Marcion of Sinope

Lore & Background

Marcion was born the son of a bishop in Pontus, likely Philologus of Sinope. He was described as a 'mariner' and a 'ship-master' by early writers. Irenaeus writes that a certain Cerdo taught that the God of the Law and Prophets is not the Father of Jesus Christ, and that Marcion and the Gnostic Valentinus were companions in Rome.

Reader's Guide

Marcion's significance lies in his early codification of a Christian canon, consisting of a shorter version of the Gospel of Luke (the Evangelikon) and ten Pauline epistles (the Apostolikon). This forced the proto-orthodox Church to define its own canon. His ditheistic system distinguished a higher, compassionate God from the Demiurge, the creator god of the Hebrew Bible, whom he saw as vengeful. Marcion held that Christianity was in complete discontinuity with Judaism. He understood Jesus' incarnation in a docetic manner, denying Jesus' physical birth, death, and resurrection. Although sometimes described as a Gnostic, Marcion differed from Gnostics: he held there were only two gods, not many; he did not see the world as a cosmic disaster but as the creation of the Old Testament God; and he did not believe in divine sparks within humans. The Marcionite church expanded greatly within his lifetime and survived for centuries. Adolf von Harnack viewed him as a 2nd-century 'Martin Luther.'

Did You Know?

• Marcion published the earliest record of a canon of New Testament books.
• Some contemporary scholars, such as Matthias Klinghardt, have theorized that Marcion's Gospel was the oldest, though this is contested.
• Marcion produced a book titled Antitheses, now lost, contrasting the Demiurge of the Old Testament with the Heavenly Father of the New Testament.