So it was that today I was sitting in my chair muttering to myself again that I don't feel like working when I decided to finally calculate the numerological value of the name Μαρκίων
40 + 1 + 100 + 20 + 10 + 800 + 50 = 1021
I guess part of the reason I never added up the Greek letters of the name Marcion was that I - like Irenaeus - inherited an unconscious mistrust or dislike of Greek isometria. The facts are that no - or very few - Hebrew words are going to add up to something like 1021 so maybe in the past I did add up the letters and saw the large result and decided to pack it in.
But today was different. Today - perhaps given my fatigue - led me to consider what Greek words might add up to 1021. And lo and behold I pulled in a big fish almost at soon as I dropped my line in the water:
αποστολος
How can that possibly be a coincidence? Take the Marcosians for an example. They delighted in Greek gematria. It is apparently they who Irenaeus criticizes for using Greek letters to calculate the value of Jesus's name and arriving at 888. We know the Marcosians used the so-called Pauline writings. 'Marcion' is a subform of Marcus, the name of the leader of their sect. Hilgenfeld provides a number of examples where the ίων suffix was used as a term to mark intimacy and closeness.
One of the examples that Hilgenfeld uses is Rhodo's address to καλλιστίων preserved for us in the fifth book of the Church History. According to Hilgenfeld the addressee preserved as καλλιστίων is καλλιστος of Rome which definitely suits the context of the passage as summarized by Eusebius. After noting what Rhodo said against various Marcionites he discusses Apelles and Eusebius summarizes that portion of the work going on to say:
If as Hilgenfeld suggests καλλιστίων is just the author's way of reinforcing his intimacy with Callistus of Rome it is significant that the context is a discussion of Marcion. The same or related Christian culture might well have addressed Marcus as 'Μαρκίων' (beloved Marcus) in the liturgy described or paraphrased by Irenaeus:In the same work, addressing Callistio (καλλιστίων) the same writer acknowledges that he had been instructed at Rome by Tatian. And he says that a book of Problems had been prepared by Tatian, in which he promised to explain the obscure and hidden parts of the divine Scriptures. Rhodo himself promises to give in a work of his own solutions of Tatian's problems. There is also extant a Commentary of his on the Hexæmeron.
The point is that the followers of Mark (a) used Greek gematria (b) took an interest in the writings of 'the apostle' and (c) were part of a broader culture which - according to Hilgenfeld - employed the ίων suffix as a manner of expressing one's intimacy with someone. Could this all have come together in a manner where 'Marcion' was identified as the 'apostle' and founder of Christianity? Something to think about. Seems to be just about the best explanation I've ever come up with for Mark = Marcion.But there is another among these heretics, Marcus by name, who boasts himself as having improved upon his master. He is a perfect adept in magical impostures, and by this means drawing away a great number of men, and not a few women, he has induced them to join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed of the greatest knowledge and perfection, and who has received the highest power from the invisible and ineffable regions above ... Pretending to consecrate cups mixed with wine, and protracting to great length the word of invocation, he contrives to give them a purple and reddish colour, so that Charis, who is one of those that are superior to all things, should be thought to drop her own blood into that cup through means of his invocation, and that thus those who are present should be led to rejoice to taste of that cup, in order that, by so doing, the Charis, who is set forth by this magician, may also flow into them.
Again, handing mixed cups to the women, he bids them consecrate these in his presence. When this has been done, he himself produces another cup of much larger size than that which the deluded woman has consecrated,) and pouting from the smaller one consecrated by the woman into that which has been brought forward by himself, he at the same time pronounces these words: "May that Charis who is before all things, and who transcends all knowledge and speech, fill thine inner man, and multiply in thee her own knowledge, by sowing the grain of mustard seed in thee as in good soil." Repeating certain other like words, and thus goading on the wretched woman [to madness], he then appears a worker of wonders when the large cup is seen to have been filled out of the small one, so as even to overflow by what has been obtained from it. By accomplishing several other similar things, he has completely deceived many, and drawn them away after him.
It appears probable enough that this man possesses a demon as his familiar spirit, by means of whom he seems able to prophesy, and also enables as many as he counts worthy to be partakers of his Charis themselves to prophesy. He devotes himself especially to women, and those such as are well-bred, and elegantly attired, and of great wealth, whom he frequently seeks to draw after him, by addressing them in such seductive words as these: "I am eager to make thee a partaker of my Charis, since the Father of all doth continually behold thy angel before His face. Now the place of thy angel is among us: it behoves us to become one. Receive first from me and by me [the gift of] Charis. Adorn thyself as a bride who is expecting her bridegroom, that thou mayest be what I am, and I what thou art. Establish the germ of light in thy nuptial chamber. Receive from me a spouse, and become receptive of him, while thou art received by him. Behold Charis has descended upon thee; open thy mouth and prophesy." On the woman replying," I have never at any time prophesied, nor do I know how to prophesy;" then engaging, for the second time, in certain invocations, so as to astound his deluded victim, he says to her," Open thy mouth, speak whatsoever occurs to thee, and thou shalt prophesy." She then, vainly puffed up and elated by these words, and greatly excited in soul by the expectation that it is herself who is to prophesy, her heart beating violently [from emotion], reaches the requisite pitch of audacity, and idly as well as impudently utters some nonsense as it happens. to occur to her, such as might be expected from one heated by an empty spirit. (Referring to this, one superior to me has observed, that the soul is both audacious and impudent when heated with empty air.)
Henceforth she reckons herself a prophetess, and expresses her thanks to Marcus for having imparted to her of his own Chaffs. She then makes the effort to reward him, not only by the gift of her possessions (in which way he has collected a very large fortune), but also by yielding up to him her person, desiring in every way to be united to him, that she may become altogether one with him.