The Distance Between Luke xii.50 and Mark x.38 in Codex Fuldensis

I find it quite interesting to look at different single, long gospel traditions (i.e. texts which contain all the stories separated out into our four canonical gospels). The Diatessaron is only the most familiar. The Codex Fuldensis has a Latin 'gospel harmony' followed by the Epistles of Paul (Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1-2 Thessalonians, Colosians, Laodiceans, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews), Acts of the Apostles, Catholic epistles (usual order), Apocalypse. Victor of Capua found the original manuscript but the Old Latin source had lacked the Genealogy of Jesus (which Victor inserted). The text dates from the sixth century.

If we assume that the heretical gospel of the various traditions related to Mark are related to this text (and the acrostic in the introduction hints that this might be true) then it is noteworthy to see how close Jesus' announcement of his impending baptism is to LGM 1, the section identified by the Marcosians as the place from whence they derived their 'redemption baptism' and the Marcionites their 'baptism on behalf of the dead.'

I think we can begin to imagine what the original text of the common Markan tradition (see previous posts) by deconstructing the surviving material from Fuldensis. Let's do it in four easy steps.

Step One - see where Luke xii.50 and Mark x.38 relative to one another in the existing text of the single, long gospel in the Codex Fuldensis:

Know ye not that I am come to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized. And how am I troubled until it be accomplished?

For the kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle. And he said to them: Go you also into the vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go ye also into my vineyard.

And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: And they also received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, Saying: These last have worked but one hour. and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats.

Thereupon he answering said to one of them: friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy perception perverse? because I am right. So shall the last be first and the first last. For many are called but few chosen.

And it came to pass, that Jesus went into the house of one of the Pharisees, on the Sabbath-day to eat bread, and they were watching him. And behold, there was a certain man before him that had the dropsy. And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day? But they held their peace. But he taking him, healed him and sent him away.

And answering them, he said: Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit and will not immediately draw him out, on the Sabbath-day? And they could not answer him to these things.

And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the highest seats at the table, saying to them: when thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the highest place, lest perhaps one more honourable than thou be invited by him: and he that invited thee and him, come and say to thee: Give this man place. And then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when thou art invited, go, sit down in the lowest place; that when he who invited thee cometh, he may say to thee: Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee, because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

And he said to him also that had invited him: When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren nor thy kinsmen nor thy neighbours who are rich; lest perhaps they also invite thee back, and a recompense be made to thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind. And thou shalt be blessed, because they have not wherewith to make thee recompense: for recompense shall be made thee at the resurrection of the just. When one of them that sat at table with him had heard these things, he said to him: Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

After these things, it was just before the pasch, the festival day of the Jews. And it came to pass, as he was going to Jerusalem, he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain town, there met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off. And lifted up their voice, saying: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

When he saw them, he said: Go, shew yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass, as they went, they were made clean. And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before his feet, giving thanks. And this was a Samaritan.

And Jesus answering, said: Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God, but this stranger. And he said to him: Arise, go thy way; for thy faith hath made thee whole.

Then taking again the twelve, he said to them: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of man. He shall even be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles and he shall be mocked and scourged and spit upon and crucified, and the third day shall rise again.

Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him. He said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus answering, said to them: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink, or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized? They say to him: We can. He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; and with the baptism wherewith I am baptized you shall be baptized. But to sit on my right and left hand is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.

Step Two - count only those narratives in the single, long gospel that Ephrem witnesses in his Commentary on the Diatessaron the two quotes almost sit on top of one another:

Know ye not that I am come to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized. And how am I troubled until it be accomplished?

For the kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle. And he said to them: Go you also into the vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go ye also into my vineyard.

And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: And they also received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, Saying: These last have worked but one hour. and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats.

Thereupon he answering said to one of them: friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy perception perverse? because I am right. So shall the last be first and the first last. For many are called but few chosen.

Then taking again the twelve, he said to them: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of man. He shall even be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles and he shall be mocked and scourged and spit upon and crucified, and the third day shall rise again.

Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him. He said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus answering, said to them: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink, or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized? They say to him: We can. He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; and with the baptism wherewith I am baptized you shall be baptized. But to sit on my right and left hand is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.

Step Three - if we take this one step further an discount the passage which we know from Tertullian and Epiphanius were definitely not present in the Marcionite gospel we are left with this:

And I have a baptism to baptize in it. And how am I troubled until it be accomplished?

Then taking again the twelve, he said to them: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of man. He shall even be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles and he shall be mocked and scourged and spit upon and crucified, and the third day shall rise again.

Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her children, adoring and asking something of him. He said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: say that these my two children may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus answering, said to them: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can. He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink. Ye will sit on your thrones on my right hand and on my left in my kingdom and will rule with me.

Step Four - if we take this one step further and re-insert LGM 1 into this proto-Marcionite text we end up with a close approximation of what I think the original text must have looked like and the key to unlocking all the statements in Irenaeus, Hippolytus, the Anonymous Treatise on Baptism, Epiphanius and the Pistis Sophia:

And Jesus said "Know ye not that I am come to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism to baptize in it. And how am I troubled until it be accomplished?"

And then taking again the twelve, he said to them: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of man. He shall even be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles and he shall be mocked and scourged and spit upon and crucified, and the third day shall rise again.

And they come into Bethany. And a certain woman whose brother had died was there. And, coming, she prostrated herself before Jesus and says to him, 'Son of David, have mercy on me.' But the disciples rebuked her. And Jesus, being angered, went off with her into the garden where the tomb was, and straightway a great cry was heard from the tomb. And going near, Jesus rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb. And straightaway, going in where the youth was, he stretched forth his hand and raised him, seizing his hand. But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him. And going out of the tomb, they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do, and in the evening the youth comes to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God. And thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan.

Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her children, adoring and asking something of him. He said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: say that these my two children may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus answering, said to them: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can. He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink. Ye will sit on your thrones on my right hand and on my left in my kingdom and will rule with me.

Of course there is no scientific value to this imaginary exercise. Nevertheless it just helps me go to sleep at night a little better. Good night ...