The 'Rise and Fall' of MarcionismBefore the fourth century CE Christianity can hardly be seen as having existed of a unified set of beliefs. Rather, there were multiple 'Christianities' circulating in the Mediterranean region, of which Marcionism was a rather radical variant. This can be seen in both its teachings and the fact that it formed a separate church of its own. What we can know about Marcionism comes almost exclusively from the writings of its christian opponents, since no Marcionite writings have survived the passing of time. However, from the available sources this much becomes clear about its teachings: Marcionism in a sense rejected the Jewish Old Testament and introduced a new God that was said to have been revealed by Jesus Christ. The wrathful creator God of the Old Testament was irreconcilable with the forgiving and loving God revealed by Christ. Therefore, Christ must have revealed a new hitherto unknown all good God. Marcionism could be seen as a religion that embraced this newly revealed good God, while trying to defy the 'evil' God of the Old Testament, which they did believe existed, and its worldly creations.
The founder of this belief, Marcion, after who it was named, was the first to compose a christian canon of scripture to reinforce his beliefs. This canon consisted 'only' of ten Pauline epistles and an altered version of Luke's gospel. By those means Marcion evaded all references to the Old Testament, which he believed were later forgeries. Marcion also elaborated on all the contradictions he saw between the Old Testament and teachings and sayings of Jesus Christ in his Antitheses, which is no longer available to us. When Marcion revealed his ideas to the church of Rome, his ideas encountered so much resistance that he got excommunicated, as probably the first to have ever been, making Marcion the 'arch-heretic'. Shortly thereafter, Marcion established his own church, which initially, judging from the amount of contemporary criticism reflected in the writings, was rather successful. What will be discussed here is what can be known about the emergence and eventual decline of the Marcionite church. With a severe shortage on (reliable) sources, a few things, as will be seen, could be inferred. |
Emergence of the Marcionite Church
The founding year of Marcionism is mentioned by Tertullian, who has written one of our most important sources on Marcionism. He states that the Marcionites claimed Christ came down from heaven in the in fifteenth year of emperor Tiberius (29 CE), and that Marcion came to Rome a hundred and fifteen years and six and a half months later. This would place Marcion's arrival in Rome either in 144 or 145 CE. It is highly probable that Marcion, who came from the region of Pontus, had already developed his ideas back home and came to Rome to spread his ideas. This would date the excommunication and establishment of his own church to around 144/145 CE.
The next thing we know in the chronology of Marcionism is mentioned by Justin Martyr, who is the only contemporary of Marcion from whom we have a mentioning of Marcion in the available sources. Justin stated in his Apologia that Marcionism had spread all across the Roman empire and that Marcion "is even now teaching those who are persuaded to acknowledge another God greater than the creator." The Apologia can be dated to around 151-154 CE, which would mean that Marcionism had spread across the Roman empire within ten years. Justin might have exaggerated the spread, because, as we will see below, Marcionism grew mainly at the expense of the orthodox church, and this might have stricken Justin with some fear. However, this account still indicates a relative success of Marcion's church ten years after its establishment in 144/145 CE. Marcion's lifetime can probably be dated to about 100/110 – 165 CE according to Sebastian Moll, who has criticized the original dating by Adolf von Harnack of c. 85 – 160 CE. Assuming Marcion |
died around 165 CE, he must have been in charge of his church for about twenty years. The reverence Marcionites had for Marcion after his death probably indicates he had a powerful position in his church as 'the first bishop'. The success Marcion had is reflected in the amount of writing his opponents dedicated partially or solely to him. Markus Vinzent stated that "as far as we know no other teacher in the history of the church until Martin Luther received during his lifetime (and continuing after his death) a comparable literary response." In the second century alone there were about thirty writings dedicated mainly to Marcion, few of which are still available to us now. By 200 CE Marcionism had already called forth attacks in three languages - Greek, Latin and Syriac.
Unfortunately, the apparent success and the spread of Marcionism in the second century is virtually impossible to map out using the available source material. What can be done, however, is mapping out where critics of Marcionism came from in the second century. Applying this produces Map 1, which shows that criticism came from virtually every corner of the Roman empire. Although no clear trends can be seen, it might be said there is a slight prevalence in the east of the empire. In no way does this represent the spread of Marcionism, but it does show where at the very least Marcionism was known and criticized. It might be possible that the spread of Marcionite churches was distributed in a similar way the criticisms that arose later were. Critics may have felt threatened by the presence of Marcionite churches in their vicinity, which then may have given the incentive to write a refutation of its teachings. Nothing, however, is certain. |
The success Marcion's church had in the second century may partially be ascribed to the organizational qualities of it's leader, although nothing about that can be known with any certainty. Sebastian Moll stated that there was probably a combination of three elements of Marcion's belief which attracted Christians to his movement: "a widespread negative estimation of the world" (probably due to persecutions), "the unsolved issue of the place of the Old Testament within Christian faith, and, although this was not true for Marcion himself, certain anti-Jewish resentments." Besides that, the orthodox Church had thus far existed as a rather loose federation without united leadership and was simply unable to deal with such competition.
