MARCION'S ATTEMPT TO SET ASIDE THE OLD TESTAMENT FOUNDATION OF
CHRISTIANITY, TO PURIFY TRADITION AND TO REFORM CHRISTENDOM ON THE BASIS
OF THE PAULINE GOSPEL
Marcion cannot be numbered among the Gnostics in the strict sense of the
word.[365] For (1) he was not guided by any speculatively scientific, or
even by an apologetic, but by a soteriological interest.[366] (2) He
therefore put all emphasis on faith, not on Gnosis.[367] (3) In the
exposition of his ideas he neither applied the elements of any Semitic
religious wisdom, nor the methods of the Greek philosophy of
religion.[368] (4) He never made the distinction between an esoteric and
an exoteric form of religion. He rather clung to the publicity of the
preaching, and endeavoured to reform Christendom, in opposition to the
attempts at founding schools for those who knew and mystery cults for
such as were in quest of initiation. It was only after the failure of
his attempts at reform that he founded churches of his own, in which
brotherly equality, freedom from all ceremonies, and strict evangelical
discipline were to rule.[369] Completely carried away with the novelty,
uniqueness and grandeur of the Pauline Gospel of the grace of God in
Christ, Marcion felt that all other conceptions of the Gospel, and
especially its union with the Old Testament religion, was opposed to,
and a backsliding from the truth.[370] He accordingly supposed that it
was necessary to make the sharp antitheses of Paul, law and gospel,
wrath and grace, works and faith, flesh and spirit, sin and
righteousness, death and life, that is the Pauline criticism of the Old
Testament religion, the foundation of his religious views, and to refer
them to two principles, the righteous and wrathful god of the Old
Testament, who is at the same time identical with the creator of the
world, and the God of the Gospel, quite unknown before Christ, who is
only love and mercy.[371] This Paulinism in its religious strength, but
without dialectic, without the Jewish Christian view of history, and
detached from the soil of the Old Testament, was to him the true
Christianity. Marcion, like Paul, felt that the religious value of a
statutory law with commandments and ceremonies, was very different from
that of a uniform law of love.[372] Accordingly, he had a capacity for
appreciating the Pauline idea of faith; it is to him reliance on the
unmerited grace of God which is revealed in Christ. But Marcion shewed
himself to be a Greek, influenced by the religious spirit of the time,
by changing the ethical contrast of the good and legal into the contrast
between the infinitely exalted spiritual and the sensible which is
subject to the law of nature, by despairing of the triumph of good in
the world and, consequently, correcting the traditional faith that the
world and history belong to God, by an empirical view of the world and
the course of events in it,[373] a view to which he was no doubt also
led by the severity of the early Christian estimate of the world. Yet to
him systematic speculation about the final causes of the contrast
actually observed, was by no means the main thing. So far as he himself
ventured on such a speculation he seems to have been influenced by the
Syrian Cerdo. The numerous contradictions which arise as soon as one
attempts to reduce Marcion's propositions to a system, and the fact that
his disciples tried all possible conceptions of the doctrine of
principles, and defined the relation of the two Gods very differently,
are the clearest proof that Marcion was a religious character, that he
had in general nothing to do with principles, but with living beings
whose power he felt, and that what he ultimately saw in the Gospel was
not an explanation of the world, but redemption from the
world,[374]--redemption from a world, which even in the best that it can
offer, has nothing that can reach the height of the blessing bestowed in
Christ.[375] Special attention may be called to the following
particulars.
1. Marcion explained the Old Testament in its literal sense and rejected
every allegorical interpretation. He recognised it as the revelation of
the creator of the world and the god of the Jews, but placed it, just on
that account, in sharpest contrast to the Gospel. He demonstrated the
contradictions between the Old Testament and the Gospel in a voluminous
work (the [Greek: antitheseis]).[376] In the god of the former book he
saw a being whose character was stern justice, and therefore anger;
contentiousness and unmercifulness. The law which rules nature and man
appeared to him to accord with the characteristics of this god and the
kind of law revealed by him, and therefore it seemed credible to him
that this god is the creator and lord of the world ([Greek:
kosmokratôr]). As the law which governs the world is inflexible, and
yet, on the other hand, full of contradictions, just and again brutal,
and as the law of the Old Testament exhibits the same features, so the
god of creation was to Marcion a being who united in himself the whole
gradations of attributes from justice to malevolence, from obstinacy to
inconsistency.[377] Into this conception of the creator of the world,
the characteristic of which is that it cannot be systematised, could
easily be fitted the Syrian Gnostic theory which regards him as an evil
being, because he belongs to this world and to matter. Marcion did not
accept it in principle,[378] but touched it lightly and adopted certain
inferences.[379] On the basis of the Old Testament and of empirical
observation, Marcion divided men into two classes, good and evil, though
he regarded them all, body and soul, as creatures of the demiurge. The
good are those who strive to fulfil the law of the demiurge. These are
outwardly better than those who refuse him obedience. But the
distinction found here is not the decisive one. To yield to the
promptings of Divine grace is the only decisive distinction, and those
just men will shew themselves less susceptible to the manifestation of
the truly good than sinners. As Marcion held the Old Testament to be a
book worthy of belief, though his disciple, Apelles, thought otherwise,
he referred all its predictions to a Messiah whom the creator of the
world is yet to send, and who, as a warlike hero, is to set up the
earthly kingdom of the "just" God.[380]
2. Marcion placed the good God of love in opposition to the creator of
the world.[381] This God has only been revealed in Christ. He was
absolutely unknown before Christ,[382] and men were in every respect
strange to him.[383] Out of pure goodness and mercy, for these are the
essential attributes of this God who judges not and is not wrathful, he
espoused the cause of those beings who were foreign to him, as he could
not bear to have them any longer tormented by their just and yet
malevolent lord.[384] The God of love appeared in Christ and proclaimed
a new kingdom (Tertull., adv. Marc. III. 24. fin.). Christ called to
himself the weary and heavy laden,[385] and proclaimed to them that he
would deliver them from the fetters of their lord and from the world. He
shewed mercy to all while he sojourned on the earth, and did in every
respect the opposite of what the creator of the world had done to men.
