Here a recently published podcast on my "Christ's Torah" which I introduce in dialogue with the podcast host Ari Barbalat from Toronto: https://newbooksnetwork.com/markus-vinzent-christs-torah-the-making-of-the-new-testament-in-the-second-century-routledge-2023
Monday, 8 September 2025
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
Schools as the birthplace of the Gospels
join me on the latest show of History Valley with Jacob Berman:
Thursday, 13 June 2024
Back-reference in *Gal 5:21 and its implications for Marcion's Gospel and his Pauline Letter Collection
A crucial discovery information is given in: *Gal 5:21 ("as I said before"). This small sentence provides us with a back-reference.
If I am not mistaken, it can only refer to *1 Cor 15:50. This clarifies one of my uncertainties whether or not the redactor had written or oral material in front of him, when putting together the collection of 10 Pauline letters, credited to Marcion.
A back-reference only makes sense, if the letter with the back-reference, is part of the collection. As it goes into the wrong direction within the 10-letter-collection of Marcion, this reference must be older, unless Epiphanius where we find this, has given us the canonical text and not the precanonical one.
On the basis that he gives us the precanonical text, the redactor must have used an older collection of 7 Pauline letters plus a collection of the 3 Deuteropaulines that have already been identified as a collection - see their position in the collection and also their lexical and semantic and content proximity). A back-reference that is incorrect in *Gal 5,21, hence, shows us this and several other things:
Sunday, 5 June 2022
Marcion And The Dating Of The Synoptic Gospels - Markus Vinzent in conversation with Jacob Berman on History Valley
Here is another video interview by Jacob Berman for his intriguing History Valley youtube video channel. I much enjoyed this session and thank Jacob deeply for the inspiring conversation:
Tuesday, 11 October 2016
Why Are the Gospels Anonymous?
![]() |
Recently published |
Thursday, 8 September 2016
The God of the other Aeon - or Marcion and Luke 20:34-40
Attestation
As Klinghardt has shown (Matthias Klinghardt,
Das älteste Evangelium und die Entstehung der kanonischen Evangelien, 2 vols. [Tübingen, 2015] I 974-82), Jesus’ answer in
*20,34-36 is well attested by Tertullian, although it shows significant
differences compared to Luke.
Klinghardt also points at important variant readings which he reckons to derive
from the precanonical Mcn.
a. In *20,34 some
manuscripts give instead of ‘they marry and get married’ the version ‘they are
born and give birth’ (γεννῶνται καὶ γεννῶσιν: e c l). The latter reading is not
unknown in Patristic literature, even though the order varies (γεννῶσιν καὶ
γεννῶνται: ff2 gat i q Ambr), and it also appears in combination with the
canonical γαμοῦσιν καὶ
γαμίσκονται (D it u. a.). Klinghardt
thinks that ‘they are born and give birth’, giving a purpose of marriage,
particularly with regards to the ‘Leviratsehe’, is perfectly plausible in the
text, although he does not see the relation to ‘the other aeon’, mentioned in *20,35,
ehre there is no longer mention of being born and giving birth, but of marrying
and being married (οὔτε γαμοῦσιν οὔτε γαμίζονται). To him, the Lucan redaction
has eliminated the incongruence, even though it remained present in some of the
witnesses.
b. A further textual
difficulty is present for *20,35: Tertullian witnesses several times (4,38,5.7)
an active (quos vero dignatus sit deus
illius aevi possessione which
in Greek would read like οὓς δὲ κατηξίωσεν ὁ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐκείνου
κληρονομίας) contrary to the pass. divin. in Luke (οἱ δὲ καταξιωθέντες τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐκείνου τυχεῖν), although this
active reading has not left any trace in the manuscript tradition. In the
history of the reconstruction of Mcn
several options have been proposed. Tsutsui follows Tertullian’s reading of Mcn and refers illius aevi to deus, and
not to possessione (κληρονομίας/ τυχεῖν), so that the subject is the ‘God of that aeon’.[1] As a result, the object of
worthiness cannot be an infinitive τυχεῖν as in Luke (and accepted by Harnack in his reconstruction), but only the
noun possessio/κληρονομία, witnessed
by Tertullian. Klinghardt sees two options: Either one has to take possessio/κληρονομία in an absolute
sense (‘God has regarded them worthy of the possession’), which Klinghardt finds problematic (as not
manifest in any textual witness), or one has to refer the genetive of τοῦ αἰῶνος
ἐκείνου/illius aevi to possessio/κληρονομία not to θεός/deus (‘God has regarded them worthy of
the possession of that aeon’). He
finds this a possible option, although the word order does not speak for it. He
concludes that both options are possible, but problematic and that the wording,
witnessed by Tertullian, provide the lectio
difficilior compared to Luke,
hence indicates its priority. He concludes: If Marcion had altered the
canonical text of Luke into the form
that is witnessed by Tertullian, he had rendered a smooth text into an
ambiguous, if not nonsensical form without any semantic gains.[2] Instead, it is more
plausible that the canonical redactor of Luke
has smoothened a semantically difficult text by dropping the nominal subject θεός
to a pass. divin. and by exchanging
the noun
κληρορονομία for the
infinitive τυχεῖν. We will see below that, building on Klinghardt’s text and
his and Tsutsui’s observations, I come to another explanation which accounts
for the textual evidence and explains what Klinghardt felt to be ‘problematic’.
