In any event, I have to come back down to earth and admit that this will be a busy day for me but late in the evening I hope to lay out the evidence from Tertullian, Ephrem and Eznik which suggests that those who followed this Mark called 'Marcion' actually held that:
(a) Jesus DID NOT ever claim to be the messiah,
(b) that Jesus was THE angel of the presence who came to herald someone else as the messiah and
(c) that 'someone else' was the guy who wrote the apostolic letters we attribute to some guy whose name changed to 'Paulos' after a revelation from heaven and
(d) that this 'someone' else called 'Paulos' was Mark viz. Marcion.
If I get at least some nominal interest in these lines of proof I will demonstrate my theory that the the title Paulos is a Greek rendering of the Samaritan interpretation - or more specifically the authoritative interpretation originally established by Marqe the son of Titus - to the tamym po'olo (Deuteronomy 32:4) of the 'Great Song' of the first apostle Moses (Marqe being of course the second and last apostle).
Oh, what the hell. It probably won't mean anything to anyone, but here is MacDonald's zuhanden translation of at least part of the section to tantalize at least some of you. Let's start with the second chapter of Book Two of the Mimar Marqe UNIVERSALLY RECOGNIZED by Samaritan scholars to have a distinctly 'Pauline' formulation by Marqe (Mark). Keep in mind Mark the heretic's interest in the sixth letter and the recreation of humanity when we read the Samaritan writings of Mark reference:
The TEN FOUNDATIONS that are revealed in Genesis stood there to magnify and also to perfect. Great is this prophet the like of whom has not arisen since Adam and never will arise! See how it is in Genesis and number the letters—six—like the six days, for each one resembles the other; and the name which brought all created things into being sealed the whole. Therefore He said, "God finished" (Gen. ii. 2). BERESIT was the starting-point and God finished (ibid. Targ.). Also the six days, Sabbath and holiness.
Therefore the great prophet Moses proclaimed at the beginning KI (for). Since these things came in the name (ibid.) KI became the medium of prophethood. BERESIT is a beginning; so KI is a beginning, and God is in the beginning and at the end, for it is with His name that he is vested and strengthened. Therefore he began by saying, For in the name (ibid.).
Note the greatness of his knowledge. What he did in the name is a mystery; it established the glory with which his Lord vested him. The Lord said it of the Form of Adam, for by it it was established; by God it was perfected.—Then the Lord God formed man (Gen. ii.7).
For I will proclaim in the name of the Lord (Deut. xxxii. 3) is a renewal of the mention in Genesis, and the name with which he was vested and the great name whose secret he taught. Moses was magnified mightily in knowledge, wholly of faith. The secret of Genesis — know how it is; the great name (YHWH) and the word KI were heard from the mouth of Moses.
The mouth of the Divine One and that of the prophetic one were alike. We have seen a word which the True One wrote— BARA. What is its meaning? He wrote In the beginning ... created (BARA) (Gen. i. 1 ) , and Moses at his beginning said, "For in the name" (Deut. xxxii. 3). BARA was said because the True One there planned and created by His will, and Moses said in his great knowledge, " will proclaim" (ibid.), just like the word BARA Genesis comprises the six days and all the commandments that were written in the law. Praise be to the Lord of the world who endures alone and never changes!
Ascribe greatness to our God (Deut. xxxii. 3; Targ.). The great prophet Moses made it the gateway to all praises. In it is contained Genesis, as well as what is like it. W represents the six days and everything created in them. H is the name by which all creatures arose.
B is the two worlds, the first world and the second world. W is the end.
He made known that the one is like the other, and he increased the speaking of wisdom. When he said GODEL (GREATNESS) he sought to strengthen the words by holiness. When Creation and Sabbath were gathered to him, he magnified its holiness with G and D and sealed with L. This is a city wholly great, at the entrance to which is written The Lord our God is one Lord (Deut. vi. 4; Targ.).
Happy are they who dwell in it! He makes them all to be possessed of the Favour.
The great prophet Moses dwelt in it and possessed glory. He sustained himself from it and was magnified in its good. No one has dwelt in it as he has and no one will (like him) be supplied from it.
O men, learn from him and walk after him, and hold fast to his command and do not forget his statutes. Woe to those who lack it and turn from its light! His teaching is then forgotten and they have withdrawn from it. They do not draw near to it; they destroy themselves and God is too righteous for them. They call Him. but He does not answer.
Greatness belongs to God, who forgives sins and rolls them away in His mercy, so that they may repent.[Mimar Marqe iv.2]
I will explain all of this in more detail later but let's at least cautiously acknowledge the obvious - there is a connection between the mystic interest in the redemption of the sixth letter in both the Samaritan tradition of Marqe and the heretic Mark reported in the First Book of Irenaeus's Against All Heresies. What the Samaritan literature also makes clear in my estimation is a further connection with what is called 'the First Letter to the Corinthians' chapter 15 (but which was originally identified as the 'Letter to the Alexandrians' by those of Mark).
