Saturday, May 29, 2010

On the Jewish Roots of 'Marcion'

I have always been struck by the Jewish roots of Marcion. Here is another reference which - if read critically - suggests a deeper relationship than previously realized:

Concerning Theodotion, who was from Pontus. But after this, in the time immediately following, that is, in the reign of Commodus----I mean, of Commodus ----there was a certain Theodotion of Pontus, of the doctrine of Marcion, the heresiarch of Sinope. Having become angered with his heresy, he turned aside to Judaism and was circumcised and learned the language of the Hebrews and their writings; he also published (a translation) on his own account. He published many things in agreement with the seventy-two, for he derived many (peculiar) practices from the translational habit(s) of the seventy-two. Now you become the judge, O great lover of the good, of such a matter as this, whether the truth is more likely to be found with these three----I mean Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion ----who, moreover, were not together, but were remote from one another in both time and place; and there were not many, but only three, and yet they were unable to agree. [Epiphanius Weights and Measures 17]


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