21. But he answered and said unto
them: Who are my mother and brethren? My mother and my brethren are
these," &c. The omission of verse 19 is said to have been made because,
according to Marcion, Christ was not born like an ordinary man, and
consequently had neither mother nor brethren.(3) The mere fact, however,
that Marcion retains verse 20, in which the crowd simply state as a
matter fully recognized, the relationship of those who were seeking
Jesus, renders the omission of the preceding verse useless,(4) except on
the ground of mere redundancy.
Marcion is reported not to have had the word [------] in x. 25,(5) "so
that the question of the lawyer simply ran:
{113}
"Master, what shall I do to inherit life?" The omission of this word is
supposed to have been made in order to make the passage refer back to
the God of the Old Testament, who promises merely long life on earth for
keeping the commandments, whilst it is only in the Gospel that _eternal_
life is promised.(1) But in the corresponding passage, xviii. 18,(2) the
[------] is retained, and the question of the ruler is: "Good master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" It has been argued that the
introduction of the one thing still lacking (verse 22) after the keeping
of the law and the injunction to sell all and give to the poor, changes
the context, and justifies the use there of _eternal_ life as the reward
for fulfilment of the higher commandment.(3) This reasoning, however,
seems to us without grounds, and merely an ingenious attempt to account
for an embarrassing fact. In reality the very same context occurs in the
other passage, for, explaining the meaning of the word "neighbour,"
love to whom is enjoined as part of the way to obtain "life," Jesus
inculcates the very same duty as in xviii. 22, of distributing to the
poor (cf. x. 28--37). There seems, therefore, no reasonable motive
for omitting the word from the one passage whilst retaining it in the
other.(4)
The passage in Luke xi. 29--32, from the concluding words of verse 29,
"but the sign of the prophet Jonah"
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was not found in Marcion's Gospel.(1) This omission is accounted for
on the ground that such a respectful reference to the Old Testament was
quite contrary to the system of Marcion.(2) Verses 49--51 of the same
chapter, containing the saying of the "Wisdom of God," regarding the
sending of the prophets that the Jews might slay them, and their blood
be required of that generation, were also omitted.(3) The reason given
for this omission is, that the words of the God of the Old Testament are
too respectfully quoted and adopted to suit the views of the Heretic.(4)
The words in verses 31--32, "And a greater than Solomon--than Jonah
is here," might well have been allowed to remain in the text, for the
superiority of Christ over the kings and prophets of the Old Testament
which is asserted directly suits and supports the system of Marcion. How
much less, however, is the omission of these passages to be explained
upon any intelligent dogmatic principle, when we find in Marcion's text
the passage in which Jesus justifies his conduct on the Sabbath by
the example of David (vi. 3--4),(5) and that in which he assures
the disciples of the greatness of their reward in heaven for the
persecutions they were to endure:
{115}
"For behold your reward is great in heaven: for after the same manner
did their fathers unto the prophets" (vi. 23).(1) As we have seen,
Jesus is also allowed to quote an Old Testament prophecy (vii. 27) as
fulfilled in the coming of John to prepare the way for himself. The
questions which Jesus puts to the Scribes (xx. 41--44) regarding the
Christ being David's son, with the quotation from Ps. ex. 1, which
Marcion is stated to have retained,(2) equally refute the supposition as
to his motive for "omitting" xi. 29 ff. It has been argued with
regard to the last passage that Jesus merely uses the words of the Old
Testament to meet his own theory,(3) but the dilemma in which Jesus
places the Scribes is clearly not the real object of his question: its
aim is a suggestion of the true character of the Christ. But amongst
his other sins with regard to Luke's Gospel, Marcion is also accused of
interpolating it. And in what way? Why the Heresiarch, who is so averse
to all references to the Old Testament that he is supposed to erase
them, actually, amongst his few interpolations, adds a reference to the
Old Testament. Between xvii. 14 and 15 (some critics say in verse 18)
Marcion introduced the verse which is found in Luke iv. 27: "And many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of
them was cleansed saving Naaman, the Syrian."(4) Now is it conceivable
that a man who inserts, as it is said, references to the
{116}
Old Testament into his text so gratuitously, can have been so
inconsistent as to have omitted these passages because they contain
similar references? We must say that the whole of the reasoning
regarding these passages omitted and retained, and the fine distinctions
which are drawn between them, are anything but convincing. A general
theory being adopted, nothing is more easy than to harmonise everything
with it in this way; nothing is more easy than to assign some reason,
good or bad, apparently in accordance with the foregone conclusion, why
one passage was retained, and why another was omitted, but in almost
every case the reasoning might with equal propriety be reversed if the
passages were so, and the retention of the omitted passage as well as
the omission of that retained be quite as reasonably justified. The
critics who have examined Marcion's Gospel do not trouble themselves to
inquire if the general connection of the text be improved by the absence
of passages supposed to be omitted, but simply try whether the supposed
omissions are explainable on the ground of a dogmatic tendency in
Marcion. In fact, the argument throughout is based upon foregone
