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I was flipping through the forgotten gnostic text the Pistis Sophia which was found in Egypt along time ago and has - in its original form - been assigned to the second century by most scholars. The oldest parts of the text amount to being a gnostic commentary on Scripture and one interpretation caught my eye immediately. Jesus responds to a question from Mary Magdalene about the deepest mystery of the gospel and explains:
At the dissolution of the world, that is when the universe will be raised up and when the numbering of perfect souls will raised up all together, and when I am king in the midst of the last Helper ... then will all men who shall receive the mysteries in the Ineffable, be fellow-kings with me and will sit on my right hand and on my left in my kingdom.
And amen, I say unto you: Those men are I and I am they.
On this account have I said unto you aforetime 'Ye will sit on your thrones on my right hand and on my left in my kingdom and will rule with me.'
On this account therefore I have not hesitated nor have I been ashamed to call you my brethren and my companions because ye will be fellow kings with me in my kingdom. This therefore I say unto you knowing that I will give you the mystery of the Ineffable; that is: That mystery is I and I am that mystery.
Now therefore not only will ye reign with me but all men who shall receive the mystery of the Ineffable will be fellow kings with me in my kingdom. And I am they and they are I. But my throne will tower over them. [And] because ye will suffer sorrows of this world beyond all men, until ye herald forth all the words which I shall speak unto you, your thrones shall be joined to mine in the kingdom.
On this account I have said unto you aforetime: 'Where I shall be there will be also my twelve ministers.' But Mary Magdalene and John the virgin will tower over all my disciples and over all men who shall receive the mysteries in the Ineffable. And they will be on my right and on my left. And I am they and they are I.
And they will be like unto you in all things save that your thrones will tower over theirs and my throne will tower of yours [Pistis Sophia 2.230 - 232]
The term 'John the virgin' interestingly comes up in the course of Ephrem's Against Marcion Book I "And perhaps thou wilt say, Was there not among them John, a virgin, and were not all his companions holy ? (But I reply, Nay—)." [Mitchell p. 76]
The point is that I am quite convinced that the (lost) original Pistis Sophia was developed from the Marcionite sources. This text consisted of a series of 'explanations' of scripture principally developed in the form of questions from Mary Magdalene to Jesus.
Since the Marcionite gospel wasn't that different from our own (or at least the original Diatessaron which governed all churches in the East) I think that even their text understood 'John the virgin' to end up sitting on the throne and that this 'John' was at once also (secretly) Mark.
I also suppose the Odes of Solomon cited throughout the Pistis Sophia are the Marcionite Psalms mentioned in the Muratorian canon.
Yet my biggest find of all is the citation of what the gospel of the community of Pistis Sophia understood Jesus to say at the conclusion of Mark 10:37 - 39/Matt 20:22 - 23. There can be no doubt that Jesus is cited as announcing to the children of Salome 'Ye will sit on your thrones on my right hand and on my left in my kingdom and will rule with me' at the end of the 'Marcionite' narrative.
So instead of ending reading:
"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."
There can be no doubt that the 'Marcionite' text of the Pistis Sophia read:
"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup. You will sit on your thrones on my right hand and on my left in my kingdom and will rule with me. For these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."
We know that this is a citation of the variant gospel by the way the citation is introduced. Jesus ALWAYS introduces sayings from the gospel in the Pistis with the formula 'as I told you aforetime' or some similar variation. So it is that in this gospel citation we read:
I said unto you aforetime 'Ye will sit on your thrones on my right hand and on my left in my kingdom and will rule with me.'
In the same way we see other gospel sayings of Jesus introduced the same way in the Pistis Sophia. So in Pistis Sophia iii.273 we hear Jesus announce:
Concerning such men, therefore, have I aforetime spoken unto in a similtude saying 'Where ye enter into a house and are received say unto them 'Peace be with you.' And if they are worthy let your peace come upon them and if they are not worthy let your peace return to you'
And Mary in another section cites another saying of Jesus with the same formula:
concerning the word then thou hast spoken unto us aforetime, when they brought thee the piece of money and thou didst see that it was of silver and copper and didst ask 'Whose is this image?' They said 'The king's.' And when thou sawest that it was of silver and copper mixed, thou saidst 'Give therefore the king's unto the king and God's unto God' etc.
I could go on citing about twenty or thirty examples from the Pistis Sophia but the bottom line is that there can be no doubt that the reference cited about is from Mark x.39/Matt xx.23.
We have made a very significant discovery about the interconnection between the redemption ritual (as you will see from a coming post) and the ultimate enthronement of the children of Zebedee.
All I want to say here for the moment is that the idea that Jesus CONFIRMED that the children of Zebedee would end up being enthroned at his left and right AT THIS POINT in the narrative only makes sense. It conforms to good literary form - something we could only expect if 'God' wrote the holy book.
Even Chekhov knew that you can't introduce a gun early into a narrative and then not have it go off at the end of the play. Let's accord God with a literary sensibility equal to that of a Russian!
