Marcionism
Marcionism is an early Christian doctrine established by Marcion of Sinope, who lived from approximately 85 CE to 160 CE. This belief system posits that the God depicted in the Old Testament is a lesser, vengeful deity, contrasting sharply with the benevolent God revealed through Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Marcion rejected the Old Testament entirely, believing it reflected a flawed and materialistic world, and he sought to create a new Christian canon that included a modified version of the Gospel of Luke and ten letters from St. Paul, purged of any references to the Old Testament. His teachings gained traction in Rome, leading to his excommunication from the Catholic Church in 144 CE. Despite this condemnation, Marcionism flourished and became influential, prompting significant theological opposition from early church figures such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, who sought to counter its spread. Over time, Marcionism was labeled heretical and faded by the early 300s CE, yet its impact on early Christian thought and scripture compilation remains noteworthy. Today, it is often associated with the broader tradition of Gnosticism that questioned the nature of divinity and the material world.
Marcionism
Marcionism is an early Christian doctrine propagated by Marcion of Sinope. It stated that the God of the Old Testament was an evil, lesser entity than the merciful, forgiving God of the New Testament. For spreading this teaching and creating his own version of Christian scriptures that excluded the Old Testament, Marcion was labeled a heretic, or spreader of false teachings, and cut off from the Roman Catholic Church.
History of Marcionism
Marcion of Sinope was born around 85 CE in present-day Sinop, Turkey. His father was a bishop in the Catholic Church, but Marcion initially showed little interest in pursuing this path for himself. He spent much of his adulthood sailing around the world as a successful ship owner and merchant. His business endeavors eventually made him enormously wealthy.
By about 135 CE, Marcion had begun to think about religion more seriously and moved to Rome to be near the Catholic Church. He used his substantial financial resources to make large, regular contributions to the church while, initially in private, developing a radical new interpretation of Christianity.
Core Beliefs
The set of beliefs that eventually emerged from Marcion's thinking was known as Marcionism. It proposed that the true God of Christianity was revealed to the world only through Jesus Christ, as related in the New Testament. The Jewish God of the Old Testament, Marcion claimed, was a lesser being—a jealous, materialistic, vengeful, evil god whose created world was an inherently flawed place of misery and death.
Marcionism also went on to teach new ideas about the person of Jesus. Marcion agreed with Jews, who had refused to convert to Christianity, when he claimed that Jesus was not the Savior foretold by the Old Testament, for that figure was to be a literal warrior and political reformer.
Instead, Jesus was the messenger of a new god, the real God of Christianity who appeared in the New Testament. This God, unlike the figure of the Old Testament, was a being of benevolence, mercy, and forgiveness. According to Marcion, Jesus's only task was to convince adherents of the weak, troubled God of the Old Testament to abandon that faith and embrace the more powerful God of the New Testament.
Marcionism in the twenty-first century is regarded as part of the larger tradition of Gnosticism that circulated throughout the early Christian world. Considered heretical by Christians, Gnosticism asserted that a singular true God existed in the universe but could not actually be known by humans. Meanwhile, many lesser gods interacted with the material world. Marcion believed that the New Testament God and the Old Testament God fit into these respective categories.
Marcion developed this theology for several years after arriving in Rome. Once the doctrine had been completed, he began preaching it throughout the city, eventually acquiring a sizable community of converts. The result of this new publicity, however, was that the Roman Catholic Church became aware of his teachings and excommunicated him, or officially banned him from church membership, in 144 CE.
Undeterred, Marcion used his considerable wealth to found a church in Rome as the official headquarters of Marcionism. From here, his followers traveled extensively throughout the Roman Empire, winning new converts to the faith nearly everywhere they went.
The Church's Response
As part of his new theology, Marcion also set about compiling those Christian scriptures that he considered to be true. Although he included some books already accepted by the Catholic Church, his rejection of many others reflected the doctrines of his teachings.
As per the tenets of Marcionism, Marcion cut the entirety of the Old Testament from his compendium, since he did not approve of the God portrayed in those stories. He retained much of the New Testament but made some alterations. First he rejected all the gospels except part of the Gospel of Luke; from this Marcion excised all mentions of the Old Testament, the Jews of those books—for he believed Christianity rendered Judaism obsolete—and references to the humanity of Jesus, as he taught that Jesus never took on human flesh.
Marcion finished his compilation with ten epistles, or letters, of St. Paul, for he considered only these to contain authoritative teachings on God and Jesus. He still edited these ten, however, removing all of Paul's references to the Old Testament. Although Marcion's assembly of books was later summarily rejected as heresy by the Catholic Church, it represents the first attempt by anyone to compile a canon, or list of sacred texts, of Christian scripture.
This canon, along with Marcion's many written documents, ensured the ideas of Marcionism were read all over the Christian world. Despite the church's condemnation and excommunication of Marcion, his alternative Christian doctrines actually became more popular and influential the more the church tried to stifle them.
The growth of Marcionism eventually became such a threatening phenomenon to the Catholic Church that respectable theologians of the early church soon began arguing against the heresy through writing. These figures included Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Hippolytus. Amid their criticism of Marcionism, Irenaeus and Tertullian reported that Marcion had initially attempted to use his wealth to buy off the leadership of the Catholic Church so it would publicly support his teachings. According to the accounts, the church leaders refused outright.
Marcion remained dedicated to spreading word of his theology until his death around 160 CE. Even this, however, did not diminish the influence of Marcionism in the Roman Empire, and the doctrine remained a powerful heretical force opposed to the Catholic Church until the early 300s CE. At this point, the scattered pockets of Marcionism throughout the Christian realm quietly faded, and today the theology is counted as just one of the many heresies that arose against Christianity in the early years of the church.
Bibliography
"Marcion." ReligionFacts. ReligionFacts. Web. 29 July 2015. http://www.religionfacts.com/people/marcion
"The Persecuted Church, 90–202 A.D." Early Church History–CH101. CH101. Web. 29 July 2015. http://www.churchhistory101.com/century2-p5.php
Slick, Matt. "What Is Marcionism?" Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. Web. 29 July 2015. https://carm.org/what-is-marcionism