As I will demonstrate in more detail, Mark always connects the redemption of the sixth letter with the transformation of Man (Adam) into a Superman. My guess is that water immersion was the original means of that transformation. The point is that just as - according to my interpretation - the Alexandrian 'secret' Gospel of Mark originally understood the neaniskos 'Mark' (later called 'Paulos') as the paradigmatic individual through whom that 'redemption' was established, I will argue that the surviving Samaritan writings reference while no longer referencing water immersion speak of the transformation of Man (Adam) into Superman by means of tamym po'olo (which according to Marqe should ultimately be interpreted the 'perfect image').
I will now quote the words which immediately follow the last section in the Mimar:
He said also, "The Rock thai begot you" (Deut. xxxii.18) . He began with the one and ended with the other. The first word is a compendium wholly of praises, like the garden which Abraham planted (Gen. xxi. 33). The rock that begot you takes away the son who errs and disobeys. Woe to the son who is like that! Isaac in his holiness cultivated the garden of righteousness. The fathers and all wise men of the city rejoice in it. An errant and disobedient son destroys gardens. Fathers and all the men of the city are vexed with him.
The Form of Adam is glorified over all. Its Lord empowered it above all forms. Of four elements it is composed. Therefore Moses used this word first. The first element is water, for it is an element needed by everything. The second is a handful of dust mixed with water with great skill. As these were made the elements for Creation, so they were made the elements for the body.
Therefore the great prophet Moses said, "Give ear, 0 heavens" (Deut. xxxii. 1 ; Targ.) and again he said, "And let the earth hear" (ibid.). Two other elements he began to call; they are stores —wind and fire.
It is good to endure to do as he did. good to enter into the service of his Lord. Fire is part and parcel of all created things, since at the Creation it was an element for everything. The whole was formed from four elements, each one increased in its genus during the creative process—water of four sorts, dust of four sorts, wind of four sorts and fire of four sorts.
See how the elements of water are divided into four types: go to the Garden and see what the divisions are—one made sweet3 8 and its changed state, and one made bitter and its later state. So fire is in this condition; in the Sanctuary it was made so, as on the candlestick.
Aaron produced it well from the fire on the altar, which is perpetual, never extinguished (Lev. vi. 9). So the fire which is for the Burning, of which it is said, "Fire from the Lord" (Lev. ix. 2 4 ; Targ.). Therefore no other kind of fire enters into the Sanctuary. When it is brought
into being it causes a great reflection (of light). The fire which the sons of Aaron made on the altar was put out when the great prophet Moses prayed to Him (Num. xi. 2).
Dust too is of four categories: the dust of the earth, the dust of the Garden, the dust from the sky, and the dust which is in the paved court of the Sanctuary.
Wind likewise is of four categories: the wind from before the Lord, the East wind, the West wind, and the wind that blows.
Let us magnify our Lord and be humble before His greatness and believe in Him and Moses His prophet, Who used the phrase The Rock and conjoined it with the word Perfect (in Deut. xxxii. 4). From the Form and the mind was the body perfected and set up (in a manner) quite apart from any other created thing. Therefore T (cf TAMIM) here becomes an element. T magnifies all perfection.
He put Y in the middle (of the MIM's); as for the two M.'s, the first M represents the elements of Creation and the Ten Words and the words of the covenant and of mercies. The second M is the number of the days of his fasting. Thus He inserted Y. between the two and magnified the proclamation of it with the word PO'OLO (HIS WORK) (Deut. xxxii. 4), which he made a seal for the words of praise.
At the beginning He mentioned Creation and also at the end He magnified man's FORM. He blessed the whole with the two words TAMIM PO'OLO (His work is perfect).
Greatness belongs to our Lord. He has made known in His wisdom that which He made manifest, for our Lord in His great power made everything a form, then created and fashioned and made creatures exceedingly grand. Everything was made by Him. Everything is from Him. Everything was drawn into being by His command "Come"; it was governed by His power, made strong by His good (favour) and magnified by His glory.
Exalted, good is he who draws near to Him and does not go far from Him, for He is near to all who seek Him and cares for all who love Him—a strong shield to those who believe in Him, for He is merciful and pitiful.
So He testified of Himself, "The Lord, a God merciful and gracious"(Ex. xxxiv.6).[Mimar Marqe iv.3]
There is so much more for us to do and say. I would have liked to start with Chapter One of the same book to demonstrate how Mark's lays down his idea that what was established in the beginning was only good, what would come in the end was finally perfect. This is the key distinction to make sense of the Markan system whether it is called 'Marcosian' or 'Marcionite' by the Church Fathers. The underlying idea was turned around by these propagandists to mean that 'Mark' (however he was referenced) slighted the Creator. But the truth was that this idea was quite in keeping with the spirit what was established in the Torah.
The words of Moses make clear that Israel COULD ONLY RECEIVE THE INFERIOR REVELATION owing to its carnality. It hadn't been finally perfected. This of course was the job of the messiah who the followers of Mark took to be Mark himself, later identified as simply 'the Apostle' or as we shall ultimately show by his other hidden title 'the work' or 'perfect work' of God ...
dating back to conversations with his grandfather, Gaston Frank. "He said we represent one of the last descendants of the Frankist Jewish faith in the world," he muses. "I grew up thinking that our family was something like the Last of the Mohicans."