conclusions, and rarely upon any solid grounds whatever. The retention
of such passages as we have quoted above renders the omission of the
other for dogmatic reasons quite purposeless.(1)
The passage, xii. 6, 7, which argues that as the sparrows are not
forgotten before God, and the hairs of our head are numbered, the
disciples need not fear, was not found in Mansion's Gospel.(2) The
supposed omission
{117}
is explained on the ground that, according to Marcion's system, God does
not interest himself about such trifles as sparrows and the hairs of
our head, but merely about souls.(1) That such reasoning is arbitrary,
however, is apparent from the fact, that Marcion's text had verse 24 of
the same chapter:(2) "Consider the ravens," &c., &c., and "God feedeth
them:" &c., and also v. 28,(3) "But if God so clothe the grass," &c.,
&c., "how much more will he clothe you, O! ye of little faith?" As no
one ventures to argue that Marcion limited the providence of God to the
ravens, and to the grass, but excluded the sparrows and the hair, no
dogmatic reason can be assigned for the omission of the one, whilst the
other is retained.(4)
The first nine verses of ch. xiii. were likewise absent from Marcion's
text,(5) wherein Jesus declares that like the Galilaeans, whose blood
Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices (v. 1, 2), and the eighteen upon
whom the tower in Siloam fell (v. 4), "except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish," (v. 3 and 5), and then recites the parable of the
unfruitful fig-tree (v. 6--9), which the master of the vineyard orders
to be cut down (v. 7), but then spares for a season (v. 8, 9). The
theory advanced to account for the asserted "omission" of these
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verses is that they could not be reconciled with Marcion's system,
according to which the good God never positively punishes the wicked,
but merely leaves them to punish themselves in that, by not accepting
the proffered grace, they have no part in the blessedness of
Christians.(1) In his earlier work, Volkmar distinctly admitted that the
whole of this passage might be omitted without prejudice to the text
of Luke, and that he could not state any ground, in connection with
Marcion's system, which rendered its omission either necessary or even
conceivable. He then decided that the passage was not contained at all
in the version of Luke, which Marcion possessed, but was inserted at
a later period in our Codices.(2) It was only on his second attempt to
account for all omissions on dogmatic grounds that he argued as above.
In like manner Hilgenfeld also, with Rettig, considered that the passage
did not form part of the original Luke, so that here again Marcion's
text was free from a very abrupt passage, not belonging to the more
pure and primitive Gospel.(3) Baur recognizes not only that there is no
dogmatic ground to explain the omission, but on the contrary, that
the passage fully agrees with the system of Marcion.(4) The total
insufficiency of the argument to explain the omission, however, is
apparent from the numerous passages, which were allowed to remain in the
text, which still more clearly outraged this part of Marcion's system.
In the parable of the great supper, xiv. 15--24, the Lord is angry (v.
21), and declares that none of those who were
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bidden should taste of his supper (v. 24). In xii. 5, Jesus warns his
own disciples: "Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast
into hell; yea, I say unto you: fear him." It is not permissible to
argue that Marcion here understands the God of the Old Testament, the
Creator, for he would thus represent his Christ as forewarning his own
disciples to fear the power of that very Demiurge, whose reign he had
come to terminate. Then again, in the parable of the wise steward, and
the foolish servants, xii. 41 ff, he declares (v. 46), that the lord of
the foolish servant "will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his
portion with the unbelievers," and (vs. 47, 48) that the servants shall
be beaten with stripes, in proportion to their fault. In the parable of
the nobleman who goes to a far country and leaves the ten pounds with
his servants, xix. 11 ff, the lord orders his enemies, who would not
that he should reign over them, to be brought and slain before him (v.
27). Then, how very much there was in the Epistles of Paul, which he
upheld, of a still more contradictory character. There is no dogmatic
reason for such inconsistency.(1)
Marcion is accused of having falsified xiii. 28 in the following manner:
"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see _all
the just_ [------] in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves being
thrust, _and bound_ [------] without." The substitution of "all the
just" for "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets," is one of
those variations which the supporter of the dogmatic theory
greedily lays hold of, as bearing evident tokens of falsification in
anti-judaistic interest.(2) But Marcion had in his Gospel
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the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, xvi. 19--31, where the beggar
is carried up into Abraham's bosom.(1) And again, there was the account
of the Transfiguration, ix. 28--36, in which Moses and Elias are seen in
converse with Jesus.(2) The alteration of the one passage for dogmatic
reasons, whilst the parable of Lazarus is retained, would have been
useless. Hilgenfeld, however, in agreement with Baur and Ritschl, has
shown that Marcion's reading [------] is evidently the contrast to
the [------] of the preceding verse, and is superior to the canonical
version, which was either altered after Matth. viii. 12, or with the
anti-Marcionitish object of bringing the rejected Patriarchs into
recognition.(3) The whole theory in this case again goes into thin air,
and it is consequently weakened in every other.
