Where did Jesus appear: Judea or Galilee, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Capernaum, Betsaida?

Dear Stephan,

thanks for your comment on the translation of Marcion's opening, and I also went back to your blog to read, again, through all the fascinating discussion related to your theory about Bethsaida asf. I think, we simply have to acknowledge that from what I have seen so far, the beginning of Marcion's Gospel is one of, if not the most difficult part with regards to a potential reconstruction. If the rest were of the same complexity, one would better give up. Now, from reading on in the text, it becomes slightly clearer what might (or might not) have been part of the opening. I have long thought about the Isa. 61:1 quote, and also thought about what has been written on your blog - especially in the light of Luke 7:20-3, and I certainly will have to rethink it, when commenting on this latter passage. Unfortunately, the earliest testimonies about the beginning of Marcion's Gospel are incoherent. Now what to prefer from the choice that we have? The savest option, and that seems to me to be a hermeneutical rule of interpretations is: What does our oldest sources say? (Oldest being Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, if we follow the accepted theories; I, in addition, always also check the Synoptics - as, if my theory proves to be right, these would be our earliest readers, editors and, hence, sources for Marcion. But not to end in a circular argument - I only use this step as a final test, not as part of the working out of the text). Having gone for the oldest source-texts, I then look sceptical at what our sources repeat, but is not mentioned by the oldest sources, but could derive from our (canonical) gospels, as I reckon that - as already in Justin - those texts exert some influence (and even more later on). It looks to me (again, needs detailed further work) as if Tatian has used Marcion's Gospel, but also canoncial gospels.

To come back to your proposal with Betsaida. I fully agree that, given the previously mentioned premises, this is a vital option for the identification of Jesus' location of appearance, especially with your ingenious interpretation as 'House of the Demons'. If this came from the Diatessaron, it would not be late, but early, and could, indeed be by Marcion. I agree, it would fit well the content, of what he writes, and also harmonizes with some other witnesses (Irenaeus included) who believe that according to Marcion, Jesus appeared in Judea. And perhaps we need to leave it with this. I have excluded Galilee, also Nazareth - as this information may have been added into our sources by reliance on the Synoptics, but, more importantly, I have left out of the main text any location, because of the conflicting sources, but I will add Betsaida and your description of its potential meaning into my commentary. Why I am reluctant in putting Betsaida into the main text is solely the thought that, if Marcion did, indeed, have Betsaida in his Gospel, why do we have such conflicting evidence precisely with regards to the location. One counter-argument against this of which I can think of might be against the weight of the canonical writings later. And yet, as you still rightly write, Irenaeus still dared to report that according to Marcion the Lord came down into Judea. Maybe a potential solution is that Irenaeus is right (especially as it goes against the Synoptics), and that the Diatessaron with its Jewish background, also knowing of Luke's suggestion, decided to combine Marcion's Judea and Luke's Galilee and turned it into the city which you have then rightly identified as Jerusalem, the place of the 'temple', built by the demons.

English translation of Marcion's Gospel

O wonderful wonder, delight, power and astonishment that we cannot speak about it [i.e. faith], think about it [i.e. faith], or compare it [i.e. faith] with anything.

1:1 <Beginning> of the Gospel of Christ.

1:2 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, 1:3 Jesus who had come down from above, appeared and began teaching in the synagogue. 1:4 And all were puzzled at the gracious words coming out of His mouth.
1:5 And they said, ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son?
1:6 What have we to do with you, Jesus! Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are – the Holy One of God.’ 1:7 But Jesus rebuked him.
And he said to them: ‘No doubt you will quote to me the proverb, “Physician, heal yourself!”’
1:8 They got up, forced him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 1:9 But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.

1:10 As the sun was setting, <all those who had any relatives sick with various diseases brought them to him.> He placed his hands on them and healed them. 1:11 Demons also came out, crying out: ‘You are the Son of God!’ 1:12 But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. 1:13 <The next morning> he went to a deserted place. Yet the crowds were keeping him. 1:14 But he said <to them>, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too.’

1:15 <And> he saw <two boats by the lake, but> the fishermen <had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. He got into the one boat which belonged to a Simon, and asked him to put out only a little way from the shore. Then Jesus sat down in the boat and taught the crowds.>
1:16 He said to Simon: <‘Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch.’

Simon, however, replied and said to him: ‘Teacher, all night we have worked hard and caught nothing! Now at your> word <I will not neglect to follow.>’
As they had done it, they caught so many fish <that their nets were torn. So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they were about to sink.
1:17 But when> Simon Peter <saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying: ‘Go away from me’> For Peter was terrified about the catch of fish that they had taken, and <so were James and John,> Zebedee’s sons, <who were Simon’s business partners>.
1:18 Then Jesus said to Simon: ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’
1:19 So when they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

1:20 <While Jesus was in one of the towns,> a man came to him who was covered with leprosy. <When he saw Jesus, he bowed down with his face to the ground and begged him:

‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me> clean.’
1:21 <So he stretched out his hand and> touched him, saying:
<‘I am willing.> Be clean!’
<And> immediately the leprosy left him. 1:22 <Then> he ordered the man to tell no one:
‘Go and show yourself to a priest, and bring the offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, that it may be for a testimony to them.’

