Luke 4:16, 22-30 – ... and Nazareth Second

For a side-by-side English translation of the text of Marcion's Gospel and Luke 4, see Luke Chapter 4

Summary:

Marcion's Gospel [Mcg] contained what we see as Lk 4:16, 22-24, 28-30.

Details:

As stated in Luke 4 – Capernaum First ... , Mcg begins with some or all of Mcg 3:1, and then continues with the Capernaum episode after which Jesus goes to Nazareth. We have previously seen that in Tertullian’s copy of Luke the Capernaum episode appears to have been comprised of Lk 4:31, 17-21, 32-36, possibly 4:37-39, and some additional verses that today we see in Matthew instead of Luke. Assuming the above scenario, the beginning of the Nazareth passage in Tertullian’s Luke could have read as follows:

And he came up to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. [4:16] And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? [4:22] And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.” [4:23] And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. [4:24]

This form of the passage does not give any details of Jesus’ “gracious words,” because, as previously indicated, in Mcg they were instead uttered earlier, while Jesus was in Capernaum. Consequently, this shorter Nazareth episode is very similar to the parallel passages at Mk 6:1-4 and Mt 13:54-57, with Jesus’ actual words not reported in either, and with both ending with Jesus reporting that: “A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country.” In Mark and Matthew the people in the synagogue are “offended” by this and do not believe him, as a result of which he is not able to do any “mighty works,” and departs. However, unlike in Mark and Matthew, in canonical Luke the “no prophet” remark is followed by the passage about the many widows and lepers in Israel, and only after this do the people in the synagogue get angry with Jesus:

But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; [4:25] But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. [4:26] And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. [4:27] And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, [4:28] And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. [4:29] But he passing through the midst of them went his way, [4:30]

Tertullian records an apparently shorter form of the Nazareth episode in his chapter 8:

And yet even at Nazareth [Mcg 4:16a] He is not remarked as having preached anything new, whilst in another verse He is said to have been rejected [Mcg 4:28-29] by reason of a simple proverb [Mcg 4:23-24]. Here at once, when I observe that they laid their hands on Him [Mcg 4:29], I cannot help drawing a conclusion respecting His bodily substance, which cannot be believed to have been a phantom, since it was capable of being touched and even violently handled, when He was seized and taken and led to the very brink of a precipice [Mcg 4:29]. For although He escaped through the midst of them [Mcg 4:30], He had already experienced their rough treatment, and afterwards went His way…

Although Tertullian is clear that in Mcg Jesus does go to Nazareth, he suggests that Marcion’s Jesus should have had no connection with Nazareth at all (because of the Jesus of the gospels association with Nazareth), and instead should have been brought up somewhere else in Judaea:

it behoved Marcion's Christ to have forborne all connection whatever with the domestic localities of the Creator's Christ, when he had so many towns in Judaea which had not been by the prophets thus assigned to the Creator's Christ.

Despite mentioning that Jesus went to Nazareth, there is no evidence that in Mcg Jesus referred to Nazareth as his hometown, i.e. where he had been brought up, about which David Aune provides the following information:

In Luke 4.16 it has been generally acknowledged that Marcion omitted the words hou en tethrammenos and kata to eiothos autoi. Marcion probably omitted the first phrase ("where he had been brought up"), because it stated that Jesus had been raised in Nazareth, a Jewish district, and the second ("according to his custom"), because it stated that Jesus had customarily attended a Jewish synagogue. Interestingly enough, codex Palatinus, a fifth century old Latin manuscript omits the Latin equivalent of kata to eiothos autoi, while codex Bezae, a fifth century Greek uncial, omits tethrammenos and autoi after eiothos.

Whether Marcion had removed the words or not, it appears likely that Mcg 4:16 did not suggest that Jesus had a prior connection to Nazareth, as we see in Bezae and Palatinus. By specifically stating that “even at Nazareth He is not remarked as preaching anything new,” Tertullian provides more evidence that he did not see Lk 4:17-21 (the reading from Isaiah) at this point in Mcg, so that without this text it would likely read:

And he came up to Nazareth, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. [Mcg 4:16] And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? [Mcg 4:22]

Without the reading from Isaiah why would Jesus stand up to read, and what were his ‘gracious words?’ Mcg 4:22 requires there to be something that the people in the synagogue reacted to and liked, because their mood in Mcg 4:22 is the opposite of that in Mcg 4:28. Tertullian has no reference either to Jesus standing up to read as in Lk 4:16c, or the reaction in Lk 4:22. As a result this text may not have been in Mcg either, a possibility supported by the fact that some mss either omit or re-locate these words: Theta, f1, pc, Sy-S, arm, geo omit Lk 4:16c (i.e. the final clause), and instead these mss have the words in the middle of Lk 4:17 (So that Jesus finds his place, THEN stands up to read), which is not present in Mcg. In addition, Lk 4:22b is omitted in ms 13. Added to the (negative) evidence from Tertullian, and given that Lk 4:22a is a reaction to the reading from Isaiah, it is most likely that none of Lk 4:16c-22 was present in Mcg.

When Tertullian then states that the reason Jesus was rejected, seized, and led out of the city was just “by reason of a simple proverb,” it can only mean that he also did not see Mcg 4:25-27. Although Tertullian does not refer to these verses here, he does refer to Naaman the Syrian [Lk 4:27] later in his chapter 9, where he discusses the leper in Luke 5, and then later still in chapter 35, where he discusses the ten lepers in Luke 17, and states:

Now, although He said in a preceding chapter, that "there were many lepers in lsrael in the days of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian," yet of course the mere number proves nothing towards a difference in the gods…

From this we can be assured that Tertullian did see in Mcg what we see as Lk 4:27, although it was not located where we see it. Taking the above points into consideration, it is likely that Mcg 4:16-30 read as follows:

And he came up to Nazareth, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day. [4:16a]

And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.” [4:23] And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. [4:24]

And they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, [4:28] And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. [4:29] But he passing through the midst of them went his way. [4:30]

Next: Luke 4:40-44