They who believed in the creator of the world nailed him to the cross.
But in doing so they were unconsciously serving his purpose, for his
death was the price by which the God of love purchased men from the
creator of the world.[386] He who places his hope in the Crucified can
now be sure of escaping from the power of the creator of the world, and
of being translated into the kingdom of the good God. But experience
shews that, like the Jews, men who are virtuous according to the law of
the creator of the world, do not allow themselves to be converted by
Christ; it is rather sinners who accept his message of redemption.
Christ, therefore, rescued from the under-world, not the righteous men
of the Old Testament (Iren. I. 27. 3), but the sinners who were
disobedient to the creator of the world. If the determining thought of
Marcion's view of Christianity is here again very clearly shewn, the
Gnostic woof cannot fail to be seen in the proposition that the good God
delivers only the souls, not the bodies of believers. The antithesis of
spirit and matter, appears here as the decisive one, and the good God of
love becomes the God of the spirit, the Old Testament god the god of the
flesh. In point of fact, Marcion seems to have given such a turn to the
good God's attributes of love, and incapability of wrath, as to make Him
the apathetic, infinitely exalted Being, free from all affections. The
contradiction in which Marcion is here involved is evident, because he
taught expressly that the spirit of man is in itself just as foreign to
the good God as his body. But the strict asceticism which Marcion
demanded as a Christian, could have had no motive, without the Greek
assumption of a metaphysical contrast of flesh and Spirit, which in fact
was also apparently the doctrine of Paul.
3. The relation in which Marcion placed the two Gods, appears at first
sight to be one of equal rank.[387] Marcion himself, according to the
most reliable witnesses, expressly asserted that both were uncreated,
eternal, etc. But if we look more closely we shall see that in Marcion's
mind there can be no thought of equality. Not only did he himself
expressly declare that the creator of the world is a self-contradictory
being of limited knowledge and power, but the whole doctrine of
redemption shews that he is a power subordinate to the good God. We need
not stop to enquire about the details, but it is certain that the
creator of the world formerly knew nothing of the existence of the good
God, that he is in the end completely powerless against him, that he is
overcome by him, and that history in its issue with regard to man, is
determined solely by its relation to the good God. The just god appears
at the end of history, not as an independent being, hostile to the good
God, but as one subordinate to him,[388] so that some scholars, such as
Neander, have attempted to claim for Marcion a doctrine of one
principle, and to deny that he ever held the complete independence of
the creator of the world, the creator of the world being simply an angel
of the good God. This inference may certainly be drawn with little
trouble, as the result of various considerations, but it is forbidden by
reliable testimony. The characteristic of Marcion's teaching is just
this, that as soon as we seek to raise his ideas from the sphere of
practical considerations to that of a consistent theory, we come upon a
tangled knot of contradictions. The theoretic contradictions are
explained by the different interests which here cross each other in
Marcion. In the first place, he was consciously dependent on the Pauline
theology, and was resolved to defend everything which he held to be
Pauline. Secondly, he was influenced by the contrast in which he saw the
ethical powers involved. This contrast seemed to demand a metaphysical
basis, and its actual solution seemed to forbid such a foundation.
Finally, the theories of Gnosticism, the paradoxes of Paul, the
recognition of the duty of strictly mortifying the flesh, suggested to
Marcion the idea that the good God was the exalted God of the spirit,
and the just god the god of the sensuous, of the flesh. This view, which
involved the principle of a metaphysical dualism, had something very
specious about it, and to its influence we must probably ascribe the
fact that Marcion no longer attempted to derive the creator of the world
from the good God. His disciples who had theoretical interests in the
matter, no doubt noted the contradictions. In order to remove them, some
of these disciples advanced to a doctrine of three principles, the good
God, the just creator of the world, the evil god, by conceiving the
creator of the world sometimes as an independent being, sometimes as one
dependent on the good God. Others reverted to the common dualism, God of
the spirit and god of matter. But Apelles, the most important of
Marcion's disciples, returned to the creed of the one God ([Greek: mia
archê]), and conceived the creator of the world and Satan as his angels,
without departing from the fundamental thought of the master, but rather
following suggestions which he himself had given.[389] Apart from
Apelles, who founded a Church of his own, we hear nothing of the
controversies of disciples breaking up the Marcionite church. All those
who lived in the faith for which the master had worked--viz., that the
laws ruling in nature and history, as well as the course of common
legality and righteousness, are the antitheses of the act of Divine
mercy in Christ, and that cordial love and believing confidence have
their proper contrasts in self-righteous pride and the natural religion
of the heart,--those who rejected the Old Testament and clung solely to
the Gospel proclaimed by Paul, and finally, those who considered that a
strict mortification of the flesh and an earnest renunciation of the
world were demanded in the name of the Gospel, felt themselves members
of the same community, and to all appearance allowed perfect liberty to
speculations about final causes.
4. Marcion had no interest in specially emphasising the distinction
between the good God and Christ, which according to the Pauline
Epistles, could not be denied. To him Christ is the manifestation of the
good God himself.[390] But Marcion taught that Christ assumed absolutely
nothing from the creation of the Demiurge, but came down from heaven in
the 15th year of the Emperor Tiberius, and after the assumption of an
apparent body, began his preaching in the synagogue of Capernaum.[391]
This pronounced docetism which denies that Jesus was born, or subjected
to any human process of development,[392] is the strongest expression of
Marcion's abhorrence of the world. This aversion may have sprung from
the severe attitude of the early Christians toward the world, but the
inference which Marcion here draws, shews, that this feeling was, in his
case, united with the Greek estimate of spirit and matter. But Marcion's
docetism is all the more remarkable that, under Paul's guidance, he put
a high value on the fact of Christ's death upon the cross. Here also is
a glaring contradiction which his later disciples laboured to remove.
This much, however, is unmistakable, that Marcion succeeded in placing
the greatness and uniqueness of redemption through Christ in the
clearest light and in beholding this redemption in the person of Christ,
but chiefly in his death upon the cross.