1:23 <Now, on one of those days, while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the Law came together, but also people where there who had come from all villages of Galilee and Judea for being healed.> Just then some men <carried> a paralyzed man <on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and place him before Jesus. 1:24 When Jesus saw their faith he said:

‘Friend,> your sins are forgiven.’
1:25 <Then the experts in the Law and the Pharisees began to say to themselves:>
‘Who is this man <who is uttering blasphemies?>
Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
1:26 <When Jesus perceived their hostile thoughts, he said to them:
‘Why are you raising objections within yourselves? 1:27 Which is easier, to say,> ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or <to say,> ‘Stand up and take the mat’? 1:28 <‘But so that> you may know <that> the Son of Man has authority <on earth> to forgive sins’, <he said to the paralyzed man:
‘I tell you,> stand up, take your mat, <and go’,
and he went home’, glorifying God. 1:29 Then astonishment seized them all, and they were filled with> fear, <saying:
‘We have seen> incredible things <today.’

1:30 <After this, while Jesus went again along the sea, he taught the crowd that followed him. Passing along, he saw Levi sitting at> the tax booth and said to him: ‘Follow me’, 1:31 <And he got up and followed him, leaving everything behind.
1:32 Then Levi gave a great banquet in his house for him, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table. 1:33 But the Pharisees and their experts in the law> complained to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors?’

1:34 But Jesus answered them: ‘Those who are well don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. <1:35 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’>
1:36 Then they said to him: ‘Why do John’s disciples <and the disciples of the Pharisees> frequently fast and pray, but yours continue to eat and drink.’
1:37 But Jesus said <to them>: ‘The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them. 1:38 But those days are coming, and when the bridegroom is taken from them, at that time they will fast.’

1:39 He also told <them> a parable: ‘No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old garment. If he does, he will have torn the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 1:40 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the old skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 1:41 Instead one pours new wine into new wineskins <and both will be preserved.>’

2:1 <And it happened> on <the second-first> Sabbath, <that he was going through the grain fields, but> his disciples picked some heads of wheat, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. 2:2 But some of the Pharisees said to him: ‘Look, why are your disciples doing what is against the Sabbath, that is not allowed?’

2:3 But Jesus answered them: ‘Have you <never> read the passage what David did when he and his companions were hungry – 2:4 how he entered the house of God, took and ate the bread of the presence and gave it also those who were with him, <which was not lawful for them to eat but the priests alone?’>

2:5 <And on this very day, looking at someone working on the Sabbath, he told him: Man if you know what you are doing, you are blessed. If you don’t know, cursed and transgressor of the law you are.>

2:6 <And coming in again in the synagogue in which there was> a man with a withered hand, 2:7 the Pharisees were watching him, whether on the Sabbath, he would heal, so that they could find a reason to accuse him. 2:8 <But as he got to know their discussion, he said to the man who had the withered hand: ‘Get up and stand here.’ So he rose and stood there.>

2:9 But Jesus said to them: ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or <to do evil>, to save a life or to destroy it?’ 2:10 <They, however, kept silent. And after having looked around at them all who were in anger, he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ The man did so, and> his hand was restored <and looked like the other> and he said to them: ‘The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.’ 2:11 But they were filled with mindless rage <and began debating with one another who they could ruin him.>

2:12 <It happened> in those days that he went out to the mountain <to pray>, and he spent all night in prayer. 2:13 <When morning came, he called his disciples and> chose twelve <of them, whom he also gave the title> apostles: 2:14 <first> Simon (whom he named also Peter), <and his brother Andrew; and James, his brother John, whom he nicknamed Boanerges that means ‘sons of the sunder’, and Philip and Bartholomew, 2:15 and Matthew and Thomas, the one called Didyme, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 2:16 and Judas, the son of James, and> Judas <Scarioth, who also became> a traitor.

2:17 <Then he came down with them and stood on a level place. And a number of his disciples> had gathered along with a vast multitude from <all over Judea> and even from the seacoast of Tyre and other places. <They came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, 2:18 and those who suffered from unclean spirits were cured. 2:19 The whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing them all.>

2:20 <Then he still had his eyes fixed at the disciples and said:>

‘Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God belongs to you.
2:21 Blessed are you who hunger <now>, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep <now>, for you will laugh.
2:22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and <when they> exclude and reject your name as evil on account of the Son of Man! 2:23 For their ancestors did the same things to the prophets.
2:24 <But> woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation already.
2:25 Woe <to you> who are well satisfied with food, for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
2:26 Woe when people speak well of you, for their ancestors did the same things to the false prophets.

