Epistle To The Laodiceans - The Marcionist Epistle To The Laodiceans

The Marcionist Epistle To The Laodiceans

Marcion believed that Paul was the only apostle who truly understood Jesus's message. He rejected three of the four Canonical gospels, constructing a canon consisting of only of a redacted Gospel of Luke which he called the Gospel of the Lord, and ten of the Pauline epistles. (These were also edited, in Marcion's canon, to remove passages that he did not agree with.) According to the Muratorian fragment, Marcion's canon contained an epistle entitled Epistle to the Laodiceans which is commonly thought to be a forgery written to conform to his own point of view. This is not at all clear, however, since none of the text survives. It is not known what this letter might have contained. Some scholars suggest it may have been the Vulgate epistle described below, while others believe it must have been more explicitly Marcionist in its outlook.