Marcion of Sinope

Marcion of Sinope
Marcion of Sinope
	Apostle John (left) and (according toEisler) Marcion of Sinope (right), fromMorgan LibraryMS 748, 11th century.
Born	AD 85; Sinope,Bithynia and Pontus,Roman Empire
Died	AD 160; Roman Anatolia,Roman Empire
Notable work	Gospel of Marcion
	Theological work
Era	Patristic age
Tradition or movement	Marcionism
Main interests	Dualism,Nontrinitarianism

Marcion of Sinope(/ˈmɑːrkiən,-siən/;Ancient Greek:Μαρκίων^[2]^{[note 1]}Σινώπης;c. 85– c. 160) was atheologian^[3]inearly Christianity.^[3]^[4]Marcion preached thatGodhad sentJesus Christ,who was distinct from the "vengeful" God (Demiurge) who had created the world.^[3]^[4]^[5]He considered himself a follower ofPaul the Apostle,whom he believed to have been the only trueapostleof Jesus Christ; his doctrine is calledMarcionism.^[3]^[4]^[6]Marcion published the earliest record of a canon of New Testament books.^[3]^[7]

Early Church Fatherssuch asJustin Martyr,Irenaeus,andTertulliandenounced Marcion as ahereticor antichrist,^[8]and he was excommunicated by the church ofRomearound 144.^[9]He published his owncanonofChristian sacred scriptures,^[3]^[10]^[11]which contained tenPauline epistles(thePastoral epistleswere not included) and theGospel of Marcionwhich historically is claimed to be an edited version of theGospel of Luke.^[3]^[12]Some modern scholars^[who?]have theorized thatMarcion's Gospel was the oldest,although this has beencontested.

This made Marcionism a catalyst in the process of thedevelopment of the New Testament canonby forcing theproto-orthodox Churchto respond to his canon.^[3]^[13]

Life

Epiphaniusrecords in hisPanarionthat Marcion was born the son of a bishop inPontus(modern-day Turkey), likelyPhilologus of Sinope.^[14]RhodoandTertullian,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 200,000sestercesto the congregation there.^[9]^[15]Conflicts with the church of Rome arose and he was eventuallyexcommunicatedin 144, his donation being returned to him.^[16]

According to Christian sources, Marcion's teacher was theSimonian Cerdo.Irenaeuswrites that "a certain Cerdo, originating from the Simonians, came to Rome underHyginus[...] 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,1, 27, 1). Also, according to them, Marcion and the GnosticValentinuswere companions in Rome.^[17]

In 394, Epiphanius claimed that after beginnings as anascetic,Marcion seduced avirginand was accordingly excommunicated by his father, prompting him to leave his home town.^[18]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,^[19]and that Marcion apparently has become "the victim of the historicisation of such a metaphor, even though it contradicts the otherwise firm tradition of his strict sexual probity".^[20]^: 102Doubtful is Tertullian's claim inThe Prescription Against Heretics(writtenc. 200) 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.^[21]

Marcionite Church

The Marcionite church expanded greatly within Marcion's lifetime, becoming a major rival to theother emerging church.After his death, it retained its following and survived Christian controversy and imperial disapproval for several centuries.^[22]Several theologians have viewed him as a proto-protestant.^[23]

Teachings

Study of theHebrew Bible,along with received writings circulating in the nascent Church, led Marcion to conclude that many of theteachings of Jesuswere incompatible with the actions ofYahweh,characterized as the belligerent god of theHebrew Bible.Marcion responded by developing aditheisticsystem of belief around the year 144.^{[note 2]}This notion of two gods—a higher transcendent one and a lower world-creator and ruler—allowed Marcion to reconcile his perceived contradictions between ChristianCovenant theologyandthe gospelproclaimed by theNew Testament.

In contrast to other leaders of the nascent Christian Church, however, Marcion declared that Christianity was in complete discontinuity withJudaismand 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 theGenesisaccount of Yahweh walking through theGarden of Edenasking where Adam was, proved that Yahweh inhabited a physical body and was withoutuniversal knowledge,attributes wholly incompatible with the Heavenly Father professed by Jesus.

