Marcus the Gnostic as the Apostle Mark

I think I can write a most important article which would be very serious and focused on one thing which has been completely overlooked by scholars - the heretic "Marcus" must necessarily be the "apostle Mark" of the early Alexandrian tradition. have been working and reworking the second half of my book comparing and synthesizing the various accounts of "Marcus" and I have stumbled on to about five lines of proof that the "Marcus" of Hippolytus' Against the Heresies especially is certainly the "Marcus" of Alexandria who influenced Clement. The parallels are unmistakable.

Clement in To Theodore speaks of denying the Secret Gospel of Mark just as Hippolytus says the exact same thing about the followers of Marcus. Yet there are four more virtually identical passages between AH Book and Stromata especially in the lengthy numerological section which follows.

Compare:

Stromata 6:16 - Thus the Lord, who ascended the mountain, the fourth becomes the sixth, and is illuminated all round with spiritual light, by laying bare the power proceeding from Him, as far as those selected to see were able to behold it

AH 6:42 - And he says, as the result of this computation and that proportion, that in the similitude of an image He appeared who after the six days Himself ascended the mountain a fourth person, and became the sixth. And (he asserts) that He (likewise) descended and was detained by the Hebdomad, and thus became an illustious Ogdoad.

and:

Stromata 6:16 - For six is reckoned in the order of numbers, but the succession of the letters acknowledges the character which is not written. In this case, in the numbers themselves, each unit is preserved in its order up to seven and eight. But in the number of the characters, Zeta becomes six and Eta seven.
And the character[4] having somehow slipped into writing, should we follow it out thus, the seven became six, and the eight seven.

AH 6:42 - And in regard of another number they express themselves in this manner: that the letter Eta along with the remarkable one constitutes all ogdoad, as it is situated in the eighth place from Alpha. Then, again, computing the number of these elements without the remarkable (letter), and adding them together up to Eta, they exhibit the number thirty. For any one beginning from the Alpha to the Eta will, after subtracting the remarkable (letter i.e. episemon) ... they subtract twelve, and reckon it at eleven. And in like manner, (they subtract) ten and make it nine.

and:

Stromata 6:16 - Wherefore also man is said to have been made on the sixth day, who became faithful to Him who is the sign (tp epishmw[5]), so as straightway to receive the rest of the Lord's inheritance. Some such thing also is indicated by the sixth hour in the scheme of salvation, in which man was perfected. Further, of the eight, the intermediates are seven; and of the seven, the intervals are shown to be six.

AH 6:42 - And for this reason (he maintains) that Moses says that man was created on the sixth day. And (he asserts) that the dispensation of suffering (took place) on the sixth day, which is the preparation; (and so it was) that on this (day) appeared the last man for the regeneration of the first man. And that the beginning and end of this dispensation is the sixth hour, at which He was nailed to the (accursed) tree.

and:

Stromata 6 - For that is another ground, in which seven glorifies eight, and "the heavens declare to the heavens the glory of God."

AH 6:42 - As, then, he says, the seven powers glorify the Logos, so also does the sorrowing soul in babes (magnify Him). And on account of this, he says, David likewise has declared, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." And again, "The heavens declare the glory of God."

and:

Stromata 6:16 - The sensible types of these, then, are the sounds we pronounce. Thus the Lord Himself is called "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,"[7] " by whom all things were made, and without whom not even one thing was made."[8]

AH 6:42 - Thus the ineffable name in Christ consists, they allege, of thirty letters. And they assert that for this reason He utters the words, "I am Alpha and Omega,"

There are equally compelling grounds to understand that Irenaeus' Markan community who hold fast to the idea that Jesus only preached for one "year of favor" is one and the same with Clement's community. Read:

Stromata 6:16 Now there are some who say that ... twelve points out the preaching [of the Gospel]; because the LOrd preached in His thirtieth year; and the apostles were twelve.

Stromata 6:16 by which is produced "the great year," as a kind of period of recompense of what has been promised.

Irenaeus Book 2:21 If, again, they maintain that the twelve apostles were a type only of that group of twelve Aeons

ibid - I have shown that the number thirty fails them in every respect .. there are not, therefore, thirty Aeons, nor did the Saviour come to be baptized when He was thirty years old, for this reason, that He might show forth the thirty silent Aeons of their system ... Moreover, they affirm that He suffered in the twelfth month, so that He continued to preach for one year after His baptism; and they endeavour to establish this point out of the prophet (for it is written, "To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of retribution" ), being truly blind,

also the New Advent "There are two extreme views as to the length of the ministry of Jesus: St. Irenaeus (Contra Haer., II, xxii, 3-6) appears to suggest a period of fifteen years; the prophetic phrases, "the year of recompenses", "the year of my redemption" (Isaiah 34:8; 63:4), appear to have induced Clement of Alexandria, Julius Africanus, Philastrius, Hilarion, and two or three other patristic writers to allow only one year for the public life. "

THE ONLY POSSIBILITY AS I SEE IT IS THAT "MARCUS" THE HERETIC HAS TO BE THE "APOSTLE MARK" OF ALEXANDRIA MADE INTO A HERETIC OWING TO HIS TRADITIONAL STATUS AS EQUAL TO OR ABOVE THE ROMAN APOSTLE PETER. ALSO ONCE WE GET THE SENSE THAT MARK THE GOSPEL WRITER PARTOOK IN GEMATRIA HE APPEARS CLOSER AND CLOSER TO THE SAMARITAN MARK WHOSE SURVIVING "WORDS" HAVE FREQUENT GOSPEL ALLUSIONS AS WELL AS NUMEROLOGICAL AND ALPHABETIC CODES VERY SIMILAR TO IRENAEUS' DESCRIPTION.