Marcionism was probably the only 'heresy' in early Christianity that had truly organized its own church. How the organization of this church may have looked like must once again mainly be deducted from anti-Marcionite writings. Tertullian mentioned that the sacraments Marcionites performed were fairly similar to the sacraments of the orthodox church. Later authors also mentioned the similarity between the two churches. Testimonies of the ministerial organization of the Marcionite church only appear much later, in the fourth century. A rather ironic twist of fate would have it that the earliest known christian church-inscription is from a Marcionite church in Syria, near Damascus. This inscription has been dated to 318/319 CE and contains the following:
Marcionism was probably the only 'heresy' in early Christianity that had truly organized its own church. How the organization of this church may have looked like must once again mainly be deducted from anti-Marcionite writings. Tertullian mentioned that the sacraments Marcionites performed were fairly similar to the sacraments of the orthodox church. Later authors also mentioned the similarity between the two churches. Testimonies of the ministerial organization of the Marcionite church only appear much later, in the fourth century. A rather ironic twist of fate would have it that the earliest known christian church-inscription is from a Marcionite church in Syria, near Damascus. This inscription has been dated to 318/319 CE and contains the following:
Συναγωγη Μαρκιωνιστων κωμ(ης)
Λεβαβων του κ(υριο)υ και σω(τη)ρ(ος) Ιη(σου) Χρηστου
προνοια(ι) Παυλου πρεσβ(υτερου) — του λχ’ ετους.
Λεβαβων του κ(υριο)υ και σω(τη)ρ(ος) Ιη(σου) Χρηστου
προνοια(ι) Παυλου πρεσβ(υτερου) — του λχ’ ετους.
Translated, this inscription says: The synagogue (meeting-place) of the Marcionists, in the village of Lebaba, of the lord and saviour Jesus the Good, erected by the forethought of the priest Paul, in the year 630 (Seleucid era). Although it's unclear whether Marcionites would've always profiled themselves as followers of Marcion instead of just 'Christians', this is probably also the only Marcionite inscription to ever have been found. What becomes clear in this inscription is the fact that it mentions a 'priest' (presbyter), which is a clear indicator that the Marcionites had adopted the office of priests into their church. Later sources also confirm this. The Martyrium Pionii mentions a Marcionite priest called Metrodorus, Eusebius refers to a Marcionite bishop named Asclepius, and the Adamantius Dialogue even refers to a succession of bishops, beginning with Marcion. It's likely that Marcion had already established, or rather, preserved, this ministerial organizational structure, akin to the orthodox church.
It becomes clear that the Marcionite church was very similar to that of the orthodox Christians. This is also demonstrated by Cyril of Jerusalem, who had warned Christians for accidentally entering a Marcionite church when travelling. Apparently the differences weren't all that clear from the outside. The archaeological remains of the church to which the inscription mentioned above belonged also show no differences from other christian churches from that time. All this indicates that Marcionism never truly separated itself from the rest of Christianity, and probably always remained a part of a larger christian network.
It becomes clear that the Marcionite church was very similar to that of the orthodox Christians. This is also demonstrated by Cyril of Jerusalem, who had warned Christians for accidentally entering a Marcionite church when travelling. Apparently the differences weren't all that clear from the outside. The archaeological remains of the church to which the inscription mentioned above belonged also show no differences from other christian churches from that time. All this indicates that Marcionism never truly separated itself from the rest of Christianity, and probably always remained a part of a larger christian network.
Decline of the Marcionite Church
We have seen that the Marcionite church had, from the late second century onward, probably spread across large parts of the Roman empire. This church, apart from its teachings, differed very little from the mainstream orthodox church. The similarities between these churches were probably also a consequence of the fact that the Marcionism mainly consisted of converts from orthodox Christianity. This was because the Marcionite church advocated celibacy for its members, and this would've severely limited their possibilities for growth through procreation. Marcionism would also have been very unattractive to pagans, so this meant that Marcionism depended solely on the 'poaching' of other Christians for its survival.
