Marcion's Bible

Marcionism was propagated by Marcion (d. c. 160), a Greek-speaking Christian who taught in Rome. Marcion entirely rejected the Old Testament and taught that the creator revealed in the Old Testament was a cruel and capricious demiurge with no relation to Jesus Christ. Jesus, according to his teaching, came to unmask this demiurge and to reveal a God of pure love. According to Marcion, only Paul the apostle had properly understood this. Marcion's canon, therefore, consisted of an edited version of the letters of Paul and an edited version of Luke compatible, in Marcion's view, with Paul's theology. This contention spurred the Catholic church to deliberate the definition of its canon and to decide which writings were genuine and which spurious. Marcion was excommunicated by the Roman church in 144. Marcionite communities continued in some strength through the third century when most of them were absorbed into Manicheanism.