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.

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).

Marcion's Gospel I - Christ’s Rejection – the opening (3:1; 4:16,22-3,?,27,?,29-30; {7:27})

Here the first part of the text of Marcion's Gospel, as far as we can re-establish it from the extant testimonies in synoptic comparison (I gradually replace the overall, draft synopsis by this more detailed attempt of a reconstruction of Marcion's Gospel). The monograph will give further details, testimonies and secondary literature, but also provide an extensive synoptic commentary. In addition, the monograph will be more specific to what degree of certainty we can reckon with the presented text elements. And, of course, it is still a working draft for the moment):

Christ’s Rejection – the opening (3:1; 4:16,22-3,?,27,?,29-30; {7:27}):
 

            I. The Greek text:

O wonderful wonder, delight, power and astonishment we find in faith what is unspeakable, beyond thinking and incomparable.

II.                English translation:

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. And they said, ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son? 1:5 Ha! 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.

III.             The Greek text in synoptic comparison:

The Gospel 3:1; 4:16,22-3,?,27,?,29-30; {7:27}	Luke 3:1-6; 4:16-30; {7:27}†	Mark 1:2-6; {1:21-8}; 6:1-6a	Matthew 3:1-6; {7:28b-9}; {11:10}; 13:53-8
3:1 Ἐν ἔτει δὲ πεντεκαιδεκάτῳ τῆς ἡγεμονίας Τιβερίου Καίσαρος, ἡγεμονεύοντος Ποντίου Πιλάτου[1] τῆς Ἰουδαίας, καὶ τετρααρχοῦντος τῆς Γαλιλαίας  Ἡρῴδου, Φιλίππου δὲ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ τετρααρχοῦντος τῆς Ἰτουραίας καὶ Τραχωνίτιδος χώρας, καὶ Λυσανίου τῆς Ἀβιληνῆς τετρααρχοῦντος,[2] {7:27 Ἰδοὺ, ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου ἔμπροσθέν σου.}[3] 4:16 katἐλθὼν oJ  jIhsou`~ [a[nwqen],[4] ejfavnh[5] ejn Καφαρναοὺμ  τῆς Γαλιλαίας[6] οὗ ἦν τεθραμμένος,καὶ εἰσῆλθεν κατὰ τὸ εἰωθὸς αὐτῷ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαββάτων [7]ἤρξατο διδάσκειν ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ,καὶ ἀνέστη ἀναγνῶναι. 4:17 καὶ ἐπεδόθη αὐτῷ βιβλίον τοῦ προφήτου Ἠσαΐου, καὶ ἀναπτύξας τὸ βιβλίον εὗρεν τὸν τόπον οὗ ἦν γεγραμμένον· 4:18 Πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπ᾿ ἐμέ, οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέν με εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοῖς, ἀπέσταλκέν με κηρύξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν, ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει, 4:19 κηρύξαι ἐνιαυτὸν κυρίου δεκτόν. 4:20 καὶ πτύξας τὸ βιβλίον ἀποδοὺς τῷ ὑπηρέτῃ ἐκάθισεν· καὶ πάντων οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ ἦσαν ἀτενίζοντες αὐτῷ. 4:21 ἤρξατο δὲ λέγειν πρὸς αὐτοὺς ὅτι, Σήμερον πεπλήρωται ἡ γραφὴ αὕτη ἐν τοῖς ὠσὶν ὑμῶν. 4:22 καὶ πάντες ἐθαύμαζον ἐπὶ τοῖς λόγοις τῆς χάριτος τοῖς ἐκπορευομένοις ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ. καὶ ἔλεγον· Οὐχὶ υἱός ἐστιν Ἰωσὴφ οὗτος; 4:33 Καὶ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ ἦν ἄνθρωπος ἔχων πνεῦμα δαιμονίου ἀκαθάρτου, καὶ ἀνέκραξεν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ· 4:34 Ἔα, τί ἡμῖν καὶ σοί, Ἰησοῦ; ἦλθες ἀπολέσαι ἡμᾶς; οἶδά τίς εἶ, ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ.4:35 καὶ ἐπετίμησεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦςλέγων· Φιμώθητι καὶ ἔξελθε ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. καὶ ῥίψαν αὐτὸν τὸ δαιμόνιον εἰς τὸ μέσον ἐξῆλθεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ μηδὲν βλάψαν αὐτόν.4:36 καὶ ἐγένετο θάμβος ἐπὶ πάντας, καὶ συνελάλουν πρὸς ἀλλήλους λέγοντες· Τίς ὁ λόγος οὗτος, ὅτι ἐν ἐξουσίᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ἐπιτάσσει τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις πνεύμασιν, καὶ ἐξέρχονται; 4:37 καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο ἦχος περὶ αὐτοῦ εἰς πάντα τόπον τῆς περιχώρου.  