Of course it seems counter intuitive at first to equate the Marcionites as a Jewish sect but as I show time and time again the problem is our inherited presuppositions about what constitutes a Jewish sect.
The Marcionites did not 'hate' the OT God. Neither did they 'hate' Moses or the Law and the prophets. All that likely happened was that they saw 'Marcion' - i.e. little Mark - as the one prophesied by Moses or the prophet like Moses (their names are numerological equivalents) who introduced the perfect Torah i.e. the gospel.
Under this scenario it would only be natural for the Law and the prophets of the 'old testament' to be effectively rendered useless. Their 'rejection' of the old revelation would of course be viewed as a sign of contempt by those who denied their assumptions - i.e. those who still believed that the authority Law and prophets was still 'in force.' Typical exaggerations about the 'blasphemy' of the heretics would follow (the ancient equivalent of Sean Hannity's 'why do liberals hate America?').
In any event, I have went over this many times already the new wrinkle of course is that we have in the Marcionite concept God 'descending' or 'visiting' humanity in the appearance of flesh (an peculiar emphasis on the word 'appear' which can be seen in the Pauline writings). Why so? Why would the Marcionites be so zealous to deny the later concept of a virgin birth? Why - and notice the typically loaded Catholic phraseology - did they want to deny Jesus' humanity?
It can't because the Marcionites knew the Catholic position was the true one and they were inspired by the Devil (Irenaeus' explanation). We have already shown how the Marcionite position developed out of Jewish ideas from before the destruction of the temple.
While I won't speculate again why God had to appear crucified I can explain why the name of this story of God coming down from heaven and imparting the Christ soul in his beloved eyewitness 'little Mark' was called a Passion from the very beginning.
Traditional scholarship has no explanation other to imply that it was a 'passion' because Jesus 'suffered.' Even Origen recognizes that this is a non-starter. So what are we left with? Let's attempt to find a Semitic solution to the problem.
The term notzrim is a well established Aramaic term denoting Christians from the rabbinic literature. It is undoubtedly the original term behind the title 'Nazarene' and - as I am about to demonstrate - it actually stands behind the seemingly familiar concept of the Passion of Christ.
It is my suggestion to read the term נוצרים as notsarim (root YOD-tsade-resh, nif‘al participle). I believe this deserves serious consideration. Of course there could have been a pair of terms, an exoteric term notsrim from nun-tsade-resh meaning “guardians” and an esoteric term notsarim from yod-tsade-resh meaning “re-formed”.
Just look at the verse in Isaiah that says God will set notsrim on the walls of Jerusalem. Look in BDB under NUN-tsade-resh, qal, participle. You should also go through the shades of meaning of yetser listed in Jastrow, if the meaning of notsarim is “those with a new yetser”.
Indeed as Schiffman notes the concept of the two spirits in the Community Rule bears some relationship to the rabbinic concept of two yetsers or 'natures' in man.
What I am suggesting is that Marcionite must have understood God as wanting to come down to earth in the Passion as a means of 'reforming' or 'transforming' humanity from a material being to a spiritual being. Think about what is introduced just before - ritual washing and the consumption of his spiritual flesh and blood.
Anyone who has any familiarity with the attacks against the Marcionites throughout the ages (and not just limited to what appears in Tertullian) is the sect claimed to have attained a bodily form or yetser owing to their initiation into the mysteries of Christ. Maybe now we can begin to see where that concept came from - the transference of the Christ-soul from God on the cross to his beloved disciple 'little Mark.'
Stephan Huller's Observations by stephanhuller.blogspot.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at stephanhuller.blogspot.com.
