m ... et
ait illi, Sequere me.... [30] Et murmurabant Pharisaei et Scribae
eorum... [31] et respondens Jesus dixit ad illos, Non egent qui
sani sunt medico sed qui male habent.

The question respecting the disciples of John is turned against
Marcion, as a recognition of the Baptist's mission. If John had
not prepared the way for Christ, if he had not actually baptized
Him, if, in fact, there was that diversity between the two which
Marcion assumed, no one would ever have thought of instituting a
comparison between them or the conduct of their disciples. In His
reply, 'that the children of the bridegroom could not fast,' Jesus
virtually allowed the practice of the disciples of John, and
excused, as only for a time, that of His own disciples. The very
name, 'bridegroom,' was taken from the Old Testament (Ps. xix. 6
sq., Is. lxi. 10, xlix. 18, Cant. iv. 8); and its assumption by
Christ was a sanction of marriage, and showed that Marcion did
wrong to condemn the married state.

Unde autem et Joannes venit in medium?... Si nihil omnino
administrasset Joannes ... nemo _discipulos Christi manducantes et
bibentes_ ad formam _discipulorum Joannis assidue jejunantium et
orantium_ provocasset.... Nunc humiliter reddens rationem, quod _non
possent jejunare filii sponsi quamdiu cum eis esset sponsus, postea
vero jejunaturos_ promittens, _cum ablatus ab eis sponsus esset_.

Luke v. 33-35: [33] At illi dixerunt ad eum, Quare discipuli
Johannis jejunant frequenter et obsecrationes faciunt, ... tui
autem edunt et bibunt? [34] Quibus ipse ait, Numquid potestis
filios sponsi dum cum illis est sponsus facere jejunare? [35]
Venient autem dies cum ablatus fuerit ab illis sponsus, tune
jejunabunt in illis diebus.

In ver. 33, for obsecrationes a has orationes, and for edunt
manducant: a and b also have quamdiu (Vulg. cum) in ver. 35.

Equally erroneous was Marcion's interpretation of the concluding
verses of the chapter which dealt with the distinction between old
and new. He indeed was intoxicated with 'new wine'--though the
real 'new wine' had been prophesied as far back as Jer. iv. 4 and
Is. xliii. 19--but He to whom belonged the new wine and the new
bottles also belonged the old. The difference between the old and
new dispensations was of developement and progression, not of
diversity or contrariety. Both had one and the same Author.

Errasti in illa etiam domini pronuntiatione qua videtur nova et
vetera discernere. Inflatus es _