![Klinghardt's Marcion hypothesis - four canonical gospels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Klinghardt%27s_Marcion_hypothesis_-_four_canonical_gospels.svg)
The priority of the Gospel of Marcion or Marcionite priority (or priority of the Marcionite Gospel) is a possible solution to the
synoptic problem
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical wording. They stand in contrast to John, whose con ...
. This hypothesis claims that the first produced or compiled gospel was
that of Marcion and that this gospel of Marcion was used as inspiration for some, or all, of the
canonical gospels
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
:
Matthew
Matthew may refer to:
* Matthew (given name)
* Matthew (surname)
* ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497
* ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith
* Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...
,
Mark
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fi ...
,
Luke
People
*Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...
, and
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
. A contemporary proponent of this hypothesis is
Matthias Klinghardt
Matthias Klinghardt (born August 24, 1957 in Waldshut-Tiengen) is a German Protestant theologian and university professor. His theological specialty is the New Testament. He is known as a revisionist historian of Eucharistic origins and as a prop ...
.
Context
Marcion of Sinope
Marcion of Sinope (; grc, Μαρκίων ; ) was an early Christian theologian in early Christianity. Marcion preached that God had sent Jesus Christ who was an entirely new, alien god, distinct from the vengeful God of Israel who had created ...
( 85 – c. 160) is the founder of a Christian movement called
Marcionism
Marcionism was an early Christian dualistic belief system that originated with the teachings of Marcion of Sinope in Rome around the year 144. Marcion was an early Christian theologian, evangelist, and an important figure in early Christianity. ...
. Marcion is regarded by numerous scholars as having produced
the first New Testament canon. He also wrote a gospel, or adopted a preexisting one, called the Evangelion, now commonly called the
Gospel of Marcion
The Gospel of Marcion, called by its adherents the Gospel of the Lord, was a text used by the mid-2nd-century Christian teacher Marcion of Sinope to the exclusion of the other gospels. The majority of scholars agree the gospel was an edited versi ...
.
[BeDuhn, Jason (2013) ''The First New Testament: Marion's Scriptural Canon''][Vinzent, Markus (2014) ''Marcion and the Dating of the Synoptic gospels''][Klinghart, Matthias (2015) ''Das älteste Evangelium und die Entstehung der kanonischen Evangelien,'' Francke A. Verlag; in English: ]
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
say Marcion wrote the gospel of Marcion himself, and that the gospel of Marcion is a revision of the
gospel of Luke
The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-volu ...
with some passages expurged from it to fit
Marcion's theology; this hypothesis on the relationship between the gospels of Marcion and of Luke is called the patristic hypothesis. However, this is not the only hypothesis. Some argue that the gospel of Marcion precedes the gospel of Luke and that the gospel of Luke is a revision of the Gospel of Marcion (
Schwegler hypothesis). Others argue that the gospel of Marcion and the gospel of Luke are two independent versions of
a common source, and that the gospel of Marcion is an unaltered version of this source or is more faithful to this source than the gospel of Luke is (
Semler Semler is an occupational surname derived from the occupation of baker who bakes '':de:Brötchen, semmels'', i.e., white bread rolls.
Notable people with the surname include:
*Andrée Sfeir-Semler (born 1953), art historian and gallery owner
*Augu ...
hypothesis).
Others go further and consider that the Gospel of Marcion was the very first gospel ever produced, preceding
all others including the gospels of
Matthew
Matthew may refer to:
* Matthew (given name)
* Matthew (surname)
* ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497
* ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith
* Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...
,
Mark
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fi ...
,
Luke
People
*Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...
, and
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
(Marcion hypothesis).
"
ere has been a long line of scholars" who, against what the Church Fathers said, claimed "that our canonical Luke forms an enlarged version of a '
Proto-Luke' which was also used by Marcion. This dispute
..was especially vivid in nineteenth century German scholarship". In 1942, John Knox published his ''Marcion and the New Testament'', defending that the gospel of Marcion had the chronological priority over Luke. After this publication, no defense of this theory was made again until two 2006 articles: one of Joseph Tyson, and one of Matthias Klinghardt. "Knox and Tyson believe that Marcion used and falsified 'Proto-Luke, while Klinghardt, who at that time did not defend that the gospel of Marcion was the very first gospel ever produced, "assert
dthat Marcion used Proto-Luke as he found it, that is, Marcion's Gospel and 'Proto-Luke' are identical."
Gospel of Marcion as the first of all gospels
In his 2013 book, ''The First New Testament: Marcion's Scriptural Canon'',
Jason BeDuhn
Jason David BeDuhn (born 1963) is a historian of religion and culture, currently Professor of Religious Studies at Northern Arizona University.
Education
BeDuhn holds a B.A. in Religious studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champai ...
considers that the gospel of Marcion was not produced or adapted by Marcion, but instead that the Gospel of Marcion was a preexisting gospel adopted by Marcion and
his movement.
He believes that: "On the whole, the differences between Luke and the Evangelion
.e. the Gospel of Marcionresist explanation on ideological grounds, and point instead toward
Semler Semler is an occupational surname derived from the occupation of baker who bakes '':de:Brötchen, semmels'', i.e., white bread rolls.
Notable people with the surname include:
*Andrée Sfeir-Semler (born 1953), art historian and gallery owner
*Augu ...
