What Marcion said

The Marcionite church became well-established around Asia Minor and around 140 AD was a formidable challenge to the early church. It counted time from the date when Marcion had broken in Rome with the Judaistic church and called Marcion ‘The Bishop.’ Tertullian wrote, Marcion’s heretical teaching has filled the whole world.’ (adv Marc. 19, Harnack p19) Marcion believed in a Duality – on the one side malicious, petty and cruel punitive deity, and on the other hand merciful love. Even from the most elevating and comforting words of the OT ‘there peers forth, now unmasked, the frightful countenance of the cruel god of the Jews’ (A Harnack, Marcion Gospel of the Alien god 1990, p22)

Ah, how true!

Marcion was a native of Sinope, a Greek commercial city on the Black Sea, born around 85 AD. There is a rumour that he was excommunicated by his own father because he had seduced a virgin. He journeyed to Asia Minor maybe Ephesus and met Bishop Polycarp, who said ‘I recognize you as the firstborn of Satan,’ thus rejecting Marcion’s dualism. He then journeyed to Rome, in his own ship. He gave the Roman Christian church 200,000 sesterces. He wanted to purge the new church of undue Judaistic elements. It is probable that he began composing his great work Antitheses while in Rome, to argue for two different gods. A formal hearing was held in AD144 where Marcion based his argument on Luke 6:43 (‘the good and the corrupt tree’)and 5:36 (new wine, old wineskins’) concerning how the new gospel was not a fulfilment of the OT but stood in antithesis to it. His argument was rejected as ‘the worst kind of heresy’ and his 200,000 sesterces returned.

His church spread through all the provinces of the empire – he was no sectarian, but he established one great church. His Antitheses probably began with the gripping cry of jubilation: ‘O wonder beyond wonders, rapture, power, and amazement is it, that one can say nothing at all about the gospel, now even conceive of it, nor compare it with anything’ – which text, because of its fairly meaningless content, was presumably allowed to endure. Otherwise all trace of his writings have vanished forever from the world. From his critics however it is reckoned he often used the word ‘new’ as in: ‘new God’ ‘the new kingdom’ Christ as ‘new master and proprietor of the elements,’ ‘new miracle’  ‘a novel institution of Christ’ in cancelling the Sabbath commandment, ‘new benevolence of Christ’ etc.

 Marcion would allude to the theft of Egyptian gold and silver vessels by the departing Hebrews as showing the ethically-depraved deity guiding them. His view of the OT was that it did have some things in it that were inspired by Christ, however in general a fiery angel who fell away from the deity and became ‘superintendent of evil’ (‘praeses mali’) had spoken to Moses out of a burning bush and led astray the Jewish people: The same fiery angel, the gainsayer and lying spirit, is the source of the book of lies, the Old Testament, which is full of fables, absurdities, contradictions and factual and logical impossibilities.’ (Harnack p.120)

It required all of the energy of the early church to suppress the Marcionite churches. Still in the 5^th century there were whole Marcionite villages in Cyprus (E. Blackman, Marcion and his Influence, p.4). Marcionites allowed women to hold office in a church. His church was anti-heirarchical, all members were equal. Almost every prominent Christian writer in the 2^nd half of the 2^nd century, from Justin to Tertullian, felt obliged to publish a book against Marcion. It was the greatest heresy! Tertullian wrote five books against Marcion.

NB -somebody reckons Marcion is Canonized as a saint, in AD 2012! Quite right too...
Under Covenant of One-Heaven (Pactum De Singularis Caelum) by Special Qualification shall be known as a Saint, Seymour Light is glad that someone agrees with him..... That site is an

"Organisation for the unified understanding, revelation and truth of Evil" - nothing is more important than that, that is for sure!

There is a Marcionite Research Library with relevant scriptures.