MrMacSon wrote: ↑Sat May 13, 2023 7:59 pm
Irish1975 wrote: ↑Sat May 13, 2023 6:46 am
David Trobisch wrote:
Since [the Marcionite 'edition'] contains ten Pauline epistles in addition to the Evangelium, Paul is implied as the editor. In Galatians and 1 Corinthians, the literary Paul refers to the one gospel that was handed down to him. Paul is not the author of the Evangelium, he is the editor.
I don’t understand the leap from the “literary” Paul, the narrative personality of the epistles, to the concept of Paul as “editor.”
I wasn't sure about the concept of Paul as "editor" of the Marcionite 'edition'/corpus, but I guess Trobisch is proposing that Paul's reference to a gospel in Galatians and 1 Corinthians was a reference to 'the Marcionite Evangelion'
AND that Paul was a 2nd-century Marcionite ...
- (Paul's reference to a gospel in Galatians and 1 Corinthians could represent references to other early 'Christian' texts, such as the Epistle to the Hebrews, Revelation, an early, genuine version of the Didache or the Diatessaron, or the like, but that would require them to be accepted as such )
... which also suggests the disputes mentioned in Paul (and
G.Mark)—between Paul and Peter-and-James (and perhaps John)—represent disputes between Marcionites and others over doctrine. Which would also place Paul, James and John (and others) in the 2nd century
CE.
Certainly there are indications that John the author of G.John (or perhaps the three Johannine epistles) was a 2nd century author (Papias, etc).
On one reading of Galatians 1, it is Marcion who speaks through the apostle Paul (the “little” emissary). Marcion would have propagated the original written Gospel, having received a “revelation of Jesus Christ.” In line with what Origen reports as the account of Celsus (CC 2.27, I think), three and then four other Gospels quickly sprang up in emulation of Marcion’s Gospel. These emulations make Jesus out to be a son-of-David messiah, who fulfills the Law and the Prophets. Marcion then responds with Galatians 1, his angry denunciation of those who would “pervert” his Gospel and present it as being “kata anthropon” (according to some idiot or other, so-and-so).
6 Θαυμάζω ὅτι οὕτως ταχέως μετατίθεσθε ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος ὑμᾶς ἐν χάριτι [Χριστοῦ] εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον,
7 ὃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλο, εἰ μή τινές εἰσιν οἱ ταράσσοντες ὑμᾶς καὶ θέλοντες μεταστρέψαι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Χριστοῦ.
8 ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐὰν ἡμεῖς ἢ ἄγγελος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ εὐαγγελίζηται [ὑμῖν] παρ’ ὃ εὐηγγελισάμεθα ὑμῖν, ἀνάθεμα ἔστω.
9 ὡς προειρήκαμεν καὶ ἄρτι πάλιν λέγω· εἴ τις ὑμᾶς εὐαγγελίζεται παρ’ ὃ παρελάβετε, ἀνάθεμα ἔστω.
10 Ἄρτι γὰρ ἀνθρώπους πείθω ἢ τὸν θεόν; ἢ ζητῶ ἀνθρώποις ἀρέσκειν; εἰ ἔτι ἀνθρώποις ἤρεσκον, Χριστοῦ δοῦλος οὐκ ἂν ἤμην.
11 Γνωρίζω γὰρ ὑμῖν, ἀδελφοί, τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τὸ εὐαγγελισθὲν ὑπ’ ἐμοῦ ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν κατὰ ἄνθρωπον·
12 οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐγὼ παρὰ ἀνθρώπου παρέλαβον αὐτὸ οὔτε ἐδιδάχθην, ἀλλὰ δι’ ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
The ten thousand commentaries on Galatians (universally steeped in a Christian theological perspective) never satisfyingly explain why a Paul at war with “Judaizing” colleagues (Kephas, James, John, Barnabas) would have made such electrifying allegations at all. In these stale commentaries, the Gospel Paul defends becomes, unimpressively, a message of “freedom from the Law,” and such like. But no such theme is present in Galatians 1, where everything comes down to a far more sinister contrast between a false Gospel “kata anthropon” and a true Gospel revealed to Paul alone (“through an apocalypse of Jesus Christ”).
The phrase
ὃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλο
at the start of verse 7 is not the casual sloppiness of an angry letter dashed off, but a meaningful clarification. The ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον of verse 6 is a perverse “hetero-Gospel,” and yet it is not “other.” Because it had been derived from Marcion’s! Not because, eg, Paul believed that he was the only apostle who knew the Gospel Truth About Freedom from The Law. If these other Judaizing pseudo apostles had been preaching a Gospel that included circumcision, separation from Gentiles, and dietary observances, then their “Gospel” would be simply false. Not a plagiarism of the true Gospel!