Dieter Roth - The Text of Marcion's Gospel and Luke

Even though there is an on-going debate concerning the relationship and relative priority of Marcion’s Gospel and Luke, it is universally agreed that the two texts are in some manner related to each other. For this reason, it is worth considering two questions related to the text of Marcion’s Gospel. First, where do readings attested for Marcion’s Gospel show points of contact with the textual tradition of Luke? Along these lines this paper will argue that potentially problematic reconstructions of Marcion’s Gospel have at times led to questionable identification of Marcion’s support for certain readings. One area in which this seems to be the case is for the so-called “Western non-interpolations.” Second, do any attested readings in Marcion’s Gospel shed light on the question of whether this gospel is an edited version of canonical Luke? A first attempt at answering this question will, on the one hand, consider whether any elements of Lukan redaction appear in Marcion’s Gospel and, on the other, whether there are readings in Luke that are difficult to explain as developments out of Marcion’s text.