Marcion of Sinope

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Marcion of Sinope (ca. 110-160) was a Christian theologian who was excommunicated [1] by the early Christian church at Rome as a heretic. His teachings were influential during the 2nd century and a few centuries after, rivaling that of the Church of Rome. As he offered an alternative theology to the Canonical, Proto-orthodox, Trinitarian and Christological views of the Roman Church, the early Church Fathers denounced him sharply; their views dominate Christianity today.

Marcion is sometimes referred to as one of the gnostics, but from what assessment of his lost writings can be gleaned from his mainstream opponents, his teachings were quite different in nature. His canon included ten of the Pauline Epistles and one gospel[2] called the Gospel of Marcion, a rejection of the whole Hebrew Bible and of the rest of the books later incorporated into the canonical New Testament. He propounded a Christianity free from Jewish doctrines with Paul as the reliable source of authentic doctrine. Paul was, according to Marcion, the only apostle who had rightly understood the new message of salvation as delivered by Christ.[3]

Contents

[edit] Life

Biographical information about Marcion stems mostly from writings of his detractors. Hippolytus says he was the son of the bishop of Sinope (modern Sinop, Turkey), in Pontus province. Rhodon and Tertullian described him as a ship owner.[4] They further state[citation needed] that he was excommunicated by his father for seducing a virgin. However, Bart D. Ehrman's Lost Christianities suggest that his seduction of a virgin was a metaphor for his corruption of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church being the virgin.

Marcion had travelled to Rome about 142–143.[5] In the next few years, Marcion worked out his theological system and attracted a large following. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Marcion was a consecrated bishop and was probably an assistant or suffragan of his father at Sinope.[6] When conflicts with the bishops of Rome arose, Marcion began to organize his followers into a separate community. He was excommunicated by the Church of Rome around 144 and had a large donation of 200,000 sesterces returned.

After his excommunication, he returned to Asia Minor where he continued to spread his message. He created a strong ecclesiastical organization resembling the Church of Rome, and put himself as bishop.

[edit] Teachings

Main article: Marcionism

Marcionism is the dualist belief system that originates in the teachings of Marcion around the year 144.[7] Marcion affirmed Jesus Christ as the saviour sent by God and Paul as his chief apostle. Marcion declared that Christianity was distinct from and in opposition to Judaism. He rejected the entire Hebrew Bible, and declared that the God of the Hebrew Bible was a lesser demiurge, who had created the earth, and whose law, the Mosaic covenant, represented bare natural justice i.e. eye for an eye.

The premise of Marcionism is that many of the teachings of Christ are incompatible with the actions of Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament. Tertullian claimed Marcion was the first to separate the New Testament from the Old Testament[8]. Focusing on the Pauline traditions of the Gospel, Marcion felt that all other conceptions of the Gospel were opposed to the truth. He regarded Paul's arguments of law and gospel, wrath and grace, works and faith, flesh and spirit, sin and righteousness and death and life as the essence of religious truth. He ascribed these aspects and characteristics as two principles: the righteous and wrathful God of the Old Testament, the creator of the world, and a second God of the Gospel who is purely love and mercy and who was revealed by Jesus.[9]

His canon consisted of eleven books: his own version of the Gospel of Luke, and ten of Paul's epistles. All other epistles and gospels of the New Testament were rejected.[10]

[edit] Legacy

The church that Marcion founded had expanded throughout the known world within his lifetime, and was a serious rival to the Catholic church. Its adherents were strong enough in their convictions to have the church retain its expansive power for more than a century. It survived heathen persecution, Christian controversy, and imperial disapproval for several centuries more.[11]

The Roman Polycarp called him "the first born of Satan."[12] His numerous critics also included Ephraim of Syria, Dionysius of Corinth, Theophilus of Antioch, Philip of Gortyna, Hippolytus and Rhodo in Rome, Bardesanes at Edessa, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen. Nevertheless, "not even Tertullian can find any strictures to pass on the morals of Marcion or his adherents"[13]

Some ideas of Marcion's reappeared with Manichaean developments among the Bulgarian Bogomils of the 10th century and their Cathar heirs of southern France in the 13th century.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem, a near-contemprary polemic.
  2. ^ Eusebius, Church History]]; apparently it was the Gospel of Luke, with some excisions; see David Salter Williams, "Reconsidering Marcion's Gospel", Journal of Biblical Literature 108 (1989), p.477-96.
  3. ^ The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article on Marcion
  4. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia
  5. ^ Tertullian dates the beginning of Marcion's teachings 115 years after the Crucifixion, which he placed in AD 26–27 (Adversus Marcionem, xix).
  6. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia
  7. ^ 115 years and 6 months from the Crucifixion, according to Tertullian's reckoning in Adversus Marcionem, xv
  8. ^ Everett Ferguson, in McDonald and Sanders, editors, The Canon Debate, 2002, chapter 18, p. 310, quoting Tertullian's De praescriptione haereticorum 30: "Since Marcion separated the New Testament from the Old, he is necessarily subsequent to that which he separated, inasmuch as it was only in his power to separate what was previously united. Having been united previous to its separation, the fact of its subsequent separation proves the subsequence also of the man who effected the separation." Page 308, note 61 adds: "[Wolfram] Kinzig suggests that it was Marcion who usually called his Bible testamentum [Latin for testament]."
  9. ^ Adolf von Harnack, History of Dogma, vol. 1, ch. 5, p. 269
  10. ^ Eusebius' Church History
  11. ^ Evans 1972 p. ix
  12. ^ And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who met him on one occasion, and said, “Dost thou know me?” “I do know thee, the first-born of Satan.” (Irenaeus, Adv. Haer., III.3.4.)
  13. ^ Evans 1972 p. xiv

[edit] References

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