4:23 καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς· Πάντως ἐρεῖτέ μοι τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην· Ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν· ὅσα ἠκούσαμεν γενόμενα εἰς τὴν Καφαρναοὺμ ποίησον καὶ ὧδε ἐν τῇ πατρίδι σου. 4:24 εἶπεν δέ, Ἀμὴν, λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι οὐδεὶς προφήτης δεκτός ἐστιν ἐν τῇ πατρίδι αὐτοῦ. 4:25 ἐπ᾿ ἀληθείας δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, πολλαὶ χῆραι ἦσαν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἠλίου ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ, ὅτε ἐκλείσθη ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐπὶ ἔτη τρία καὶ μῆνας ἕξ, ὡς ἐγένετο λιμὸς μέγας ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν, 4:26 καὶ πρὸς οὐδεμίαν αὐτῶν ἐπέμφθη Ἠλίας εἰ μὴ εἰς Σάρεπτα τῆς Σιδωνίας πρὸς γυναῖκα χήραν. {27 καὶ πολλοὶ λεπροὶ ἦσαν ἐν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ ἐπὶ Ἐλισαίου τοῦ προφήτου, καὶ οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν ἐκαθαρίσθη εἰ μὴ Ναιμὰν ὁ Σύρος. .}[8] 4:28 καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες θυμοῦ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ ἀκούοντες ταῦτα, 4:29 καὶ ἀναστάντες ἐξέβαλον αὐτὸν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἤγαγον αὐτὸν ἕως ὀφρύος τοῦ ὄρους ἐφ᾿ οὗ ἡ πόλις ᾠκοδόμητο αὐτῶν, ὥστε κατακρημνίσαι αὐτόν· 4:30 αὐτὸς δὲ διελθὼν διὰ μέσου αὐτῶν ἐπορεύετο.	3:1 Ἐν ἔτει δὲ πεντεκαιδεκάτῳ τῆς ἡγεμονίας Τιβερίου Καίσαρος, ἡγεμονεύοντος Ποντίου Πιλάτου τῆς Ἰουδαίας,καὶ τετρααρχοῦντος τῆς Γαλιλαίας  Ἡρῴδου, Φιλίππου δὲ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ τετρααρχοῦντος τῆς Ἰτουραίας καὶ Τραχωνίτιδος χώρας, καὶ Λυσανίου τῆς Ἀβιληνῆς τετρααρχοῦντος, {7:27 Ἰδοὺ, ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου ἔμπροσθέν σου.} 3:2 ἐπὶ ἀρχιερέως Αννα καὶ Καϊάφα, ἐγένετο ῥῆμα θεοῦ ἐπὶ Ἰωάννην τὸν Ζαχαρίου υἱὸν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ.3:3 καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς πᾶσαν*περίχωρον*τοῦ Ἰορδάνου* κηρύσσων* βάπτισμα μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. 3:4a ὡς γέγραπται ἐν βίβλῳ λόγων* Ἠσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου· 3:4b φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· Ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ. 3:5 πᾶσα φάραγξ πληρωθήσεται καὶ πᾶν ὄρος καὶ βουνὸς ταπεινωθήσεται, καὶ ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθείαν καὶ αἱ τραχεῖαι εἰς ὁδοὺς λείας· 3:6 καὶ ὄψεται πᾶσα σὰρξ τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ θεοῦ.[9] 4:16 Καὶ ἦλθεν  εἰς Ναζαρά, οὗ ἦν τεθραμμένος,καὶ εἰσῆλθεν κατὰ τὸ εἰωθὸς αὐτῷ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαββάτων   εἰς τὴν συναγωγήν, καὶ ἀνέστη ἀναγνῶναι. 4:17 καὶ ἐπεδόθη αὐτῷ βιβλίον τοῦ προφήτου Ἠσαΐου, καὶ ἀναπτύξας τὸ βιβλίον εὗρεν τὸν τόπον οὗ ἦν γεγραμμένον· 4:18 Πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπ᾿ ἐμέ, οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέν με εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοῖς, ἀπέσταλκέν με κηρύξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν, ἀποστεῖλαι τεθραυσμένους ἐν ἀφέσει, 4:19 κηρύξαι ἐνιαυτὸν κυρίου δεκτόν. 