Textual readings, attributed interpretations and related gospel traditions—with the Jerusalem–Jericho descent and the Flying Jesus.
Reading the evidence
A passage quoted against Marcion is not automatically a quotation from Marcion’s book. This catalog preserves that distinction while gathering the material in one place. Verse numbers are finding aids; they do not decide gospel priority or the relationships between the heresiologists.
| Evidence | What the label means |
|---|---|
| Attributed report or interpretation | The source identifies a position as Marcion’s or the Marcionites’. It may preserve exegesis rather than alternative biblical wording. |
| Biblical argument | The passage is used in an argument against Marcion. The quoted wording may belong to the refuter. |
| Syriac comparison | A related Syriac reading worth comparison, without an explicit identification as Marcionite. |
| Control | A case that tests whether a refuter’s own quotations are being wrongly assigned to his opponents. |
| Syriac original in Armenian | A distinct transmission category, not an extant Syriac quotation. |
“Read” means an accessible primary edition or translation was inspected. “Located” means the exact reference was checked through scholarship without collating the critical Syriac text. Ephrem’s Commentary survives through Syriac and Armenian transmission; a reference through Leloir’s combined translation does not establish survival of that individual passage in both languages. Its transmitted form also requires attention to editorial layers.
Syriac reports and anti-Marcionite arguments
Jesus appears between Jerusalem and Jericho
Attributed report · Possible relation to Luke 10:30–37; alternatively compared with 4:31
Jacob of Serugh, Letter 23 to Maron of Anazarbus; Olinder, Iacobi Sarugensis epistulae (CSCO 110, 1937), p. 201, lines 4–15 for the surrounding passage; BL Add. 17215, fol. 30r.
Jacob attributes to Marcion a denial of birth from a woman and an initial appearance between Jerusalem and Jericho. The short geographical clause is: “came down, and appeared first between Jerusalem and Jericho.”
Use: Forness identified the formerly anonymous fragment in 2021. Jacob wrote around the turn of the sixth century; the fragmentary manuscript is later. Connection with the Good Samaritan is an interpretation, not an explicit identification in the quotation. Its status as gospel wording remains unresolved.
Read in Forness’s full-text analysis and translation. [F] [Ffull]
The distinctive name Yesu / Isu
Attributed usage · Jesus’ name throughout the anti-Marcionite material
Ephrem, Prose Refutations II, Against Marcion I–III; compare Commentary on the Gospel 5.20–21; 6.25; 12.7.
The form ܝܣܘ (ysw) contrasts with ordinary Syriac ܝܫܘܥ (yšwʿ).
Use: This is an orthographic clue, not a recovered gospel sentence. Camplani leaves open how much the distinction reflects community usage and how much Ephrem’s polemical presentation. Transliteration alone cannot prove access to a codex.
Read in primary translation notes and modern discussion. [C] [B]
The synagogue and the problem of an established custom
Biblical argument · Luke 4:16; Matthew 13:54
Ephrem, Commentary on the Gospel 11.23; Moesinger’s Latin version (1876), p. 128; Harris (1895), pp. 3–4.
Jesus’ habitual synagogue attendance becomes an objection to an abrupt first appearance.
Use: Retain this as evidence for the controversy around the episode. Harris’s assignment of the intervening speeches to Marcion involves reconstruction; it does not make them verbatim Marcionite quotations.
Read in Harris; aligned biblical wording checked in Crawford. [H] [Cr]
Bethsaida in the rejection episode
Possible geographical variant · Luke 4:16–30
Ephrem, Commentary 11.23; Leloir’s French translation, p. 208 and note 5; Moesinger, pp. 128–129; Roth, p. 398, note 10.
Ephrem’s transmitted account names Bethsaida where the familiar episode concerns Nazareth.
Use: The location is real evidence in the Ephrem tradition. Assignment to Marcion’s gospel is less secure: copying error, commentator error and a different local tradition must remain live alternatives.
The crowd speaks “Physician, heal yourself”
Biblical argument · Luke 4:23
Ephrem, Commentary 11.23; Leloir 1963, p. 70; Crawford, handout p. 2.
The saying appears as the crowd’s response in Ephrem’s treatment.
Use: This offers a useful comparison with Luke’s formulation as a proverb anticipated by Jesus. It does not by itself establish how Marcion’s manuscript assigned the speech.
Anger caused by preaching against the Creator
Attributed interpretation · Luke 4:28–29
Ephrem, Commentary 11.23; Moesinger, pp. 128–129; Harris, pp. 3–4.
The rejection is discussed as a response to teaching about the opposed gods.
