The Jewish Marcion

While I am on the subject of Roger Pearse, I have already made reference to his posting of an English translation of Agapius' Universal History which happens, among other things, to correct a lot of the errors about the claim that Marcionite teaching was dualistic. Marcionitism was not Manichaeanism. Just read the Acts of Archelaus to see how they differed. The point is that Marcion's teachings were exactly what a messianic Jewish community would believe if it accepted someone as the messiah, the new Moses of the community. Look carefully and see how Jewish beliefs and the Jewish God are not slighted in any way. They have just been rendered useless by a superior revelation.

Don't tell me that Jews just worship one manifestation of the Godhead. I was raised in a Frankist home that knew kabbalistic principles that contradicted these notions. Similarly I met a number of Sephardic Jews that shared our presumptions. Someone has to stop all this BS about what Judaism that is spread around by Protestants! Where are these boring old 'good Jews' that evangelicals like to envision 'run' Judaism. I've never met any of them in my life. If Hitler hadn't wiped out and destroyed more of the evidence for the actual beliefs of European Jewry I am sure this nonsense would never have continued. The evangelicals can thank Hitler for allowing them to distort what Judaism is supposed to be!

Of course Jews are never going to come out to Gentiles and make explicit what their beliefs actually are. Two thousand years of history has taught them why that's a bad idea.

Just look at the Samaritans as a control group for a moment. They have this guy 'Mark' who lived sometime in the very early period of the Common Era (I say first century, Boid would go as late as the early second century, Stenhouse late second/early third century etc). HE COULDN'T PUT TWO SENTENCES TOGETHER WITHOUT REFERRING TO KABALA, MYSTICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF LETTERS, NUMBERS, CODES ETC.

The Jewish writings became LESS INTERESTED IN KABALA AND MESSIANISM GENERALLY because the later Antonine Emperors were standing over their shoulder watching their every move and yes, guiding their actions, interpretations and the shape of the religion. Have you ever read the Jewish Encyclopedia entry on Antoninus in the rabbinic literature? Read it. It will change your view of why Judaism looks the way it does down through the ages.

In any event, it's time we woke up and realized the Imperial hand in all the religions of the Middle East. The Empire was falling apart and it became increasingly important to control the expression of Judaism, Christianity and Samaritanism in the period.

To this end, the Marcionites simply wouldn't play ball and look at what their religion demonstrates - i.e. a very Jewish messianic revelation of the God Chrestos (i.e. the kavod of glory) replacing the old dualistic principles of mercy and judgement (cf Irenaeus' statement in this regard in Book III of AH.

Agapius writes:

The Lord Christ, may he be glorified, he said, was not the son of the Creator, as I told you until now; on the contrary, he is a stranger to him. There are 3 divine beings; one the Good, which is on high; the other the Evil, which is below; the third the Just, which is in the middle. The just god formed the matter which was in the depths and called the wicked being, there manifested his acts, and created the sky, the four elements, paradise and the stars of heaven. Then he took from the mud of paradise, fashioned from it [the body] of man, placed a soul of his own substance and nature in him and ... like him. Then he created from the dregs of matter Tartarus, the earth and its larger inanimate objects; he created all the animals of the earth and placed in them a created soul. Then he finished by creating Adam; and he married him off; they multiplied and their descendants were numerous. While the earth was being filled with men, he gave them the books of the Torah and all the ancient books which contained his commandments, his prohibitions, his promises and his threats. Then, as the good God watched this, he stirred from his inertia and was jealous of the Just Being, the creator, and was envious of him; and he sent his son, who was of his nature and substance, to be with the creatures of the Just to recall them to the worship of his Father and to redeem them by his blood. He traversed his regions and passed, with the Just being knowing it, until he came down on to the earth where the fundament of matter was found. He saw the corruption of the creatures and their estrangement from religion and he led them to worship his Father. When the Creator learned this, he stirred up his servitors against him, and the Son himself gave to companions of the Creator the power to kill him and redeemed them by his power and his blood; then he returned from death and converted them to the worship of his Father. Embracing the worship of the good God, they reduced the Just being, the Creator, to impotence. The Good God gave them new books which did not agree with those that the Just Creator had given them with his commandments, his prohibitions, his promises and his threats. He took paradise from the Creator; he established there those who were obedient to his order; but those who disobeyed him. He threw them into hell and made them remain there for ever.

In other reports, like that of Eznik, the Creator eventually repents and everyone lives happily ever after.

The point is that this is Jewish. There could be nothing more Jewish than this. The Creator is not the Devil. This is not anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish or any of those other silly things that scholars say. It is entirely in keeping with the things that Jacob Frank and Sabbatai Zevi said. If these guys aren't Jewish then who is?

The Good god on high is the higher emanation of God whose revelation and glory Israel did not receive yet (notice the two dispensations - Horeb and Sinai - Israel only gets the latter after the Golden Calf incident i.e. not worthy of the greater glory). What the Marcionites clearly believed was that Christ was now bringing what Israel couldn't yet receive in the days of Moses. It is an Alexandrian system (like that of Philo) which originally posited a divided Godhead (mercy-justice) where 'the two have become one' in Christ but where Christ was a figure who emerges immediately AFTER the crucifixion of Jesus.

Jesus appearance represents the revelation of the superior God which Israel was not sufficiently prepared for in former days. This clearly means that the Marcionites viewed first century Palestine as in fact a 'golden age' - i.e. one where the populace was actually superior to those of the original Israelites.

That's strange don't you think? I wonder what other historical event is remembered as occurring at that time which might fit with this? Hmmmm. Doesn't the rabbinic literature remember 'the sages of Israel' as accepting a guy named Mark - Marcus Agrippa - as the awaited messiah? Oh but this can't be connected with Christianity. After all Marcus Agrippa was just a puppet king of Rome and Christianity had nothing to do with the Roman government.

Oh yeah, they were just a bunch of magically inspired fisherman and tax-gatherers miraculously establishing a religion with 'no help from no one.' Sure, and if you believe that you were probably convinced that real estate prices could never go down, that peak oil was just a conspiracy theory and the United States went to Iraq to start establishing democracy around the world ...