2:27 But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, <do good> to those who hate you, 2:28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 2:29 <To the person who strikes you> on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either. 2:30 Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your possessions back from the person who takes them away. 2:31 In the way that you would want them to treat you, treat others. 2:32 <If you love those who love you>, what credit is that to you? <For even sinners do this and love those who love them. 2:33 And if you do good to those who do good to you>, what credit is that to you? <Even sinners do the same.> 2:34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to be repaid, what credit is that to you? <Even sinners lend to sinners, so that they may be repaid in full.> 2:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back and you will be sons of God, because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people. 2:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

2:37 Do not judge, so that you will not be judged; do not condemn, so that you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. 2:38 Give, and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down and running over, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use will be the measure you receive. 2:39 <He also told them a parable:> ‘Someone who is blind <cannot> lead another who is blind, can he? <Won’t they both> fall into a pit? 2:40 A disciple is not greater than his teacher, <but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher. 2:41 Why do you see> the speck which is in <your brother’s> eye, but <do not recognize the beam of wood in your eye? 2:42 Or, how can you say to your brother, ‘let> me remove the speck from your eye’, <and see, the beam rests in your eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your eye, and then you can see clearly> to remove the speck from <your brother’s> eye.

2:43 For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 2:44 <for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from brambles. 2:45 The good> person out of the good treasury <of his heart> produces <good, and the evil person> out of his evil (heart) produces <evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart>. 2:46 Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I tell you?

3:1 <And it happened that after he had finished teaching all this he entered Capernaum.> 3:2 A centurion <there who had a slave whom he regarded highly, but who was sick and at the point of death, approached him and asked him:

3:3 ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible anguish’.
3:4 And he [Jesus] said to him: ‘I will come and heal him’.
3:5 But> the centurion <answered: 3:6 Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 3:7 Instead, just say the word and my servant will be healed. 3:8 For I too am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to this one, “Go”,and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”,and he does it.’
3:9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. He turned and said to the crowd that followed him, ‘Amen,> I tell you, however, even in Israel never have I found such faith!’

...

6:1 The Lord, however, appointed seventy others and sent them on <ahead of him two by two> into <every place and> town <where he himself was about to go. 6:2 He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. 6:3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs surrounded by wolves.> 6:4 Do not carry <a money bag, a traveler’s bag, or> sandals, and greet no one on the road. 6:5 Whenever you enter a house, first say, “May peace be on this house!” 6:6 <And if a peace-loving person is there, your peace will remain on him, but if not, your peace will return to you. 6:7 Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you,> for the worker deserves his pay. <Do not move around from house to house. 6:8 Whenever you enter a town and the people welcome you, eat what is set before you. 6:9 Heal the sick in that town and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come upon you!” 6:10 But whenever you enter a town> and the people do not welcome you, <go into its streets> and say, 6:11 “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off for you. Nevertheless know this: The kingdom of God has come.” 6:12 The one who rejects you rejects me, <and the one who rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’ 6:13 But the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!’ 6:14 So he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 6:15 Look,> I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and on the full <force of the enemy, and> nothing will hurt <you. 6:16 Nevertheless, do not rejoice that> the spirits submit <to you, but rejoice that your names stand written in heaven.’> 6:17 <On that same occasion Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit> and said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven, because things hidden hidden from the wise and intelligent, these you have revealed to little children. <Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will.> 6:18 All things have been given to me by my Father. No one knows the Father except the Son, and no one [knows] the Son except the Father, and anyone to whom the Son reveals him.’

The opening of Marcion's Gospel, Mark and Luke on Jesus healing in the synagogue (Luke 3:1-5:11)

O wonderful wonder, delight, power and astonishment that we cannot speak about it [i.e. faith], think about it [i.e. faith], or compare it [i.e. faith] with anything.

1:1 Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 1:2 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, 1:3 when Jesus came down from above, he appeared and began teaching in the synagogue. 1:4 And all were puzzled at the gracious words coming out of His mouth. 1:5 And they said, ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son? 1:6 Let be! What have we to do with you, Jesus! Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God.’ 1:7 But Jesus rebuked him and said to them: ‘No doubt you will quote to me the proverb, “Physician, heal yourself!”’ 1:8 They got up, forced him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 1:9 But he passed through the crowd and went on his way. 1:10 As the sun was setting, <all those who had any relatives sick with various diseases brought them to him.> He placed his hands on them and healed them. 1:11 Demons also came out, crying out: ‘You are the Son of God!’ 1:12 But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. 

