Adamantius on the Mystery of Marcionite 'Redemption'

Megethius the Marcionite: So alien are we to the Christ who appeared and the Christ who appeared to the Creator-god that Paul says 'Christ has redeemed us' [Gal 3:13]. It is clear then that he redeemed aliens, for no one ever redeems those who are his own: he redeems aliens, not his own.

Adamantius the Catholic: You and your party argue quite illogically. If you could prove your theories, well and good, but if you are hunting for an argument not yet refuted, then your reasoning is irreverent. You said that Christ is the one who bought: who is he who sold? You must have yielded to the silly fiction that buyer and seller are brothers! If the Devil who is evil, sold to the Good Christ, he is not evil but good: he who was jealous of humanity from the beginning is now no longer moved by jealousy for he has handed over his possession to the Good Christ. In point of fact he will be just, because he has given up all jealousy and all evil. But even if you say that it was not the Devil who sold but the Creator-god - whom however you claim to be just - what better justice will be shown here, if he sold those whom he had himself made to someone else? For if those who were being sold were good, he who, for ransom money, causes good servants to become the property of others is unjust. But if actually, he sold bad servants, he will still be unjust, because for ransom money, he causes his own bad servants to become the bad servants of someone else!

The case is rather that men had sinned and had alienated themselves through their sins, but they were redeemed through God's mercy ... The prophet says "You were sold without payment and you will be redeemed without money" [Isa 52:3 LXX] The words without money clearly indicate that the redemption was to be through the blood of Christ. The prophet actually asserts this "He was wounded because of your sins: by his bruises were we healed" [Isa 53:5] Because if you think that he did not, as it were, give his blood for the remission of sins, but in place of a ransom price, and that he did not offer his life for his sheep - suppose that he who received His blood or His life did actually return it; it would not be a recognized sale. And suppose that he did not return it, but retained His blood or His life, how could Christ have risen from the dead? [Adamantius Dialogue 1.820a]