Marcionism

 

Marcionism may sound unfamiliar to many Christians, but, as the concept is explained, I have a feeling that many Christians will recognize how this heresy has become commonplace in religious discussions.

Marcion of Sinope, a man who wrote during the second century, created what is now known as Marcionism. As far as we know, there are no surviving manuscripts of Marcion’s writings, but we do know what he wrote about. We are able to know what Marcion believed, as there were several prominent Christian writers who responded to Marcion’s beliefs. The three most prominent of said writers were Irenaeus of Lyons, Hippolytus, and Justin Martyr.

The most well-known belief of Marcion is that he did not believe that the God in the Old Testament was the same God of the New Testament. Marcion did not think that God in the Old Testament was not really God, rather, Marcion believed that the God in the Old Testament was a separate, inferior God. The superior God, according to Marcion, was the God in the New Testament.

In addition to the most widely known belief of Marcion, he believed that Jesus was not a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies, but a separate, supreme form of God. Marcion claimed that the Old Testament prophecy was about a coming savior of the Jewish people, not of the Messiah. Marcion also believed that Jesus was not a man, but a spirit that appeared as a human (this is a separate heresy, known as Docetism).

In conclusion, Marcionism is heretical because of the following beliefs:

• The God of the Old Testament was an inferior form of God in the New Testament. This belief would (if it were true, which it is not) mean that there is more than one god.

• The Old Testament prophecies were about a coming, earthly savior of the Jewish people. This is contrary to what the Bible says about Jesus being the Messiah, Who fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament.

• Jesus was not a man, He was a spirit who appeared as a human.