Thursday, November 20, 2014

171. Matthew 7:23; 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30

Adamantius: Now it says in the Gospel writing, "Depart from me you who work lawlessness into the outer darkness! There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth" [Matt 7:23] So you see that the Gospel agrees with the Law. Megethius In what respect does it agree? Eutr: Surely this must be so! What Christ stretched out His hands to achieve had already been established in the Law. He gave orders to love one's enemies, while the Law commanded men not to retaliate against enemies; on the contrary it demanded that not even an ox or ass should be overlooked. And most certainly Christ will hate as enemies those who practice evil! Does he not say "Depart from me? This is not love - to repel [and drive out] enemies [into the outer darkness].
Megethius: 'The prophet of the God of Creation, so that he might destroy more of the enemy, stopped the sun from setting until he should finish slaying those who were fighting against the people. But the Lord, because He is good, says, “Let not the sun go down upon your anger."
Adamantius: So far as those are concerned who wrongly brought upon their masters, it has been shown that their destruction was just; consequently Christ also gave orders that one who had lived a bad life should be cast “into the outer darkness! there it will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28) [Pretty p. 55 - 56]

If you look at the discussion in Tertullian it is clear that Marcion is accused of 'cutting Luke' at this exact point too i.e. where Adamantius curtails his citation:

and again when they tell the tale of how they have eaten and drunk in his presence, and he has taught in their streets, he will continue, Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth: where? outside, of course, where those will be who were shut out when the door was shut to by him. [Tert Adv Marc 4.30] Indeed Epiphanius says that Marcion 'cut the passage' right here:

In chap. xiii. he omitted the first five verses, whilst in the 28th verse of the same chapter, where we read, "When ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and ye yourselves thrust out," he read (by altering, adding, and transposing), "When ye shall see all the just in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out, and bound without, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." He likewise excluded all the remaining verses of this chapter. [Holmes's note at the end of Schaff's translation] So now we see how many of the alleged 'curtailments' of Luke are found in other gospels. This is a point made over and over again by Schmid and others. But what they fail to mention forcefully enough is that it is only Irenaeus assertion that Marcion 'cut' Luke that causes anyone to doubt the obvious implications of this repeated occurrence (especially with western readings of Mark as Williams notes over and over again). Irenaeus is not telling the truth.

It is quite easy to explain. Irenaeus is setting up a 'creation' - the idea that each of the four gospels testifies to the true form of the gospel in various communities. So Matthew is the Jewish Christian gospel (even though he has to lie about its attestation by Papias). So too John is the 'true' gospel of the Valentinian community and now that Luke is the true Marcionite gospel. Instead of allowing us to see here that Marcion's text simply agrees with Matthew Irenaeus lying reframes the situation so as to allow for all the readings he inserted into Luke to 'testify against' or 'disprove' Marcion. In other words, we have demonstrated the purpose of Irenaeus's editing effort.


Email stephan.h.huller@gmail.com with comments or questions.


 
Stephan Huller's Observations by Stephan Huller
is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.