Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Thirty Ninth Proof that Clement of the Alexandrian See of St. Mark Was a Prominent Leader of the Tradition Irenaeus Identifies as 'Marcosian'

39. Irenaeus says that that the Marcosians develop "some passages, also, which occur in the Gospels [and] receive from them a colouring of the same kind, such as the answer which He gave His mother when He was twelve years of age: "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" [Luke 2.49] Thus, they say, He announced to them the Father of whom they were ignorant." [AH i.22.2]

The Greek of Luke ii.49 literally means 'in the things of my Father' and it denotes a person's property or estate. The closest parallel is the LXX translation of Esther 7.9 'the house of Haman.' As such Clement's use of the phrase 'my Father's house' below is an exact parallel to the sense of Irenaeus' report on the Marcosians:

Clement of Alexandria writes that "perchance, such an one [i.e. who undergoes the gnostic initiation] has already attained the condition of "being equal to the angels." Accordingly, after reaching the highest ascent in the flesh, he still continues to advance as is fit, and presses through the holy Hebdomad to the Lord's own house; being destined there to be, as it were a light, standing and abiding forever absolutely secure from all vicissitude." [Stromata vii.10]

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