horities
[Endnote 217:2]. But what is this to the point? It is not
contended that Marcion altered to any considerable extent (though
he did slightly even in the Epistles [Endnote 217:3]) the text
_which he retained_, but that he mutilated and cut out whole
passages from that text. He can be proved to have done this in
regard to the Epistles, and therefore it is fair to infer that he
dealt in the same way with the Gospel. This is the amended form in
which the argument ought to stand. It is certain that Marcion made
a large excision before Rom. xi. 33, and another after Rom. viii.
11; he also cut out the 'mentiones Abrahae' from Gal. iii. 7, 14,
16-18 [Endnote 218:1]. I say nothing about his excision of the
last two chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, because on that
point a controversy might be raised. But the genuineness of these
other passages is undisputed and indisputable. It cannot be argued
here that our text of the Epistle has suffered from later
interpolation, and therefore, I repeat, it is so much the more
probable that Marcion took from the text of the Gospel than that a
later editor added to it.

(2.) In examining the internal evidence from the nature and
structure of Marcion's Gospel, it has hitherto been the custom to
lay most stress upon its dogmatic character. The controversy in
Germany has turned chiefly on this. The critics have set
themselves to show that the variations in Marcion's Gospel either
could or could not be explained as omissions dictated by the
exigencies of his dogmatic system. This was a task which suited
well the subtlety and inventiveness of the German mind, and it has
been handled with all the usual minuteness and elaboration. The
result has been that not only have Volkmar and Hilgenfeld proved
their point to their own satisfaction, but they also convinced
Ritschl and partially Baur; and generally we may say that in
Germany it seems to be agreed at the present time that the
hypothesis of a mutilated Luke suits the dogmatic argument better
than that of later Judaising interpolations.

I have no wish to disparage the results of these labours, which
are carried out with the splendid thoroughness that one so much
admires. Looking at the subject as impartially as I can, I am
inclined to think that the case is made out in the main. The
single instance of the perverted sense assigned to [Greek:
kataelthen] in iv. 31 must needs go a long way. Marcion evidently
intends the word to be tak