Use: A proposed cause of the crowd’s anger can be an exegetical explanation added to a shared narrative. It need not have stood in the gospel itself.
The paralytic: bodily sin and bodily punishment
Attributed interpretation · Luke 5:18–25 and parallels
Ephrem, Commentary 5.20–21; Roth, p. 53, note 25.
Bodily punishment is connected with the paralytic’s bodily sin.
Use: Record the interpretation; no distinctive Marcionite verse wording can be extracted securely.
The bridegroom’s companions do not fast
Biblical argument · Luke 5:33–34 and parallels
Ephrem, Hymns against Heresies 47.4; Beck, CSCO 169–170 (1957); Roth, p. 400.
John’s fasting is contrasted with the bridegroom’s company.
Use: The hymn attests engagement with the saying, not a full quotation of a Marcionite gospel.
Located through scholarship. [R]
New wine and old wineskins
Biblical argument · Luke 5:37; Matthew 9:17
Ephrem, Hymns against Heresies 44.6–7; Beck, CSCO 169–170; Roth, pp. 400–401.
New wine introduces Ephrem’s contrast between new commands and restored bodily organs.
Use: The wording follows Matthew; do not silently label it Marcion’s Luke.
Located through scholarship. [R]
John asks whether Jesus is the coming one
Biblical argument · Luke 7:19–20; Matthew 11:3
Ephrem, Against Marcion I, Syriac p. 62; English p. xxix.
John asks: “Hast thou then come, or look we for another?”
Use: The question is central to the dispute. Ephrem’s phrasing is not automatically the text his opponents used.
The beatitude addresses John’s possible offense
Attributed interpretation · Luke 7:23; Matthew 11:6
Ephrem, Against Marcion I, Syriac p. 86; English p. xxxix. Compare Commentary 9.1–2.
The blessing against taking offense is applied to John.
Use: This supports a Marcionite interpretation of the unit. The conditional form and Ephrem’s explanatory additions require separate evaluation before retroversion.
Read in primary translation; Commentary comparison through Camplani. [I] [C]
John transfers his flock through two under-shepherds
Attributed interpretation · Luke 7:18–20
Ephrem, Against Marcion II, Syriac p. 106, lines 38–42; English p. xlviii; Burkitt, pp. cxix–cxx.
The reported explanation is that the dying John entrusts his flock through two deputies to its Lord.
Use: Burkitt identifies a Syriac quotation marker here. This is especially useful evidence for an opponent’s explanation, while the pastoral terminology still belongs to an interpretation rather than necessarily to a gospel narrative.
Mother and brothers as a test of real birth
Attributed interpretation · Luke 8:20 and parallels
Ephrem, Commentary 11.9; Moesinger, p. 122; Harris, p. 2; Roth, p. 403.
The announcement about Jesus’ family is treated as a test of whether he was born.
Use: Keep the narrative reference and its interpretation distinct; rejecting the implication of birth does not necessarily require deleting the announcement.
The blessed womb as another test
Attributed interpretation · Luke 11:27
Ephrem, Commentary 11.9; Moesinger, p. 122; Harris, p. 2; Roth, p. 406.
The blessing of Jesus’ mother is likewise construed as a test.
Use: This belongs beside the family announcement, but remains a separate biblical saying. Neither report determines all of the verse’s wording.
Moses and Elijah as guardians
Attributed interpretation · Luke 9:30–31
Ephrem, Against Marcion I, Syriac pp. 87–88; English pp. xxxix–xl.
The Marcionites are said to explain Moses and Elijah as guardians.
Use: This is a distinctive reading of the scene’s meaning. It need not be an alternative sentence in the scene itself.
Read in primary English translation. [I]
The Transfiguration as purchase or confrontation
Reported teaching and rhetorical elaboration · Luke 9:28–36
Ephrem, Against Marcion I, Syriac pp. 88–92; English pp. xl–xlii.
Ephrem debates purchase, conflict and the Creator’s ownership of the mountain.
Use: His repeated hypothetical questions must not become invented gospel speeches. This record is valuable for identifying where a reported teaching becomes a polemicist’s constructed scenario.
Read in primary English translation. [I]
The heavenly declaration at the Transfiguration
Biblical argument · Luke 9:35 and parallels
Ephrem, Against Marcion I, Syriac pp. 93–95; compare Commentary 14.9.
The voice calls Jesus the Son and Beloved.
Use: The argument asks which God speaks. Ephrem’s familiar Synoptic wording cannot establish an exact reading such as “chosen” versus “beloved” for Marcion.
Read in primary translation; Commentary locus through Roth. [I] [R]
Jesus abolishes laws and heals bodies
Attributed saying · A summary of Jesus’ teaching and healings
Ephrem, Against Marcion III, Syriac p. 125, lines 40–47; English p. lvii.
