Marcion of Sinope (; grc, Μαρκίων ; ) was an early Christian theologian in

early Christianity Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewis ...

. Marcion preached that God had sent

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

who was an entirely new, alien god, distinct from the vengeful God of Israel who had created the world. He considered himself a follower of

Paul the Apostle Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

, whom he believed to have been the only true apostle of Jesus Christ, a doctrine called

Marcionism Marcionism was an early Christian dualistic belief system that originated with the teachings of Marcion of Sinope in Rome around the year 144. Marcion was an early Christian theologian, evangelist, and an important figure in early Christiani ...

. Marcion published the earliest extant fixed collection of New Testament books. Early Church Fathers such as

Justin Martyr Justin Martyr ( el, Ἰουστῖνος ὁ μάρτυς, Ioustinos ho martys; c. AD 100 – c. AD 165), also known as Justin the Philosopher, was an early Christian apologist and philosopher. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and ...

Irenaeus Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the de ...

, and

Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...

denounced Marcion as a

heretic Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important relig ...

, and he was excommunicated by the church of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

around 144. He published the first known canon of

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

sacred scriptures,Bruce 1988, p. 134. which contained ten

Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest ex ...

(the Pastoral epistles were not included) and the Gospel of Marcion which is a shorter version of the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascensi ...

. This made him a catalyst in the process of the

development of the New Testament canon The canon of the New Testament is the set of books many modern Christians regard as divinely inspired and constituting the New Testament of the Christian Bible. For historical Christians, canonization was based on whether the material was fr ...

by forcing the proto-orthodox Church to respond to his canon.

Life

Epiphanius records in his that Marcion was born the son of a bishop in Pontus (modern-day Turkey), likely

Philologus of Sinope Philologus of Sinope (also Philologos) is numbered among the Seventy Disciples, and is commemorated with them on January 4. He is also commemorated on November 5 together with Ss. Patrobas, Hermas, Linus, and Gaius. The Apostle Andrew consecrat ...

. Rhodo and

, young men in Marcion's old age, described him as a "mariner" and a "ship-master" respectively. Some time in the late 130s, Marcion traveled to Rome, joined the Roman church, and made a large donation of 200,000

sesterces The ''sestertius'' (plural ''sestertii''), or sesterce (plural sesterces), was an Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Roman currency, coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions. During the Roman Empire it w ...

to the congregation there. Conflicts with the church of Rome arose and he was eventually

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

in 144, his donation being returned to him. After his excommunication, he returned to

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, where he continued to lead his many church congregations and teach the Gospel of Marcion, likely an edited version of the

. According to Christian sources, Marcion's teacher was the Simonian Cerdo.

writes that "a certain Cerdo, originating from the Simonians, came to Rome under Hyginus ..and taught that the one who was proclaimed as God by the Law and the Prophets is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (''

Against Heresies ''Against Heresies'' (Ancient Greek: Ἔλεγχος καὶ ἀνατροπὴ τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως, ''Elenchos kai anatropē tēs pseudōnymou gnōseōs'', "On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis"), some ...

'', 1, 27, 1). Also, according to them, Marcion and the Gnostic Valentinus were companions in Rome. In 394, Epiphanius claimed that after beginnings as an

ascetic Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...

, Marcion seduced a

virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

and was accordingly excommunicated by his father, prompting him to leave his home town. Some scholars have taken this "seduction of a virgin" as a metaphor for Marcion's corruption of the Christian Church, with the Church portrayed as the undefiled virgin, and that Marcion apparently haas become "the victim of the historicisation of such a metaphor, even though it contradicts the otherwise firm tradition of his strict sexual probity". Doubtful is Tertullian's claim in ''The Prescription Against Heretics'' (written ) that Marcion professed repentance, and agreed to the conditions granted to him — that he should receive reconciliation if he restored to the Church those whom he had led astray — but that he was prevented from doing so by his death. The Marcionite church expanded greatly within Marcion's lifetime, becoming a major rival to the emerging Catholic church. After his death, it retained its following and survived Christian controversy and imperial disapproval for several centuries.

Teachings

Study of the Hebrew scriptures, along with received writings circulating in the nascent Church, led Marcion to conclude that many of the

teachings of Jesus The ministry of Jesus, in the canonical gospels, begins with his baptism in the countryside of Roman Judea and Transjordan, near the River Jordan by John the Baptist, and ends in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper with his disciples.''Chr ...

were incompatible with the actions of

Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he po ...

, characterized as the belligerent god of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' 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

Old Covenant The Mosaic covenant (named after Moses), also known as the Sinaitic covenant (after the biblical Mount Sinai), refers to a covenant between God and the Israelites, including their proselytes, not limited to the ten commandments, nor the eve ...

theology and the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

message proclaimed by the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

. In contrast to other leaders of the nascent Christian Church, however, Marcion declared that Christianity was in complete discontinuity with

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...

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 Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

account of Yahweh walking through the

Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan- Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2-3 and Ezekiel 28 ...

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. According to Marcion, the god of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

, whom he called the

Demiurge In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge () is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. The Gnostics adopted the term ''demiurge'' ...

, the creator of the material

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...

, is a jealous tribal deity of the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, 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 ''Antitheses'', which is no longer extant, contrasting the Demiurge of the Old Testament with the Heavenly Father of the New Testament. Marcion held Jesus to be the son of the Heavenly Father but understood the

incarnation Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...

in a docetic manner, i.e. that Jesus' body was only an imitation of a material body, and consequently denied Jesus' physical and bodily birth, death, and resurrection. Marcion was the first to codify a Christian canon. His canon consisted of only eleven books, grouped into two sections: the , a shorter version of the Gospel of Luke, and the , a selection of ten epistles of Paul the Apostle, which were also slightly shorter than the canonical text. Early Christians such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Epiphanius claimed that Marcion's editions of Luke and the Pauline epistles were intentionally edited by Marcion to match his theological views, and many modern scholars agree. However, some scholars argue that Marcion's texts were not substantially edited by him, and may in some respects represent an earlier version of these texts than the canonical versions. Like the

Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark), or simply Mark (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to h ...

