From the little i have read of tertullians against marcion, it seems that marcion was tackling and ultimately being swayed by the ageold problem of evil. The evidence of marcions gospel against an assumed marcionite redaction the historical study of early christianity continues to labor under the burden of assumptions carried over from traditional christian here siology. He regarded christ as the messenger of the supreme god. Marcionism was an early christian dualist belief system that originated in the teachings of marcion of sinope in rome around the year 144 marcion was the son of a bishop of sinope in pontus. His teaching made a radical distinction between the g. Although marcion is known only through reports and quotations from his orthodox opponents, especially tertullians adversus marcionem against marcion, the principal outlines of his teaching seem clear. Portrait of a heretic there is little doubt that the teachings of marcion and his followers represented a greater threat to orthodox christianity than any other heresy in the second century. God of creator, who is jesus as the supreme god, and the evil god. Reduce, reuse, reject the traditional view is that marcions. The god of the old testament is a god of war and a murderer who boasted of being jealous and the creator of evil. He considered himself a follower of paul the apostle, who he believed to have been the only true apostle of. Gospel of marcion encyclopedia of the bible bible gateway. The main points of marcions teaching were the rejection of the old testament and a distinction between the supreme god of goodness and an inferior god of justice, who was the creator and god of the jews.
Marcion preached that the god who sent jesus into the world was a different, higher deity than the creator god of judaism. Its reconstructed fragments now appear among the new testament apocrypha. The churchs scripture and functional marcionism daniel l. When the process of scanning finishes, the scan complete dialog box opens. His chief motive in reducing the canon and renouncing the god of the old testament was to avoid any connection between christianity and judaism. Introduction when reading the bible it becomes obvious to the serious bible student, the old and new testaments each present god in a vastly different way. The church also responded to marcions view of christ. But the jewish writer celsus also knew of marcion and used his writings to argue. It does not appear that marcion added much if anything of his own. The main points of marcion s teaching were the rejection of the old testament and a distinction between the supreme god of goodness and an inferior god of justice, who was the creator and god of the jews.
I must emphasize that this is a loose presentation, in that i have not confined myself to citing only passages which appeared in marcion s canon, but have made free use of other canonical material as well. Marcionism, similar to gnosticism, depicted the god of the old testament as a tyrant or demiurge see also god as the devil. God, the creator for the restoration of a jewish state, and who is yet to come. Marcion s gospel was apparently a truncated version of luke with extraneous content underpinning marcion s theology. Marcion of sinope edinburgh research explorer the university.
Marcion, the canon, the law, and the historical jesus. Marcion s choice of a highly selective canon and his mutilation of christian scriptures forced the church to specifically identify its own writings. Marcion reasoned, could an evil tree bring forth good fruit. In some ways, marcion is the first person we know of to establish a canon that is, to specify exactly which writings were in and which were out.
Tertullian states that marcion was that shipmaster of pontus adv. About the middle of the second century 140155 he traveled to rome, where he joined the syrian gnostic cerdo marcion believed that jesus was the savior sent by god, and paul the apostle was his. The archheretic marcions theology the bart ehrman blog. Pauls epistles, themselves heavily edited, as well as his own antitheses contrasting the inferior creator god of the old testament with jesus the heavenly father of the new testament. Jesuss god was free from passion and wrath, wholly benevolent. Only paul had truly grasped the contrast of law and gospel, so pauls letters purged of jewish accretions formed the basis of his canon. Marcion was born about 110 ad, being the son of the wealthy bishop of sinope in pontus. The gospel of marcion, called by its adherents the gospel of the lord, was a text used by the mid2nd century christian teacher marcion of sinope to the exclusion of the other gospels. Click on the specify button and set the preferences for scanning. Marcions gospel was not an independent work, but an expurgated vs of luke, adapted to marcions own doctrinal theories. Did marcion and the gnostics give us the idea for a biblical.
How do i scan to pdf on canon scanners inbox email. It was marcions canon that motivated his enemies to start collection documents into what we now call the new testament. Therefore the churchs response to these heretical traditions began with the proper interpretation of the old testament. The development of the canon of the new testament marcion. Just as marcions canon stimulated the more precise defining of the nt canon by the catholic church, not to supersede but to supplement the canon of the ot, so, more generally, marcions teaching led the catholic church to define its faith more carefully, in terms calculated to exclude a marcionite interpretation. Just as marcions canon stimulated the more precise defining of. Marcions scriptural canon, argues that marcion not only put together the very first christian canon of scriptures, he gave christianity very idea of doing so. Testament canon, because he was the first person who publicly. By 144 ad, at age 34, marcion had caused such a stir, that his teachings were the subject of an investigation and condemnation. Marcionismthe forgotten crisis overviewintroduction. Marcions canon rejected the entire old testament, along with all other epistles and gospels of. Jason david beduhn the myth of marcion as redactor. Gard the scriptures are collected in what is known as the it canon, that is, a grouping of writings received as authoritative and normative for faith and life. Pdf chapter 1 marcion from the gospel according to heretics.