The Gospel	Mark	Luke
1:2 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, 1:3 when Jesus came down from above,  he appeared and began teaching in the synagogue. 1:4 And all were puzzled at the gracious words coming out of His mouth. 1:5 And they said, ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son? 1:6 Let be! What have we to do with you, Jesus! Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God.’ 1:7 But Jesus rebuked him and said: ‘No doubt you will quote to me the proverb, “Physician, heal yourself!”’ 1:8 They got up, forced him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 1:9 But he passed through the crowd and went on his way. 1:10 As the sun was setting, <all those who had any relatives sick with various diseases brought them to him.> He placed his hands on them and healed them. 1:11 Demons also came out, crying out: ‘You are the Son of God!’ 1:12 But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.	1:2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way, 1:3 the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight.’”       1:4 In the wilderness John the baptizer began preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 1:5 People from the whole Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem were going out to him, and he was baptizing them in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. 1:6 John wore a garment made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 1:7 He proclaimed, “One more powerful than I am is coming after me; I am not worthy to bend down and untie the strap of his sandals. 1:8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 1:9 Now in those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. 1:10 And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 1:11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my one dear Son; in you I take great delight.” 1:12 The Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness. 1:13 He was in the wilderness forty days, enduring temptations from Satan. He was with wild animals, and angels were ministering to his needs. 1:14 Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. 1:15 He said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!” 1:16 As he went along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, Simon’s brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen). 1:17 Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will turn you into fishers of people.” 1:18 They left their nets immediately and followed him. 1:19 Going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother in their boat mending nets. 1:20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. 1:21 Then they went to Capernaum. When the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 1:22 The people there were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them like one who had authority, not like the experts in the law. 1:23 Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out,       1:24 “What have we to do with you, Jesus the Nazarene! Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” 1:25 But Jesus rebuked him and said: “Silence! Come out of him!” 1:26 After throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. 1:27 They were all amazed, so that they asked each other, “What’s happening here? A new teaching of substance? Even the unclean spirits he commands and they listen to him!” 1:28 And the message of him spread instantaneously everywhere into the region around Galilee. 1:29 Now as soon as they left the synagogue, they entered Simon and Andrew’s house, with James and John. 1:30 Simon’s mother-in-law was lying down, sick with a fever, so they spoke to Jesus at once about her. 1:31 He came and raised her up by gently taking her hand. Then the fever left her and she began to serve them. 1:32 When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and demon-possessed. 1:33 The whole town gathered by the door. 1:34 So he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. But he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 1:35 Then Jesus got up early in the morning when it was still very dark, departed, and went out to a deserted place, and there he spent time in prayer. 1:36 Simon and his companions searched for him. 1:37 When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” 1:38 He replied, “Let us go elsewhere, into the surrounding villages, so that I can preach there too. For that is what I came out here to do.” 1:39 So he went into all of Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. 1:40 Now a leper came to him and fell to his knees, asking for help. “If you are willing, you can make me clean,” he said. 1:41 Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!” 1:42 The leprosy left him at once, and he was clean. 1:43 Immediately Jesus sent the man away with a very strong warning. 1:44 He told him, “See that you do not say anything to anyone, but go, show yourself to a priest, and bring the offering that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 1:45 But as the man went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely, so that Jesus was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still they kept coming to him from everywhere.	3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, 3:2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3:3 He went into all the region around the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 3:4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,                                       “The voice of one shouting in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight. 3:5 Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low, and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough ways will be made smooth, 3:6 and all humanity will see the salvation of God.’”3: 7 So John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 3:8 Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance, and don’t begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 3:9 Even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” 3:10 So the crowds were asking him, “What then should we do?” 3:11 John answered them, “The person who has two tunics must share with the person who has none, and the person who has food must do likewise.” 3:12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 3:13 He told them, “Collect no more than you are required to.” 3:14 Then some soldiers also asked him, “And as for us – what should we do?” He told them, “Take money from no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your pay.” 3:15 While the people were filled with anticipation and they all wondered whether perhaps John could be the Christ, 3:16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but one more powerful than I am is coming – I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” 3:18 And in this way, with many other exhortations, John proclaimed good news to the people. 3:19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil deeds that he had done, 3:20 Herod added this to them all: He locked up John in prison. 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. And while he was praying, the heavens opened, 3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my one dear Son; in you I take great delight.” 3:23 So Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years old. He was the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, 3:24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 3:25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 3:26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, 3:27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 3:28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, 3:29 the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 3:30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 3:31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 3:32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, 3:33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 3:34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 3:35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 3:36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 3:37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan, 3:38 the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. 4:1 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 4:2 where for forty days he endured temptations from the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were completed, he was famished. 4:3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4:4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man does not live by bread alone.’” 4:5 Then the devil led him up to a high place and showed him in a flash all the kingdoms of the world. 4:6 And he said to him, “To you I will grant this whole realm – and the glory that goes along with it, for it has been relinquished to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish. 4:7 So then, if you will worship me, all this will be yours.” 4:8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” 4:9 Then the devil brought him to Jerusalem, had him stand on the highest point of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 4:10 for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ 4:11 and ‘with their hands they will lift you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 4:12 Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.’” 4:13 So when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until a more opportune time. 4:14 Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and news about him spread throughout the surrounding countryside. 4:15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by all. 4:16 Now Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 4:17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, 4:19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 4:20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. 4:21 Then he began to tell them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read.” 4:22 All were speaking well of him, and were amazed at the gracious words coming out of his mouth. They said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” 4:23 Jesus said to them, “No doubt you will quote to me the proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ and say, ‘What we have heard that you did in Capernaum, do here in your hometown too.’” 4:24 And he added, “I tell you the truth, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 4:25 But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, when the sky was shut up three and a half years, and there was a great famine over all the land. 4:26 Yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to a woman who was a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 4:27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, yet none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 4:28 When they heard this, all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage. 4:29 They got up, forced him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 4:30 But he passed through the crowd and went on his way. 4:31 So he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he began to teach the people. 4:32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his word had authority. 4:33 Now in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 4:34    “Let be! What have we to do with you, Jesus the Nazarene! Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” 4:35 But Jesus rebuked him and said: “Silence! Come out of him!” Then, after the demon threw the man down in their midst, he came out of him without hurting him. 4:36 Amazement happened to all and they talked to each other, “What speech is this? That with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they leave.” 4:37 So the news about him spread quickly throughout all around the region. 4:38 After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 4:39 So he stood over her, commanded the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them. 4:40 As the sun was setting, all those who had any relatives sick with various diseases brought them to Jesus. He placed his hands on every one of them and healed them. 4:41 Demons also came out of many, crying out, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. 4:42 The next morning Jesus departed and went to a deserted place. Yet the crowds were seeking him, and they came to him and tried to keep him from leaving them. 4:43 But Jesus said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, for that is what I was sent to do.” 4:44 So he continued to preach in the synagogues of Judea. 5:1 Now Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing around him to hear the word of God. 5:2 He saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 5:3 He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then Jesus sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 5:4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” 5:5 Simon answered, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing! But at your word I will lower the nets.” 5:6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets started to tear. 5:7 So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they were about to sink. 5:8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 5:9 For Peter and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 5:10 and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s business partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” 5:11 So when they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