The paired actions are summarized as “abrogated the former laws and healed injured organs.”
Use: The quotation marker is important. This is a programmatic Marcionite claim preserved by an opponent; no specific gospel verse should be fabricated from it.
The prayer for the executioners
Possible textual attestation · Luke 23:34a
Ephrem, Commentary 21.3; Leloir’s combined translation; Roth, pp. 407–408.
The prayer for forgiveness is used against the alien-God position.
Use: Possible evidence for inclusion; Ephrem could also be arguing from his own text.
Located through scholarship. [R]
The sun darkens at the crucifixion
Biblical argument · Luke 23:44–45
Ephrem, Commentary 21.3; Roth, p. 409.
Darkening of the sun is used to connect Jesus with the Creator.
Use: This concerns an event and its interpretation; exact wording remains unrecovered.
Located through scholarship. [R]
The predecessors called thieves and robbers
Late attributed interpretation · John 10:8
Ishoʿdad of Merv, Commentary on John 10:8; extract from manuscript fol. 278v printed with Syriac and English by Harris, p. 76.
Ishoʿdad rejects the application of the saying to Moses and the prophets, attributing that interpretation to Marcion and Mani.
Use: A ninth-century exegetical report is not an inventory of Marcion’s gospel contents. A Johannine proof-text can circulate in controversy without belonging to his gospel book.
Read in Harris’s edition of the Syriac excerpt and translation. [H]
The Flying Jesus
The Flying Jesus: the full Syriac dossier
Syriac comparison · Luke 4:29–31
Aphrahat; Ephrem’s Commentary, hymns and Homily on Our Lord. See witness table below.
The crowd actually throws Jesus down; he escapes harm and, in explicit versions, flies. Baarda’s reconstructed sequence also connects the flight with descent to Capernaum.
Use: These are substantial Syriac witnesses to an expanded rejection narrative. They do not independently identify it as Marcion’s gospel wording. Ephrem can use the miracle to defend a real body. Distinguish the tradition’s existence from its proposed relationship to Marcion.
Primary English texts checked for Aphrahat, Nisibene 35.16 and Homily 21; other loci located through scholarship. [A] [N] [O] [Cr] [Rod]
| Witness / location | Evidence | Verification |
|---|---|---|
| Aphrahat, Demonstration II.20 | Thrown down and unharmed; literal flight is not stated in this short passage. [A] | Primary translation read |
| Ephrem, Commentary 11.24, 11.27 | Principal commentary loci used in the reconstruction of the flight and descent sequence. [Cr] | Located through Crawford and the Oxford thesis |
| Nisibene Hymns 35.16 | Explicit flight after the crowd throws Jesus from the hill. [N] | Primary translation read |
| Nisibene Hymns 43.22 | Additional hymn witness listed in the scholarly inventory. [Rod] | Locus located; critical text not collated |
| Nisibene Hymns 59.13 | Additional hymn witness listed in the scholarly inventory. [Rod] | Locus located; critical text not collated |
| Hymns on Virginity 14.12 | Further poetic witness to the fall/escape tradition. [Rod] | Locus located; critical text not collated |
| Hymns on Unleavened Bread 16.10–13; 16.29 | Two additional poetic passages; do not count as two independent gospel manuscripts. [Rod] | Loci located; critical text not collated |
| Homily on Our Lord 21 | Upward bodily movement becomes evidence for the incarnation. [O] | Primary translation read |
Use the numbering of the named editions when checking the hymns. For Aphrahat, the cited English text has the passage in §20; a reference simply to “II.17” is not sufficient to locate it in that edition. The reconstruction joining the episode to Capernaum is a scholarly synthesis, not an extant continuous copy of Tatian’s gospel.
Pauline and gospel comparisons; attribution controls
Jerusalem above, powers and the holy Church
Syriac-origin comparison preserved in Armenian · Galatians 4:24–27; Ephesians 1:21
Ephrem, Commentary on Paul, Galatians 4:24–27; Latin translation (Venice, 1893), p. 135; compare Tertullian, Against Marcion 5.4.
The exposition places Jerusalem above the powers and identifies the mother with the holy Church. Comparable expanded language occurs in Tertullian.
Use: The relation between biblical text, commentary and liturgical language is precisely the problem to investigate. Shared expansion does not decide whether Marcion, a common source, an exegete or later transmission produced it.
Read through printed Latin excerpts and modern reassessment; not an extant Syriac biblical manuscript. [HP] [P] [W]
“Heavenly Father” in the thanksgiving saying
Syriac comparison · Luke 10:21; Matthew 11:25
Ephrem, Commentary; Moesinger, p. 116; Plooij, pp. 82–83.