Marcion's Gospel did not contain the parable of the Prodigal Son, xv.
11--23.(4) The omission of this passage,
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which is universally recognized as in the purest Paulinian spirit, is
accounted for partly on the ground that a portion of it (v. 22--32) was
repugnant to the ascetic discipline of Marcion, to whom the killing of
the fatted calf, the feasting, dancing and merry-making, must have been
obnoxious, and, partly because, understanding under the similitude
of the elder son the Jews, and of the younger son the Gentiles,
the identity of the God of the Jews and of the Christians would be
recognized.(1) There is, however, the very greatest doubt admitted as
to the interpretation which Marcion would be likely to put upon
this parable, and certainly the representation which it gives of the
Gentiles, not only as received completely on a par with the Jews, but
as only having been lost for a time, and found again, is thoroughly in
harmony with the teaching of Paul, who was held by Marcion to be the
only true Apostle. It could not, therefore, have been repugnant to him.
Any points of disagreement could very easily have been explained away,
as his critics are so fond of asserting to be his practice in other
passages.(3) As to the supposed dislike of Marcion for the festive
character of the parable, what object could he have had for omitting
this, when he retained the parable of the
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great supper, xiv. 15--24; the feast in the house of Levi, v. 27--32;
the statements of Jesus eating with the Pharisees, vii. 36, xv. 2?
If Marcion had any objection to such matters, he had still greater to
marriage, and yet Jesus justifies his disciples for eating and drinking
by the similitude of a marriage feast, himself being the bridegroom:
v. 34, 35, "Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast, while the
bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom
shall be taken away from them: then will they fast in those days." And
he bids his disciples to be ready "like men that wait for their lord,
when he shall return from the wedding," (xii. 36), and makes another
parable on a wedding feast (xiv. 7--10). Leaving these passages, it is
impossible to see any dogmatic reason for excluding the others.(1)
The omission of a passage in every way so suitable to Marcion's system
as the parable of the vineyard, xx. 9--16, is equally unintelligible
upon the dogmatic theory.
Marcion is accused of falsifying xvi. 17, by altering [------],(2)
making the passage read: "But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass,
than for one tittle of my words to fail." The words in the canonical
Gospel, it is argued, were too repugnant to him to be allowed to remain
unaltered, representing as they do the permanency of "the Law" to which
he was opposed.(3) Upon this hypothesis, why did he leave
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x. 25 f. (especially v. 26) and xviii. 18 ff, in which the keeping of
the law is made essential to life? or xvii. 14, where Jesus bids the
lepers conform to the requirements of the law? or xvi. 29, where the
answer is given to the rich man pleading for his relatives: "They have
Moses and the prophets, let them hear them"?(l) Hilgenfeld, however,
with others, points out that it has been fully proved that the reading
in Marcion's text is not an arbitrary alteration at all, but the
original expression, and that the version in Luke xvi. 17, on the
contrary, is a variation of the original introduced to give the passage
an anti-Marcionitish tendency.(2) Here, again, it is clear that the
supposed falsification is rather a falsification on the part of the
editor of the third canonical Gospel.(3)
One more illustration may be given. Marcion is accused of omitting from
xix. 9 the words: "forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham," [------]
leaving merely:
"And Jesus said unto him: This day is salvation come to this house."4
Marcion's system, it is said, could not tolerate the phrase which was
erased.(5) It was one, however, eminently in the spirit of his Apostle
Paul, and in his favourite Epistle to the Galatians he retained the very
parallel
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passage iii. 7, "Ye know, therefore, that they which are of faith,
these are the sons of Abraham."(1) How could he, therefore, find any
difficulty in such words addressed to the repentant Zacchaeus, who had
just believed in the mission of Christ? Moreover, why should he have
erased the words here, and left them standing in xiii. 16, in regard
to the woman healed of the "spirit of infirmity:" "and ought not this
woman, _being a daughter of Abraham_, whom Satan hath bound, lo! these
eighteen years, to be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" No
reasoning can explain away the substantial identity of the two phrases.
