Marcion and 1 Cor 2:6-8

[Giuseppe]

Eph. 3:9 in Marcion, according to Tertullian:

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid BY God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

http://markusvinzent.blogspot.it/2016/0 ... ction.html

Therefore Marcion did interpret the passage in this way: the Demiurge was obscuring the ''mystery'' from the beginning of the world. Not the Good God.


Hence the correct MARCIONITE interpretation of 1 Cor 2:6-8 is, by need, the following:

6 we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, that come to nought:

7 But we speak the wisdom of God [the Demiurge] in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God [the Demiurge] ordained before the world unto our glory:

8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But then the ''rulers of this age'' end to be the evil killers of Jesus: in the interpretation above they become virtually the unaware victims of the creator god, the Demiurge.

[Giuseppe]

It seems that, meaning the Demiurge behind ''God'' in 1 Cor 2:6-8, Paul says that the rulers of this age are held in a state of ignorance by the Demiurge himself, so that they could kill Jesus just in virtue of their ignorance. The point is that the Demiurge was hiddening that ''wisdom'' precisely as mere effect of the his existence.


The original pauline version:

ἀλλὰ λαλοῦμεν Θεοῦ σοφίαν ἐν μυστηρίῳ, τὴν ἀποκεκρυμμένην, ἣν προώρισεν ὁ Θεὸς πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων εἰς δόξαν ἡμῶν·
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory

The marcionite version (if I am correct):

ἀλλὰ λαλοῦμεν σοφίαν ἀπὸ Θεοῦ τὴν ἀποκεκρυμμένην ἐν μυστηρίῳ,, ἣν προώρισεν ὁ Θεὸς πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων εἰς δόξαν ἡμῶν·
But we speak the wisdom hidden from God in a mystery which God ordained before the world unto our glory

It is not that the Demiurge knew the identity of Jesus and masked deliberately that identity to his future killers.

It is that the Demiurge was, by definition, a creator god unaware of the existence of a superior God beyond of himself. His natural ignorance becomes the ignorance of the same rulers of this age: the latter therefore are not naturally evil spiritual beings, but can only be earthly rulers (for Marcion).

To remove the idea that the Demiurge was a positive figure, probably Marcion omitted verse 2:9, ''But as it has been written...''.

...Or the proto-catholics added it for the opposed reason.

This may explain why the passage did end to be read with historicist lens, from the original pauline reading that had only the demons as killers of Jesus.

[Giuseppe]

I think that, if the original verse 2:7 did sound so:

ἀλλὰ λαλοῦμεν σοφίαν τὴν ἀποκεκρυμμένην ἀπὸ θεῷ ἐν μυστηρίῳ, ἣν προώρισεν ὁ Θεὸς πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων εἰς δόξαν ἡμῶν·
But we speak the wisdom hidden from God [the Demiurge] in a mystery which God [the Good God] ordained before the world unto our glory

...then it could have moved Marcion to derive a distinction between the God who hiddens (=the Demiurge) and the Deus Absconditus (the Good God). Against what the same Paul had meant really.


....With a historicist conclusion about the nature of the killers of Jesus.

[Giuseppe]

Therefore I would raise a question for the experts of Greek, in this forum.

Can someone say that the known verse of 1 Co 2:7 may be translated as above in my proposed interpretation?

(In particular, I see that interesting ἀποκεκρυμμένην that has that ἀπο as prefix...)