The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

How the biblical canon formed — lesson 3

Marcion and the pressure on the canon

One cause among several, and why the single-cause story overstates the evidence.

  • Historical consensusBroadly agreed among historians working from the surviving evidence. Consensus can shift when the evidence or the method changes.
  • Disputed historyHistorians genuinely disagree. The page gives the range the evidence supports rather than choosing the most striking version.

Primary evidence verified Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

What still needs checking (1)
  • Add tier D scholarship on Marcion's canon and its relation to the emerging New Testament.

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What this lesson covers

  • State what Marcion taught and what he used.
  • Assess the claim that Marcion forced the Church to define its canon.
  • Name the other pressures at work.

About 6 minutes to read.

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Marcion of Sinope, excommunicated at Rome in the 140s, rejected the Old Testament and its God, and used a shortened Luke together with a collection of Pauline letters from which he removed what he took to be later corruption.

His position is not a variety of gnosticism in the usual sense, though the two are often grouped. His objection was to the God of Israel and to the material creation, and his solution was editorial.

Did Marcion create the canon?

What Marcion does illustrate well is that the question was never only which books but which God. His rejection of the Old Testament and of the goodness of creation is why the Church's answer, in Irenaeus and others, insists so hard that the God of Israel is the Father of Jesus Christ and that the creation is good.

Key Scripture

  • Genesis 1:31 — The verse Marcion's position could not accommodate.
  • Luke 24:27 — Christ expounding the Scriptures concerning himself, beginning with Moses.

On Scripture references. References are given so you can read the passage in the translation your parish uses. This site does not reproduce a modern copyrighted Bible text.

Why this matters in lived Orthodoxy

The Orthodox Church reads the Old Testament in its worship constantly, and its hymnography is dense with Old Testament typology. That is the practical answer to Marcion, and it was in place before the argument was won.

Review

What did Marcion use as his Scripture?
A shortened Luke and an edited collection of Pauline letters, rejecting the Old Testament entirely.
Why is the claim that Marcion created the canon an overstatement?
Because his editing presupposes a collection already in use, and several other pressures were at work at the same time.

Your notes

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Going deeper

Sources for this page

  1. Tier C The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.); A. Cleveland Coxe (American ed.) Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book I translated edition of primary texts Source record
  2. Tier C Eusebius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Arthur Cushman McGiffert (trans.) Eusebius, Church History, Book III translated edition of primary texts Source record

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