The origin of the Rebel Jesus Theory in anti-marcionism

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Giuseppe
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The origin of the Rebel Jesus Theory in anti-marcionism

Post by Giuseppe »

My point is that the Rebel Jesus Theory was born as part and parcel of the anti-marcionite polemic.

Note that Celsus's Jew is the principal exponent, in Antiquity, of the Rebel Jesus Theory, and it was based on two accusations:
  • the accusation that Jesus was son of a Roman soldier;
  • the accusation that Jesus was a brigand.
Now, it is absurd, historically speaking, that the son of a Roman soldier became an anti-Roman brigand.

Not even Skanderberg was really a Turkish.

The real point of the Rebel Jesus Theory, as found in Celsus, is the anti-historical contradiction that a not-Jew was the leader of Jewish rebels.

My point is that this contradiction is found in the invention of the Barabbas episode: it was designed to address only a Roman audience. The Romans had to understand that the Jesus Son of (Unknown) Father preached by Marcion (and by proto-John, too) was really a mere Bar-Abbas, a Jewish brigand of which the father was unknown (hence, not really a Jew, therefore even a Roman soldier!).

The true Jesus was the Jesus called Christ/king "of (genitive possessive) the Jews" and Messiah of YHWH, not the Jesus of Marcion, not Barabbas.
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