http://markusvinzent.blogspot.it/2011/1 ... n-has.html
at the light of what Couchoud wrote about the Parable of the Banquet:
He is not angered against the guests, as Tertullian thought him to be, but seized with compassion for the disinherited. “The good god took compassion on sinners who were unknown to him…and, his bowels being moved, had pity on them” (A. i. 23). 239 “The invitation to this supper represents the heavenly banquet at which satisfaction and rejoicing will be spiritual” (T. iv. 31). The guests who make excuses are the Jews. The beggars, the lame, the halt, and the blind are the sinners [the heathen]. Cf. the feast at Levi's (v. 29).
(Creation of Christ, p. 410, my bold)
Matth. 22:4-8 | Luke 13:17-24 = Mcn |
22:4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look! The feast I have prepared for you is ready. My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”’ 22:5 But they were indifferent and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. 22:6 The rest seized his slaves, insolently mistreated them, and killed them. 22:7 The king was furious! He sent his soldiers, and they put those murderers to death and set their city on fire. 22:8 Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but the ones who had been invited were not worthy. |
14:17 At the time for the banquet he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ 14:18 But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please excuse me.’ 14:19 Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going out to examine them. Please excuse me.’ 14:20 Another said, ‘I just got married, and I cannot come.’ 14:21 So the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the master of the household was furious and said to his slave, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 14:22 Then the slave said, ‘Sir, what you instructed has been done, and there is still room.’ 14:23 So the master said to his slave, ‘Go out to the highways and country roads and urge people to come in, so that my house will be filled. 14:24 For I tell you, not one of those individuals who were invited will taste my banquet!’” |
Mark Goodacre is surprised:
(my bold)‘The thing that is so striking here is the extent to which this element [of the furious king who sends his soldiers and burns the city] intrudes into a story that can be told quite adequately without it (as in Luke and Thomas). It may be that Matthew is thinking here of the fall of Jerusalem.’
Now we know the reason for Matthew to do so. He wanted to put more emphasis on the anger of the king so that it is interpreted as addressed against uniquely the old invitees.
But in the Gospel of Marcion ''the king'' (the good god) is angered at the sight of Pagans neglected (in whiletime) as Pagans. It is anger against the present status quo, not against the old invitees who have ignored the first invitation (= the Jews worshipers of the creator God).
The new ''invitees'' are the Pagans. The invitation to become Christians is addressed now only to them and, since ''the slave said, ‘Sir, what you instructed has been done, and there is still room.’'' , it seems that these Pagans are already became (Marcionite) Christians.
The replacement of old invitees with new invitees for Matthew doesn't allegorize in the real History the fact that Jerusalem is only destroyed (to punish the Jews and only that). But the fact that Jerusalem is destroyed to be filled by Pagans. An event realized indeed under Hadrian with Jerusalem renamed Aelia Capitolina and populated again by Pagans.
But in Mcn the banquet doesn't allegorize at all Jerusalem. The intepretation of the room at banquet as ''Jerusalem'' is imposed on the original Marcionite parable only by Matthew.