Chapter 10: Claiming Israel's Epic Summary and Analysis

Mack describes the "watered-down" version of the gospels invented by the apostolic leaders as the product of church leaders who were mistakenly confident that loyalty to leadership and the threat of the second coming of Christ were enough to hold the church together. This may have been enough to keep most followers in line, Mack argues, but it did not stop some intellectuals from noticing some of the contradictions inherent in the Christian teaching and trying to make sense of them on their own, especially over the question of the relative positions of Jewish and Christian stories. Mack describes three such "thoughtful" Christians in this chapter, Marcion, Valentinus and Justin Martyr.

Marcion of Sinope was the wealthy son of a bishop and a Christian in the tradition of Paul. Marcion's belief was that the Jewish...