Ephrem’s thanksgiving uses Heavenly Father; Plooij compares the Marcion-related Lord of heaven form.
Use: This is a comparison, not identity of wording. Translation of the thanksgiving verb and the presence of “earth” need independent treatment.
Located through scholarship. [P]
What is whispered will become public
Syriac comparison · Luke 12:3
Old Syriac and Peshitta wording; compare Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.28; Plooij, pp. 81–82.
Plooij compares Syriac whispering language with Tertullian’s Latin treatment.
Use: Common translation or ordinary paraphrase can explain an agreement. No direct line from one gospel edition to another follows from this alone.
Located through scholarship. [P]
“None of the rulers knew him”
Control: Ephrem’s biblical wording · 1 Corinthians 2:8
Ephrem, Against Marcion I, Syriac p. 72 and translation note 15.
The citation has “knew him”; the editor compares Syriac “knew it.”
Use: The variant belongs in a comparison apparatus, but the anti-Marcionite setting does not make it Marcion’s Pauline reading.
Read in primary English translation and apparatus note. [I] [B]
Eve lives through her children
Control: Ephrem’s biblical wording · 1 Timothy 2:15
Ephrem, Against Marcion I, Syriac p. 100, lines 10–11; translation note 36.
Ephrem invokes Eve’s life through her children.
Use: This tests attribution discipline: Ephrem can invoke a Pastoral Epistle without claiming that Marcion accepted it.
Read in primary English translation and apparatus note. [I] [B]
The humble in spirit
Control: Synoptic mixture · Matthew 5:3, 5; compare Luke 6:20
Ephrem, Against Marcion I, Syriac p. 72; Burkitt, p. cxix.
A beatitude combines humility with spirit.
Use: The mixed wording warns against assigning every biblical phrase in the refutation to a Marcionite codex.
Syriac-origin testimony surviving in Armenian
The bridegroom saying in Pseudo-Ephrem
Syriac-origin testimony preserved in Armenian · Luke 5:34
Pseudo-Ephrem A, Exposition of the Gospel §64; Egan, CSCO 291–292 (1968); Roth, p. 400.
The companions cannot be ordered to fast while the bridegroom is present.
Use: Important additional testimony; surviving Armenian, disputed Ephrem attribution.
Appearance in the time of Pontius Pilate
Syriac-origin testimony preserved in Armenian · Compared with Luke 3:1
Pseudo-Ephrem A, Exposition §1; Egan; Roth, pp. 397–398.
The report locates the appearance in Pilate’s time.
Use: This is not an independent quotation of a Tiberian gospel incipit.
The complete Exposition should not be treated as a quotation of Marcion’s gospel merely because it argues against him. Its authorship and the status of its biblical examples are disputed. The two entries above identify useful specific loci without assigning every parable in the work to a Marcionite exemplar.
Adjacent material worth keeping separate
Eznik of Kołb. His Armenian De deo supplies important comparisons: §415 on the Passover saying (Luke 22:15), §358 on the cosmic reaction to the crucifixion, and §407 on resurrection fish (Luke 24:42–43). These are Armenian testimonia, not surviving Syriac quotations. A proposed Syriac source behind them does not change the language of the surviving evidence. [R, pp. 407–409]
Marutha’s heresiological material. The report that Marcionites replaced Psalms with their own hymns concerns liturgical books. It supplies no recoverable gospel verse in that notice. [M]
Bardaiṣan. Lost anti-Marcionite dialogues are evidence for an early controversy, not a source of extant textual readings available for this catalog. [G]
Ephrem’s Third Discourse to Hypatius. Its opening discussion of the Stranger’s heavens helps contextualize descent language. Cosmological argument must remain distinct from evidence for a gospel incipit. [Hyp]
The angry or compassionate leper. Ephrem’s commentary is important to the Mark 1:41 debate. Its anti-Marcionite setting does not by itself establish either reading in Marcion’s gospel. [L]
What this material can establish
The strongest result is a map of contested passages and interpretations. That map is more extensive than a list of word-for-word variants: it includes narrative geography, the identity of speakers, interpretations of kinship, competing explanations of the Transfiguration, and community vocabulary.
For reconstructing exact text, each record needs a further step: separate lemma from explanation, identify the language and recension of the witness, and compare wording across the relevant sources. Agreements must be tested for inherited polemic and shared exegesis before they are counted as independent evidence for a gospel manuscript.
Sources and editions
For Prose Refutations, Arabic page numbers in the entries refer to the accompanying Syriac edition; Roman numerals refer to its separately paginated English translation. Online transcriptions retain the Arabic page markers in brackets.
