This does kind of assume Marcion wrote the epistles and the gospel he promotedApologies for the potential tangent, but I have to ask: If Marcion created the letters of Paul AND he created his Luke-like Gospel, why don't we see Gospel details in Marcion's letters of Paul?
Whoever wrote the epistles certainly didn't need/want to include gospel details but Marcion is known for having epistles+gospel...
the 'my gospel' of the epistles doesn't include a gospel, the gospel is the message and that's it
In that case his gospel IS the gospel details lacking in the epistles?!
Maybe the epistles existed already, already in their 'Marcionite' form, then he comes along and adds a gospel to complete the popular package?
It could be he was a bit restricted in what he could change or wasn't too concerned to make them fit perfectly, as he had his commentary to go with it
The idea the epistles circulated originally without a gospel makes a lot of sense to me. It's as if Marcion saw gospel-like details were popular elsewhere in other quarters (ie the opponents mentioned in the epistles!) and thought it was a good idea to combine them. I'm sorry if this appears to muddy the waters somewhat as to what Marcion actually might have changed, if anything... but it could answer your question... if he bridged a sectarian divide
Statistics: Posted by davidmartin — Fri Dec 29, 2023 2:05 pm