4:20 καὶ πτύξας τὸ βιβλίον ἀποδοὺς τῷ ὑπηρέτῃ ἐκάθισεν· καὶ πάντων οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ ἦσαν ἀτενίζοντες αὐτῷ. 4:21 ἤρξατο δὲ λέγειν πρὸς αὐτοὺς ὅτι, Σήμερον πεπλήρωται ἡ γραφὴ αὕτη ἐν τοῖς ὠσὶν ὑμῶν. 4:22 καὶ πάντες ἐμαρτύρουν αὐτῷ καὶ ἐθαύμαζον ἐπὶ τοῖς λόγοις τῆς χάριτος τοῖς ἐκπορευομένοις ἐκ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔλεγον·   Οὐχὶ υἱός ἐστιν Ἰωσὴφ οὗτος; 4:33 Καὶ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ ἦν ἄνθρωπος ἔχων πνεῦμα δαιμονίου ἀκαθάρτου, καὶ ἀνέκραξεν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ·4:34 Ἔα, τί ἡμῖν καὶ σοί, Ἰησοῦ Ναζαρηνέ; ἦλθες ἀπολέσαι ἡμᾶς; οἶδά σε τίς εἶ, ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ.4:35 καὶ ἐπετίμησεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦςλέγων· Φιμώθητι καὶ ἔξελθε ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. καὶ ῥίψαν αὐτὸν τὸ δαιμόνιον εἰς τὸ μέσον ἐξῆλθεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ μηδὲν βλάψαν αὐτόν. 4:36 καὶ ἐγένετο θάμβος ἐπὶ πάντας, καὶ συνελάλουν πρὸς ἀλλήλους λέγοντες· Τίς ὁ λόγος οὗτος, ὅτι ἐν ἐξουσίᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ἐπιτάσσει τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις πνεύμασιν, καὶ ἐξέρχονται; 4:37 καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο ἦχος περὶ αὐτοῦ εἰς πάντα τόπον τῆς περιχώρου.  4:23 καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς· Πάντως ἐρεῖτέ μοι τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην· Ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν· ὅσα ἠκούσαμεν γενόμενα εἰς τὴν Καφαρναοὺμ ποίησον καὶ ὧδε ἐν τῇ πατρίδι σου. 4:24 εἶπεν δέ, Ἀμὴν, λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι οὐδεὶς προφήτης δεκτός ἐστιν ἐν τῇ πατρίδι αὐτοῦ. 4:25 ἐπ᾿ ἀληθείας δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, πολλαὶ χῆραι ἦσαν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἠλίου ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ, ὅτε ἐκλείσθη ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐπὶ ἔτη τρία καὶ μῆνας ἕξ, ὡς ἐγένετο λιμὸς μέγας ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν, 4:26 καὶ πρὸς οὐδεμίαν αὐτῶν ἐπέμφθη Ἠλίας εἰ μὴ εἰς Σάρεπτα τῆς Σιδωνίας πρὸς γυναῖκα χήραν. 27 καὶ πολλοὶ λεπροὶ ἦσαν ἐν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ ἐπὶ Ἐλισαίου τοῦ προφήτου, καὶ οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν ἐκαθαρίσθη εἰ μὴ Ναιμὰν ὁ Σύρος. 4:28 καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες θυμοῦ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ ἀκούοντες ταῦτα, 4:29 καὶ ἀναστάντες ἐξέβαλον αὐτὸν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἤγαγον αὐτὸν ἕως ὀφρύος τοῦ ὄρους ἐφ᾿ οὗ ἡ πόλις ᾠκοδόμητο αὐτῶν, ὥστε κατακρημνίσαι αὐτόν· 4:30 αὐτὸς δὲ διελθὼν διὰ μέσου αὐτῶν ἐπορεύετο.	1:2 Καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν τῷ Ἠσαΐᾳ τῷ προφήτῃ, Ἰδοὺ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου: 1:3 φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, Ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ 1:4 ἐγένετο Ἰωάννης [ὁ] βαπτίζων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ καὶ κηρύσσων βάπτισμα μετανοίας εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. 1:5 Καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα καὶ οἱ Ἱεροσολυμῖται πάντες, καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν. 1:6 Καὶ ἦν ὁ Ἰωάννης ἐνδεδυμένος τρίχας καμήλου καὶ ζώνην δερματίνην περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐσθίων ἀκρίδας καὶ μέλι ἄγριον.   6:1 Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἐκεῖθεν, καὶ ἔρχεται εἰς τὴν πατρίδα αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀκολουθοῦσιν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ.   6:2a καὶ γενομένου σαββάτουἤρξατο διδάσκειν ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ· {1:21 Καὶ εἰσπορεύονται εἰς Καφαρναούμ.καὶ εὐθὺς τοῖς σάββασιν εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὴν συναγωγήν, ἐδίδασκεν.*1:22 καὶ ἐξεπλήσσοντο ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ,ἦν γὰρ διδάσκων αὐτοὺς ὡς ἐξουσίαν ἔχων καὶ οὐχ ὡς οἱ γραμματεῖς.