Giuseppe wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:10 am
In the article I have found the reference to Irenaeus's order of the gospels that betrayes proto-John's priority, but not precisely that Thomas was "euhemerized" (a synonymous of "hijacked")
first by John.
Nope, you're entirely correct Giuseppe! That's a week old at best I think but it makes great sense. Here, allow me:
Thomas: deep and cryptic text aimed at Seekers to liberate themselves from religion / philosophy and all other quacks and direct them to self-seeking instead. Combines that, rather unfortunately, with a deep hatred against anything Judean and Judaic which he uses as a setting for his imaginary stage play / story.
Drive for it all: to migrate everyone by making them realise that they have to do that all by themselves; to de-enslave everyone in the broadest sense of the word
John: feels truly attracted by the Father-Son paradigm in Thomas and the mysterious and poetic wordplay, and decides to turn it into a narrative. He takes the context rather than the content and invents a narrative around a real person who speaks of the father and becoming one again.
He likely wanted to bring it closer to John Doe, having recognised the mountain high barriers that the cryptic text establishes. By turning it all into something tangible he would greatly increase reach
Marcion: feels truly attracted by John yet adds a beginning and an end to it, and exploits the Judean hate by having the protagonist killed by Judeans at the end, aimed at maximizing the drama. He likely had in mind to use it as a force against Judeans. Adds dozens of actual Thomas logia to the text of John
Mark: undoes the anti-Judean and anti-Judaic touch by ingeniously redirecting both into only one of them: by focusing the anti-Judaism solely on the Pharisees and scribes he makes just one casualty (collateral damage, I suppose) and clears the way for rooting the text in Judaism itself, instead of being diametrically opposed to it. That is his greatest achievement really, and a monumental one - yet nonetheless his ambition knows no limits and he decides to continue the story after the death of the protagonist - so his goal is to revive him, yet in order for that to be a credible story he needs to come up with an explanation why everyone assumed that he died instead - hence his putting the blame on the bloody women who got told as sole witnesses yet ran away in panic...
καὶ (and) οὐδενὶ (to none) οὐδὲν (nothing) εἶπαν (they spoke)
How obvious can it be, really?
Matthew: etc...