Tammuz

In Roger Viklund's book, I've read a bit about Marcion. I found him an interesting figure, so I looked him up at Wikipedia.

It appears that he had his own branch of "Christianity" (I guess it's a matter of definition of he was a Christian or not). His New Testament included ten letters attributed to Paul, and the Gospel of Luke, another version than the one we have. And here is the issue: Did Marcion edit the Gospel of Luke in order to suit his own theology? This was the position of the Church Fathers (suprise!), and also the position of most of the scholars today. Or did Marcion's gospel predate our Gospel of Luke? This is a minority view among scholars today. What do you think is closest to the truth?

Also, according to Viklund, the gospel of Marcion is devoid of settling Jesus' life on Earth as a historical figure. Is this correct?

It is interesting to note that Marcion wanted to cut the ties with Judaism and the Tanakh, whose god he considered barbaric. That was in the second century. Yet today, Christians go out of their way to explain why that god was actually good.

Toto

Which came first, the gospel of Luke or Marcion? == a discussion of who edited which gospel.

Roger Viklund's site

andrewcriddle

There is a good reconstruction of Marcion's Gospel here http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Itha...7/Library.html
Part One http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Itha...7/Gospel1.html
It provides the evidence on which the reconstruction is based.

Andrew Criddle