5. Marcion's eschatology is also quite rudimentary. Yet be assumed with
Paul that violent attacks were yet in store for the Church of the good
God on the part of the Jewish Christ of the future, the Antichrist. He
does not seem to have taught a visible return of Christ, but, in spite
of the omnipotence and goodness of God, he did teach a twofold issue of
history. The idea of a deliverance of all men, which seems to follow
from his doctrine of boundless grace, was quite foreign to him. For this
very reason, he could not help actually making the good God the judge,
though in theory he rejected the idea, in order not to measure the will
and acts of God by a human standard. Along with the fundamental
proposition of Marcion, that God should be conceived only as goodness
and grace, we must take into account the strict asceticism which he
prescribed for the Christian communities, in order to see that that idea
of God was not obtained from antinomianism. We know of no Christian
community in the second century which insisted so strictly on
renunciation of the world as the Marcionites. No union of the sexes was
permitted. Those who were married had to separate ere they could be
received by baptism into the community. The sternest precepts were laid
down in the matter of food and drink. Martyrdom was enjoined; and from
the fact that they were [Greek: talaipôroi kai misoumenoi] in the world,
the members were to know that they were disciples of Christ.[393] With
all that, the early Christian enthusiasm was wanting.
6. Marcion defined his position in theory and practice towards the
prevailing form of Christianity, which, on the one hand, shewed
throughout its connection with the Old Testament, and, on the other,
left room for a secular ethical code, by assuming that it had been
corrupted by Judaism, and therefore needed a reformation.[394] But he
could not fail to note that this corruption was not of recent date, but
belonged to the oldest tradition itself. The consciousness of this moved
him to a historical criticism of the whole Christian tradition.[395]
Marcion was the first Christian who undertook such a task. Those
writings to which he owed his religious convictions, viz., the Pauline
Epistles, furnished the basis for it. He found nothing in the rest of
Christian literature that harmonised with the Gospel of Paul. But he
found in the Pauline Epistles hints which explained to him this result
of his observations. The twelve Apostles whom Christ chose did not
understand him, but regarded him as the Messiah of the god of
creation.[396] And therefore Christ inspired Paul by a special
revelation, lest the Gospel of the grace of God should be lost through
falsifications.[397] But even Paul had been understood only by few (by
none?). His Gospel had also been misunderstood, nay, his Epistles had
been falsified in many passages,[398] in order to make them teach the
identity of the god of creation and the God of redemption. A new
reformation was therefore necessary. Marcion felt himself entrusted with
this commission, and the church which he gathered recognised this
vocation of his to be the reformer.[399] He did not appeal to a new
revelation such as he presupposed for Paul. As the Pauline Epistles and
an authentic [Greek: euangelion kuriou] were in existence, it was only
necessary to purify these from interpolations, and restore the genuine
Paulinism which was just the Gospel itself. But it was also necessary to
secure and preserve this true Christianity for the future. Marcion, in
all probability, was the first to conceive and, in great measure, to
realise the idea of placing Christendom on the firm foundation of a
definite theory of what is Christian--but not of basing it on a
theological doctrine--and of establishing this theory by a fixed
collection of Christian writings with canonical authority.[400] He was
not a systematic thinker; but he was more, for he was not only a
religious character, but at the same time a man with an organising
talent, such as has no peer in the early Church. If we think of the
lofty demands he made on Christians, and, on the other hand, ponder the
results that accompanied his activity, we cannot fail to wonder.
Wherever Christians were numerous about the year 160, there must have
been Marcionite communities with the same fixed but free organisation,
with the same canon and the same conception of the essence of
Christianity, pre-eminent for the strictness of their morals and their
joy in martyrdom.[401] The Catholic Church was then only in process of
growth, and it was long ere it reached the solidity won by the
Marcionite church through the activity of one man, who was animated by a
faith so strong that he was able to oppose his conception of
Christianity to all others as the only right one, and who did not shrink
from making selections from tradition instead of explaining it away. He
was the first who laid the firm foundation for establishing what is
Christian, because, in view of the absoluteness of his faith,[402] he
had no desire to appeal either to a secret evangelic tradition, or to
prophecy, or to natural religion.
_Remarks._--The innovations of Marcion are unmistakable. The way in
which he attempted to sever Christianity from the Old Testament was a
bold stroke which demanded the sacrifice of the dearest possession of
Christianity as a religion, viz., the belief that the God of creation is
also the God of redemption. And yet this innovation was partly caused by
a religious conviction, the origin of which must be sought not in
heathenism, but on Old Testament and Christian soil. For the bold
Anti-judaist was the disciple of a Jewish thinker, Paul, and the origin
of Marcion's antinomianism may be ultimately found in the prophets. It
will always be the glory of Marcion in the early history of the Church
that he, the born heathen, could appreciate the religious criticism of
the Old Testament religion as formerly exercised by Paul. The
antinomianism of Marcion was ultimately based on the strength of his
religious feeling, on his personal religion as contrasted with all
statutory religion. That was also its basis in the case of the prophets
and of Paul, only the statutory religion which was felt to be a burden
and a fetter was different in each case. As regards the prophets, it was
the outer sacrificial worship, and the deliverance was the idea of
Jehovah's righteousness. In the case of Paul, it was the pharisaic
treatment of the law, and the deliverance was righteousness by faith. To
Marcion it was the sum of all that the past had described as a
revelation of God: only what Christ had given him was of real value to
him. In this conviction he founded a Church. Before him there was no
such thing in the sense of a community, firmly united by a fixed
conviction, harmoniously organised, and spread over the whole world.