According to Marcion, the god of theOld Testament,whom he called theDemiurge,thecreatorof the materialuniverse,is a jealoustribal deityof theJews,whoselawrepresentslegalistic reciprocal justiceand 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 titledAntitheses,which is no longer extant,^[24]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 theincarnationin adoceticmanner, 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 Christiancanon.His canon consisted of only eleven books, grouped into two sections: theEvangelikon,a shorter version of the Gospel of Luke, and theApostolikon,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.^[25]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.^[5]^[26]^[27]^[28]Like theGospel of Mark,the gospel used by Marcion did not contain elements relating to hisbirthand 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.^[29]

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.^[6]In Marcion's view, the other apostles were under the auspices of the Demiurge.^[24]

Gnosticism

Marcion is sometimes described as aGnosticphilosopher. 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.^[6]

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 aDivine Spark).^[30]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.^[30]According toBart Ehrman:"Marcion himself should not be thought of as a Gnostic; he held that there were onlytwo 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, hisdoceticview does not appear to have been the typical view of Gnostics. "^[31]

Notes

^Genitive:Μαρκίωνος
^115 years and six months from theCrucifixion,according toTertullian's reckoning inAdversus Marcionem,xv.

References

^Eisler, Robert (1938). The Enigma of the Fourth Apostle, Methuen & Co.,p. 158, plate XIII).
^First Apology of Justin Martyr,XXVI.5
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^hEhrman, Bart D.(2005) [2003]."At Polar Ends of the Spectrum: Early Christian Ebionites and Marcionites".Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew.Oxford:Oxford University Press.pp. 95–112.doi:10.1017/s0009640700110273.ISBN 978-0-19-518249-1.LCCN 2003053097.S2CID 152458823.
^^a ^b ^cDunn, James D. G.(2016).""The Apostle of the Heretics": Paul, Valentinus, and Marcion ".InPorter, Stanley E.;Yoon, David (eds.).Paul and Gnosis.Pauline Studies. Vol. 9.LeidenandBoston:Brill Publishers.pp. 105–118.doi:10.1163/9789004316690_008.ISBN 978-90-04-31668-3.LCCN 2016009435.S2CID 171394481.
^^a ^bBeDuhn 2015,p. 165.
^^a ^b ^cKnox 1942,p. 7.
^Westcott, Brooke Foss (1870).A general survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament, during the first four centuries.
^Kaatz, K.W. (2012).Early Controversies and the Growth of Christianity.Praeger Series on the Ancient World. ABC-CLIO. p. 44.ISBN 978-0-313-38360-1.Retrieved2023-08-12.
^^a ^bHarnack 1921,p. 17.
^Bruce 1988, p. 134.
^Knox 1942,p. 19.
^BeDuhn 2015,p. 166.
^Knox 1942,p. 3.
^"The Gospel of Marcion".gnosis.org.Retrieved2021-08-15.
^Knox 1942,p. 5.
^Harnack 1921,p. 18.
^Bernard Green,Christianity in Ancient Rome: The First Three Centuries
^Refutation of All Heresies,XLII, ii.
^Bart D. Ehrman,Lost ChristianitiesConf. Beyschlag, Karlmann. "Herkunft und Eigenart der Papiasfragmente." Pages 268–80 in Studia Patristica 4: Papers Presented to the 3rd International Conference on Patristic Studies at Christ Church, Oxford, 21–26 September 1959. Edited by Frank L. Cross. TU 79. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1961, p. 276
^Lieu, Judith M (2015).Marcion and the Making of a Heretic. God and Scripture in the Second Century.Cambridge.
^The Prescription Against Heretics30:3. Tertullian.org.
^Evans 1972 p. ix
^Welchman, A. (2014).Politics of Religion/Religions of Politics.Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures. Springer Netherlands. p. 21.ISBN 978-94-017-9448-0.Retrieved2023-06-11.
^^a ^bBadiou, Alain(2003).Saint Paul: the foundation of universalism.Stanford, Calif.:Stanford University Press.p. 35.ISBN 0-8047-4470-X.OCLC 51093150.
^Robert J. Wilkinson (5 February 2015).Tetragrammaton: Western Christians and the Hebrew Name of God: From the Beginnings to the Seventeenth Century.BRILL. pp. 120–.ISBN 978-90-04-28817-1.
^Klinghardt 2008,p. 6-10.
^Knox 1942,p. 164ff.
^Hoffmann 1984.
^Klinghardt 2008,p. 7.
^^a ^bHarnack 1900,pp. vol. I, 267–313, vol. II, 1–19.
^Ehrman, Bart D. (2014-03-25). "Chapter 8. After the New Testament: Christological Dead Ends of the Second and Third Centuries".How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee.Harper Collins.ISBN 978-0-06-225219-7.

