Galatians on the Destruction

Now, as to what I said before about Jerusalem. I was thinking of a passage in Galatians which is explicit, and the reflection in both less specific and more specific terms in the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Diatessaron. This is the contrast between the earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly Jerusalem, one profane, one holy. The contrast is not between the two states of the earthly Jerusalem. See Galatians IV: 24-26. This is explicit enough as it stands, but Marcion’s text has this added to v. 24: “this Jerusalem that is in captivity and along with its children serves the Romans”. The contrast is not between an earthly Jerusalem in captivity and a freed earthly Jerusalem: it is between the earthly Jerusalem in captivity and the eternally invincibly free heavenly Jerusalem. The fate of the earthly Jerusalem is not to become free, but to be replaced. A return of holiness to the earthly Jerusalem is not expected. One way to make this explicitly clear would be to set up the abomination in the Temple and apparently to have a ceremonial bonk in there with the comely Berenice (or with the dashing Titus, if we look at it from Berenice’s viewpoint). Here is the constructive purpose of the actions: they demonstrate the concept of the coming and the presence of the heavenly Jerusalem by denying any future cleansing or transformation of the earthly Jerusalem. They clear away a line of thought that is irrelevant and could lead to error. The Gospel passage doesn’t mention the heavenly Jerusalem, but it denies both present and potential future holiness to Jerusalem. This set of concepts is assumed in the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Luik Diatessaron, which in the passage “The evil spirit took Jesus and brought him to the holy city”, have “Jerusalem” instead of “the holy city”. The denial of potential holiness is more explicit than in Galatians in one way.

The implication is that there is no need to end Roman rule, and that it might be better not to end it, so as to avoid the risk of missing the concept of the heavenly Jerusalem and the new covenant and new Torah (implied in Galatians IV: 21).

ALSO This means the repeated exhortations to seve the Emperor and respect all civil authorities have a hidden theological grounding in the concept of the heavenly Jerusalem, or the heavenly Tabernacle if you think in Samaritan terms.