Such a Church the Apostle Paul had in his mind's eye, but he was not
able to realise it. That in the century of the great mixture of religion
the greatest apparent paradox was actually realised: namely, a Paulinism
with two Gods and without the Old Testament; and that this form of
Christianity first resulted in a church which was based not only on
intelligible words, but on a definite conception of the essence of
Christianity as a religion, seems to be the greatest riddle which the
earliest history of Christianity presents. But it only seems so. The
Greek, whose mind was filled with certain fundamental features of the
Pauline Gospel (law and grace), who was therefore convinced that in all
respects the truth was there, and who on that account took pains to
comprehend the real sense of Paul's statements, could hardly reach any
other results than those of Marcion. The history of Pauline theology in
the Church, a history first of silence, then of artificial
interpretation, speaks loudly enough. And had not Paul really separated
Christianity as religion from Judaism and the Old Testament? Must it not
have seemed an inconceivable inconsistency, if he had clung to the
special national relation of Christianity to the Jewish people, and if
he had taught a view of history in which for pædagogic reasons indeed,
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort had appeared as one so
entirely different? He who was not capable of translating himself into
the consciousness of a Jew, and had not yet learned the method of
special interpretation, had only the alternative, if he was convinced of
the truth of the Gospel of Christ as Paul had proclaimed it, of either
giving up this Gospel against the dictates of his conscience, or
striking out of the Epistles whatever seemed Jewish. But in this case
the god of creation also disappeared, and the fact that Marcion could
make this sacrifice proves that this religious spirit, with all his
energy, was not able to rise to the height of the religious faith which
we find in the preaching of Jesus.
In basing his own position and that of his church on Paulism, as he
conceived and remodelled it, Marcion connected himself with that part of
the earliest tradition of Christianity which is best known to us, and
has enabled us to understand his undertaking historically as we do no
other. Here we have the means of accurately indicating what part of this
structure of the second century has come down from the Apostolic age and
is really based on tradition, and what does not. Where else could we do
that? But Marcion has taught us far more. He does not impart a correct
understanding of early Christianity, as was once supposed, for his
explanation of that is undoubtedly incorrect, but a correct estimate of
the reliability of the traditions that were current in his day alongside
of the Pauline. There can be no doubt that Marcion criticised tradition
from a dogmatic stand-point. But would his undertaking have been at all
possible, if at that time a reliable tradition of the twelve Apostles
and their teaching had existed and been operative in wide circles? We
may venture to say no. Consequently, Marcion gives important testimony
against the historical reliability of the notion that the common
Christianity was really based on the tradition of the twelve Apostles.
It is not surprising that the first man who clearly put and answered the
question, "What is Christian?" adhered exclusively to the Pauline
Epistles, and therefore found a very imperfect solution. When more than
1600 years later the same question emerged for the first time in
scientific form, its solution had likewise to be first attempted from
the Pauline Epistles, and therefore led at the outset to a one-sidedness
similar to that of Marcion. The situation of Christendom in the middle
of the second century was not really more favourable to a historical
knowledge of early Christianity, than that of the 18th century, but in
many respects more unfavourable. Even at that time, as attested by the
enterprise of Marcion, its results, and the character of the polemic
against him, there were besides the Pauline Epistles, no reliable
documents from which the teaching of the twelve Apostles could have been
gathered. The position which the Pauline Epistles occupy in the history
of the world is, however, described by the fact that every tendency in
the Church which was unwilling to introduce into Christianity the power
of Greek mysticism, and was yet no longer influenced by the early
Christian eschatology, learned from the Pauline Epistles a Christianity
which, as a religion, was peculiarly vigorous. But that position is
further described by the fact that every tendency which courageously
disregards spurious traditions, is compelled to turn to the Pauline
Epistles, which, on the one hand, present such a profound type of
Christianity, and on the other, darken and narrow the judgment about the
preaching of Christ himself, by their complicated theology. Marcion was
the first, and for a long time the only Gentile Christian who took his
stand on Paul. He was no moralist, no Greek mystic, no Apocalyptic
enthusiast, but a religious character, nay, one of the few pronouncedly
typical religious characters whom we know in the early Church before
Augustine. But his attempt to resuscitate Paulinism is the first great
proof that the conditions under which this Christianity originated do
not repeat themselves, and that therefore Paulinism itself must receive
a new construction if one desires to make it the basis of a Church. His
attempt is a further proof of the unique value of the Old Testament to
early Christendom, as the only means at that time of defending Christian
monotheism. Finally, his attempt confirms the experience that a
religious community can only be founded by a religious spirit who
expects nothing from the world.
Nearly all ecclesiastical writers, from Justin to Origen, opposed
Marcion. He appeared already to Justin as the most wicked enemy. We can
understand this, and we can quite as well understand how the Church
Fathers put him on a level with Basilides and Valentinus, and could not
see the difference between them. Because Marcion elevated a better God
above the god of creation, and consequently robbed the Christian God of
his honour, he appeared to be worse than a heathen (Sentent. episc.
LXXXVII., in Hartel's edition of Cyprian, I. p. 454; "Gentiles quamvis
idola colant, tamen summum deum patrem creatorem cognoscunt et
confitentur [!]; in hunc Marcion blasphemat, etc."), as a blaspheming
emissary of demons, as the first-born of Satan (Polyc., Justin,
Irenæus). Because he rejected the allegoric interpretation of the Old
Testament, and explained its predictions as referring to a Messiah of
the Jews who was yet to come, he seemed to be a Jew (Tertull., adv.
Marc. III.). Because he deprived Christianity of the apologetic proof
(the proof from antiquity) he seemed to be a heathen and a Jew at the
same time (see my Texte u. Unters. I. 3, p. 68; the antitheses of
Marcion became very important for the heathen and Manichæan assaults on
Christianity). Because he represented the twelve Apostles as unreliable
witnesses, he appeared to be the most wicked and shameless of all
heretics. Finally, because he gained so many adherents, and actually
founded a church, he appeared to be the ravening wolf (Justin, Rhodon),
and his church as the spurious church. (Tertull., adv. Marc. IV. 5). In
Marcion the Church Fathers chiefly attacked what they attacked in all
Gnostic heretics, but here error shewed itself in its worst form. They
learned much in opposing Marcion (see Bk. II.). For instance, their
interpretation of the _regula fidei_ and of the New Testament received a
directly Antimarcionite expression in the Church. One thing, however,
they could not learn from him, and that was how to make Christianity
into a philosophic system. He formed no such system, but he has given a
clearly outlined conception, based on historic documents, of
Christianity as the religion which redeems the world.
