Towards the Monophysite Theology of St. Mark

I have been trying to use Irenaeus' variant Gospel of Mark to prove that the claims of the letter to Theodore aren't that crazy. I don't think that ANY of the models for the development of the fourfold canon have bothered to notice that there is a pattern of 'extra material' in Irenaeus' Gospel of Mark when compared to the later MSS. In short, it isn't as bizarre as it first seems to suggest that the Gospel of Mark might have included narratives like LGM 1 and LGM 2 as well as other additions. No one ever noticed it before because they were too busy focusing on just the loss of the longer ending of Mark.

When reporting on 'heretical variations' to the words "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son has willed to reveal" Irenaeus says that:

Thus hath Matthew set it down, and Luke in like manner, and Mark the very same for John has omitted the passage.[AH iv.6.1]

What scholars also fail to see is that there is a subtle REJECTION of the idea of Mark receiving his gospel as a revelation DIRECT FROM HEAVEN. This is the Marcionite position. The Marcionites held that the opening words of Mark's gospel 'the gospel of Christ' (or some such variation) implied that Jesus or Christ made the revelation; it had no human intermediary.

In this we see something approaching the Samaritan understanding with respect to the ten utterances or the revelation of the Qu'ran to Mohammed.

Yes, I realize that Clement also seems to infer that Mark MEDIATED his own revelation with that of Peter's. I will touch upon this in a future post. But for the moment there is no suggestion - nor is there any possibility - that Mark could have 'copied' something that he read in Matthew's gospel as Irenaeus suggests.

This is a further devaluation of the original understanding of the great revelation originally understood to be afforded the apostle. When you actually reread To Theodore it is easy to see that Clement is undoubtedly ACCOMMODATING the Alexandrian traditional understanding of the gospel as a 'FULL REVELATION' with the Roman understanding of the text as a 'gospel of Peter.'

In any event, I don't want to go back to our original discussion of Irenaeus' witness that things are now missing from that original Roman gospel of Mark. Instead I want to do something which is rarely even attempted by religious minds - I want to see Mark as an artist. I want to attempt to go back to developing what the purpose of the gospel was for him.

What I mean to say is that we have been conditioned to read the gospel as the story of Jesus. Jesus is born to a virgin, when he is about to turn thirty he gets baptized, he engages in 'ministry,' at some point he decides to martyr himself, he enrages the Jews, they end up forcing Pilate to crucify him and because he managed to pull off this Passover martyrdom and ends up resurrected, we are supposed to accept him as our Lord, Savior and true messiah of Israel.

This wasn't the belief of St. Mark nor his Alexandrian tradition.

According to my understanding of Alexandrian theology, Jesus was always God first and foremost. I see the emphasis of any 'humanity' to Jesus' person as being something which filtered in from outside of Egypt.

One can easily imagine that Jesus began as the Marcionite angelic figure in Alexandria. One may call him by a number of different names but his purpose is solely to perfect humanity through a 'redemption' baptism.

I have already identified the origin of this Marcosian term. It is a development of the original 'baptism in the sea' [1 Cor 10:2; Exodus 15:7] At that time Israel crossed through the Sea of Reeds being led by the angel of glory. According to Mark in his Samaritan writings, the nation were purified and perfected in this seminal moment. Yet I want to quote from another passage in Mark's Samaritan writings so the reader can begin to see what I understand to be Mark's purpose in writing the gospel.

I hope the reader can follow my identification of the 'glory' (kavod) of these Samaritan writings with the Alexandrian figure of Jesus Chrestos. The Samaritan Mark writes again in the context of the baptism in the sea:

Let us now be in awe at the speech presented by the ANGELS, also by the GLORY. The GLORY said 'The great name is within me and I do not shun him who is rebellious in action. When a man deviates, I forfeit him, and thus it is said of me 'For he will not pardon your transgression for my name is in him" (Ex. xxiii.21)

The ANGELS also were saying, 'O congregation, hold fast to your Lord and serve in faith, for in our hands is salvation, in our hands destruction, in our hands relief, in our hands weariness, in our hands killing, in our hands love. All this in our hands! Keep guard of yourself and learn the Way of the True One. You need not enquire what we have done from Adam to Noah, with Abraham and Lot, with Isaac and the people of Sodom, with Jacob and Joseph and the great prophet Moses in all that he did.

We with Adam; we magnified his original status. With Noah we appeared and we honoured him. With Abraham we were when he proclaimed. So with Isaac in his being increased in goodness and we met Joseph too in a group. We were sent only to those good, perfect ones. You need not enquire about the deed of Lot and the people of Sodom, for they appear (in Scripture) before you.