            What happened in this passage is clear: Mark who is not a slave of words, and more specifically, must have grasped the theology behind The Gospel has written his counter-narrative, his counter-Gospel to it. Beginning with the initial link of his Gospel with the Prophets and the Torah, enhanced by the counter-design of John the Baptist not as the one who takes offense at Jesus, but, on the contrary, prepares his paths, preaches the baptism of repentance and himself baptizes the ‘One more powerful’, so adds his own historic preface to the Gospel which does not expand on Jesus’ childhood or youth, but goes much further back into the beginnings and foundations of Judaism which he sees stretching to Jesus, before in Mark 1:9 he hits for the first time the narrative of The Gospel. And yet, this start of The Gospel is woven into Mark’s account of the Baptist precisely at the peak of this preface, where in Mark it is stated that John baptizes Jesus. It was a powerful build-up to this meeting with The Gospel. The temptations follow which, as with Jesus’ baptism, underline both, his embeddedness into Judaism while at the same time it elevates Jesus above humans and angels. In this way Mark corrects The Gospels angelic Christology in two directions, it removes its anti-Jewishness, not by debasing, but elevating Jesus’ status. The temptations are followed by Jesus proclamation of the Gospel of God in Galilee, starting with the calling of the disciples. But already with the first preaching appearance of Jesus, Mark hits The Gospel again, for the second time at an instance where something happens to Jesus. Then follows the core passage with most of the verbally identical verses. Before we carry on to compare the further passages, let us look at Luke. As already noticed before, Luke is much closer to the wording of The Gospel, not only where we come to the central part of this periscope, but right from the inception of this re-start in his Gospel. And yet, he is no slave of The Gospel either, despite the verbal agreements. Having added the lengthy birth and youth story to his Gospel, he follows the same pattern as Mark. In the headings of their pericopes or paragraphs, they reproduce The Gospel, and, hence, follow The Gospel in its narrative storyline. But like Mark is Luke instantaneously wandering off, and massively add new material. In Luke it is not only that he links the gospel to the Torah and the Prophets, but also to the existing Jewish authorities and creates a historical stage for what The Gospel had presented as a miraculous appearance. He reduces the gap not only between Judaism and Christianity, but also between eternity and time, transcendance and immanence. Now, from this pericope here, is Mark likely to be dependent on Luke or the latter on the former? The tendency of massive expansion over and against Mark’s rather modest broadening of The Gospel speaks for the second solution, specifically as Luke is dealing with Mark not differently as he works with The Gospel. Where, for example, he finds Mark which has expanded on The Gospel, he himself wanders off and adds more narrative material to Mark. Only rarely is he leaving out passages of Mark (explain!!! As with Mark 1:2), but instead, where Mark gives a short summarizing account, Luke develops this account into an imaginative, colourful and lively story with dialogues and concret people. To take a few examples. Where Mark stated that ‘John the baptizer began preaching a baptism of repenctance for the forgiveness of sins’, Luke gives the reader not a summary, but the drastic preaching of John (‘You offspring of vipers! …’). When Mark mentions that people came and ‘confessed their sins’, Luke lets tax collectors and soldiers engage in a dialogue with the Baptist. The ever broadening narrative can be seen in TG 1:3 // Mark 1:9ff. // Luke 3:21ff. The story as in typical storytelling becomes longer, more detailed and more lively the more often it is told. Luke even adds Jesus’ genealogy, triggered by Mark’s assertion that in Jesus’ baptism the voice from heaven declared: ‘You are my one dear Son; in you I take great delight’. This verse from Mark is literally re-taken by Luke, but because this elevation of Jesus into a divine relation with the heavens must have sounded in Luke’s ears like a half-Marcionite Christology. In response, he adds the earthing fact of Jesus age of ‘thirty years’, when his ministry began – hence, he was anything but a youthful angel or spirit – and his ancestors were indeed Joseph and his fathers. Already here, Luke is preparing his argument of Jesus’ family relation which is going to be used by him for the central passage of our pericope. Yes, he comes in his genealogical list to the same result like Mark from whom he started, namely that Jesus is the Son of the Divine, the Son of God – but such sonship does not remove him from this earth. Jesus is full of the Spirit, but as Luke repeats Mark, it is a Spirit that questions and tests Jesus. And again, while Mark gives the reader a short summary of Jesus ‘enduring temptations from Satan’, Luke knows to report the ensuing dialogue and the actions between these protagonists. The Gospel is the story’s idea, Mark is an independent proposal and summary writer, but Luke writes the stage script. For the first time in Mark 1:14 and Luke 4:14 the latter is deviating from the order of the narrative that he found before him. It is an extraordinary alteration, as we have seen above, which goes against the narrative’s consistency. Was our script-writer having a weak moment? Rather the contrary seems true, as he skips that passage where, for the very first time, Mark gives himself a full dialogue – with the disciples Simon and Andrew whom the Lord calles – which sounds very much like the stage script dialogues that Luke produced so far. And he must have felt that Mark’s summarizing announcement which comes immediately before this dialogue (Mark 1:14: ‘Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God’), needed the stage script dialogizing first, before he could add Mark’s calling the disciples dialogue. This editorial decision follows from the previous ways how Luke dealt with both The Gospel and Mark. Hence, the calling was placed behind the synagogue scenario which Luke developed by further broadening Mark’s elaboration of The Gospel (TG 1:3 // Mark 1:21 // Luke 4:15ff. This procedure – the double retrospective dependence of Luke who reads The Gospel already through the eyes of Mark also let him make one alteration in the order of The Gospel – an alteration which, in my eyes, is the clearest literary evidence, so far, that our reconstruction of this development must come close to the historical reality. Luke only places exactly those two elements of The Gospel’s core synagogue scenario prior to the repetition of this scenario itself which are missing in Mark. So, because he follows Mark in the wording of what happens in the synagogue, and obviously trusts this author, he moves “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” and “No doubt you will quote to me the proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’” in front of the Capernaum synagogue scene and creates an additional one which he rightly places into Nazareth. With this Nazareth scene, he can forcefully endorse, what he had already elaborated on before: Jesus’ family environment, the links to his hometown, his embeddedness into the Jewish present and past. Luke thus starts to explain why Jesus’ had problems to be accepted as prophet, physician and messiah. In response to Marcion’s Gospel and its portrait of the misunderstood and threatened Jesus, but also in altering Mark’s version of it which downplaid the hiat between Jesus and the Jewish past, Luke accepts already here the principle assertion that Jesus was indeed not fully recognized, but the explanation he gives is the environment’s familiarity with Jesus, the ‘prophet … in his hometown’.

