Peter Kirby wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 11:38 amIn broad outline, one of these two explanations suggest themselves, if Justin is correct here:GakuseiDon wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 2:55 am https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ ... ology.html
There was a Samaritan, Simon, a native of the village called Gitto... And a man, Meander, also a Samaritan, of the town Capparetaea, a disciple of Simon... And there is Marcion, a man of Pontus, who is even at this day alive, and teaching his disciples to believe in some other god greater than the Creator. And he, by the aid of the devils, has caused many of every nation to speak blasphemies, and to deny that God is the maker of this universe, and to assert that some other being, greater than He, has done greater works. All who take their opinions from these men, are, as we before said, called Christians; just as also those who do not agree with the philosophers in their doctrines, have yet in common with them the name of philosophers given to them. And whether they perpetrate those fabulous and shameful deeds--the upsetting of the lamp, and promiscuous intercourse, and eating human flesh--we know not; but we do know that they are neither persecuted nor put to death by you, at least on account of their opinions.
(1) What you hypothesize: they were "able to include the Roman pantheon" and live as polytheistic pagans among pagans
(2) They were considered to be Jews by the Romans
Assuming that we reject the first option, this could be evidence for Stephan Huller's opinion that the Marcionites weren't ultra-gentilic, as it is commonly assumed. This could be evidence that the Marcionites were "more Jewish" in some sense than other Christians, which allowed them to be convincingly considered Jews by the Romans.
Also recall that the early fourth century inscription (Inscriptions Grecques et Latines de la Syrie, No. 2558) refers to:Secret Alias wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 11:58 am Remember there were three classes of people in the Jewish world at the time
1. Jews
2. Hebrews (proselytes)
3. Gentiles
Somewhere in Book Three of Adversus Marcionem Tertullian says that the Marcionites appealed their message to the proselytes. What a strange place to develop an anti-Jewish doctrine. Like standing outside steak houses selling memberships for a vegetarian delivery service. The Marcionites used texts which used terminology related to Israelite religion. They thought of themselves as the "new Israel," they employed most of Paul's allegories that were derived from the Pentateuch, they even had interpretations of passages of the Old Testament (cf. Dialogues of Adamantius).
The Marcionites clearly sought the prosleytes to tell them that Jesus had come for them. We learn from Eznik that they had a whole story that Jesus came for those in the underworld who hadn't yet received the law of Moses. So this idea is related to the appeal to the proselytes. They said that Jesus's coming wasn't as the messiah of the Old Testament. That doesn't mean that they didn't use prophesy to justify Jesus's appearance necessarily.
Συναγωγή Μαρκιωνιστων
The "synagogue" of the Marcionites.