Marcionism

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Marcion of Sinope was an early Christian theologian, evangelist, and an important figure in early Christianity. He was the son of a bishop of Sinope in Pontus. About the middle of the 2nd century (140–155) he traveled to Rome, where he joined the Syrian Gnostic Cerdo. Marcionism was an early Christian dualistic belief system that originated with the teachings of Marcion in Rome around 144 AD.

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Marcion preached that the benevolent God of the Gospel who sent Jesus Christ into the world as the savior was the true Supreme Being, different and opposed to the malevolent Demiurge or creator god, identified with the Hebrew God of the Old Testament.

 

​Marcion compiled the first Christian canon, consisting of eleven books: a gospel, which was a shorter version of the Gospel of Luke, and ten Pauline epistles. Marcion's canon rejected the entire Old Testament, along with all other epistles and gospels of what would become the 27-book New Testament canon, which during his life had yet to be compiled.

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The Marcionite church expanded greatly within Marcion's lifetime, becoming a major rival to the politically-backed church. After his death, it retained its following and survived Christian controversy and imperial disapproval for several centuries.

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The premise of Marcionism is that many of the teachings of Christ are incompatible with the actions of the God of the Old Testament. Focusing on the Pauline traditions of the Gospel, Marcion felt that all other conceptions of the Gospel, and especially any association with the Old Testament religion, was opposed to, and a backsliding from, the truth. He further regarded the arguments of Paul regarding law and gospel, wrath and grace, works and faith, flesh and spirit, sin and righteousness, death and life, as the essence of religious truth. He ascribed these aspects and characteristics as two principles, the righteous and wrathful God of the Old Testament, who is at the same time identical with the creator of the world, and a second God of the Gospel who is only love and mercy.

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Marcionites held that the God of the Hebrew Bible was inconsistent, jealous, wrathful and genocidal, and that the material world he created was defective, a place of suffering; the God who made such a world is a bungling or malicious demiurge.

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In Marcionite belief, Jesus was not a Jewish Messiah, but a spiritual entity that was sent by the Monad to reveal the truth about existence, thus allowing humanity to escape the earthly trap of the demiurge.

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Study of the Hebrew Bible, along with received writings circulating in the nascent Church, led Marcion to conclude that many of the teachings of Jesus were incompatible with the actions of Yahweh, characterized as the belligerent god of the Hebrew Bible. Marcion responded by developing a ditheistic system of belief around the year 144. This notion of two gods—a higher transcendent one and a lower world-creator and ruler—allowed Marcion to reconcile his perceived contradictions between Christian Covenant theology and the gospel proclaimed by the New Testament.

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In contrast to other leaders of the nascent Christian Church, however, Marcion declared that Christianity was in complete discontinuity with Judaism and entirely opposed to the scriptures of Judaism. Marcion did not claim that these were false. Instead, he asserted that they were entirely true, but were to be read in an absolutely literalistic manner, one which led him to develop an understanding that Yahweh was not the same God spoken of by Jesus. For example, Marcion argued that the Genesis account of Yahweh walking through the Garden of Eden asking where Adam was, proved that Yahweh inhabited a physical body and was without universal knowledge, attributes wholly incompatible with the Heavenly Father professed by Jesus.

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According to Marcion, the god of the Old Testament, whom he called the Demiurge, the creator of the material universe, is a jealous tribal deity of the Jews, whose law represents legalistic reciprocal justice and who punishes mankind for its sins through suffering and death. In contrast, the God that Jesus professed is an altogether different being, a universal God of compassion and love who looks upon humanity with benevolence and mercy. Marcion also produced a book titled Antithesis, which is no longer extant, contrasting the Demiurge of the Old Testament with the Heavenly Father of the New Testament.

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Marcion's Bible is considered to be the first known Christian canon, and it was created around 140 CE.

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Marcion’s Bible contained the following:

1. The Gospel of Marcion: This was the main Gospel he used, and it is believed to be a version of the Gospel of Luke. Marcion’s Gospel was heavily edited, removing references to the Jewish Scriptures and the Old Testament, including most of the genealogy, the nativity story, and other elements that might tie Jesus to Jewish tradition. It was essentially a version of Luke with what Marcion considered to be more "Pauline" in character, focusing more on the teachings of grace and the rejection of the Jewish law.

2. Pauline Epistles: Along with his Gospel, Marcion’s Bible also included ten letters of Paul. These letters were edited to remove any reference to Judaism and the law. The letters Marcion accepted were:

   • Galatians

   • 1 and 2 Corinthians

   • Romans

   • 1 and 2 Thessalonians

   • Philippians

   • Philemon

   • Colossians

   • Ephesians

 

Interestingly, Marcion rejected the other gospels (Matthew, Mark, and John) because they were too closely tied to the Jewish tradition, which he believed to be corrupt. He also rejected the Acts of the Apostles and the entire Old Testament, which he saw as the work of a different, inferior god—the "creator god" of the Jews—distinct from the benevolent god of grace revealed in Jesus.

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Marcion's canon was controversial and his following grew exponentially, which threatened the power of the Catholic Church. Marcion's Bible eventually forced the Catholic Church to come up with their own version of the Bible, which is the ones that we know today. Marcionism grew so strong that the Catholic Church branded the Marcionites as heretics in order to maintain their power & control.

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