Does John the Baptist work as the evil Demiurge in proto-Mark?

[Giuseppe]

So Genesis 2:25:

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

And so Mark 1:

The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
...
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan

In both the cases we start from a situation of blind submission respectively to the Demiurge (in Genesis) and to the Prophet of the Demiurge (in Mark).

By ignoring the episode of the baptism of Jesus (afterall, it may well be an interpolation, in virtue of the following case) it becomes more clear that the Jesus's function (with the Baptist) remembers the function of the Serpent in Genesis 3:1,7 (with the Demiurge).

1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
...
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The part in red is a late interpolation, made in a time when there was more no embarrassment about the baptism of Jesus by John:

1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”

4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.


14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Only in this way there is effectively a contrast between who comes first - John - and who comes after - Jesus. The two men don't act more at the same time.

But also in Genesis there is effectively a contrast between who comes first - the Demiurge - and who comes after - the Serpent. The two deities don't act more at the same time.

So John represents the Demiurge insofar he seems to introduce X (the Jewish Messiah) but he ends to introduce Y (the Serpent in human form: "Jesus").

Just as the demiurge in Genesis seems to introduce X (the his apparently good creation) but he ends to introduce Y (the Serpent).

Do you know how the rest of the world calls it?

ANTITHESIS.

[Giuseppe]

Also the following episode in Mark:

27 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28 “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”

29 Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!”

31 They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ …” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)

33 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

...seems to reduce the role of the Baptist to that of the demiurge: the reader doesn't know the solution of the enigma, about the real goodness of the baptism of John, since the same demiurge (of which John is allegory) - and the his creation - has an ambiguous goodness.

The same role of Jesus is ambiguous: is he really the Serpent of Genesis? Is not the Serpent an ambiguous figure, even if considered a positive figure of Revealer?

[arnoldo]

Gnostic thought made this connection but most likely at a later, rather than earlier date.

The teacher Herakleon compares the Demiurge to John the Baptist. According to him in the account of John the Baptist in the Gospel of John, "everything must be understood in relation to that person who was indicated through John, that is the Craftsman of the world"(Herakleon Fragment 8, cf. John 1:18-29). Herakleon claims that in his prophetic role, the Demiurge is "the forerunner of Christ, for he is in fact a kind of servant running before his master" (Herakleon Fragment 8)
http://gnosis.org/library/valentinus/Demiurge.htm

[Giuseppe]

Gnostic thought made this connection but most likely at a later, rather than earlier date.

The teacher Herakleon compares the Demiurge to John the Baptist. According to him in the account of John the Baptist in the Gospel of John, "everything must be understood in relation to that person who was indicated through John, that is the Craftsman of the world"(Herakleon Fragment 8, cf. John 1:18-29). Herakleon claims that in his prophetic role, the Demiurge is "the forerunner of Christ, for he is in fact a kind of servant running before his master" (Herakleon Fragment 8)
http://gnosis.org/library/valentinus/Demiurge.htm

Very thanks, arnoldo (despite of the evidently apologetical your premise). When I have made the connection, I have no idea about the independent conclusion by Heracleon. I think that I have detected what helps more precisely to identify John with the demiurge: the parallelism with Genesis 1 and the identity of Jesus with the Serpent. Just as the Naassenes and the Peratai thought.

This Serpent - they say - is Cain of which the God of this world did not accept the sacrifice, while he welcomed the bloody one of Abel because - according to them - the despot of this world enjoys the blood. Moreover this Serpent appeared lastly in the form of a man in the time of Herod ...

(Hyppolitus, book V)

Was it the post-70 CE Earliest Gospel?