Sources

BeDuhn, Jason(2015)."The New Marcion"(PDF).Forum.3(Fall 2015): 163–179. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2019-05-25.Retrieved2019-06-21.
Blackman, E.C.Marcion and His Influence[1948] 2004.ISBN 978-1-59244-731-2.
Bruce, F. F.(1988).The Canon of Scripture.InterVarsity Press.ISBN 978-0-8308-1258-5.
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)1989ISBN 0-915170-20-5.
Dahl, Nils Alstrup. "The Origin of the Earliest Prologues to the Pauline Letters",Semeia12 (1978), pp. 233–277.
Epiphanius of Salamis.The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book 1 (Sects 1-46)Frank Williams translator, 1987.ISBN 90-04-07926-2.
Evans, Ernest (comments and translation):Tertullian,Against Marcion(Oxford University Press, 1972).E-text ofAdversus Marcionemand Evan's introduction "Marcion: His Doctrine and Influence"
Grant, Robert M.Marcion and the Critical MethodPeter Richardson & John Collidge Hurd, eds., From Jesus to Paul. Studies in Honour of Francis Wright Beare. Waterloo, ON, 1984. pp. 207–215.
Harnack, Adolf(1900).History of Dogma.Translated by Buchanan, Neil.
Harnack, Adolf(1921).Marcion: The Gospel of the Alien God.Translated by Steely, John E.; Bierma, Lyle D. Grand Rapids: Baker.ISBN 978-1-55635-703-9.
Hoffmann, R. Joseph(1984).Marcion, on the Restitution of Christianity: An Essay on the Development of Radical Paulist Theology in the Second Century.Chico, Calif: Scholars Press.ISBN 0-89130-638-2.
Knox, John (1942).Marcion and the New Testament: An Essay in the Early History of the Canon.Chicago: Chicago University Press.ISBN 978-0404161835..
Klinghardt, Matthias(2008). "The Marcionite Gospel and the Synoptic Problem: A New Suggestion".Novum Testamentum.50(1): 1–27.doi:10.1163/156853608X257527.JSTOR 25442581.
Livingstone, E. A.The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.),pp. 1033–34, 1997ISBN 0-19-211655-X.
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.LCCN 64-24125.
Mitchell, Charles W., ed. (1912).S. Ephraim's Prose Refutations of Mani, Marcion, and Bardaisan.Vol. 1. London: Text and Translation Society.
Mitchell, Charles W.;Bevan, Anthony A.;Burkitt, Francis C.,eds. (1921).S. Ephraim's Prose Refutations of Mani, Marcion, and Bardaisan.Vol. 2. London: Text and Translation Society.
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.ISBN 978-3-03911-490-0.
Sproul, R.C.,How Then Shall We Worship?.Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2013.ISBN 978-1-4347-0424-5p. 16.
Williams, David Salter. "Reconsidering Marcion's Gospel",Journal of Biblical Literature108 (1989), pp. 477–96
Wilson, R. S.Marcion: A Study of a Second-Century Heretic(London: Clarke) 1933.

External links

Marcion's Writings (at the Gnosis Archive):Marcion: Gospel of the Lord and Other Writings
Marcionite Research Library
The Marcionite Prologues to the Pauline Epistles

[3] Genitive:Μαρκίωνος

[25] 115 years and six months from theCrucifixion,according toTertullian's reckoning inAdversus Marcionem,xv.

[1] Eisler, Robert (1938). The Enigma of the Fourth Apostle, Methuen & Co.,p. 158, plate XIII).