, the gospel used by Marcion did not contain elements relating to Jesus' birth and childhood. Interestingly, it did contain some Jewish elements, and material that challenged Marcion's ditheism—a fact that was exploited by early Christians in their polemics against Marcion. The centrality of the Pauline epistles in Marcion's canon reflects the fact that Marcion considered Paul to be the correct interpreter and transmitter of Jesus' teachings, in contrast to the Twelve Disciples and the early Jerusalem church.

Gnosticism

Marcion is sometimes described as a

Gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized p ...

philosopher. In some essential respects, Marcion proposed ideas which aligned well with Gnostic thought. Like the Gnostics, he believed that Jesus was essentially a divine spirit who appeared to human beings in human form, but did not actually take on a fleshly human body. However, Marcionism conceptualizes God in a way which cannot be reconciled with broader Gnostic thought. For Gnostics, some human beings are born with a small piece of God's soul lodged within their spirit (akin to the notion of a

Divine Spark The divine spark is a term used in various different religious traditions. Gnosticism In Gnosticism, the divine spark is the portion of God that resides within each human being. The purpose of life is to enable the Divine Spark to be released f ...

). God is thus intimately connected to and part of his creation. Salvation lies in turning away from the physical world (which Gnostics regard as an illusion) and embracing the godlike qualities within oneself. Marcion, by contrast, held that the Heavenly Father (the father of Jesus Christ) was an utterly alien God; he had no part in making the world, nor any connection with it. According to

Bart Ehrman Bart Denton Ehrman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, includin ...

: "Marcion himself should not be thought of as a Gnostic; he held that there were only two gods, not many; he did not think of this world as a cosmic disaster, but as the creation of the Old Testament God; and he did not think divine sparks resided in human bodies that could be set free by understanding the true 'gnosis.' Moreover, his docetic view does not appear to have been the typical view of Gnostics."

Notes

References

Sources

* * Blackman, E.C. ''Marcion and His Influence'' 9482004. . * Bruce, F. F. (1988). ''The Canon of Scripture''. InterVarsity Press. . * Clabeaux, John James. ''The Lost Edition of the Letters of Paul: A Reassessment of the Text of Pauline Corpus Attested by Marcion (Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series No. 21)'' 1989 . * Dahl, Nils Alstrup. "The Origin of the Earliest Prologues to the Pauline Letters", ''

Semeia ''Semeia'' was a journal published by the Society of Biblical Literature, "devoted to the exploration of new and emergent areas and methods of biblical criticism." Semeia Studies After 2002, the journal Semeia was replaced by the book series S ...

'' 12 (1978), pp. 233–277. *

Epiphanius of Salamis Epiphanius of Salamis ( grc-gre, Ἐπιφάνιος; c. 310–320 – 403) was the bishop of Salamis, Cyprus, at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He ...

. ''The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book 1 (Sects 1-46)'' Frank Williams translator, 1987. . * Evans, Ernest (comments and translation):

, ''Against Marcion'' (Oxford University Press, 1972)
E-text of ''Adversus Marcionem'' and Evan's introduction "Marcion : His Doctrine and Influence"
* Grant, Robert M. ''Marcion and the Critical Method'' Peter Richardson & John Collidge Hurd, eds., From Jesus to Paul. Studies in Honour of Francis Wright Beare. Waterloo, ON, 1984. pp. 207–215. * * * Hoffman, R. Joseph. ''Marcion, on the Restitution of Christianity: An Essay on the Development of Radical Paulist Theology in the Second Century'' (1984) . * . * * Livingstone, E. A. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.)'', pp. 1033–34, 1997 . * Francis Legge, ''Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, From 330 B.C. to 330 A.D. '' (1914), reprinted in two volumes bound as one, University Books New York, 1964. . * * * Moll, Sebastian, ''The Arch-Heretic Marcion'', Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 250, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2010 (Spanish translation: Marción. El primer hereje, Biblioteca de Estudios Bíblicos 145, Ediciones Sígueme, Salamanca 2014) * Riparelli, Enrico, ''Il volto del Cristo dualista. Da Marcione ai catari'', Peter Lang, Bern 2008, 368 pp. . * Sproul, R.C., ''How Then Shall We Worship?''. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2013. p. 16. * Williams, David Salter. "Reconsidering Marcion's Gospel", ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' 108 (1989), pp. 477–96 * Wilson, R. S. ''Marcion: A Study of a Second-Century Heretic'' (London: Clarke) 1933.

External links

Marcion: Gospel of the Lord and Other Writings *
Marcionite Research Library

EarlyChurch.org.uk on Marcion

*

Joseph B. Tyson, Anti-Judaism in Marcion and his Opponents

* ttps://sites.google.com/site/inglisonmarcion/home/marcion Tricky NT Textual Issues: Marcion {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcion of Sinope 80s births 160s deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain 2nd-century Christian theologians 2nd-century Greek people 2nd-century Romans 2nd-century writers Ancient Christian anti-Judaism Ancient Christians involved in controversies Ancient Pontic Greeks Anti-natalists Christianity-related controversies Founders of religions Gnostics Christianity and Judaism related controversies People excommunicated by Christian churches People from Sinop, Turkey Roman Pontus Marcionism