I just finished noting that when it comes to the debates between Marcionism and "orthodoxy" the scholarly community wasn't vulgar enough to understand realities of what was really going on in the second century (i.e. pretending that the divide between "heresy" and "normative" Christianity came down to a handful of Greek words). Now I will take the opposite point of view. Why do people pretend that the gospel was a "factual" account of what Jesus said and did? I know many of us were taught this in Sunday school or even university, but come on. There were no rules and where there are no rules people can do what they want. Someone certainly said that Jesus did and said exactly what is written in the gospel. But hidden in the writings of Clement of Alexandria (and not just his famous "Letter to Theodore") there is the understanding that the gospel narrative contained the framework for a mystery religion. Surely people can't be so naive as to think that ancient mysteries were "factual."
I agree with Stanley Porter that the Question of the Rich Guy (I use "rich guy" because the Alexandrian text says he was a "Rich Youth") is the core of the gospel message. That message is clearly antinomian. To this end it is one of two passages in Adversus Marcionem where Tertullian (and undoubtedly Irenaeus before him says) that the Marcionites identify the presence of a "someone" here speaking directly to the Marcionites. Who was that "someone"? Clearly the rich youth. Who was this rich youth? Clearly he was Paul. So Paul set up the narrative of the Gospel of Mark to witness his own interaction with Jesus. This is not just me saying this but - essentially - Stanley Porter too.
In Luke what do we find happening after this? The rich man "dies" and goes to the underworld where he sees Lazarus sitting in Abrahams bosom and other clear borrowings from the Egyptian mystery cults. "Send Lazarus to my brothers." In the Acts of John there is the intimation that Jesus or John raised a dead man and Lazarus entered his soul "confirming all his words" (i.e. of the rich man pericope). I will have to dig up this narrative. The point here is that we have essentially a scenario where the rich youth dies goes to the underworld is raised and comes back. Luke according to the Acts of John witnesses Secret Mark.