Upon what principle of dogmatic interest, then, can Marcion have erased
the one while he retained the other?(2)
We have taken a very few passages for illustration, and treated them
very briefly, but it may roundly be said that there is scarcely a single
variation of Marcion's text regarding which similar reasons are not
given, and which do not present similar anomalies in consequence of what
has elsewhere been retained.(3) As we have already stated, much that is
really contradictory to Marcion's system was found in his text, and much
which either is not opposed or is favourable to it is omitted
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and cannot be set down to arbitrary alteration. Moreover, it has
never been shown that the supposed alterations were made by Marcion
himself,(1) and till this is done the pith of the whole theory is
wanting. There is no principle of intelligent motive which can account
for the anomalies presented by Marcion's Gospel, considered as a version
of Luke mutilated and falsified in the interest of his system. The
contrast of what is retained with that which is omitted reduces the
hypothesis _ad absurdum_. Marcion was too able a man to do his work so
imperfectly, if he had proposed to assimilate the Gospel of Luke to
his own views. As it is avowedly necessary to explain away by false and
forced interpretations requiring intricate definitions(2) very much
of what was allowed to remain in his text, it is inconceivable that he
should not have cut the Gordian knot with the same unscrupulous knife
with which it is asserted he excised the rest The ingenuity of most able
and learned critics endeavouring to discover whether a motive in the
interest of his system cannot be conceived for every alteration is,
notwithstanding the evident scope afforded by the procedure, often
foiled. Yet a more elastic hypothesis could not possibly have been
advanced, and that the text obstinately refuses to fit into it, is even
more than could have been expected. Marcion is like a prisoner at the
bar without witnesses, who is treated from the first as guilty, attacked
by able and passionate adversaries who warp every possible circumstance
against him, and yet who cannot be convicted. The foregone conclusion
by which every supposed omission from his Gospel is explained, is, as we
have shown, almost in
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every case contradicted by passages which have been allowed to remain,
and this is rendered more significant by the fact, which is generally
admitted, that Marcion's text contains many readings which are
manifestly superior to, and more original than, the form in which the
passages stand in our third Synoptic.(1) The only one of these to which
we shall refer is the interesting variation from the passage in Luke xi.
2, in the substitution of a prayer for the Holy Spirit for the "hallowed
be thy name,"--[------]. The former is recognized to be the true
original reading. This phrase is evidently referred to in v. 13. We are,
therefore, indebted to Marcion for the correct version of "the Lord's
Prayer."(2)
There can be no doubt that Marcion's Gospelbore great analogy to
our Luke, although it was very considerably shorter. It is, however,
unnecessary to repeat that there were many Gospels in the second century
which, although nearly related to those which have become canonical,
were independent works, and the most favourable interpretation which
can be given of the relationship between our three Synoptics leaves
them very much in a line with Marcion's work. His Gospel was chiefly
distinguished
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by a shorter text,(1) but besides large and important omissions there
are a few additions,(2) and very many variations of text. The whole of
the first two chapters of Luke, as well as all the third, was wanting,
with the exception of part of the first verse of the third chapter,
which, joined to iv. 31, formed the commencement of the Gospel. Of
chapter iv. verses 1--13, 17--20 and 24 were likewise probably absent.
Some of the other more important omissions are xi. 29--32, 49--51, xiii.
1--9, 29--35, xv. 11--32, xvii. 5--10 (probably), xviii. 31--34, xix.
29--48, xx. 9--19, 37--38, xxi. 1--4, 18, 21--22> xxii. 16--18, 28--30,
35--38, 49--51, and there is great doubt about the concluding verses of
xxiv. from 44 to the end, but it may have terminated with v. 49. It is
not certain whether the order was the same as Luke,(3) but there are
instances of decided variation, especially at the opening. As the
peculiarities of the opening variations have had an important effect
in inclining some critics towards the acceptance of the mutilation
hypothesis,(4) it may be well for us briefly to examine the more
important amongst them.
Marcion's Gospel is generally said to have commenced thus: "In the
fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Jesus came down to
Capernaum, a city of Galilee."(5)
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There are various slightly differing readings of this. Epiphanius
gives the opening words, [------].1 Tertullian has: Anno quintodecimo
principatus Tiberiani.... de-scendisse in civitatem Galilsaeae
Capharnaum."(2) The [-------]s of Epiphanius has permitted the
conjecture that there might have been an additional indication of the
time, such as "Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea,"(3) but this has
not been generally adopted.(4) It is not necessary for us to discuss the
sense in which the "came down" [------] was interpreted, since it is
the word used in Luke. Marcion's Gospel then proceeds with iv. 31: "and
taught them on the sabbath days, (v. 32), and they were exceedingly
astonished at his teaching, for his word was power." Then follow vs.
33--39 containing the healing of the man with an unclean spirit,(5) and
of Simon's wife's mother, with the important omission of the expression
"of Nazareth" (Najapipc)6 after "Jesus" in the cry of the possessed (v.
34). The vs. 16--307 immediately _follow_ iv. 39, with important
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omissions and variations. In iv. 16, where Jesus comes to Nazareth,
the words "where he had been brought up" are omitted, as is also the
concluding phrase "and stood up to read."(1) Verses 17--19, in which
Jesus reads from Isaiah, are altogether wanting.(2) Volkmar omits the
whole of v. 20, Hilgenfeld only the first half down to the sitting down,
retaining the rest; Hahn retains from "and he sat down" to the end.(3)
Of v. 21 only: "He began to speak to them" is retained.(4) From v.