            In the central passage of the pericope, the two synoptics repeat The Gospel, here (and only here!), where already The Gospel presents a lively dialogue, neither the outline, nor the stage script alters a word. And where Luke starts altering again (Luke 4:35b. 27), he does so by adopting the wording of Mark (1:25b. 36), where clearly Luke depends on Mark as the content of the ‘amazement’ does not fit his previous section on the sceptical view of the Jewish audience, unless he would want to make the point that only the Jews in Jesus’ hometown did not recognize who he is. The latter seems not entirely the case, as he reduces Mark’s word spreading ‘message’[1] about Jesus into a weaker spreading ‘news’. Trusting Mark on the narrative line, he follows him by adding the Simon’s mother-in-law story, although, unlike Mark, he had not prepared for it. Neither is Luke as precise as Mark here with the inner narrative’s logic, as shown above. The demons’ confession of Jesus being ‘the Son of God’, which Mark has indicated prior in the baptism of Jesus and Luke refined into ‘the Son of God’ at the end of his genealogy of Jesus, is now being given as the first confession in The Gospel which is also accepted by Luke – of course against the background of what he has written before. And even in Jesus asking the demons that they do not reveal what they know, the two Synoptics are in agreement with Marcion. Now, in geographical terms, Luke deviates from Mark. Whereas the latter sees Jesus no going ‘into all of Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons (of which he gives the example of a leper, who, as soon as was healed, did abandon Jesus’ wish to keep the healing to himself, but ‘went out’ and ‘began to publicly spread the story widely’), Luke mentions that Jesus ‘continued to preach in the synagogues of Judea’ and he adds the story of him calling disciples – the passage that we read earlier in Mark.

