Marcion's canon was much less than what was already accepted as scripture by Christians in general. Roman Catholic and Orthodox get Marcion wrong:. Father James Bernstein, an Orthodox church leader wrote:.
Many scholars believe that it was partly in reaction to this distorted canon of Marcion that the early Church determined to create a clearly defined canon of its own. James Bernstein, Orthodox churchman, , p 7. Refutation of James Bernstein Orthodox :. It is clear from our documentation that most scholars today reject the idea that Marcion had any direct influence on the development of the canon.
But the Orthodox church wants to desperately to believe that there was no Bible till the 4th century and that church tradition was the rule of the day. The consensus of scholars is the Marcion started with a larger list of New Testament books and from this list of universally known inspired books, started removing books from the list.
Marcion clearly proves that all the writings of Paul were considered inspired and universally distributed. The Orthodox church practices countless things the contradict the writings of Paul. By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
The Canon of Marcion the heretic A conservative, bible believing perspective! By AD, at age 34, Marcion had caused such a stir, that his teachings were the subject of an investigation and condemnation. What did Marcion believe that made him a dangerous heretic: Marcion believed that the God of the Old Testament was an evil creator god that Jesus came to destroy. Marcion believed that this evil god did in fact reveal his will through the Old Testament.
Thus he believed in the "inspiration" of the Old Testament from divine sources, although from an evil source. Marcion accepted only the gospel of Luke to the exclusion of the other three gospels. This is a very different way of looking at the Marcionite New Testament, and scholars will need to compare the edition reconstructed by Jason BeDuhn to determine how this changes our view of how early Christianity developed.
For example, the Evangelion is much shorter than the Gospel of Luke, and it is not clear whether they were both written by the same person for different communities, or if a later editor added new material to the Gospel of Luke. Also, BeDuhn found that the Marcionite version of Romans is completely different, yet this text has been used by some scholars as a key to Pauline theology. Regardless of how these findings eventually play out in scholarly discussion and debates, BeDuhn identifies four significant contributions of Marcion to Christian history:.
Does he agree with St. Paul that Jesus is the Jewish messiah that died for our sins and saved us as a ransom for his Father? Does he believe that Jesus is the ontological son of God which qualifies him to satisfy the anger of God for the sins of Adam and Eve?
Thanks, Anthony. Certainly Marcion would not have considered Jesus to be a specifically Jewish messiah. Westar Institute fosters collaborative, cumulative research in religious studies and communicates the results of the scholarship to a broad, non-specialist public. Available from Polebridge Press. You might also like When Was Acts Written? Not in the First Century. Sex and Gender in Early Christianity.
The code of conduct advocated by Moses was 'an eye for an eye' , but Christ set this precept aside. Elisha had had children eaten by bears; Christ said, 'Let the little children come to me'. Joshua had stopped the sun in its path in order to continue the slaughter of his enemies; Paul quoted Christ as commanding, 'Let not the sun go down on your wrath'. In the Old Testament divorce was permitted and so was polygamy; but in the New Testament neither is allowed.
Moses enforced the Jewish Sabbath and Law; Christ has freed believers from both. Even within the Old Testament, Marcion found contradictions. God commanded that no work should be done on the Sabbath, yet he told the Israelites to carry the ark around Jericho 7 times on the Sabbath.
No graven image was to be made, yet Moses was directed to fashion a bronze serpent. The deity revealed in the Old Testament could not have been omniscient, otherwise he would not have asked, 'Adam where are you?
Marcion, therefore, rejected the entire Old Testament. In his opinion the 12 apostles misunderstood the teaching of Christ, and, holding him to be the Messiah of the Jewish God, falsified his words from that standpoint. Passages that Marcion could regard only as Judaizing interpolations, that had been smuggled into the text by biased editors, had to be removed so the authentic text of Gospel and Apostle could once again be available.
After these changes, the Gospel according to Luke became the Evangelicon , and the 10 Pauline letters, the Apostolikon. Marcion's canon accelerated the process of fixing the Church's canon, which had already begun in the first half of the 2nd century. It was in opposition to Marcion's criticism that the Church first became fully conscious of its inheritance of apostolic writings. According to [Grant] p. Marcion and the Gospel according to Luke Marcion believed there was one true gospel which had been corrupted into many versions.
He explained the corruption on the basis of Galatians in which Paul emphasizes that there is only one gospel and states that false brethren are attempting to turn believers from this gospel
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