Why Do We Assume that Whenever Tertullian Cites an Unknown Variant It's Marcion's?

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Secret Alias
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Why Do We Assume that Whenever Tertullian Cites an Unknown Variant It's Marcion's?

Post by Secret Alias »

An example from chapter 33:
If then these expressions do not apply to the Creator but to mammon, the questions Who will entrust to you that which is more true? and, Who will give you that which is mine? cannot be taken for questions by one god about another god's grace. He might indeed have been thought to mean this, if by censuring them for unfaithfulness towards the Creator, not towards mammon, he had by mentioning the Creator introduced distinctions between <him and> some second god who would refuse to entrust his own truth to those unfaithful to the Creator; as likewise he can indeed be taken for the Christ of that other god, except that he is set before us in terms by which he is kept at a distance from the subject under discussion. Seeing also that the pharisees, by justifying themselves before men, were placing in man their hope of reward, his rebuke to them had the same bearing as that of the prophet Jeremiah, Wretched is the man that hath hope in man.a And as he says next, But God knoweth your hearts, this was a reference to the power of that God who declared himself a shining light, searching the reins and the hearts.b If he adverts on their pride, That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination to God, he sets Isaiah in front of their eyes, For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be against every one that is despiteful and proud, against every one that is high and lifted up, and they shall be brought low.c
It is assumed that "Who will give you that which is mine?" is the Marcionite reading. Why? It's absurd. He's obviously citing from his own text of Luke. Another one allegedly showing that Marcion seems to have combined Luke 16: 17 with 21: 33:
and if old things have come to an end, and new things have begun, with John as the point of division: then that which conforms to the Creator's ordinance will not be so unexpected as to amount to proof that the kingdom of God takes its origin from every imaginable source except the sunset of the law and the prophets upon John, and the daybreak that came after. So then let heaven and earth pass away,d as have the law and the prophets, more quickly than one tittle of the words of the Lord :2 for Isaiah says, The word of our God abideth for ever.e For Christ, who is the Word and Spirit of the Creator, had in Isaiah so long before prophesied of John
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