Thursday, November 20, 2014

89. the gospel of Marcion 'betrays assimilation' to Matthew 26:24

"Clement and Marcion (with the Old Latin) will then confirm each other, as showing that even at this early date the two passages, Matt. xxvi. 24 and Matt, xviii. 6 (Luke xvii. 2), had already begun to be combined. [Sanday, Gospels in the Second Century p. 68] With respect to the "better for him if he had never been born" (Matt 26:24) reference earlier it would seem this is universally regarded as both being in the Diatessaronic tradition (Ephrem Commentary XIX, §1f and Marcion: Marcion-Tert. adds (after Xvo-iTtXti avrio) ' si natus non fuisset aut ' with all the best Old Latin MSS save the African e. The insertion is clearly an erroneous assimilation to Matt, xxvi 24 = Marc, xiv 2 1, and it serves to shew how soon processes of conflation between the Gospels began to affect the texts, even in passages that are not really parallel. [Journal of Theological Studies Vol 10. p. 181]


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.