Relationship To The Gospel of Luke
There are two possible relationships between Marcion's gospel and the Gospel of Luke; either Marcion revised a previously existing Gospel of Luke to fit his own agenda or else his "Gospel of the Lord" pre-dated the Gospel of Luke as we have it today and was in fact the basis for it.
- Marcion's gospel as a revision of Luke's
Church Fathers wrote, and the majority of modern scholars agree, that Marcion edited Luke to fit his own theology, Marcionism. The late 2nd -century writer Tertullian noted that Marcion, "expunged all the things that oppose his view... but retained those things that accord with his opinion".
According to this view, Marcion eliminated the first two chapters of Luke concerning the nativity, and began his gospel at Capernaum making modifications to the remainder suitable to Marcionism. The differences in the texts below highlight the Marcionite view that, first, Jesus did not follow the Prophets and, second, the earth is evil.
| Luke | Marcion |
|---|---|
| O foolish and hard of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken (24:25) | O foolish and hard of heart to believe in all that I have told you |
| They began to accuse him, saying, ‘We found this man perverting our nation . . .’ (23:2) | They began to accuse him, saying, ‘We found this man perverting our nation . . . and destroying the law and the prophets.' |
| I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth... (10:21) | I thank Thee, Heavenly Father... |
- Marcion's gospel as pre-dating Luke's
In 1881 Charles B. Waite suggested that Marcion's Gospel may have preceded Luke's Gospel. John Knox (not the same as the Scottish reformer John Knox) in Marcion and the New Testament (1942) also defends this hypothesis. In the 2006 book Marcion and Luke-Acts: a defining struggle, Joseph B Tyson makes a case for not only Luke but also Acts being responses to Marcion rather than Marcion's gospel being a rewrite of Luke.
Read more about this topic: Gospel Of Marcion
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