22 the concluding phrase: "And said: Is not this Joseph's son" is
omitted,(5) as are also the words "in thy country" from v. 23.(6)
Verse 24, containing the proverb: "A prophet has no honour" is wholly
omitted,(7) but the best critics differ regarding the two following
verses 25--26; they are omitted according to Hahn, Ritschl and De
Wette,(8) but retained by Volkmar and Hilgenfeld.(9) Verse 27,
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referring to the leprosy of Naaman, which, it will be remembered, is
interpolated at xvii. 14, is omitted here by most critics, but retained
by Vojkmar.(1) Verses 28--30 come next,(2) and the four verses iv.
40--44, which then immediately follow, complete the chapter. This brief
analysis, with the accompanying notes, illustrates the uncertainty of
the text, and, throughout the whole Gospel, conjecture similarly plays
the larger part. We do not propose to criticise minutely the
various conclusions arrived at as to the state of the text, but must
emphatically remark that where there is so little certainty there
cannot be any safe ground for delicate deductions regarding motives and
sequences of matter. Nothing is more certain than that, if we criticise
and compare the Synoptics on the same principle, we meet with the most
startling results and the most irreconcileable difficulties.(3) The
opening of Marcion's Gospel is more free from abruptness and crudity
than that of Luke.
It is not necessary to show that the first three chapters of Luke
present very many differences from the other Synoptics. Mark omits them
altogether, and they do not even agree with the account in Matthew. Some
of the oldest Gospels of which we have any knowledge, such as the Gospel
according to the Hebrews, are said not to have had the narrative of the
first two chapters at all,(4) and there is much more than doubt as to
their originality. The mere omission of the history of
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the infancy, &c., from Mark, however, renders it unnecessary to show
that the absence of these chapters from Marcion's Gospel has the
strongest support and justification. Now Luke's account of the early
events and geography of the Gospel history is briefly as follows:
Nazareth is the permanent dwelling-place of Joseph and Mary,(1) but on
account of the census they travel to Bethlehem, where Jesus is born;(2)
and after visiting Jerusalem to present him at the Temple,(3) they
return "to their own city Nazareth."(4) After the baptism and temptation
Jesus comes to Nazareth "where he had been brought up,"(5) and in the
course of his address to the people he says: "Ye will surely say unto me
this proverb: Physician heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum do also here in thy country."(6) No mention, however, has
before this been made of Capernaum, and no account has been given of any
works done there; but, on the contrary, after escaping from the angry
mob at Nazareth, Jesus goes for the first time to Capernaum, which, on
being thus first mentioned, is particularized as "a city of Galilee,"(7)
where he heals a man who had an unclean spirit, in the synagogue,
who addresses him as "Jesus of Nazareth;"(8) and the fame of him goes
throughout the country.(9) He cures Simon's wife's mother of a fever(10)
and when the sun is set they bring the sick and he heals them.(11)
The account in Matthew contradicts this in many points, some of which
had better be indicated here. Jesus is born in Bethlehem, which is the
ordinary
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dwelling-place of the family;(1) his parents fly thence with him into
Egypt,(2) and on their return, they dwell "in a city called Nazareth;
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets: He shall be
called a Nazarene."(3) After John's imprisonment, Jesus leaves
Nazareth, and goes to dwell in Capernaum.(4) From that time he begins to
preach.(5) Here then, he commences his public career in Capernaum.
In Mark, Jesus comes from Nazareth to be baptized,(6) and after the
imprisonment of John, he comes into Galilee preaching.(7) In Capernaum,
he heals the man of the unclean spirit, and Simon's wife's mother,(8)
and then retires to a solitary place,(9) returns after some days to
Capernaum(10) without going to Nazareth at all, and it is only at a
later period that he comes to his own country, and quotes the proverb
regarding a prophet.(11)
It is evident from this comparison, that there is very considerable
difference between the three Synoptics, regarding the outset of the
career of Jesus, and that there must have been decided elasticity in the
tradition, and variety in the early written accounts of this part of the
Gospel narrative. Luke alone commits the error of making Jesus appear
in the synagogue at Nazareth, and refer to works wrought at Capernaum,
before any mention had been made of his having preached or worked
wonders there to justify the allusions
3 ii. 33. We need not pause here to point out that there
is no such prophecy known in the Old Testament. The
reference may very probably bo a singularly mistaken
application of the word in Isaiah xi. 1, the Hebrew word for
branch being [----] Nazer.
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and the consequent agitation. It is obvious that there has been
confusion in the arrangement of the third Synoptic and a transposition
of the episodes, clearly pointing to a combination of passages from
other sources.(1) Now Marcion's Gospel did not contain these anomalies.
