In Front | Workbook: The Marcionite Canon

Grab your Workbook Journal!

[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]

Luke—the least Jewish one, begins with a genealogy that starts at Adam, rather than Abraham. Marcion’s version of the Bible met stiff resistance from the Church. His decision to eliminate all biblical connections with Israel and Jesus’ Jewish heritage was viewed by church leaders as a threat to the Bible’s coherence.

The Church ultimately called Marcion’s canon heretical, or contrary to its teachings. The definitive word in this controversy belonged to Tertullian, who rebuked him in a five-book response and accused him of mutilating the Bible and attempting to rob the church of its Messiah. Near the end of his treatise, Tertullian proclaimed, on behalf of himself and other Church leaders:

We have set forth Jesus Christ as none other than the Christ of the Creator … (who fulfilled the law and was) foretold by the prophets. Marcion, I pity you; your labor has been in vain. For the Jesus Christ who appears in your Gospel is (ours).

Sources: Adolf von Harnack, History of Dogma, vol. 1, ch. 5, p. 269. Also found at http://www.ccel.org. Accessed Nov 10, 2020.

Catholic Encyclopedia, (Entry on Marcionites), 648. Also found at books.google.com. Accessed Nov 10, 2020. 

Tertullian, Against Marcion. Also found at http://www.newadvent.org. Accessed Nov 10, 2020.  

2. Describe any modern movements or figures who promote a view of the Old Testament like Marcion’s.