Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Exciting News from Daniel Mahar
I have long argued that the 'Marcionites' represented a messianic school of thought wholly grounded in Jewish tradition. My good friend Daniel Mahar refers me to the an important passage in Tertullian Against Marcion which shows this beyond a shadow of a doubt. He writes:
I find it very interesting that Tertullian mocks Marcion for the audicity of believing that in the future Jews would once again inhabit Jerusalem, not subservient to the Christian rulers of a Christian kingdom.
I will cite the passage with commentary tomorrow. There is nothing more Jewish than hoping, praying and expecting a return of Jews to their ancestral land. Just read the Amidah and its Bo'ne Yerushalayim.
Yet this was the Marcionites saying this in the late second century! That certainly deflates our traditional understanding of the Marcionites. Maybe it also has something to do with their persecution in the period ...
I find it very interesting that Tertullian mocks Marcion for the audicity of believing that in the future Jews would once again inhabit Jerusalem, not subservient to the Christian rulers of a Christian kingdom.
I will cite the passage with commentary tomorrow. There is nothing more Jewish than hoping, praying and expecting a return of Jews to their ancestral land. Just read the Amidah and its Bo'ne Yerushalayim.
Yet this was the Marcionites saying this in the late second century! That certainly deflates our traditional understanding of the Marcionites. Maybe it also has something to do with their persecution in the period ...
Email stephan.h.huller@gmail.com with comments or questions.