_Literature._--All anti-heretical writings of the early Church, but
especially Justin, Apol. I. 26, 58; Iren. I. 27; Tertull., adv. Marc.
I-V.; de præscr.; Hippol., Philos.; Adamant., de recta in deum fidei;
Epiph. h. 42; Ephr. Syr.; Esnik. The older attempts to restore the
Marcionite Gospel and Apostolicum have been antiquated by Zahn's
Kanonsgeschichte, l. c. Hahn (Regimonti, 1823) has attempted to restore
the Antitheses. We are still in want of a German monograph on Marcion
(see the whole presentation of Gnosticism by Zahn, with his Excursus, l.
c.). Hilgenfeld, Ketzergesch. p. 316 f. 522 f.; cf. my works, Zur
Quellenkritik des Gnosticismus, 1873; de Apelles Gnosis Monarchia, 1874;
Beiträge z. Gesch. der Marcionitischen Kirchen (Ztschr. f. wiss. Theol.
1876). Marcion's Commentar zum Evangelium (Ztschr. f. K. G. Bd. IV. 4).
Apelles Syllogismen in the Texte u. Unters. VI. H. 3. Zahn, die Dialoge
des Adamantius in the Ztschr. f. K.-Gesch. IX. p. 193 ff. Meyboom,
Marcion en de Marcionieten, Leiden, 1888.
[Footnote 365: He belonged to Pontus and was a rich shipowner: about 139
he came to Rome already a Christian, and for a short time belonged to
the church there. As he could not succeed in his attempt to reform it,
he broke away from it about 144. He founded a church of his own and
developed a very great activity. He spread his views by numerous
journeys and communities bearing his name very soon arose in every
province of the Empire (Adamantius, de recta in deum fide, Origen Opp.
ed Delarue 1. p. 809, Epiph. h. 42. p. 668, ed. Oehler). They were
ecclesiastically organised (Tertull., de præscr. 41. and adv. Marc. IV.
5) and possessed bishops, presbyters, etc. (Euseb. H. E. IV. 15. 46: de
Mart. Palæst. X. 2; Les Bas and Waddington Inscript, Grecq. et Latines
rec. en Grêce et en Asie Min. Vol. III. No. 2558). Justin (Apol. 1. 26)
about 150 tells us that Marcion's preaching had spread [Greek: kata pan
genos anthrôpôn] and by the year 155, the Marcionites were already
numerous in Rome (Iren. III. 34). Up to his death however Marcion did
not give up the purpose of winning the whole of Christendom and
therefore again and again sought connection with it (Iren. I. c.;
Tertull., de præscr. 30), likewise his disciples (see the conversation
of Apelles with Rhodon in Euseb. H. E. V. 13. 5. and the dialogue of the
Marcionites with Adamantius). It is very probable that Marcion had fixed
the ground features of his doctrine and had laboured for its propagation
even before he came to Rome. In Rome the Syrian Gnostic Cerdo had a
great influence on him, so that we can even yet perceive, and clearly
distinguish the Gnostic element in the form of the Marcionite doctrine
transmitted to us.]
[Footnote 366: "Sufficit," said the Marcionites, "unicum opsus deo
nostro quod hominem liberavit summa et præcipua bonitate sua" (Tertull.
adv. Marc. I. 17).]
[Footnote 367: Apelles, the disciple of Marcion, declared (Euseb. H. E.
V. 13. 5) [Greek: sôthêsesthai tous epi ton estaurômenon êlpikotas,
monon ean en ergois agathois euriskôntai.]]
[Footnote 368: This is an extremely important point. Marcion rejected
all allegories (See Tertull. adv. Marc. II. 19. 21, 22, III. 5. 6, 14,
19, IV. 15. 20, V. 1, Orig. Comment. in Matth. T. XV. 3, Opp. III. p.
655, in ep. ad. Rom. Opp. IV. p. 494 sq., Adamant. Sect. I., Orig. Opp.
I. pp. 808, 817, Ephr. Syrus. hymn. 36., Edit. Benedict p. 520 sq.) and
describes this method as an arbitrary one. But that simply means that he
perceived and avoided the transformation of the Gospel into Hellenic
philosophy. No philosophic formulæ are found in any of his statements
that have been handed down to us. But what is still more important, none
of his early opponents have attributed to Marcion a system as they did
to Basilides and Valentinus. There can be no doubt that Marcion did not
set up any system (the Armenian Esnik first gives a Marcionite system
but that is a late production, see my essay in the Ztschr. f. wiss.
Theol. 1896, p. 80 f.). He was just as far from having any apologetic or
rationalistic interest; Justin (Apol. I. 58) says of the Marcionites
[Greek: apodeixin mêdemian peri hôn legousin echousin alla alogôs hôs
hupo lukou arnes sunêrpasmenoi k.t.l.]. Tertullian again and again casts
in the teeth of Marcion that he has adduced no proof. See I. 11 sq.,
III. 2. 3, 4, IV. 11: "Subito Christus subito et Johannes Sic sunt omnia
apud Marcionem quæ suum et plenum habent ordinem apud creatorem." Rhodon
(Euseb. H. E. V. 13. 4) says of two prominent genuine disciples of
Marcion [Greek: mê euriskontes tên diairesin tôn pragmatôn hôs oude
ekeinos duo archas apephênanto psilôs ka anapodeiktôs]. Of Apelles the
most important of Marcion's disciples, who laid aside the Gnostic
borrows of his master, we have the words (1. c) [Greek: mê dein holôs
exetazein ton logon all' hekaston hôs pepisteuke diamenein Sôthêsesthai
var tous eti ton estarômenon êlpikotas apephaineto monon ean en ergois
agathois heuriskôntai. to de pôs esti mia archê mê ginôskein elegen
houtô de kineisthai monon. mê epistasthai pôs eîs estin agennêtos theos
touto de pisteuein]. It was Marcion's purpose therefore to give all
value to faith alone to make it dependent on its own convincing power
and avoid all philosophic paraphrase and argument. The contrast in which
he placed the Christian blessing of salvation has in principle nothing
in common with the contract in which Greek philosophy viewed the _summum
bonum_. Finally it may be pointed out that Marcion introduced no new
elements (Æons, Matter, etc.) into his evangelic views and leant on no
Oriental religious science. The later Marcionite speculations about
matter (see the account of Esnik) should not be charged upon the master
himself as is manifest from the second book of Tertullian against
Marcion. The assumption that the creator of the world created it out of
a _materia subjacens_ is certainly found in Marcion (see Tertull. 1. 15,
Hippol. Philos. X. 19) but he speculated no further about it and that
assumption itself was not rejected, for example, by Clem. Alex. (Strom.
