Along comes my developing theory that Marcionites were really 'followers of Mark,' that they stood relatively close to Judaism (or at least closer than their Catholic bastard offspring) and worst of all - that their priesthood were castrati.
Yet none of the scholars who came before me could ever explain why Christianity was persecuted by the Empire (other than the propaganda of the Church Fathers that 'the Devil' couldn't stand the light of its teachings!).
The connection of the Marcionites with castration finally solves the problem. Here was something which was forbidden by the Roman state in the period. Here was something which Marcionite Christians would martyr themselves to defend. Why so? Because their Christianity was based on a logical argument that Jesus was an angel - the angel of the Prescence - the one called Israel or Jacob by the ancients which accounts for his name 'Chrestos.'
Jesus was THE angel. He offered angelic life (aeonic life) to his believers. Ritual castration was done in imitation of his perfection.
It all makes sense but modern Christian scholars will have no part in it because this isn't THEIR Christianity. They don't want earliest Christianity to be about this. Indeed they will fight to the end to stop these ideas from getting out.
Thank God, I'm a Jew. I don't have to worry about the implications of any of this. Or ...
Eighty thousand trumpeters besieged Bethar where Bar Kozeba was located, who had with him two hundred thousand men with an amputated finger. The Sages sent him the message, 'How long will you continue to make the men of Israel blemished?'
He asked them, 'How else shall they be tested?'
They answered, 'Let anyone who cannot uproot a cedar from Lebanon be refused enrollment in your army.'
He thereupon had two hundred thousand men of each class; and when they went forth to battle they cried, 'O God, neither help nor discourage us!'
That is what is written, Hast not Thou, o God, cast us off? And go not forth, o God, with our hosts?
And what used Bar Kozeba to do? He would catch the missiles from the enemy's catapults on one of his knees and hurl them back, killing many of the foe. On that account, Rabbi Aqiba made his remark [Lamentations Rabba 2.2,4]
A certain eunuch [gawzaah] said to R. Joshua b. Karhah [Baldhead]: 'How far is it from here to Karhina [Baldtown]? 'As far as from here to Gawzania [Eunuchtown],' he replied. Said the Sadducee to him, 'A bald buck is worth four denarii.' 'A goat, if castrated, is worth eight,' he retorted. Now, he [the Sadducee] saw that he [R. Joshua] was not wearing shoes, [whereupon] he remarked, 'He [who rides] on a horse is a king, upon an ass, is a free man, and he who has shoes on his feet is a human being; but he who has none of these, one for whom a grave is dug and buried is better off.' 'O eunuch, O eunuch,' he retorted, 'you have enumerated three things to me, [and now] you will hear three things: the glory of a face is its beard; [Ps. CXXVII, 3] the rejoicing of one's heart is a wife; the heritage of the Lord is children; blessed be the Omnipresent, Who has denied you all these!' 'O quarrelsome baldhead,' he jeered at him. 'A castrated buck and [you will] reprove!' he retorted. [Shabbath 152a]
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