[2] First Apology of Justin Martyr,XXVI.5

[Ehrman_2005-4] ^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^hEhrman, Bart D.(2005) [2003]."At Polar Ends of the Spectrum: Early Christian Ebionites and Marcionites".Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew.Oxford:Oxford University Press.pp. 95–112.doi:10.1017/s0009640700110273.ISBN 978-0-19-518249-1.LCCN 2003053097.S2CID 152458823.

[Dunn_2016-5] Dunn, James D. G.(2016).""The Apostle of the Heretics": Paul, Valentinus, and Marcion ".InPorter, Stanley E.;Yoon, David (eds.).Paul and Gnosis.Pauline Studies. Vol. 9.LeidenandBoston:Brill Publishers.pp. 105–118.doi:10.1163/9789004316690_008.ISBN 978-90-04-31668-3.LCCN 2016009435.S2CID 171394481.

[FOOTNOTEBeDuhn2015165-6] BeDuhn 2015,p. 165.

[FOOTNOTEKnox19427-7] Knox 1942,p. 7.

[8] Westcott, Brooke Foss (1870).A general survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament, during the first four centuries.

[Kaatz_2012_p._44-9] Kaatz, K.W. (2012).Early Controversies and the Growth of Christianity.Praeger Series on the Ancient World. ABC-CLIO. p. 44.ISBN 978-0-313-38360-1.Retrieved2023-08-12.

[FOOTNOTEHarnack192117-10] Harnack 1921,p. 17.

[bruce-134-11] Bruce 1988, p. 134.

[FOOTNOTEKnox194219-12] Knox 1942,p. 19.

[FOOTNOTEBeDuhn2015166-13] BeDuhn 2015,p. 166.

[FOOTNOTEKnox19423-14] Knox 1942,p. 3.

[15] "The Gospel of Marcion".gnosis.org.Retrieved2021-08-15.

[FOOTNOTEKnox19425-16] Knox 1942,p. 5.

[FOOTNOTEHarnack192118-17] Harnack 1921,p. 18.

[18] Bernard Green,Christianity in Ancient Rome: The First Three Centuries

[19] Refutation of All Heresies,XLII, ii.

[20] Bart D. Ehrman,Lost ChristianitiesConf. Beyschlag, Karlmann. "Herkunft und Eigenart der Papiasfragmente." Pages 268–80 in Studia Patristica 4: Papers Presented to the 3rd International Conference on Patristic Studies at Christ Church, Oxford, 21–26 September 1959. Edited by Frank L. Cross. TU 79. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1961, p. 276

[21] Lieu, Judith M (2015).Marcion and the Making of a Heretic. God and Scripture in the Second Century.Cambridge.

[22] The Prescription Against Heretics30:3. Tertullian.org.

[23] Evans 1972 p. ix

[Welchman_2014_p._21-24] Welchman, A. (2014).Politics of Religion/Religions of Politics.Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures. Springer Netherlands. p. 21.ISBN 978-94-017-9448-0.Retrieved2023-06-11.

[:0-26] Badiou, Alain(2003).Saint Paul: the foundation of universalism.Stanford, Calif.:Stanford University Press.p. 35.ISBN 0-8047-4470-X.OCLC 51093150.

[Wilkinson2015-27] Robert J. Wilkinson (5 February 2015).Tetragrammaton: Western Christians and the Hebrew Name of God: From the Beginnings to the Seventeenth Century.BRILL. pp. 120–.ISBN 978-90-04-28817-1.

[FOOTNOTEKlinghardt20086-10-28] Klinghardt 2008,p. 6-10.

[FOOTNOTEKnox1942164ff-29] Knox 1942,p. 164ff.

[FOOTNOTEHoffmann1984-30] Hoffmann 1984.

[FOOTNOTEKlinghardt20087-31] Klinghardt 2008,p. 7.

[FOOTNOTEHarnack1900vol._I,_267–313,_vol._II,_1–19-32] Harnack 1900,pp. vol. I, 267–313, vol. II, 1–19.

[33] Ehrman, Bart D. (2014-03-25). "Chapter 8. After the New Testament: Christological Dead Ends of the Second and Third Centuries".How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee.Harper Collins.ISBN 978-0-06-225219-7.

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