II. 16. 74, Photius on Clement's Hypotyposes). Marcion did not really
speculate even about the good God, yet see Tertull. adv. Marc. I. 14.
15, IV. 7: "Mundus ille superior--coelum tertium."]
[Footnote 369: Tertull., de præscr. 41. sq.; the delineation refers
chiefly to the Marcionites (see Epiph. h. 42. c. 3. 4, and Esnik's
account), on the Church system of Marcion, see also Tertull., adv. Marc.
I. 14, 21, 23, 24, 28, 29: III. 1, 22: IV. 5, 34: V. 7, 10, 15, 18.]
[Footnote 370: Marcion himself originally belonged to the main body of
the Church, as is expressly declared by Tertullian and Epiphanius, and
attested by one of his own letters.]
[Footnote 371: Tertull., adv. Marc. I. 2, 19: "Separatio legis et
evangelii proprium et principale opus est Marcionis ... ex diversitate
sententiarum utriusque instrumenti diversitatem quoque argumentatur
deorum." II. 28, 29: IV. 1. I. 6: "dispares deos, alterum, judicem,
ferum, bellipotentem; alterum mitem, placidum et tantummodo bonum atque
optimum." Iren. I. 27. 2.]
[Footnote 372: Marcion maintained that the good God is not to be feared.
Tertull., adv. Marc. I. 27: "Atque adeo præ se ferunt Marcionitæ quod
deum suum omnino non timeant. Malus autem, inquiunt, timebitur; bonus
autem diligitur." To the question why they did not sin if they did not
fear their God, the Marcionites answered in the words of Rom. VI. 1. 2.
(l. c).]
[Footnote 373: Tertull., adv. Marc. I. 2; II. 5.]
[Footnote 374: See the passage adduced, p. 266, note 2, and Tertull, I.
19: "Immo inquiunt Marcionitæ, deus noster, etsi non ab initio, etsi non
per conditionem, sed per semetipsum revelatus est in Christi Jesu." The
very fact that different theological tendencies (schools) appeared
within Marcionite Christianity and were mutually tolerant, proves that
the Marcionite Church itself was not based on a formulated system of
faith. Apelles expressly conceded different forms of doctrine in
Christendom, on the basis of faith in the Crucified and a common holy
ideal of life (see p. 267).]
[Footnote 375: Tertull., I, 13. "Narem contrahentes impudentissimi
Marcionitæ convertuntur ad destructionem operum creatoris. Nimirum,
inquiunt, grande opus et dignum deo mundus?" The Marcionites (Iren., IV.
34. 1) put the question to their ecclesiastical opponents, "Quid novi
attulit dominus veniens?" and therewith caused them no small
embarrassment.]
[Footnote 376: On these see Tertull. I. 19; II. 28. 29; IV. 1, 4, 6;
Epiph. Hippol., Philos. VII. 30; the book was used by other Gnostics
also (it is very probable that 1 Tim. VI. 20, an addition to the
Epistle--refers to Marcion's Antitheses). Apelles, Marcion's disciple,
composed a similar work under the title of "Syllogismi." Marcion's
Antitheses, which may still in part be reconstructed from Tertullian,
Epiphanius, Adamantius, Ephraem, etc., possessed canonical authority in
the Marcionite church, and therefore took the place of the Old
Testament. That is quite clear from Tertull., I. 19 (cf. IV. 1):
Separatio legis et Evangelii proprium et principale opus est Marcionis,
nee poterunt negare discipuli ejus, quod in summo (suo) instrumento
habent, quo denique initiantur et indurantur in hanc hæresim.]
[Footnote 377: Tertullian has frequently pointed to the contradictions
in the Marcionite conception of the god of creation. These
contradictions, however, vanish as soon as we regard Marcion's god from
the point of view that he is like his revelation in the Old Testament.]
[Footnote 378: The creator of the world is indeed to Marcion "malignus",
but not "malus."]
[Footnote 379: Marcion touched on it when he taught that the "visibilia"
belonged to the god of creation, but the "invisibilia" to the good God
(I. 16). He adopted the consequences, inasmuch as he taught docetically
about Christ, and only assumed a deliverance of the human soul.]
[Footnote 380: See especially the third book of Tertull., adv. Marcion.]
[Footnote 381: "Solius bonitatis", "deus melior", were Marcion's
standing expressions for him.]
[Footnote 382: "Deus incognitus" was likewise a standing expression.
They maintained against all attacks the religious position that, from
the nature of the case, believers only can know God, and that this is
quite sufficient (Tertull., 1. 11).]
[Footnote 383: Marcion firmly emphasised this and appealed to passages
in Paul; see Tertull., I. 11, 19, 23: "scio dicturos, atquin hanc esse
principalem et perfectam bonitatem, cum sine ullo debito familiaritatis
in extraneos voluntaria et libera effunditur, secundum quam inimicos
quoque nostros et hoc nomine jam extraneos deligere jubeamur." The
Church Fathers therefore declared that Marcion's good God was a thief
and a robber. See also Celsus, in Orig. VI. 53.]
[Footnote 384: See Esnik's account, which, however, is to be used
cautiously.]
[Footnote 385: Marcion has strongly emphasised the respective passages
in Luke's Gospel: see his Antitheses, and his comments on the Gospel, as
presented by Tertullian (l. IV).]
[Footnote 386: That can be plainly read in Esnik, and must have been
thought by Marcion himself, as he followed Paul (see Tertull., l. V. and
I. 11). Apelles also emphasised the death upon the cross. Marcion's
conception of the purchase can indeed no longer be ascertained in its
details. But see Adamant., de recta in deum fide, sect. I. It is one of
his theoretic contradictions that the good God who is exalted above
righteousness should yet purchase men.]