It represented Jesus as first appearing in Capernaum, teaching in
the synagogue, and performing mighty works there, and _then_ going to
Nazareth, and addressing the people with the natural reference to
the previous events at Capernaum, and in this it is not only more
consecutive, but also adheres more closely to the other two Synoptics.
That Luke happens to be the only one of our canonical Gospels, which has
the words with which Marcion's Gospel commences, is no proof that
these words were original in that work, and not found in several of the
writings which existed before the third Synoptic was compiled. Indeed,
the close relationship between the first three Gospels is standing
testimony to the fact that one Gospel was built upon the basis of others
previously existing. This which has been called "the chief prop of the
mutilation hypothesis,"(2) has really no solid ground to stand on beyond
the accident that only one of three Gospels survives out of many which
may have had the phrase. The fact that Marcion's Gospel really had the
words of Luke, moreover, is mere conjecture, inasmuch as Epiphanius, who
alone gives the Greek, shows a distinct variation of reading. He has:
[------]
1 Cf. Luke iv. 23; Matt. viii. 54; Mark vi. 1--6. We do not
go into the question as to the sufficiency of the motives
ascribed for the agitation at Nazareth, or the contradiction
between the facts narrated as to the attempt to kill Jesus,
and the statement of their wonder at his gracious words, v.
22, &o. There is no evidence where the various discrepancies
arose, and no certain conclusions can be based upon such
arguments.
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[------].(1) Luke reads: [------]. We do not of course lay much stress
upon this, but the fact that there is a variation should be noticed.
Critics quietly assume, because there is a difference, that Epiphanius
has abbreviated, but that is by no means sure. In any case, instances
could be multiplied to show that if one of our Synoptic Gospels were
lost, one of the survivors would in this manner have credit for passages
which it had in reality either derived from the lost Gospel, or with it
drawn from a common original source.
Now starting from the undeniable fact that the Synoptic Gospels are
in no case purely original independent works, but are based upon older
writings, or upon each other, each Gospel remodelling and adding to
already existing materials, as the author of the third Gospel, indeed,
very frankly and distinctly indicates,(2) it seems a bold thing to
affirm that Marcion's Gospel must necessarily have been derived from the
latter. Ewald has made a minute analysis of the Synoptics assigning the
materials of each to what he considers their original source. We do not
of course attach any very specific importance to such results, for it
is clear that they must to a great extent be arbitrary and incapable of
proof, but being effected without any reference to the question before
us, it may be interesting to compare Ewald's conclusions regarding the
parallel part of Luke, with the first chapter of Marcion's Gospel. Ewald
details the materials from which our Synoptic Gospels
2 Luke i. 1--4. He professes to write in order the things
in which Theophilus had already been instructed, not to tell
something new, but merely that he might know the certainty
thereof.
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were derived, and the order of their composition as follows, each
Synoptic of course making use of the earlier materials: I. the oldest
Gospel. II. the collection of Discourses (Spruchsammlung). III. Mark.
IV. the Book of earlier History. V. our present Matthew. VI. the sixth
recognizable book. VII. the seventh book. VIII. the eighth book; and IX.
Luke.(1) Now the only part of our third canonical Gospel corresponding
with any part of the first chapter of Marcion's Gospel which Ewald
ascribes to the author of our actual Luke is the opening date.(2) The
passage to which the few opening words are joined, and which constitute
the commencement of Marcion's Gospel, Luke iv. 31--39, is a section
commencing with verse 31, and extending to the end of the chapter,
thereby including verses 40--44, which Ewald assigns to Mark.(3) Verses
16--24, which immediately follow, also form a complete and isolated
passage assigned by Ewald, to the "sixth recognizable book."(4) Verses
25--27, also are the whole
2 The verses iv. 14--15, which. Volkmar wished to include,
but which all other critics reject (see p. 128, note 7),
from Marcion's text, Ewald likewise identifies as an
isolated couple of verses by the author of our Luke inserted
between episodes derived from other written sources. Cf.
Ewald, 1. c.
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of another isolated section attributed by Ewald, to the "Book of earlier
history," whilst 28--30, in like manner form another complete and
isolated episode, assigned by him to the "eighth recognizable book."(1)
According to Ewald, therefore, Luke's Gospel at this place is a mere
patchwork of older writings, and if this be in any degree accepted, as
in the abstract, indeed, it is by the great mass of critics, then
the Gospel of Marcion might be an arrangement different from Luke of
materials not his, but previously existing, and of which, therefore,
there is no warrant to limit the use and reproduction to the canonical
Gospel.
