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Marcionism was denounced as Heresy , and written against; notably by Tertullian , in a five-book treatise ''Adversus Marcionem'', written about 208. However, the strictures against Marcionism predate the authority, claimed by the First Council Of Nicaea in 325 , to declare what is heretical against the Church . Marcion's writings are lost, though they were widely read and numerous manuscripts must have existed. Even so, many scholars (including Henry Wace ) claim it is possible to reconstruct and deduce a large part of ancient Marcionism through what later critics, especially Tertullian, said concerning Marcion. HISTORY Main article: Marcion Of Sinope The ecclesiastical organization known as Marcionism began with the Excommunication of Marcion from the Church Of Rome around 144. Marcion was a rich Christian from Pontus , the son of a bishop; he arrived in Rome circa 140 , soon after Bar Kokhba's Revolt . That revolution, along with other Jewish-Roman Wars (the Great Jewish Revolt and the Kitos War ), provides some of the historical context of the founding of Marcionism. Marcion used his personal wealth, returned to him after he'd donated it to the Church of Rome, to fund an ecclesiastical organization. This organization grew to rival that of the Church of Rome; for this reason, they are considered by the Roman Catholic Church to have been the most dangerous foe Christianity has ever known. "Marcionites" by J.P. Arendzen. ''The Catholic Encylopedia'', 1910. Marcionism continued in the West for 300 years, although Marcionistic ideas persisted much longer. Berdyaev Online Library The organization continued in the is believed to have been a Mandaean , and Mandaeanism is related to Marcionism in several ways. For example, both Mandaeanism and Marcionism are characterized by a belief in a Demiurge . The Marcionite organization itself is today extinct, although Mandaeanism is not. Mandaean Official Site TEACHINGS An ordained bishop of Sinope, Asia Minor , Marcion declared that Christianity was distinct from and in opposition to Judaism. This was nothing new to the church of his contemporaries. Indeed, a great number of early church fathers attacked Judaism; for example, St. John Chrysostom believed that Jews "worship the devil". Marcion went much further, rejecting the entire Hebrew Bible , and declaring that the God of the Hebrew Bible was a lesser '' Demiurge '', who had created the earth, but was (de-facto) the source of evil. The premise of Marcionism is that many of the teachings of on record. Marcionites hold is not a Jewish Messiah , but a spiritual entity that was sent by the Monad to reveal the truth about existence, and thus allowing humanity to escape the earthly trap of the demiurge. Marcion called God, the Stranger God, or the Alien God, in some translations, as this deity had not had any previous interactions with the world, and was wholly unknown. Marcionism is not identical to, but is related to, the various beliefs together called in silent contempt; but he could not refuse to discuss the question raised by Marcion, whether there is such opposition between different parts of what he regards as the word of God, that all cannot come from the same author." A primary difference between Marcionites and Gnostics was that the Gnostics based their theology on secret wisdom (as, for example, Valentinius found in the Letters Of Paul ) of which they claimed to be in possession, whereas Marcion based his theology on the contents of the Letters of Paul and the recorded sayings of Jesus — in other words, an argument from scripture, with Marcion defining what was and was not scripture. The Christology of the Marcionites was primarily Docetic , denying the human nature of Christ. Scholars of early Christianity disagree on whether to classify Marcion as a gnostic: Adolf Von Harnack does not classify Marcion as a gnostic, whereas GRS Mead does. Article on Adolf Von Harnack Marcionism makes certain points of contact with Gnosticism in its view that the creator of the material world is not the true deity, rejection of materialism and affirmation of a transcedent spiritual realm, the belief Jesus was sent by the "True" God to save humanity, the central role of Jesus in revealing the requirements of salvation, the belief Paul had a special place in the transmission of this "wisdom", Marcionism shows the influence of Hellenistic philosophy on Christianity, and presents a moral critique of the Old Testament from the standpoint of Platonism . According to Harnack, the sect may have led other Christians to introduce a formal statement of beliefs into their liturgy (see Creed ) and to formulate a canon of authoritative Scripture of their own, thus eventually producing the current canon of the New Testament. "As for the main question, however, whether he knew of, or assumes the existence of, a written New Testament of the Church in any sense whatever, in this case an affirmatory answer is most improbable, because if this were so he would have been compelled to make a direct attack upon the New Testament of the Church, and if such an attack had been made we should have heard of it from Tertullian. Marcion, on the contrary, treats the Catholic Church as one that 'follows the Testament of the Creator-God,' and directs the full force of his attack against this Testament and against the falsification of the Gospel and of the Pauline Epistles by the original Apostles and the writers of the Gospels. He would necessarily have dealt with the two Testaments of the Catholic Church if the Church had already possessed a New Testament. His polemic would