Apocryphal collection · Jewish-Christian and lost · 2 min read
Gospel of Marcion
The first Christian "canon" and the unknown God
The full text of this study is in Portuguese; the summary, key points and official view are in English.
Around AD 140, Marcion, a wealthy shipowner from Sinope, on the Black Sea, arrived in Rome with a radical proposal: the God of Jesus was not the creator God of the Old Testament, but a good and unknown God. To support this, he put together the first known collection of Christian books: a gospel (a version of Luke without Jesus’s childhood) and ten letters of Paul. The gospel begins with Jesus “coming down” to Capernaum in the fifteenth year of Tiberius. It has been reconstructed from the refutations of Tertullian and Epiphanius.
Key points
- Marcion was excommunicated in Rome in 144.
- His canon: the Evangelion (similar to Luke) and the Apostolikon (ten letters of Paul).
- Main sources: Tertullian, Against Marcion, book IV, and Epiphanius, Panarion 42.
- He rejected the Old Testament and the creator God, whom he considered just but not good.
- His church lasted for centuries, above all in the East.
What scholars say
Most scholars still see Marcion’s gospel as an edition of Luke. Its historical importance is enormous: the reaction to Marcion accelerated the formation of the Christian canon.
Keep investigating
- Gospel of Truth A poetic sermon about error, fog and the book of the living
- Gospel of the Hebrews The Spirit as mother and the appearance to James the Just
Other languages: Português · Español
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