If you seek knowledge of what they possess come to Jacob. On the ladder of his dream we were ascending and descending and the Glory was standing above it. A great Blessing was proclaimed (Gen 28.13 ff). In his sojourn with Laban and the meeting with Esau we advised him, and the Glory magnified him and blessed him in the Yabbok and at Luz, and announced to him the coming in and the going out and all this was perfection to him and to his descendants after him, generation after generation.

If you maintain that high status, you will prosper in both world but if you deviate from the way of the True One, then what happened to the people of Sodom will happen to you. Thus the True One wrote " An overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah" (Deut 29.23 Targ).

We shall come and bring it about and we shall not appear before exceedingly great judgement is wrought - a judgement with no lack!"

Great is the Powerful One who makes us witnesses. Let us bear witness to the truth before the True One, and be upright in every deed - deed without defect, wholly pleasing.

The Glory too seemed to be saying "O congregation, keep yourself from me, for is there not before me a mighty deed? I slew, I oppressed, I destroyed, I made alive, and with you I did all of this when I was at the sea and showed you every wonder and made you to cross with great marvels by the mighty power of God. Observe these actions and apply your mind! Do not rebel from me or act against me. Do not be involved in evil that you may be magnified by your Lord and glorified by me, for I would make an end of you from the world of being (if you were to be so involved), and I would bring upon you all kinds of curses and put you in great affliction. If you discipline yourself outwardly and inwardly, secretly and manifestly, you will be in the world above, and a holy and select people. What was promised to your fathers will be effective for you, for our Lord is merciful and pitiful. Thus He described himself (Ex 34.6; Deut 4.31).

Let us give thanks and praise the Great One and worship His divinity and submit to Him at all times and love him always, for He is our Maker, Fashioner and Creator.

Let the mind understand that statement and hear it in great faith and reverence, and hasten to praise God to whom there is no like. Nothing exists forever but His power - perchance glory may continue for us! He will deliver us from the present evil, for He gives relief to those who love Him and He remembers them. Let us say with fear and reverence "there is only one God!" [Mimar Marqe iii.5]

This is one of a great number of references to the 'Glory' hypostasis in the Samaritan writings of the apostle Mark. The parallels with Philo - and later Christian use of the Logos concept - has already been noted by Fossum and a number of other scholars.

Now I know that Jesus has become a number of things to modern Christians - 'JC,' 'a god of love,' a 'nice Christ' (a concept which causes every Jew to squirm - messiah's aren't supposed to be nice to everyone!). Yet I think the Samaritan writings of Mark help us focus on the original Alexandrian concept of Jesus as the 'glory Lord' - the angel of the presence who lead the Israelites through the waters and in the process purified and perfected them.

And this is the point of this post. I can't help but think that for the first followers of St. Mark, the purpose of Jesus mission WASN'T just to get people to believe he was the Christ. Jesus was the 'glory Lord.' His purpose was to perfect humanity or - to use the words from later in the Mimar Marqe to take what was merely 'good' or 'very good' at the beginning of Creation and now at the end, to 'perfect' it to the glory of the angels.

This is what Christianity is SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT. It was never intended to introduce the spectacular revelation - to just 'be nice to one another' or any of the other idiotic American evangelic concepts of today. Jesus was the glory Lord who - through the simulated 'baptism in the sea' - i.e. 'the redemption' - transform man from merely being 'very good' to perfect.

I would also like to note that the 'glory' has a similar function in the writings of the Marcionite apostle ESPECIALLY ONCE WE REALIZE THAT HE UNDERSTOOD BAPTISM TO BE CARRIED OUT ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD, the traditional day of the 'washing in the sea' [Exod 15.7]

Jesus is clearly 'the glory Lord' [1 Cor 2.8] The apostle of Christianity writes that baptism is carried out "through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." [Rom 6.4] In other references this baptism is connected with death so that the individual is said to be "raised in glory." [1 Cor 15.43]

Those who come out of the baptismal waters have clearly been united with their 'glory Lord' in the redemption baptism of Mark. "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord." [2 Cor 3.18]

This 'glory' is also associated with the gospel - "The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ ... Because it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Christ." [2 Cor 4:6]

I do think that there is a relationship between the apostle of the Samaritans and the apostle of Christianity developing the idea of 'the perfection of humanity' from the angelic baptism in the sea. More to follow ...