Marcion, the son of the bishop of sinope a seaport of pontus along the black sea who had become a wealthy shipowner, stood before the presbyters to expound his teachings in order to win others to his point of view. 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. Marcionism was an early christian dualist belief system that originated in the teachings of marcion of sinope in rome around the year 144. Marcion wrote the antitheses to show the differences between the god of the old testament and the true god. About the middle of the second century 140155 he traveled to rome, where he joined the syrian gnostic cerdo. Marcion was a secondcentury religious leader who was important in the development of early christianity. In so doing, he advanced the most daring blasphemy against him who is proclaimed as god by the law and the prophets, declaring him to be the author of evils, to take delight in war, to be infirm of purpose, and even to be contrary to himself. A native of sinope in pontus, marcion came to rome c. It is important because it explains the two gospels in the current new testament and why they were tolerated. His teaching made a radical distinction between the g.
Antithesis contradictions between the old testament deity and the new testament god. He promoted versions of some of the pauline letters and the gospel of luke that, from what has been reconstructed from the available sources, look like shorter versions of the gospel and letters we see in the christian bible. While none of marcions writings have survived to the present, we know of his teachings through several early christian writers including justin martyr ad 100165, irenaeus of lyons ad 200 and hippolytus ad 170235. The sect which he founded spread widely, and was for a time a serious menace to the church. By adding a single line of code to any of your existing software, you will be enabling dualplatform functionality. Strongly antijewish, he distinguished the merely just god of the ot from the loving god and. Marcionism definition of marcionism by merriamwebster.
Releasing a windows application to the web has never been so easy. The churchs scripture and functional marcionism daniel l. Marcion had bought into platos idea that matter is bad, and so, the god of the old testament, the god who created the world, was not a god that he could stomach. Ostensibly an attempt to recapture primitive christianity, this movement derives its name from marcion, a wealthy shipowner, son of a bishop, and probably a bishop himself, who arrived in rome around 140. Marcion of pontus succeeded him, and developed his doctrine.
The reception of the canon by the modern church is inhibited, it. Marcions teaching was condemned as heresy in the year 144. Ancient critics thought marcion cut out texts he didnt like from an already existing canon, but this is not true. Pauls epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to st. Its reconstructed fragments now appear among the new testament apocrypha. Marcion was the son of a bishop of sinope in pontus. Marcion preached that the god who sent jesus into the world was a different, higher deity than the creator god of judaism. The gospel of marcion, called by its adherents the gospel of the lord, was a text used by the mid2ndcentury christian teacher marcion of sinope to the exclusion of the other gospels. The marcionite bible the marcionite bible was assembled by marcion of sinope, sometime in the earlymid second century.
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. Jason david beduhn the myth of marcion as redactor. Marcion, an avid disciple of paul, appeared on the seen determined to rescue the church from its judaic beliefs. Lieus book, marcion and the making of a heretic, is an example of the approach described in the paragraph above. Johan chistiaan beker, the christologies and anthropologies of paul, lukeacts and marcion, martinus c. Marcionismthe forgotten crisis overviewintroduction.
Marcion was born toward the end of the first century in sinope, a city in pontus, on the southern coast of the black sea. 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. Featuring the church fathers, catholic encyclopedia, summa theologica and more. Marcion, the canon, the law, and the historical jesus. Coptic, greek, latin and providing many tools and resources dictionaties, grammars, texts. Although marcion is focused on to study the gnosticism and early christianity, it is an universal library working with various file formats and allowing to collect, organize. The challenge of marcion biblical and early christian. The archheretic marcions theology the bart ehrman blog. Developing some eccentric theological views, he eventually taught that the god of the old testament was not the true god but rather that the true and higher god had been revealed only with jesus christ. According to marcion, the god of the old testament was a wrathful, vengeful deity who wanted to keep humankind subject to himself, while christ was.
She presents a painstakingly comprehensive account of marcion, or rather, the making of a heretic, within a twostep process of discovery. He considered himself a follower of paul the apostle, who he believed to have been the only true apostle of. 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. There needed to be a distance between god and matter in marcions thinking, so the creator god of the old testament was not a true god or he was a lesser god. Marcion and the marcionites 144 3rd century ce at the end of july, 144 ce, a hearing took place before the clergy of the christian congregations in rome. The gospel of the alien god 9781556357039 by adolf harnack, john e. The development of the canon of the new testament marcion. 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. Apostle john and marcion of sinope, from jpm library ms 748, 11th c. The marcionite bible was not divided into old and new testaments like the modern bible, and was dramatically shorter. Clabeaux discussed a limited number of passages from marcions apostolikon, as preserved in two later works.
A shipowner by profession and a man of wealth, he was a member of the christian church in his home city. Marcion is often thought to have first established an explicit canon. The main reason is that marcions own writings have not been passed down to us from antiquity. The church was still in its infancy, and it can be argued. Such must be the sentence to be pronounced against marcions god. Marcionism was a religious movement based on the teachings of the 2ndcentury heretic marcion of sinope. O timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and contradictions antithesis of gnosis falsely so called. Marcion is a software forming a study environment of ancient languages esp. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the old testament, and therefore testified that the creator was the. 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. This document was uploaded by user and they confirmed that they have the permission to share it. 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. An important but frequently forgotten episode in the early church was the movement founded by marcion near 144 a.
Since, however, the divine authority and the nature of the case, and common sense, do not admit this insane position of the heretics, we have here the opportunity of putting in a veto in the briefest possible terms, on the substance of christs body, against marcions phantoms. The god of the old testament is a god of war and a. Media in category marcion the following 7 files are in this category, out of 7 total. But by ad 144, marcions views had gotten him into trouble, and he was excommunicated from the church. Other christians considered marcion to be an archheretic, an evil representative of the devil come to deceive the faithful.
1046 1384 1507 431 1141 1593 1133 307 1157 295 1407 1362 50 1259 1092 1391 569 885 1501 476 139 796 728 956 484 110 1367 1027 84 273 738 801 1421 44 403 602 790 1213