Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Was the Name 'Marcion' Developed From the Specifically Egyptian Greek Way of Rendering the Latin Name 'Marcus'?

When one uses the Trismegistos database one sorts through 16,000 pieces of information. Using the link 'search' in the green Trismegistos area below, will let you search the whole database of Trismegistos; to go directly to one of the partner projects for a specific subset of the database, click on the desired project's image in the row at the bottom (red, blue and grey images).




And when one searches for the name 'Marcion' the only results which come up are found in Egypt:


This name is attested 9 time(s) in papyri (Sort order: chronological):
Text [Sort...]NameDate [Sort...]PlaceFull Text
SB 3 6124, 1ΜαρκίωνBC 332 - AD 699?Egypt
SB 1 4604, 3ΜαρκίωνAethiopia - Talmis (Kalabsha)
P. Col. 10 250, 10Μαρκίονος ΔιογένουςAD 43 Apr 500a - Philadelpheia (Gharabet el-Gerza)
P. Oslo 2 31, 5ΜαρκίωνοςAD 138 - 161?Egypt
P. Oslo 2 31, 30ΜαρκίωνοςAD 138 - 161?Egypt
P. Ross. Georg. 2 18, 125ΜαρκίωνοςAD 139 Dec 28 - 140 Jan 2600 - Arsinoites (Fayum)
P. Ross. Georg. 2 18, 141ΜαρκίωνοςAD 139 Dec 28 - 140 Jan 2600 - Arsinoites (Fayum)
P. Oxy. 12 1534 descr., 12ΜαρκίωνοςAD 200 - 225U19 - Oxyrynchites
SB 6 9201, 7Λόγγου Μαρκίωνος ΛούππουAD 203 Jan 25U19 - Oxyrynchos (Bahnasa)

I am starting to think that the Church Fathers latched on to the name 'Marcion' because it was a typically Egyptian way of referencing the name 'Mark.'  Philostorgius makes reference to a number of terms typical of Alexandrian Greek (i.e. 'baukalis' = a wine jug).  Maybe Marcion was another ...


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