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[1] ἀκοὴ, what one hears of somebody, see the prophetic background of this term in Isa. 6:9-10 (with Matth. 13:14; John 12:40), and Isa. 53:1 (with John 12:38).

Jesus' Rejection in Nazareth - according to Marcion and Luke, or who copied whom?

Although Luke and Marcion's The Gospel are mostly literally related, one of the reasons, why I am trying in my work in progress to assess who is copying whom, in this opening passage of The Gospel which in a sense is the start of Jesus' public appearance in Luke, too, both texts deviate eminently from each other, both with regards to the whole composition of the narrative as also, as will be shown, in their content. To give a better understanding, let me place Luke and The Gospel (as re-constructed by myself, but please also compare Roth, Harnack, Zahn and others), and read for yourself, how to assess these two texts side by side:

The Gospel 1:3-9

Luke 4:14-30

1:3 when Jesus came down from above,                                                                        he appeared and began teaching in the synagogue.                                                           1:4 And all were                            puzzled at the gracious words coming out of His mouth. 1:5 And they said, ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son? 1:6 Let be! What have we to do with you, Jesus! Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God.’ 1:7 But Jesus rebuked him and said to them: ‘No doubt you will quote to me the proverb, “Physician, heal yourself!”’  1:8 They got up, forced him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 1:9 But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.

4:14 Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and news about him spread throughout the surrounding countryside. 4:15 He                     began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by all. 4:16 Now Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 4:17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, 4:19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 4:20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. 4:21 Then he began to tell them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read.” 4:22 All were speaking well of him, and were amazed at the gracious words coming out of his mouth. They said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” 4:23 Jesus                  said to them, “No doubt you will quote to me the proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ and say, ‘What we have heard that you did in Capernaum, do here in your hometown too.’” 4:24 And he added, “I tell you the truth, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 4:25 But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, when the sky was shut up three and a half years, and there was a great famine over all the land. 4:26 Yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to a woman who was a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 4:27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, yet none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 4:28 When they heard this, all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage. 4:29 They got up, forced him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 4:30 But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.

Luke starts with a strange, but revealing duplication, ends with a rather astonishing passage, yet, also the entire pericope has been criticized for being less compact in comparison, for example, with Mark 6:1-6 on which I will come back. Schürmann speaks of introductory verses 14 and 15 and together with v 44 calls them a ‘frame’. While vv 14-5 report about Jesus’ successful preaching in the synagogues of Galilee (He ‘was praised by all’), vv 43-4 state that this initial judgement was not quite accurate, as Jesus met with the dangerous situation in Nazareth. Although, it seems, that Nazareth was an exception (Luke 4:24: ‘no prophet is acceptable in his hometown’), and, then, Luke reports, Jesus was driving out a demon in the synagogue of Capernaum and his fame spread ‘into all areas of the region’ (Luke 4:37), was also healing Simon’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-40), healed other sick, rebuked more demons and became so popular that crowds were looking for him, the final reaction is to move away from Galilee, to ‘proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too’, and to ‘preach in the synagogues of Judea’ (Luke 4:43-4).