The course pursued by critics, with regard to Marcion's Gospel,
is necessarily very unsatisfactory. They commence with a definite
hypothesis, and try whether all the peculiarities of the text may not
be more or less well explained by it. On the other hand, the attempt
to settle the question by a comparison of the reconstructed text
with Luke's is equally inconclusive. The determination of priority of
composition from internal evidence, where there are no chronological
references, must as a general rule be arbitrary, and can rarely be
accepted as final. Internal evidence would, indeed, decidedly favour the
priority of Marcion's Gospel. The great uncertainty of the whole system,
even when applied under the most favourable circumstances, is well
illustrated by the contradictory results at which critics have arrived
as to the order of production and dependence on each other of our three
Synoptics. Without going into details, we may say that critics who are
all agreed upon the mutual dependence of those Gospels have variously
arranged them in the following order: I. Matthew--
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Mark--Luke.(1) II. Matthew--Luke--Mark.(3) III. Mark--Matthew--Luke.(3)
IV. Mark--Luke--Matthew.(4) V. Luke--Matthew--Mark.(5) VI. All three
out of common written sources.(6) Were we to state the various
theories still more in detail, we might largely increase the variety of
conclusions. These, however, suffice to show the uncertainty of results
derived from internal evidence. It is always assumed that Marcion
altered a Gospel to suit his own particular system, but as one of his
most orthodox critics, while asserting that Luke's narrative lay at
the basis of his Gospel, admits: "it is not equally clear that all the
changes were due to Marcion himself;"(7) and, although he considers that
"some of the omissions can be explained by his peculiar doctrines,"
he continues: "others are unlike arbitrary corrections, and must be
considered as various readings of the greatest interest, dating as they
do from a time anterior to all
1 Of course we only pretend to indicate a few of the critics
who adopt each order. So Bengel, Bolton, Ebrard, Grotius,
Hengstenberg, Hug, Hilgenfeld, Holtzmann, Mill, Seiler,
Townson, Wetstein.
2 So Ammon, Baur, Bleek, Delitzsch, Fritzsche, Gfrorer,
Griesbach, Kern, Eostlin, Neudecker, Saunier, Schwarz,
Schwegler, Sieffert, Stroth, Theilo, Owon, Paulus, De Wette.
3 So Credner, Ewald, Hitzig, Lachmann, (?) Xteuss, Bitschl,
Meyer, Storr, Thiersch.
4 B. Bauer, Hitzig (?) Schnockonburger, Volkmar, Weisse,
Wilke.
5 Busching, Eyanson.
6 Bortholdt, Le Clerc, Corrodi, Eichhorn, Gratz, Hanlein,
Koppe, Kuinoel, Leasing, Marsh, Michaelis, Niemeyer, Semler,
Schleiermacher, Schmidt, Weber. This view was partly shared
by many of those mentioned under other orders.
{138}
other authorities in our possession."(1) Now, undoubtedly, the more
developed forms of the Gospel narrative were the result of additions,
materially influenced by dogmatic and other reasons, made to earlier
and more fragmentary works, but it is an argument contrary to general
critical experience to affirm that a Gospel, the distinguishing
characteristic of which is greater brevity, was produced by omissions in
the interest of a system from a longer work.
In the earlier editions of this work, we contended that the theory that
Marcion's Gospel was a mutilated form of our third Synoptic had not been
established, and that more probably it was an earlier work, from which
our Gospel might have been elaborated. We leave the statement of the
case, so far, nearly in its former shape, in order that the true nature
of the problem and the varying results and gradual development of
critical opinion may be better understood. Since the sixth edition of
this work was completed, however, a very able examination of Marcion's
Gospel has been made by Dr. Sanday,(2) which has convinced us that our
earlier hypothesis is untenable, that the portions of our third Synoptic
excluded from Marcion's Gospel were really written by the same pen which
composed the mass of the work and, consequently, that our third Synoptic
existed in his time, and was substantially in the hands of Marcion. This
conviction is mainly the result of the linguistic analysis, sufficiently
indicated by Dr. Sanday and, since, exhaustively carried out for
ourselves. We still consider the argument based upon the mere dogmatic
views of Marcion, which has hitherto been almost
{139}
exclusively relied on, quite inconclusive by itself, but the linguistic
test, applied practically for the first time in this controversy by Dr.
Sanday, must, we think, prove irresistible to all who are familiar
with the comparatively limited vocabulary of New Testament writers.
Throughout the omitted sections, peculiarities of language and
expression abound which clearly distinguish the general composer of
the third Gospel, and it is, consequently, not possible reasonably
to maintain that these sections are additions subsequently made by a
different hand, which seems to be the only legitimate course open to
those who would deny that Marcion's Gospel originally contained them.
