I Was Just Telling You How Stupid I Am ...

I was just saying how incomplete my English translation of the Samaritan writings of Mark is. Given that I have been trying to prove that To Theodore's description of a baptism on the seventh day is developed I can only cite HALF the references in Mark's writings that explain how the parting of the Sea of Reeds was a purifying - and glorifying - water baptism.

There are at least ten references to this idea in Mark's writings. I have another one staring at me starting from page 70 of the translation but I have no idea what preceded it on page 69.

Mark writes:

Two deeds were done then [at the parting of the sea], each of them as great as the other - the dividing of the sea and what befell the Egyptians in it. By reason of this all the peoples were terrified and said in their hearts, "As Egypt was destroyed, so it may happen to us." It was as though the True One [i.e. God] aid to them from on high, "Wait! Greater than this will fill the world for you." They had provoked the True One by what they were doing; the world will cry out aloud because of the evils done in it. Their cry will go up to the heavenly habitation, just as the cry of these [i.e. the Israelites] when they cried out of the midst of great distress. God looked down in His mercy, aided and redeemed. Woe to the apostate for what is prepared for them! Happy the good for what they will be recompensed!

When the Ta'heb [i.e. the messiah] comes he will reveal the truth and God will glorify the dead. Their coming will be from the four directions of the world. [Mimar Marqe II.9]

MacDonald of course sees the last line as related to Mark xiii.26 - 27 (Matt xxiv.31) "where instead of the dead we have the elect." Of course 'the dead' is a gnostic term which denotes the state of humanity before it becomes transformed by the redemption baptism.

The important thing about this discussion is that it is clear from Mark that the 'glorification' of the water immersion was not meant to be limited to the experience of the ancient Israelites in the Sea of Reeds. He continues by writing:

Praised be the Powerful One who in His goodness filled the minds of the radiant ones with true knowledge. We observe how the great prophet Moses spoke concerning the inhabitants of Palestine, as He said in His holy scripture "Pangs have seized on the inhabitants of Philistia (Ex. xv. 14 Targ). By his great prophesy he revealed the deliverance of Isaac and the efficacy of His promise. He was delivered with pangs from the garden and was given the land of Palestine, as He said "Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you: for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands" (Gen xxvi.3 Targ). The great prophet Moses recalls here the covenant with Isaac his forefather and teaches that pangs would strike all the inhabitants of Palestine.

How great is your majesty O Israel, for mighty wonders were done for your sake. Exalted is the great prophet Moses whom his Lord taught what he would be glorified with, and he glorified all the generations of the world, those near to God as Moses was near, those obedient to God as Moses was, or who stood where Moses stood, or saw what Moses saw, or believed what he believed, or sought and attained or said and did for Him what He willed, or were crowned with knowledge like Moses, or whose face was covered with light (like Moses').

He (Moses) was made a storehouse of wonders, and his tongue flowed with blessings. His Lord did for him what He has not done for any person. Mysteries were unravelled for him into revelations; the creations exulted at him. The heavens rejoiced at him; the earth listened to his words (Deut xxxii.1) [ibid]

The point is that the context here is the redemption baptism of the experience at the Sea of Reeds. There is no question about this. Mark is now saying that not just this mystical experience of sevenfold 'glorification' (see previous posts) first made manifest in Moses and the Israelites are things attainable by subsequent generations.

Indeed it is worth citing the conclusion to this discussion of the passing through the Sea of Reeds and observe its strange supernatural character. Mark writes:

The pillar of cloud and of fire and the glory of the Lord were the guides of the Israelites when they crossed the Red Sea, both before and behind them, till they had gone out safely.

The God of gods had compassion for the children of His servants like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young (Deut xxxii.11 SP) for on its pinions it bears its young. His taking them up was better than that of any bird, and He made them to pass to the waves (?) of the sea and set them on the tops of mountains.

Thus God did with the children of His servants. He lifted them up on eagles wongs and led them through the sea on dry land as they followed his glory.

Moses, the son of His house, be magnified, son of Amram, the prophet whom the Lord knew face to face (Deut xxxiv.10 SP), in things concealed and revealed, who was faithful respecting all the signs which He commanded - the wonders which the Lord sent him to do, for He knew him in the land of Egypt and in the sea.

All the servants of Pharaoh He brought to an end and felled from above and they perished through ten strokes. Those left in the Red Sea and in all his land He destroyed - everything in it and everyone of strong hand, with manifold wonders which Moses, the most distinguished of all men, did; for he includes the name of every one of them - all of them with great marvels.

Praise be to the One who created them and every great spectacle, from the day Moses began to perform the signs up to the splitting of the Red Sea and the events that took place therein. Blessed is the day on which Moses prophesied and was sent to redeem the children of His servants from the power of the Egyptians. [Mimar Marqe II.11]

I want the reader of this post to understand quite clearly that Mark understood the seven day feast of Unleavened Bread and its culmination - the water immersion in the sea and in the cloud - as not merely a 'purification' or just a 'glorification' but a 'creation.' This would follow of course from its 'seven-ness' (i.e. the manner in which it resembles the first creation in Genesis). But it is not often enough explained in this way.

I think this idea was carried over to the Marcosian idea of 'redemption' baptism and undoubtedly the seven day baptismal initiation of To Theodore.

It is also worth noting for my readers interested in Marcionitism that the Samaritan writings of Mark also seem to shed some light on the reports of their interest in a 'redemption' in the sense of a transfer of man from one power to another (i.e. from the Demiurge to the Stranger, as it is often described).

Mark ALWAYS explains the context of the struggle in Egypt over the fate of the Israelites in terms of redemption and early in the Mimar he has Moses and Aaron say to Pharaoh:

He [God] has sent us to you without a sign and wonder, in order that you may believe that He is a true God. He would not have sent requesting this people from you had He not known that truth is not with you. They are pledged in His hand by a word, and the time for it (i.e. the redemption of the pledge) has arrived. Their Lord desires the redemption of the pledge now and he desires to take His own property." [Mimar Marqe I.4]

I know most of us are not used to imagining that the Marcionites might have developed from traditional Jewish understanding of Passover but I think it highly likely that their reported interest in a 'redemption' where man is taken from the Creator to the Father was done through the mediation of a baptism which was again modeled around the washing in the cloud and the sea on the seventh day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

The idea undoubtedly was that because it was now an EIGHT DAY FESTIVAL - one day more for communities outside of Israel it was connected with the 'ogdoad' in heaven, the God higher than the power traditional venerated by the Jews in the seventh heaven.

Got to go to sleep. My 'good' Samaritan Benny Tsedaka is coming over tomorrow ...