English translation
20:34
So Jesus said to them, “The people of this age are born and give birth, 20:35
But those who the God of that age regards worthy of the heritage and the
resurrection from among the dead neither marry nor are married, 20:36
because neither do they die anymore for they will be like angels of this God
and made sons of the resurrection.” 20:39 In response some of the
scribes said, “Teacher, you spoke well.”
Introduction
In this small pericope
Jesus is presented with his answer to the question of ‘some Sadducees’ who, in
contradicting the idea of a future resurrection, challenged this concept with
the example of the seven brothers who, following the advice of levirite
marriage (based on Deut. 25:5-6 and Gen. 38:8) all married the same woman,
so that the question arises, who’s wife she would be in the resurrection.
Jesus’ answer is reported in our pericope under discussion here.
Commentary
Mcn
20:34-39
|
Luke 20:34-40
|
20:34 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς
ὁ Ιησοῦς, ᾿Οἱ υἱοὶ τούτου τοῦ αἰῶνος γεννῶνται καὶ γεννῶσιν, 20:35 οὓς δὲ κατηξίωσεν ὁ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐκείνου κληρονομίας καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν οὔτε γαμοῦσιν οὔτε γαμίζονται·
20:36 οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀποθανεῖν
ἔτι μέλλουσιν, ὅμοιοι γὰρ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις τοῦ θεοῦ εἰσιν καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως υἱοὶ ποιηθέντες. 20:39 ἀποκριθέντες δέ τινες τῶν γραμματέων εἶπαν, Διδάσκαλε, καλῶς εἶπας· |
20:34 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς
ὁ Ἰησοῦς· οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ
αἰῶνος τούτου
γαμοῦσιν καὶ γαμίσκονται,
20:35 οἱ δὲ καταξιωθέντες τοῦ
αἰῶνος
ἐκείνου
τυχεῖν
καὶ
τῆς
ἀναστάσεως
τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν οὔτε γαμοῦσιν οὔτε
γαμίζονται·
20:36 οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀποθανεῖν
ἔτι δύνανται, ἰσάγγελοι γάρ εἰσιν καὶ υἱοί εἰσιν θεοῦ τῆς ἀναστάσεως υἱοὶ ὄντες. 20:37 ὅτι δὲ ἐγείρονται οἱ νεκροί, καὶ Μωϋσῆς ἐμήνυσεν ἐπὶ τῆς βάτου, ὡς λέγει κύριον τὸν θεὸν Ἀβραὰμ καὶ θεὸν Ἰσαὰκ καὶ θεὸν Ἰακώβ.
20:38 θεὸς δὲ οὐκ ἔστιν νεκρῶν ἀλλὰ ζώντων, πάντες γὰρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν.
20:39 Ἀποκριθέντες δέ τινες
τῶν
γραμματέων
εἶπαν·
διδάσκαλε, καλῶς εἶπας.
20:40 οὐκέτι γὰρ ἐτόλμων ἐπερωτᾶν αὐτὸν οὐδέν.
|
Mcn
20:34-39 Translation
|
Luke
20:34-40 Translation
|
|
20:34 So Jesus said to
them, “The people of this age being born and giving birth,
20:35 But those who
the God of that age regards worthy of being heirs and of the resurrection from among the dead neither marry nor are married,
20:36 because neither do
they die anymore for they will be like angels of this God and made sons of the resurrection.” 20:39 In response some of the scribes said, “Teacher, you spoke well.” |
20:34 So Jesus said to
them,
“The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 20:35 But those who are regarded worthy of that age and of the resurrection from among the dead neither marry nor are married,
20:36 because neither can
they die anymore for they will be like angels and sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
20:37 But even Moses revealed that
the dead are raised in the passage about the bush, here he calls
the Lord the God of Abraham and God of
Isaac and God of Jacob.
20:38 Now he is not
God of the dead, but of the living, for all
live before him.”
20:39 Then some of the experts in
the law answered, “Teacher,
you have spoken
well!”
20:40 For they did not
dare any longer to ask him anything.
|
|