Marcionite influence on Acts 14:11-18: “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

[Giuseppe]

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15 “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. 16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” 18 Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.

It is really hard not to see the same sequence of actions in Mcn:

• Jesus appeared as a god in human form (i.e.: non really a man)

• He is considered wrongly as the Jewish Messiah

• He does anything to show that he is NOT the Jewish messiah, but the unknown Son of Father

• The high priests "tore their clothes" before Jesus's claim, and the rending of veil happens as further proof of the anger of the demiurge.

• Even so, the Pillars preached a Jewish Risen Christ, hence the need of a Paul THE Apostle.

Note the anti-marcionite signature par excellence: the obsessive (really: ossessive) catholic insistence that the supreme god coincides with the Creator.

God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them

He is the same god who provides for both Jews and gentiles (already signaled as an interpolation of Mcn in Luke)

He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons;

Especially, note the great absurdity of Acts: his author wants make us believe that the Creator was unknown to Gentiles, when even Celsus knew the antiquity of the Jewish god! (Really, one of the few reasons for Celsus praising the Judaism).

But we know which god was really ALIEN (and unknown especially to the Jews): the Good God of Marcion!

[Giuseppe]

Hence the incipit of Mcn:

The fifteenth year of the principate of Tiberius,

Christ came down from heaven and appeared in Capernaum.

Having taken on the appearance of a man, he was 30 years old.

...is sic et simpliciter a Pagan view of the earthly apparition of a deity.

Not different, in terms of pure Paganism, from:

“The gods have come down to us in human form!”