The Next Focus of this Blog

I have been challenged to demonstrate or even prove my contention that the two sects identified as 'those of Mark' - the Marcosians and the Marcionites - are one and the same tradition. The obvious difficulty to some is that Irenaeus makes mention of a number of mystical interpretations involving letters of the alphabet for the 'Marcosians' that do not show up in any report on the Marcionites. They do however emerge in relation to Clement of Alexandria's Markan tradition as I have already demonstrated.

Over the next few weeks I will systematically go through EVERY reference ever made to the Marcosians and the Marcionites in the late second and early third centuries in order to prove that the two descriptions necessitate our taking the two traditions are one and the same ALEXANDRIAN FAITH of Mark.

To this end, I want to remind the reader that there can be no doubt that (a) the Marcosians were a sect WITHIN Irenaeus' church and (b) the Marcionites were a sect without. Moreover it is important to remember that after Irenaeus makes his initial report about the 'Marcosians' no one has anything more to add to it except for his student Hippolytus who acknowledges a number of inaccuracies brought forward by the 'Marcosians' themselves.

Moreover it should also be noted that Tertullian's Five Books Against Marcion and his frequent references in other works to the Marcionites have surprisingly little to actually say about the sect. Most of the material was adapted from some earlier source or sources. Outside of a discussion of the different readings in the Marcionite New Testament canon and periodic reference to the inferences Marcionites draw from these different readings, there is almost nothing to provide us with an understanding of 'Marcionitism' per se.

To this end, given that we have to utterly incomplete reports on two sects that bear some sort of a relationship to a guy named Mark we have to be very careful not to fall into the trap of those before us who took the Church Fathers - and Irenaeus - in particular at his word that indeed these were two wholly separate Christian communities.