I am currently reading “A Muslim Theologian in the Sectarian Milieu: ‘Abd al-Jabbar and the Critique of Christian Origins” by Gabriel Said Reynolds.
On p.10, Reynolds writes
“Baarda also refers to early Christians, such as Marcion, who maintained that Christ himself was the author of a Gospel.”
I am just stunned. I had never heard of any such thing. Unfortunately, the Baarda article he cites is in Dutch, and so I won’t be able to read it. I am left with the following question: which early Christians thought Christ himself was the author of a Gospel?
The reference is Baarda, T. “Het Onstaan van de Vier Evangelien volgens ‘Abd al-Djabbar”, 226-7, 233.
(Nederlands theoloogisch Tijdschrift 28 (1974), 215-238.)
According to Reynolds, “Baarda also isolates references among the Church Fathers, including Origen, to an “original gospel,” composed before the four canonical ones. See Baarda, 227, n.33.”
Jarek,
Yes, that is true. The “Gospel of the Lord” might well be construed to mean that the Lord authored the Gospel; on the other hand, it might just mean that this is the one uniquely authoritative Gospel which describes the Lord.
I’m hoping to find out what is the basis of the claim that Marcion thought there was a Gospel actually authored by Christ.
Sounds like a confusion of objective and subjective genitives.
That article from “Nederlands theoloogisch Tijdschrift” looks like it will be a royal pain to track down. I did some looking, and it’s almost like it never existed. All I can find are citations of it. It doesn’t look like it has been digitized, and I can’t even find the journal in worldcat.
Here is another reference provided by Reynolds in the same footnote, in connection with the same idea i.e. Marcion believing that Jesus wrote his own Gospel.
A. von Harnack, “Marcion, Das Evangelium vom fremden Gott” (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1924), 78ff.
I think I have this in English translation; if I do, I can’t locate my copy right now.
Jarek,
I think when Reynolds quoted Baarda as saying that Marcion believed Jesus was the author of a Gospel, the word “author” indicates that Jesus is supposed to have written a text in exactly the same sense in which Mark or Luke are supposed to have written their canonical Gospels.
That’s why I was very surprised to read that from him.
Suppose Marcion preached that his gospel was written by Jesus. Did he believe in it? We will not answer this question because there is no way to ask it.
What is the conclusion? Nothing. A simple marketing trick, like an invented tradition that certain evangelists mentioned by name are the authors of the canonical gospels. An invented tradition with false attribution that is an element of historical policy.
Marcion did not participate in the discussion of which gospel was true and which was not. There is not the slightest trace that such a discussion took place during his lifetime.
This discussion is started by Tertullian after Marcion’s death and therefore it is one-sided and imaginary because the opponent is simply dead.
Stopped by my local theological library because they are supposed to have these old hardcopy years of Nederlands theologisch Tijdschrift, but they must have been misplaced when the library was enlarged a few years ago. They are looking for them. 30 years of journal volumes, where could they be?
Sounds like just the sort of thing to turn up at the Second Story Book Warehouse in Wheaton, MD, which specializes, among other things, in older texts and collections. I’ll keep an eye out!
Judith Lieu chronologically showed Marcion’s conflict with various opponents based on existing testimonies. Book Marcion Making Heretic. The question of the gospel appears for the first time in Tertullian after his death. Irenaeus is the first to talk about four gospels and accuses heretics of using one, but it is not known who these accusations apply to. The first accusations against Marcion were formulated by Justin Martyr and did not concern the gospels which Justin called the apostles’ memoirs.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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