The rather strange duplication at the beginning has made scholars ask whether Luke had another report (perhaps the one that was behind Mark 1:21-8. 32-9) in front of him which he cut down and summarized in these two opening verses, although the mentioned Mark-passage is clearly parallel to what we read in Luke 4:31-44.[1] The awkward beginning may simply have been an attempt to respond to the clearly anti-thetical pericope of The Gospel. While this passage builds, as we have seen, on the contrast between the appearance of the teacher who is not understood, rejected and almost killed, Luke tries to minimize the negative reaction of the people. Yes, he does not remove the passage from The Gospel, but builds his positive noise around it and broadens both, content and geography. So Jesus is not simply coming into a synagogue, perhaps between Jerusalem and Judaea, if we can follow the Syrian witness, but according to Luke ‘in the power of the Spirit’ he returned to Galilee. The return is necessary, because in the previous passage – missing in The Gospel – Luke had told the reader of Jesus’ temptation in the wildernis (Luke 4:1-13), after his baptism at the river Jordan (Luke 3:1-22). The praise ‘by all’ in the synagogues of Galilee, the ‘new about him’ that ‘spread throughout the surrounding countryside’ (Luke 4:14-5) reduces the importance of the one-off negative response that Jesus experienced in Nazareth. But even with regards to this one dramatic scene, Luke a) provides a sensible explanation why Nazareth was such a particular place – it was Jesus’ hometown, and prophets are not appreciated at home, as he makes Jesus say; b) he is portrayed, at least initially, as a welcomed reader of a messianic passage from Isaiah and a teacher in the synagogue who provoked no other response as previously: ‘All were speaking well of him, and were amazed at the gracious words coming out of His mouth’. After our short introduction to The Gospels pericope (‘1:3 when Jesus came down from above, he appeared and began teaching in the synagogue’), the last quote from Luke picks up The Gospel, but states the opposite sense. While in The Gospel the audience is immediately ‘puzzled’ (καὶ ἐθαύμαζον) which results in the hostile questions, instead, Luke says that ‘all were speaking well of him’ (ἐμαρτύρουν αὐτῷ), so that the Greek term which in The Gospel translates as ‘puzzled’, in Luke gains the notion of ‘amazed’. Had Luke not already mentioned before that Jesus was teaching in the town, ‘where he had been brought up’, what follows would be incomprehensible. And, yet, even with this previous information, the story suffers from a literary hiatus. After so much praise and success, after they have spoken well of him and their amazement ‘at the gracious words coming out of his mouth’ – what triggered the criticism. The Greek text has no indication whatsoever that a dramatic change is taking place in the very same verse, and there is no preparation for Jesus’ first answer with the proverb about the ‘Physician’ either. The break, however, becomes immediately explicable, when we recognize from the comparison with The Gospel that Luke is trying to integrate the existing narrative that he found in The Gospel, an integration which has left its marks that we can still detect. ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son?’ now is taken out of its original setting and given a new meaning (as it happened just before with the term ἐθαύμαζον). The ‘Physician’ proverb hangs in the air and the verse after it does not follow it up. Who can one reconcile, the proverb ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ with the following part of the verse ‘and say, “What we have heard that you did in Capernaum, do here in your hometown too”’. Does the author want to say that he had healed himself in Capernaum? Certainly not, although this would have been the meaning. Instead, he simply alludes to ‘healing’ and refers to what he is only going to report later in Luke 4:31-44[2]. This is contentwise a somehow distorted passage, and the comparison with The Gospel teaches, why – it is the result of Luke avoiding to read it as a response to Jesus’ rejection of him being the Messiah ben Joseph, and as Jesus attacking his audience, knowing that they want to provoke him to heal himself, and to fight and to do precisely what they wanted to have proven, that he is the warrior ben Joseph Messiah. What in The Gospel is, indeed, a theologial dilemma, well grafted and literally formulated, has been watered down into an inconsistent narrative. It is one first clear passage that not Luke is the matrix for The Gospel, but, on the contrary, The Gospel the source for Luke.

Luke waters down the content of this theological dilemma into a literal triviality (Luke 4:24: ‘I tell you the truth, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown’). And it does not help the story either that he adds two examples from the Jewish Scriptures (2Kings 17;1-24; 2Kings 5:1-19), the latter taken from later in The Gospel, to support the proverbial statement of Jesus of the non-acceptance of the prophets at home, but, in effect miss the point and ‘do not support the original and real reason for the rejection of Jesus’.[3] And again, we are up for the next disruption in this story, as despite these two Biblical passages, the people in the synagogue ‘were filled with rage’, only because Jesus was claiming on a scriptural basis that prophets cannot heal everybody in their hometown. Luke wants the reader to believe that this was the reason of the audience of the synagogue to kill the poor physician. Of course, it removes the theological angle that The Gospel’s pericope had, but the price for this removal was both the integrity of the narrative and a trivializing of its content.

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[1] H. Schürmann, Das Lukasevangelium I/1 (²1982), 241-2.

[2] See the many scholars who have sweated over this problem!

[3] H. Schürmann, Das Lukasevangelium I/1 (²1982), 238.