Marcionism is the theological doctrine known after the heretic marcion of sinope, a ship owner from pontus in asia minor1 who died around 160 a. The marcionite bible was not divided into old and new testaments like the modern bible, and was dramatically shorter. Tertullian five books against marcion the ntslibrary. It is ironic that perhaps one of the most influential of figures in church history is also one of the most reviled heretics. Marcion of sinope was an important figure in early christianity. In any event, this will at least provide the reader a general idea of what marcion s work antithesis may have been like. Sep 03, 2014 indeed, campenhausen went so far as to call marcion the creator of the christian holy scripture. Marcion produced the first christian canon, or list of the books of the bible that he considered authoritative. Oct 28, 20 marcion holds a lasting legacy for christians as the inventor of the new testament. The old and new testaments, marcion argued, cannot be reconciled to each other.
Marcion and the text of the new testament by gilles quispel two recent publications drew my attention to a topic upon which i published many years ago, namely, the new testament text known to. By the end of the second century, the church was articulating the canon of the old testament, largely in response to marcion and his heresy. Namely, marcion seemed to be trying to solve the problem of why a supposedly benevolent creator god would willing create evil and allow it to exist. Marcion s canon consisted of the gospel, or the gospel of the lord, and ten epistles of paul not including the pastorals. The severed canon left by marcion and the gnostics eviscerated the centrality of christ and repudiated the notion that one god had accomplished one eternal plan to save one elect people. Even the creator was unaware of the supreme god being above himself. An important but frequently forgotten episode in the early church was the movement founded by marcion near 144 a. Docetism the belief that the human element in the person of the redeemer was an illusion marcion c. And so, marcion produced his own heavily edited new testament canon, consisting of one gospel a bowdlerized version of luke and ten of st. Although marcions teaching strongly resembled the good godbad god dualism that would achieve its full flowering in manichaeism more than a century later, his theology was neither systematic nor deep. Marcion s teaching was condemned as heresy in the year 144. We have no marcion to quote except through material from his sworn enemies. Demiurgic notion the separation of the creator of the world demiurgos from the proper god 3. Pdf marcion, the bishop in the early church 85160 ad, who was acclaimed as.
Marcions use of the christian canon brings him closer to the scriptureoriented christianity of the great councils than it does to the mythoriented gnostics. Although marcion is focused on to study the gnosticism and the early christianity, it is a customizable universal library working with various file formats html, pdf, djvu and allowing to collect, organize and backup books and texts of any kind and search for words and phrases in a desired selection of texts. Marcion is often credited as being first to establish an explicit canon. Marcion sponsored an open christianity that met in churches. Marcions scriptural canonconsisting of the evangelion and the.
Marcion did not accept it in principle, 14 but touched it lightly and adopted certain inferences. Marcion, montanus, and gnosticism pursuing veritas. Marcion, the canon, the law, and the historical jesus a survey of marcion s life and legacy. If you want to scan the next document, click on the scan button, or to exit, select exit to end the session. Marcion has concluded both that christ is not the creatorgod and that christ is. Bruce metzger argues that the formative heretical forces were threefold. By cogwriter marcion was considered to have been the son of the bishop of sinope in pontus an area in what is now northwest turkey and born around 110 a. Marcions pioneering role in establishing the earliest christian.
Marcion s canon, possibly the first christian canon ever compiled, consisted of eleven books. The reception of the canon by the modern church is inhibited, it seems to me, by functional marcionism. Irenaeus statements about the fourfold gospel canon where luke is explicitly. Mar 15, 2017 marcions canon actually had a positive side effect. It is important because it explains the two gospels in the current new testament and why they were tolerated. Marcion taught that the god of the old testament was the author of evil, oppressive, and a lesser and distinct entity from the god of the new testament who exhibited love and forgiveness. Ten letters of paul and apparently a short version of luke. Marcionism was an early christian dualist belief system that originated in the teachings of.