Irenaeus on the true goal of Mark: Jesus was the Christ, not John

[Giuseppe]

Sorry but the John of the Fourth Gospel is not the John of the Synoptics.

About the false Samaritan prophet, Luke 4:31 may betray something of interesting:

Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee

This is clearly a blatant Lukan displacement/corruption of the famous incipit of Mcn. Even so, I find interesting the contrast between the specifics "a town in Galilee" and the previous location (assumed to be Nazareth by Luke). My point is that Luke added "a town in Galilee" and not Mcn. Hence Capernaum was not originally connected with Galilee.

This opens the way to two other alternative possibilities:

• Capernaum allegorizes the Sheol (as per Heracleon);

• Capernaum is a town of Samaria, not of Galilee.

Supporting the last hypothesis, is that the wilderness connected with John was, according to a tradition, placed in Samaria. If John was the original Samaritan messiah "Jesus", then it is expected that his home had to be a town of Samaria.

[Giuseppe]

The deception is even more visible in John 2:11-12:

11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

Note the deliberate contrast: a great miracle in Galilee, versus a shortest passage in Capernaum.

It is evident that the editor wanted to emphasize the importance of Galilee by making less and less important, by contrast, Capernaum and by extension Samaria (where Capernaum had to be necessarily).

The association Jesus/Capernaum, aka Jesus/Samaria, was highly embarrassing.

Nahum 1:15 calls the feet of those who bring good news beautiful: it was good news when Nahum sent word that God had decreed the destruction of Assyria, the same Assyria that destroyed Samaria now is in turn destroyed. "Capernaum" is a good omen pro-Samaria.

[Giuseppe]

Even Marcion feared Samaria:

“'What did you go out in the wilderness (desert) to see?'”

Afterall, Marcion didn't share nothing with Samaria and Samaritans, since the latter adored YHWH while Marcion hated YHWH.

The sense is clearly that Marcion despised the "wilderness" of Samaria as the original place where the spiritual Jesus descended "from above" on John.

[Giuseppe]

"Mark" (editor) placed John at river Jordan and not more in the "wilderness:" of Samaria, so having Jesus going "from Galilee" to river Jordan as a mere man and not more as a god going "from above" to descend on John in Samaria.

[Giuseppe]

Hence the original incipit was:

In the 15° of Tiberius, Jesus descended from above on John in the wilderness of Samaria.