Besides the fact that this was a severe disadvantage for Marcionism, it also meant that Marcionites kept converting members of the orthodox church, which made Marcionism a continuous threat. The fact that so many orthodox authors had written against Marcionism can easily be understood from that perspective. The large counteroffensive the orthodox church launched against Marcionism was a consequence of an inherit trait of Marcionism. At the same time, this strengthened the orthodox church even more in its position. As a response to Marcion the orthodox church also composed a canon. Also, the large amount of anti-Marcionite writings that were circulating will undoubtedly have led to a bad reputation of Marcionism among Christians. Since Marcionism was dependent on christian converts, this might have reduced their number of conversions. Bart Ehrman has placed Marcionism in a spectrum of different Christianities that were circulating in that time, and stated that Marcionism stood at the far end of one side of the spectrum, with Ebionitism, which embraced Judaism, on the far end of the other side. He then states that, although Marcionism was appealing to some Christians, Marcionism could not compete with orthodox |
Christianity, because it had found a middle ground and was much more accessible to many more people. Orthodox Christianity became dominant because it embraced an ancient tradition, in contrast to Marcionism, and preached a universal faith, in contrast to Ebionitism.
Eventually, the orthodox variant of Christianity became the state religion of the Roman empire in the fourth century. When we combine all the mentioned disadvantages of Marcionism with the fact that all 'heresies' were now combated by Roman authorities, it is not hard to see how Marcionism eventually declined. To map out this decline is once again virtually impossible. However, we can map out the mentioning of Marcionites in the writings of the fourth and fifth century. Applying this produces Map 2. First of all, what we can clearly see is that all the testimonies of a Marcionite presence come only from the east of the empire. This does not necessarily mean that there were no Marcionites in the west, but it can be an indicator that Marcionites were probably only present in the east. We have the hard evidence of a Marcionite church in Lebaba, near Damascus. Then we have Theodoret of Cyrrhus who mentioned in the early fifth century that he had converted several Marcionite villages in his diocese, which apparently were present there. Then we have Epiphanius of Salamis and Ephrem the Syrian who wrote against Marcionites in the early fourth century, Cyril of Jerusalem who warned against Marcionite churches in his vicinity in c. 348 CE, and at last Eznik of Kolb who refuted Marcionism in the fifth century. Combined, this shows that Marcionism was only really mentioned around the area of Syria after the fourth century. All the the above mentioned disadvantages of Marcionism probably diminished Marcionism, until it was only present in the east, where it eventually died out after the fifth century. |
Selection of Primary Sources
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses ad Illuminandos.
Ephraem Syrus, Hymni contra Haereses.
Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica.
Eznik of Kolb, Against the Sects. --- See online: http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/scanned/yeznik_refutation.htm
Irenaeus, Adversus Haeresus. --- See online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm
Justin Martyr, Apologia.
Origen, Contra Celsum.
Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem. --- See online: http://www.tertullian.org/articles/evans_marc/evans_marc_00index.htm
Ephraem Syrus, Hymni contra Haereses.
Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica.
Eznik of Kolb, Against the Sects. --- See online: http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/scanned/yeznik_refutation.htm
Irenaeus, Adversus Haeresus. --- See online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm
Justin Martyr, Apologia.
Origen, Contra Celsum.
Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem. --- See online: http://www.tertullian.org/articles/evans_marc/evans_marc_00index.htm
Selected Further Readings
Blackman, Edwin C. Marcion and His Influence. London:
S.P.C.K., 1948.
Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Christianities, The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Lieu, Judith M. Marcion and the Making of a Heretic, God and Scripture in the Second Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Moll, Sebastian. The Arch-Heretic Marcion. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.
Räisänen, Heikki. “Marcion.” In A Companion to Second-Century Christian ‘Heretics’, edited by Antti Marjanen and Petri Luomanen, 100-124. Leiden, Brill, 2008.
Vinzent, Markus. Marcion and the Dating of the Synoptic Gospels. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2014.
Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Christianities, The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Lieu, Judith M. Marcion and the Making of a Heretic, God and Scripture in the Second Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Moll, Sebastian. The Arch-Heretic Marcion. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.
Räisänen, Heikki. “Marcion.” In A Companion to Second-Century Christian ‘Heretics’, edited by Antti Marjanen and Petri Luomanen, 100-124. Leiden, Brill, 2008.
Vinzent, Markus. Marcion and the Dating of the Synoptic Gospels. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2014.
M.T.H.