Marcionism a 2nd century religious movement

Development

• Marcionism was a religious movement based on the teachings of the 2nd-century heretic Marcion of Sinope ¹.
• Marcion was born in Sinope, Asia Minor in about 85 CE ².

Primary Beliefs

• Marcion held that the Old Testament Scriptures were not authoritative for a Christian ¹.
• He denied that the God of the Old Testament was the same God presented in the New Testament ¹.
• He believed that Jesus was the Son of the God of the New Testament but not the Son of the deity described in the Hebrew Scriptures ¹.
• He believed that Jesus was not truly a man but only appeared to be human ¹.

Influence on the World

• Marcionism was one of the earliest rivals to the Christian church ¹.
• Marcionism is the evergreen heresy and is still popular ³.

Conduct of Leaders

• Marcion was an intelligent, capable, hard, unbending, vain, rich, ambitious man ³.
• He was formally excommunicated in AD 144 and his lavish gift promptly returned ³.

Religious Practices

• Marcion saw Paul as the only legitimate apostle ¹.
• He believed that true Christianity was flawed by the incompatibilities at the heart of its teaching ³.
• He believed that the picture of God given at Mt. Sinai—a God whose presence is manifest in thunder and lightning, with people cowering in dread—was simply unbelievable ³.

End

• Marcionism died out completely by the mid-to-late 300s