Here, then, we find evidence of the existence of our third Synoptic
about the year 140, and it may of course be inferred that it must have
been composed at least some time before that date. It is important,
however, to estimate aright the facts actually before us and the
deductions which may be drawn from them. The testimony of Marcion does
not throw any light upon the authorship or origin of the Gospel of
which he made use. Its superscription was simply: "The Gospel," or, "The
Gospel of the Lord" [------],(1) and no author's name was attached to
it. The Heresiarch did not pretend to have written it himself, nor did
he ascribe it to any other person. Tertullian, in fact, reproaches him
with its anonymity. "And here
{110}
already I might make a stand," he says at the very opening of his attack
on Marcion's Gospel, "contending that a work should not be recognized
which does not hold its front erect... which does not give a pledge of
its trustworthiness by the fulness of its title, and the due declaration
of its author."(1) Not only did Marcion himself not in any way connect
the name of Luke with his Gospel, but his followers repudiated the idea
that Luke was its author.(2) In establishing the substantial identity of
Marcion's Gospel and our third Synoptic, therefore, no advance is
made towards establishing the authorship of Luke. The Gospel remains
anonymous still. On the other hand we ascertain the important fact that,
so far from its having any authoritative or infallible character at
that time, Marcion regarded our Synoptic as a work perverted by Jewish
influences, and requiring to be freely expurgated in the interests
of truth.(3) Amended by very considerable omissions and alterations,
Marcion certainly held it in high respect as a record of the teaching of
Jesus, but beyond this circumstance, and the mere fact of its existence
in his day, we learn nothing from the evidence of Marcion. It can
scarcely be maintained that this does much to authenticate the third
Synoptic as a record of miracles and a witness for the reality of Divine
Revelation.
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There is no evidence whatever that Marcion had any knowledge of the
other canonical Gospels in any form.(1) None of his writings are extant,
and no direct assertion is made even by the Fathers that he knew them,
although from their dogmatic point of view they assume that these
Gospels existed from the very first, and therefore insinuate that as he
only recognized one Gospel, he rejected the rest.(2) When Irenaeus says:
"He persuaded his disciples that he himself was more veracious than were
the apostles who handed down the Gospel, though he delivered to them not
the Gospel, but part of the Gospel,"(3) it is quite clear that he speaks
of the Gospel--the good tidings--Christianity--and not of specific
written Gospels. In another passage which is referred to by Apologists,
Irenaeus says of the Marcionites that they have asserted: "That even
the apostles proclaimed the Gospel still under the influence of Jewish
sentiments; but that they themselves are more sound and more judicious
than the apostles. Wherefore also Marcion and his followers have had
recourse to mutilating the Scriptures, not recognizing some books at
all, but curtailing the Gospel according to Luke and the Epistles of
Paul; these they say are alone authentic which they themselves have
abbreviated."(4)
{142}
These remarks chiefly refer to the followers of Marcion, and as we have
shown, when treating of Valentinus, Irenaeus is expressly writing against
members of heretical sects living in his own day and not of the founders
of those sects.(1) The Marcionites of the time of Irenaeus no doubt
deliberately rejected the Gospels, but it does, not by any means follow
that Marcion himself knew anything of them. As yet we have not met with
any evidence even of their existence.
The evidence of Tertullian is not a whit more valuable. In the passage
usually cited, he says: "But Marcion, lighting upon the Epistle of Paul
to the Gaia-tians, in which he reproaches even Apostles for not walking
uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, as well as accuses
certain false Apostles of perverting the Gospel of Christ, tries with
all his might to destroy the status of those Gospels which are put forth
as genuine and under the name of Apostles or at least of contemporaries
of the Apostles, in order, be it known, to confer upon his own the
credit which he takes from them."(2) Now here again it is clear that
Tertullian is simply applying, by inference, Marcion's views with
regard to the preaching of the Gospel by the two parties in the Church,
represented by the Apostle Paul and the "pillar" Apostles whose leaning
to Jewish doctrines he condemned, to the written Gospels recognized
in his day though not in Marcion's. "It is uncertain," says even Canon
Westcott,
{143}
"whether Tertullian in the passage quoted speaks from a knowledge of
what Marcion may have written on the subject, or simply from his own
point of sight."(1) Any doubt is, however, removed on examining the
context, for Tertullian proceeds to argue that if Paul censured Peter,
John and James, it was for changing their company from respect of
persons, and similarly, "if false apostles crept in," they betrayed
their character by insisting on Jewish observances. "So that it was _not
on account of their preaching_, but of their conversation that they were
pointed out by Paul,"(2) and he goes on to argue that if Marcion thus
accuses Apostles of having depraved the Gospel by their dissimulation,
he accuses Christ in accusing those whom Christ selected.(3) It is
palpable, therefore, that Marcion, in whatever he may have written,
referred to the preaching of the Gospel, or Christianity, by Apostles
who retained their Jewish prejudices in favour of circumcision and legal
observances, and not to written Gospels. Tertullian merely assumes, with
his usual audacity, that the Church had the four Gospels from the very
first, and therefore that Marcion, who had only one Gospel, knew the
others and deliberately rejected them.
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