Marcionites, Early Christians, and Knowledge of God

Abstract

The Marcionite movement of the mid 2nd century rejected the Old Testament God, claiming that he was separate from the God of Christ. The Marcionite movement posed difficult questions about prophecy: what it was, who had access to it, and what we could know from it. Particularly, the Marcionites questioned the long distant past of the Israelite prophets, throwing doubt on their legitimacy and on whether they could be relied on as sources of true divine knowledge. But they also prompted discussions on a number of related theological issues: in particular, what does it mean to know God and Christ? What does it mean to know the world through prophecy? And what can we say about God in a world in which scripture is not the basis of sound knowledge? This chapter tracks these two closely related strands, examining Marcionite theological views and how they fit into the broader picture of pagan Greek and early Christian epistemology. It provides the context in which to understand Origen’s anti-Marcionite writings and his epistemology, both issues of prime importance for understanding his view of prophecy.