Marcion and the Man

[MrMacSon]

The author of Exodus 6:2 was ... intentionally trying to conflate two different gods.

... people 1000 years later were experimenting [with divine names].

Yes, there was lots of experimentation in the period 2-300 BC to 2-300 AD.

[Stephan Huller]

Yes, there was lots of experimentation in the period 2-300 BC to 2-300 AD.

It's these sort of statements that drive me crazy. Define 'lots.' Define 'experimentation.' Demonstrate that there was 'lots of experimentation' in the particular Jewish religious culture in the period referenced.

[MrMacSon]

I was thinking more outside Jewish religious culture.

[Stephan Huller]

Then what relevance does it have to the discussion? I know there is this 'mythicist' view that Christianity was just another pagan religion. 'Why not?' they say, 'maybe we have assumed too much about Jewish origins' or something like that. But surely we can't pretend that we don't know something about Christianity, that it betrays a development from 'Jewish culture' and surely Jewish culture was removed from paganism? Why do we have to keep going back and forth on this stupid issue? The fact that you 'like' paganism surely doesn't mean that we have to believe that Christianity was 'pagan.'

[MrMacSon]

... But surely we can't pretend that we don't know something about Christianity, that it betrays a development from 'Jewish culture' and surely Jewish culture was removed from paganism? Why do we have to keep going back and forth on this stupid issue?

Yes Christianity 'betrays' & portrays a development from Jewish culture. Yes, Jewish culture was [mostly] removed from paganism, except where Jewish culture was hellenized.

but, it seems highly likely that Christianity is a syncreticism of both, so a sole focus on its 'Jewish origins' seems to be an unnecessarily narrow focus.

The fact that you 'like' paganism surely doesn't mean that we have to believe that Christianity was 'pagan'.

I don't 'like' paganism'. I used to think paganism was a West & Nth European/British Isles thing. I didn't know, until relatively-recently, the term pagansim (somewhat disparagingly?) applied to Roman, east Mediterranean and Egyptian religions; nor that aspects of Christianity reflect practices of some of those east Mediterranean and Egyptian religions.

add: might some of these pagan belief-systems have influenced Marcion and others?