- [F] Philip Michael Forness, “The Anonymous Source for Marcion’s Gospel in British Library, Add. 17215: An Identification and Analysis,” New Testament Studies 67 (2021), 541–559; especially 552–558.
- [Ffull] Forness, author-posted full text.
- [I] Ephrem, Against Marcion I, in C. W. Mitchell, A. A. Bevan and F. C. Burkitt, S. Ephraim’s Prose Refutations, volume II (1921), Syriac pp. 50–102; English translation separately paginated.
- [II] Ephrem, Against Marcion II, Prose Refutations II, Syriac pp. 103–116.
- [III] Ephrem, Against Marcion III, Prose Refutations II, Syriac pp. 117–142.
- [B] F. C. Burkitt, introductory essay to Prose Refutations II, especially cxvii–cxxii.
- [H] J. Rendel Harris, Fragments of the Commentary of Ephrem Syrus upon the Diatessaron (1895), especially 2–4 and 76. The book prints Syriac extracts, translations and historical interpretation; these must be distinguished.
- [R] Dieter T. Roth, The Text of Marcion’s Gospel (2015), especially 50–54, 398–400, 403–404, 406, 407–409. Used to locate primary passages, not to assume that every reconstructed word is established.
- [C] Alberto Camplani, “John the Baptist According to Marcion’s Gospel and Early Syriac Texts” (2018), especially 570–574.
- [L] Peter E. Lorenz, “Counting Witnesses for the Angry Jesus in Mark 1:41: Interdependence and Insularity in the Latin Tradition,” Tyndale Bulletin 67 (2016), 183–216; especially 204–207.
- [A] Aphrahat, Demonstration II, On Love, §20 in the cited English translation; Journal of the Society of Oriental Research 14 (1930), 18–31. Locate the fall passage on p. 30; compare Parisot, Patrologia Syriaca I, col. 93.
- [N] Ephrem, Nisibene Hymns 35.16, in the public-domain English collection translated by J. T. Sarsfield Stopford.
- [O] Ephrem, Homily on Our Lord, §21 in the cited English collection.
- [Ba] Tjitze Baarda, “‘The Flying Jesus’: Luke 4:29–30 in the Syriac Diatessaron,” Vigiliae Christianae 40 (1986), 313–341, especially 331–332. Bibliography verified; the full article was not accessible in this survey.
- [Cr] Matthew R. Crawford, “Rejection at Nazareth in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke—and Tatian,” handout, Connecting Gospels Colloquium, Durham, July 2016, especially pp. 2–3. Prints Syriac and Armenian evidence and Baarda’s reconstruction.
- [Rod] Jacob A. Rodriguez, Combining Gospels in Early Christianity: The One, the Many, and the Fourfold (Oxford doctoral thesis, 2021), p. 104, notes 321–323. Used for its explicit inventory of the additional Ephrem loci.
- [P] Daniel Plooij, A Further Study of the Liège Diatessaron (1925), chapter VI, especially 78–83. Historical hypotheses in this study are not treated as settled conclusions.
- [HP] J. Rendel Harris, The Old Syriac Text of Acts (1894), introductory discussion, pp. 5–6; cites the Pauline commentary’s Latin translation. Correct his printed Adversus Marcionem IV.4 to V.4.
- [W] John J. Clabeaux, A Lost Edition of the Letters of Paul: A Reassessment of the Text of the Pauline Corpus Attested by Marcion, introduction, p. 3; discussion of Galatians 4:26 and Frede’s findings.
- [G] Lucas Van Rompay, “Marcion,” Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: source survey and discussion of Pseudo-Ephrem’s Exposition.
- [M] Sebastian Moll, At the Left Hand of Christ (doctoral thesis, 2009), discussion of Marutha’s report of Marcionite hymns, with reference to Vööbus’s edition.
- [Hyp] Ephrem, Third Discourse to Hypatius, Prose Refutations I (1912), Syriac pp. 44–91, especially the opening discussion of Marcion’s heavens.
Principal editions to consult for full collation: L. Leloir, Commentaire de l’Évangile concordant, Syriac text (1963; revised and enlarged 1990); C. McCarthy, Saint Ephrem’s Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron (1993); E. Beck, Hymnen contra Haereses, CSCO 169–170 (1957); G. Olinder, Iacobi Sarugensis epistulae quotquot supersunt, CSCO 110 (1937); G. A. Egan, Saint Ephrem: An Exposition of the Gospel, CSCO 291–292 (1968). Short English renderings in the records are summaries unless explicitly marked as quotations.
