The Death of Jesus and Monotheism/Monarchianism

[Secret Alias]

As many of you know I have to come to a number of conclusions about early Christianity. For one Jesus was, even for the Marcionites, the Creator. Christ was the Father who was previously 'unknown' on some level but 'revealed' through the gospel narrative. If we assume Irenaeus's statement about Jesus crucified and Christ watching impassably was part of a larger theological understanding and Jesus and Christ represent 'two powers' the fact that the religion is known as 'Christianity' (as opposed to 'Jesus-anity' or some such 'Jesus' based appellation) might have some hidden significance.

Paul's interest seems certainly to be rooted in 'Christ' not Jesus. It is in my mind interesting that the 'two powers' interest even in Marcionism seems to be limited to the time before the gospel narrative. In other words, the real (and important) difference between the Jews who accepted 'two powers' (think Philo but there were certainly many others before Christianity) and Marcionism and 'two powers' traditions within Christianity, is the fact that for practical purposes they differ from mainstream orthodoxy insofar as the pre-gospel understanding of the godhead. In other words, there were two powers up until the crucifixion and now in the age of the 'kingdom of heaven/God' there really is only the Father.

What I mean is that we have no evidence that Christians venerated Jesus as a separate angel from the Father in the 'Christian age.' Instead we have Justin Martyr and others reading the OT in a manner that resembles what Jewish 'two powers' groups must have read the gospel. Why does the 'two powers' understanding disappear in the modern age? The solution I come up with is that Jesus was the second power and he effectively 'died' (Paul does use that word). He certainly 'resurrects' but now on some level is one with the Father. In other words, after the crucifixion and resurrection there are no longer two powers even for the Marcionites. There is only the Father.

We really don't know what the Marcionites thought of the Jews and their god as a living faith. Could that be because the original Marcionites (the original Pauline community) simply assumed that the Jewish religion had died or ended with the destruction? What I am saying then is that when the Church Fathers disagreed with the Marcionites the debates weren't as 'absolute' as we might think. Both likely assumed that the Son was one with the Father (i.e. post-resurrection). Where differences existed was likely that there were two gods in the period before the gospel narrative.

What accounts for the resolution? I suspect that Jesus (= the Creator) died and went to the highest heaven becoming 'Christ' after his resurrection. In other words, I suspect that the crucifixion itself represented some sort of 'resolution' to the problem 'caused' by the two powers in heaven business. Maybe there were differences between the Jews who traditionally held that there were two powers and Christian groups (Marcionites) who held that there was once two powers but only one with the death and resurrection (and repentance) of the Creator. As such Marcionism was the pathway toward monotheism. Our orthodoxy agreed in effect that there was only one God but attempted to push back this monotheistic/monarchian reading back into the OT period. The problem of course is that it doesn't work. The Pentateuch can't be read as a monotheistic document without ignoring what is actually said.