Marcionism

Marcionism is a sect founded in A.D. 144 at Rome by Marcion of Sinope and continuing in the West for 300 years, but in the East some centuries longer, especially outside the Byzantine Empire. They rejected the writings of the Old Testament and taught that Christ was not the Son of the God of the Jews, but the Son of the good God, who was different from the God of the Ancient Covenant. They anticipated the more consistent dualism of Manichaeism and were finally absorbed by it. As they arose in the very infancy of Christianity and adopted from the beginning a strong ecclesiastical organization, parallel to that of the Catholic Church, they are considered by the Catholic Church to have been the most dangerous foe Christianity has ever known. See also Christology. Sometimes the word Marcionism is used to refer to anti-Jewish tendencies in Christian churches, especially when such tendencies are thought to be surviving residues of ancient Marcionsism. For example, on its web site, the Tawahedo Church of Ethiopia claims to be the only Christian church that is fully free of Marcionism. Portions of this article were copied from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1908). Category:Ancient Roman Christianity