[Footnote 387: Tertull. I. 6: "Marcion non negat creatorem deum esse."]
[Footnote 388: Here Tertull., I. 27, 28, is of special importance; see
also II. 28: IV. 29 (on Luke XII. 41-46): IV. 30. Marcion's idea was
this. The good God does not judge or punish; but He judges in so far as
he keeps evil at a distance from Him: it remains foreign to Him.
"Marcionitæ interrogati quid fiet peccatori cuique die illo? respondent
abici illum quasi ab oculis." "Tranquilitas est et mansuetudinis
segregare solummodo et partem ejus cum infidelibus ponere." But what is
the end of him who is thus rejected? "Ab igne, inquiunt, creatoris
deprehendetur." We might think with Tertullian that the creator of the
world would receive sinners with joy: but this is the god of the law who
punishes sinners. The issue is twofold: the heaven of the good God, and
the hell of the creator of the world. Either Marcion assumed with Paul
that no one can keep the law, or he was silent about the end of the
"righteous" because he had no interest in it. At any rate, the teaching
of Marcion closes with an outlook in which the creator of the world can
no longer be regarded as an independent god. Marcion's disciples (see
Esnik) here developed a consistent theory: the creator of the world
violated his own law by killing the righteous Christ, and was therefore
deprived of all his power by Christ.]
[Footnote 389: Schools soon arose in the Marcionite church, just as they
did later on in the main body of Christendom (see Rhodon in Euseb, H. E.
V. 13. 2-4). The different doctrines of principles which were here
developed (two, three, four principles; the Marcionite Marcus's doctrine
of two principles in which the creator of the world is an evil being,
diverges furthest from the Master), explain the different accounts of
the Church Fathers about Marcion's teaching. The only one of the
disciples who really seceded from the Master, was Apelles (Tertull., de
præscr. 30). His teaching is therefore the more important, as it shews
that it was possible to retain the fundamental ideas of Marcion without
embracing dualism. The attitude of Apelles to the Old Testament is that
of Marcion, in so far as he rejects the book. But perhaps he somewhat
modified the strictness of the Master. On the other hand, he certainly
designated much in it as untrue and fabulous. It is remarkable that we
meet with a highly honoured prophetess in the environment of Apelles: in
Marcion's church we hear nothing of such, nay, it is extremely important
as regards Marcion, that he has never appealed to the Spirit and to
prophets. The "sanctiores feminæ" Tertull. V. 8, are not of this nature,
nor can we appeal even to V. 15. Moreover, it is hardly likely that
Jerome ad Eph. III. 5, refers to Marcionites. In this complete disregard
of early Christian prophecy, and in his exclusive reliance on literary
documents, we see in Marcion a process of despiritualising, that is, a
form of secularisation peculiar to himself. Marcion no longer possessed
the early Christian enthusiasm as, for example, Hermas did.]
[Footnote 390: Marcion was fond of calling Christ "Spiritus salutaris."
From the treatise of Tertullian we can prove both that Marcion
distinguished Christ from God, and that he made no distinction (see, for
example, I. 11, 14; II. 27; III. 8, 9, 11; IV. 7). Here again Marcion
did not think theologically. What he regarded as specially important was
that God has revealed himself in Christ, "per semetipsum." Later
Marcionites expressly taught Patripassianism, and have on that account
been often grouped with the Sabellians. But other Christologies also
arose in Marcion's church, which is again a proof that it was not
dependent on scholastic teaching, and therefore could take part in the
later development of doctrines.]
[Footnote 391: See the beginning of the Marcionite Gospel.]
[Footnote 392: Tertullian informs us sufficiently about this. The body
of Christ was regarded by Marcion merely as an "umbra", a "phantasma."
His disciples adhered to this, but Apelles first constructed a
"doctrine" of the body of Christ.]
[Footnote 393: The strict asceticism of Marcion and the Marcionites is
reluctantly acknowledged by the Church Fathers; see Tertull., de præscr.
30: "Sanctissimus magister"; I. 28, "carni imponit sanctitem." The
strict prohibition of marriage: I. 29: IV. 11, 17, 29, 34, 38: V. 7, 8,
15. 18; prohibition of food: I. 14; cynical life: Hippol., Philos. VII.
29; numerous martyrs: Euseb. H. E. V. 16, 21. and frequently elsewhere.
Marcion named his adherents (Tertull. IV. 9 36) "[Greek: suntalaipôroi
kai summisoumenoi]." It is questionable whether Marcion himself allowed
the repetition of baptism; it arose in his church. But this repetition
is a proof that the prevailing conception of baptism was not sufficient
for a vigorous religious temper.]
[Footnote 394: Tertull. I. 20. "Aiunt, Marcionem non tam innovasse
regulam separatione legis et evangelii quam retro adulteratam
recurasse." See the account of Epiphanius, taken from Hippolytus, about
the appearance of Marcion in Rome (h. 42. 1, 2).]
[Footnote 395: Here again we must remember that Marcion appealed neither
to a secret tradition, nor to the "Spirit," in order to appreciate the
epoch-making nature of his undertaking.]
[Footnote 396: In his estimate of the twelve Apostles Marcion took as
his standpoint Gal. II. See Tertull. I. 20: IV. 3 (generally IV. 1-6),
V. 3; de præscr. 22. 23. He endeavoured to prove from this chapter that
from a misunderstanding of the words of Christ, the twelve Apostles had
proclaimed a different Gospel than that of Paul; they had wrongly taken
the Father of Jesus Christ for the god of creation. It is not quite
clear how Marcion conceived the inward condition of the Apostles during
the lifetime of Jesus (See Tertull. III. 22: IV. 3. 39). He assumed that
they were persecuted by the Jews as the preachers of a new God. It is
probable, therefore, that he thought of a gradual obscuring of the
preaching of Jesus in the case of the primitive Apostles. They fell back
into Judaism; see Iren. III. 2. 2. "Apostolos admiscuisse ea quæ sunt
legalia salvatoris verbis"; III. 12. 12: "Apostoli quæ sunt Judæorum
sentientes scripserunt" etc.; Tertull. V. 3: "Apostolos vultis Judaismi
magis adfines subintelligi." The expositions of Marcion in Tertull. IV.