necessarily have been much less simple if he had been opposed to a Church which, by possessing a New Testament side by side with the Old Testament, had ''ipso facto'' placed the latter under the shelter of the former. In fact Marcion’s position towards the Catholic Church is intelligible, in the full force of its simplicity, only under the supposition that the Church had not yet in her hand any 'litera scripta ''Novi Testamenti''.'"Harnack, ''Origin of the New Testament'', appendix 6, pp. 222-23 CRITICISMS According to a remark by Origen (''Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew'' 15.3), Marcion "prohibited allegorical interpretations of the scripture". Tertullian disputed this in his treatise against Marcion, as did Henry Wace : The story proceeds to say that he asked the Roman presbyters to explain the texts, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit," and "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment," texts from which he himself deduced that works in which evil is to be found could not proceed from the good God, and that the Christian dispensation could have nothing in common with the Jewish. Rejecting the explanation offered him by the presbyters, he broke off the interview with a threat to make a schism in their church. Wace's article on Marcion Tertullian, along with claimed, " salvation will be the attainment only of those souls which had learned his doctrine; while the body, as having been taken from the earth, is incapable of sharing in salvation."''Against Heresies'', [http://ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-58.htm#P6650_1591742 1.27.3 Tertullian also attacked this view in ''De Carne Christi''. Hippolytus reported that Marcion's phantasmal (and Docetist) Christ was "revealed as a man, though not a man", and did not really die on the cross. Tertullian ''Adversus Marcionem'' ("Against Marcion") , translated and edited by Ernest Evans However, Ernest Evans, in editing this work, observes: This may not have been Marcion's own belief. It was certainly that of Hermogenes (cf. Tertullian, ''Adversus Hermogenem'') and probably other gnostics and Marcionites, who held that the intractability of this matter explains the world's many imperfections. Because of the rejection of the Old Testament which originates in the Jewish Bible , the Marcionites are believed by some Christian s to be Anti-Semitic . Indeed, the word ''Marcionism'' is sometimes used in modern times to refer to anti- Jewish tendencies in Christian churches, especially when such tendencies are thought to be surviving residues of ancient Marcionism. For example, on its web site, the Tawahedo Church of Ethiopia claims to be the only Christian church that is fully free of Marcionism. On the other hand, Marcion did not claim Christians to be the ''New Israel'' of Replacement Theology , and did not try to use the Hebrew scriptures to support his views. Marcion himself does not appear to be anti-Semitic. Marcion is believed to have imposed a severe morality on his followers, some of whom suffered in the persecutions. In particular, he refused to re-admit those who recanted their faith under Roman persecution. Others of his followers, such as Apelles , created their own sects with variant teachings. MODERN MARCIONISM Historic Marcionism, and the church Marcion himself established, appeared to die out around the fifth century. However, Marcion's influence and criticism of the Old Testament are discussed to this very day. Marcionism is discussed in recent textbooks on early Christianity, such as ''Lost Christianities'' by Bart Ehrman. Marcion claimed to find problems in the Old Testament; problems which many modern thinkers cite today, especially its alleged approval of atrocities and genocide. Many and Norman Geisler , have dedicated much of their time to the attempt to resolve these perceived difficulties. For some, the alleged problems of the Old Testament, and the appeal of Jesus are such that they identify themselves as modern day Marcionite, and follow his solution in keeping the New Testament as sacred scripture, and rejecting the Old Testament canon and practices. Carroll R. Bierbower is a pastor of a church he says is Marcionite in theology and practice. The Antithesis , by Dr. Carroll R. Bierbower. The Cathar Church, the assembly of Good Christians, call themselves "a 'New Testament Church'" and do not use the Old Testament as part of their scripture. The and Thomas Paine are famous Christian Deist s. Thinkers as diverse as Voltaire , Charles Dickens , Charles Darwin , Mohandas Gandhi , and Albert Einstein have expressed disapproval of Jehovah of the Old Testament, and admiration for Jesus. Simone Weil has been described as a modern day Marcionite. Some observers of mainstream Christianity, such as John Spong in Sins Of Scripture , have noticed that mainstream Christians have opposed Grace with the Law, or believe the New Testament Covenant has superseded the Old Covenant, primarily study and utilize the New Testament, and that these ideas are echoes of Marcion. Allegedly contraversial passages of the Old Testament are rarely, if ever, discussed or sermonized in mainstream churches. Of course, normative Judaism has always agreed with Marcion that Jesus is not the Messiah predicted by the Old Testament, do not believe Jesus is God, reject the doctrine of the Trinity, and even go so far as to claim that Jews and Christians worship different Gods, a claim Marcion readily endorses, and cite many of the same passages Marcion cited in the antithesis in support of their claim. SEE ALSO FOOTNOTES
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