About Vinzent's reconstruction of incipit I can't vouch of course (although I think the prof has surely its well founded reasons).
But it's this point that just I don't realize:
But why Marcion would have one woman and some younger men claimed to be the blood mother & the blood brothers of Jesus? Please note that Jesus' remark is not rejecting these people as being part of his blood family. That goes against Marcion's christology and therefore self-defeating. So it is clear Marcion did not want to have this passage interpreted that way.
Jesus's remark is not meant to reject
only these people ''as being part of his blood family'' (
quasi assuming he had
a priori a
blood family, only 'not'
that family), but it is intended to reject the
entire concept of
phisical sonship and brotherhood
with someone. This is perfectly coherent with Marcion's christology.
And certainly the readers/listeners of this passage, who already knew Jesus could not have a blood human family according to Marcion's christology, would have thought this appellation of mother & brothers only meant followers of Jesus. This is what Marcion wanted them to understand.
Sorry, but I don't realize your concept. I don't think that the simple rethorical question
''Who are my mother and my brothers?'' (likely marcionite answer:
nothing) implies by necessity that ''this appellation of mother & brothers only meant followers of Jesus'', as you say.
at most you can say that in Marcion Jesus takes the
opportunity to say that his true
and only family are only those who do his words (and
his alone).
This is surely true, in an absolute sense. While in Luke a carnal brother of Jesus could be
also his true spiritual brother (obviously becoming Christian), in
Mcn this is not possible because
there are no carnal brothers a priori.