}   6:2b καὶ πολλοὶ ἀκούοντες ἐξεπλήσσοντο 6:2c λέγοντες· Πόθεν τούτῳ ταῦτα,*καὶ τίς ἡ σοφία ἡ δοθεῖσα τούτῳ καὶ αἱ δυνάμεις τοιαῦται διὰ τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοῦ γινόμεναι; 6:3 οὐχ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τέκτων, ὁ υἱὸς  τῆς Μαρίας καὶ ἀδελφὸς Ἰακώβου καὶ Ἰωσῆτος καὶ Ἰούδα καὶ Σίμωνος; καὶ οὐκ εἰσὶν*αἱ ἀδελφαὶ αὐτοῦ ὧδε πρὸς ἡμᾶς;  καὶ ἐσκανδαλίζοντο ἐν αὐτῷ. {1:23 Καὶ εὐθὺς ἦν ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ αὐτῶν ἄνθρωπος ἐν πνεύματι ἀκαθάρτῳ, καὶ ἀνέκραξεν 1:24 λέγων· Τί ἡμῖν καὶ σοί, Ἰησοῦ Ναζαρηνέ; ἦλθες ἀπολέσαι ἡμᾶς; οἶδά σε τίς εἶ, ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ. 1:25 καὶ ἐπετίμησεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγων· Φιμώθητι καὶ ἔξελθε ἐξ αὐτοῦ. 1:26 καὶ σπαράξαν αὐτὸν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἀκάθαρτον καὶ φωνῆσαν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ ἐξῆλθεν ἐξ αὐτοῦ. 1:27 καὶ ἐθαμβήθησαν ἅπαντες ὥστε συζητεῖν πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς λέγοντας· Τί ἐστιν τοῦτο; διδαχὴ καινὴ κατ᾿ ἐξουσίαν; καὶ τοῖς πνεύμασι τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις ἐπιτάσσει, καὶ ὑπακούουσιν αὐτῷ. 1:28 καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἡ ἀκοὴ αὐτοῦ εὐθὺς πανταχοῦ εἰς ὅλην τὴν περίχωρον τῆς Γαλιλαίας.} 4 καὶ ἔλεγεναὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι, Οὐκ ἔστιν προφήτης ἄτιμος εἰ μὴ ἐν τῇ πατρίδι αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τοῖς συγγενεῦσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ 5 καὶ οὐκ ἐδύνατο ἐκεῖ ποιῆσαι οὐδεμίαν δύναμιν, εἰ μὴ ὀλίγοις ἀρρώστοις ἐπιθεὶς τὰς χεῖρας ἐθεράπευσεν· 6a καὶ ἐθαύμαζεν διὰ τὴν ἀπιστίαν αὐτῶν.	3:1 Ἐν δὲ ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις παραγίνεται Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστὴς κηρύσσων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τῆς Ἰουδαίας {11.10 Ἰδοὺ, ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου ἔμπροσθέν σου.} 3:2 λέγων, Μετανοεῖτε, ἤγγικεν γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. 3:3a οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ῥηθεὶς διὰ Ἠσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος·*3:3b φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· Ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ. 3:4 αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Ἰωάννης εἶχεν τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τριχῶν καμήλου καὶ ζώνην δερματίνην περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ, ἡ δὲ τροφὴ ἦν αὐτοῦ ἀκρίδες καὶ μέλι ἄγριον3:5 τότε ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία καὶ πᾶσα*ἡ περίχωρος*τοῦ Ἰορδάνου,*3:6 καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν. 13:53 Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τὰς παραβολὰς ταύτας, μετῆρεν ἐκεῖθεν. 13:54a καὶ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὴν πατρίδα αὐτοῦ   13:54b ἐδίδασκεν αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ αὐτῶν, 13:54c ὥστε ἐκπλήσσεσθαι αὐτοὺς {7:28b ἐξεπλήσσοντοοἱ ὄχλοι ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ·7:29 ἦν γὰρ διδάσκων αὐτοὺς ὡς ἐξουσίαν ἔχων καὶ οὐχ ὡς οἱ γραμματεῖς αὐτῶν.} 13:54d καὶ λέγειν· Πόθεν τούτῳ ἡ σοφία αὕτη  καὶ αἱ δυνάμεις;  13:55 οὐχ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ τέκτονος υἱός;οὐχ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ λέγεται Μαριὰμ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ Ἰάκωβος καὶ Ἰωσὴφ καὶ Σίμων καὶ Ἰούδας; 13:56 καὶ αἱ ἀδελφαὶ αὐτοῦ οὐχὶ πᾶσαι πρὸς ἡμᾶς εἰσιν;*πόθεν οὖν τούτῳ ταῦτα* πάντα; 13:57 καὶ ἐσκανδαλίζοντο ἐν αὐτῷ. ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεναὐτοῖς· Οὐκ ἔστιν προφήτηςἄτιμος εἰ μὴ ἐν τῇ πατρίδι  καὶ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ.   13:58 καὶ οὐκ ἐποίησεν ἐκεῖ δυνάμεις πολλὰς  διὰ τὴν ἀπιστίαν αὐτῶν.