9, 11, 13, 21, 24, 39: V. 13. shew that he regarded the primitive
Apostles as out and out real Apostles of Christ.]
[Footnote 397: The call of Paul was viewed by Marcion as a manifestation
of Christ, of equal value with His first appearance and ministry; see
the account of Esnik. "Then for the second time Jesus came down to the
lord of the creatures in the form of his Godhead, and entered into
judgment with him on account of his death.... And Jesus said to him:
'Judgment is between me and thee, let no one be judge but thine own
laws.... hast thou not written in this thy law, that he who killeth
shall die?' And he answered, 'I have so written' ... Jesus said to him,
'Deliver thyself therefore into my hands' ... The creator of the world
said, 'Because I have slain thee I give thee a compensation, all those
who shall believe on thee, that thou mayest do with them what thou
pleasest.' Then Jesus left him and carried away Paul, and shewed him the
price, and sent him to preach that we are bought with this price, and
that all who believe in Jesus are sold by this just god to the good
one." This is a most instructive account; for it shews that in the
Marcionite schools the Pauline doctrine of reconciliation was
transformed into a drama, and placed between the death of Christ and the
call of Paul, and that the Pauline Gospel was based, not directly on the
death of Christ upon the cross, but on a theory of it converted into
history. On Paul as the one apostle of the truth; see Tertull. I. 20:
III. 5, 14: IV. 2 sq.: IV. 34: V. 1. As to a Marcionite theory that the
promise to send the Spirit was fulfilled in the mission of Paul, an
indication of the want of enthusiasm among the Marcionites, see the
following page, note 2.]
[Footnote 398: Marcion must have spoken _ex professo_ in his Antitheses
about the Judaistic corruptions of Paul's Epistles and the Gospel. He
must also have known Evangelic writings bearing the names of the
original Apostles, and have expressed himself about them (Tertull. IV.
1-6).]
[Footnote 399: Marcion's self-consciousness of being a reformer, and the
recognition of this in his church is still not understood, although his
undertaking itself and the facts speak loud enough. (1) The great
Marcionite church called itself after Marcion (Adamant., de recta in
deum fide. I. 809; Epiph. h. 42, p. 668, ed. Oehler: [Greek: Markiôn sou
to onoma epikeklêntai hoi upo sou êpatêmenoi, hôs seauton kêruxantos kai
ouchi Christon]. We possess a Marcionite inscription which begins:
[Greek: sunagôgê Markiônistôn]). As the Marcionites did not form a
school, but a church, it is of the greatest value for shewing the
estimate of the master in this church, that its members called
themselves by his name. (2) The Antitheses of Marcion had a place in the
Marcionite canon (see above, p. 270). This canon therefore embraced a
book of Christ, Epistles of Paul, and a book of Marcion, and for that
reason the Antitheses were always circulated with the canon of Marcion.
(3) Origen (in Luc. hom. 25. T. III. p. 962) reports as follows:
"Denique in tantam quidam dilectionis audaciam proruperunt, ut nova
quædam et inaudita super Paulo monstra confingerent. Alli enim aiunt,
hoc quod scriptum est, sedere a dextris salvatoris et sinistris, de
Paulo et de Marcione dici, quod Paulus sedet a dextris, Marcion sedet a
sinistris. Porro alii legentes: Mittam vobis advocatum Spiritum
veritatis, nolunt intelligere tertiam personam a patre et filio, sed
Apostolum Paulum." The estimate of Marcion which appears here is
exceedingly instructive. (4) An Arabian writer, who, it is true, belongs
to a later period, reports that Marcionites called their founder
"Apostolorum principem." (5) Justin, the first opponent of Marcion,
classed him with Simon Magus and Menander, that is, with demonic
founders of religion. These testimonies may suffice.]
[Footnote 400: On Marcion's Gospel see the Introductions to the New
Testament and Zahn's Kanonsgeschichte, Bd. I., p. 585 ff. and II., p.
409. Marcion attached no name to his Gospel, which, according to his own
testimony, he produced from the third one of our Canon (Tertull, adv.
Marc. IV. 2, 3, 4). He called it simply [Greek: euangelion (kuriou)],
but held that it was the Gospel which Paul had in his mind when he spoke
of his Gospel. The later Marcionites ascribed the authorship of the
Gospel partly to Paul, partly to Christ himself, and made further
changes in it. That Marcion chose the Gospel called after Luke should be
regarded as a makeshift; for this Gospel, which is undoubtedly the most
Hellenistic of the four Canonical Gospels, and therefore comes nearest
to the Catholic conception of Christianity, accommodated itself in its
traditional form but little better than the other three to Marcionite
Christianity. Whether Marcion took it for a basis because in his time it
had already been connected with Paul (or really had a connection with
Paul), or whether the numerous narratives about Jesus as the Saviour of
sinners, led him to recognise in this Gospel alone a genuine kernel, we
do not know.]
[Footnote 401: The associations of the Encratites and the community
founded by Apelles stood between the main body of Christendom and the
Marcionite church. The description of Celsus (especially V. 61-64 in
Orig.) shews the motley appearance which Christendom presented soon
after the middle of the second century. He there mentions the
Marcionites, and a little before (V. 59), the "great Church." It is very
important that Celsus makes the main distinction consist in this, that
some regarded their God as identical with the God of the Jews, whilst
others again declared that "theirs was a different Deity who is hostile
to that of the Jews, and that it was he who had sent the Son." (V. 61).]
[Footnote 402: One might be tempted to comprise the character of
Marcion's religion in the words, "The God who dwells in my breast can
profoundly excite my inmost being. He who is throned above all my powers
can move nothing outwardly." But Marcion had the firm assurance that God
has done something much greater than move the world: he has redeemed men
from the world, and given them the assurance of this redemption, in the
midst of all oppression and enmity which do not cease.]