Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MARCION

(Gk. Markíōn),

GOSPEL OF

The first part of the 2nd-century heretic Marcion’s bipartite canon. The second part consisted of an abridgement of 10 Pauline epistles. Marcion gave these two parts the names Gospel and Apostle. Behind these names was Marcion’s conviction that there is only one Gospel (not four) and only one Apostle who understood it (Paul). The Gospel of Marcion, known only through quotation by others (esp. Tertullian Adv. Marc. 4; Epiphanius Adv. haer. 42), is essentially a version of Luke, purged of what Marcion considered judaizing corruptions. His guiding principle, which he derived from his teacher Cerdo, was the gnostic rejection of the OT God of law as different from and less than the great saving NT God of grace, whom Jesus represented. Whatever the Gospel of Marcion lacked his opponents blamed on this theological bias. They saw it clearly, e.g., in its opening statement, which combined Luke 3:1; 4:31-32 to present Jesus as “coming down to Capernaum” in the 15th year of Tiberius (not however from Nazareth, as in 4:16-30, but directly from the unknown God) and astonishing the Jews by teaching against the Law and the Prophets (the absence of most of Luke 1–4 was seen as allowing Jesus to be severed from his Jewish roots). Some differences in the Gospel of Marcion, however, are better attributed to a different (esp. “Western”) textual base and/or the influence of synoptic parallels. Attempts, finally, to say that canonical Luke was preceded by the Gospel of Marcion and dependent upon it are unconvincing.

Bibliography. A. von Harnack, Marcion: The Gospel of an Alien God (Durham, N.C., 1990); R. J. Hoffman, Marcion: On the Restitution of Christianity. AARAcad. 46 (Chico, 1984); J. Knox, Marcion and the New Testament (1942, repr. New York, 1980).

Ronald V. Huggins

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MARCION

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)