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[1] Although the name of Pontius Pilate is not attested by Tertullian, correctly seen by K. Tsutsui, ‘Evangelium’ (1992), 77, he is by Irenaeus.

[2] No mention of the reign of Herode and the rest of this verse is mentioned in one of the witnesses.

[3] On this verse see below, but it is attested by several witnesses, though not at this early stage in the Gospel as in Mark.

[4] [a[nwqen] was probably in Marcion’s text, if we can trust Hippol., Philos. VII 31, but it is here in brackets, as it could be a similar interpretation to ‘de caelo’ in Tertullian who may have deducted this from the prefix kat- of katevrcomai.

[5] V. Lukas, Rhetorik (2008), 228 has already seen that Tertullian uses both (descendisse, apparuisse) in a way that makes it very likely that kath`λθεν and ejfavnh were present in the text which is strongly supported by Adam., Dial. II 19: ejpi; Tiberivou katelqw;n ejfavnh ejn Kafarnaouvm and the Syr. Anonymous.

[6] Most likely, no location of the appearance was given in Marcion’s text, as the witnesses differ in their locations and Tertullian only mentions Capharnaum once in the same passage where he also points to the heavens from where Christ has come down. ‘We do know that he [scil. Marcion] never called Christ a man of Nazareth … The Lord was not reared in Nazareth, nor is it his custom to visit the Nazarene synagogue, but only there is a custom of visiting the synagogue generally’, so J.R. Harris, Codex Bezae (1891), 232.

[7] Despite the reading in D, there is no supporting evidence in one of the readers of Marcion’s Gospel who reports about this verse in Marcion’s Gospel. Hence, the verse is unattested, similar K. Tsutsui, ‘Evangelium’ (1992), 77.

[8] On this verse see below. It is well attested by Tertullian, Epiphanius ‘and possibly in Adam.’, so D.T. Roth, New Reconstruction (2009), 96, but both Tertullian and Epiphanius ‘attest its presence in Marcion’s Gospel in ther pericope of the cleansing of the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19)’ (ibid. 172).

[9] Attested as absent verses through our witnesses that give us the opening of Marcion’s Gospel with Christ’s descent to Capharnaum.