's original suggestion 250 years ago: the two gospels could be alternative versions adapted for primarily Jewish and primarily Gentile readers, respectively. In other words, the differences served practical, mission-related purposes rather than ideological, sectarian ones. Under such a scenario, the Evangelion would be transmitted within exactly the wing of
emerging Christianity in which we can best situate Marcion’s own religious background." Semler's hypothesis being that "the Evangelion and Luke are both pre-Marcionite versions going back to
a common original."
In his 2014 book ''Marcion and the Dating of the Synoptic Gospels'',
Markus Vinzent Markus Vinzent (born 1959) is a historian of religion (specializing in early Christianity, Patristics and Medieval Studies, Historiography, Retromodernity, Religion and Business). He is professor in the Department of Theology & Religious Studies at ...
considers that the gospel of Marcion precedes the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). He believes that the Gospel of Marcion influenced the four gospels. Vinzent differs with both BeDuhn and Klinghardt in that he believes the Gospel of Marcion was written directly by Marcion: Marcion's gospel was first written as a draft "probably for his class-room (without
''Antitheses'' and perhaps without
Paul's letters). This text provided the basis for Matthew and John and Mark and Luke." Marcion's draft was not meant for publication, and was plagiarized by the
four canonical gospels
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
; this plagiarism angered Marcion who saw the purpose of his text distorted and made him publish his gospel, along with the ''Antitheses'' as a preface and 10 letters of Paul.
![Klinghardt's Marcion hypothesis - synoptic gospels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Klinghardt%27s_Marcion_hypothesis_-_synoptic_gospels.svg)
In his 2015 book, Matthias Klinghardt changed his mind comparing to his 2008 opinion. In a 2008 article he said that
Marcion's gospel was based on the Gospel of Mark, that the
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and for ...
was an expansion of the Gospel of Mark with reference to the Gospel of Marcion, and that the Gospel of Luke was an expansion of the Gospel of Marcion with reference to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.
In his 2015 book, Klingardht shares the same opinion as BeDuhn and Vinzent on the priority and influence of the Gospel of Marcion, as well as on its adoption by Marcion.
He considers that the Gospel of Marcion preceded and influenced the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).
Klinghardt and BeDuhn reaffirmed their opinions in two 2017 articles.
The Marcion priority also implies a model of the late dating of the New Testament Gospels to the 2nd century – a thesis that goes back to
David Trobisch
David Johannes Trobisch (born on August 18, 1958) is a German scholar whose work has focused on formation of the Christian Bible, ancient New Testament manuscripts and the epistles of Paul.
Life
Trobisch grew up in Cameroon where his parents ...
, who, in 1996 in his
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
thesis accepted in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, presented the conception or thesis of an early, uniform final editing of the
New Testament canon
The canon of the New Testament is the set of books many modern Christians regard as divinely inspired and constituting the New Testament of the Christian Bible. For historical Christians, canonization was based on whether the material was from a ...
in the 2nd century.
Criticism
Christopher Hays contends that Klinghart's 2006 case makes a number of philological errors, misunderstands the nature of how Marcion is contended to have redacted Luke, and offers an inconsistent case on how he views that Luke had redacted Marcion. For example, while one argument for Marcionite priority over Luke rests on the claim that it is unlikely that Marcion deleted significant portions of Luke rather than Luke having expanded significant portions of Marcion, Hays holds that Marcion also deleted significant portions of
Paul's letters to create his Apostolikon. Thus, Hays sees it as
special pleading
Special pleading is an informal fallacy wherein one cites something as an exception to a general or universal principle, without justifying the special exception. It is the application of a double standard.
In the classic distinction among mate ...
to acknowledge that Marcion edited down Paul and to also hold that Marcion did not edit down Luke. In addition, Moll says that all surviving sources say that Marcion is the one who edited Luke, and therefore the
burden of proof is on advocates of Marcionite priority to provide the counter-argument.
Dieter Roth has responded to Markus Vinzent's thesis (that Marcion was the author of the first Gospel and that the
four canonical Gospels
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
only came after it). According to Roth, Vinzent advances this thesis based on a number of misreadings of
Tertullian
Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...
.
Notes
See also
*
Farrer hypothesis
The Farrer hypothesis (also called the L/M hypothesis, the Farrer–Goulder hypothesis and the Farrer–Goulder–Goodacre hypothesis) is a possible solution to the synoptic problem. The theory is that the Gospel of Mark was written first, followe ...
*
Gospel of Marcion
The Gospel of Marcion, called by its adherents the Gospel of the Lord, was a text used by the mid-2nd-century Christian teacher Marcion of Sinope to the exclusion of the other gospels. The majority of scholars agree the gospel was an edited versi ...
*
Griesbach hypothesis
The two-gospel hypothesis or Griesbach hypothesis is that the Gospel of Matthew was written before the Gospel of Luke, and that both were written earlier than the Gospel of Mark. It is a proposed solution to the synoptic problem, which concerns th ...
*
Markan priority
Marcan priority is the hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was the first of the three synoptic gospels to be written, and was used as a source by the other two (Matthew and Luke). It is a central element in discussion of the synoptic problem; the q ...
*
Synoptic problem
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical wording. They stand in contrast to John, whose con ...
*
Two-source hypothesis
The two-source hypothesis (or 2SH) is an explanation for the synoptic problem, the pattern of similarities and differences between the three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It posits that the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke were bas ...
References
Further reading
* BeDuhn, Jason (2013) ''The First New Testament: Marion's Scriptural Canon''
*
*
*
* Klinghart, Matthias (2015) ''Das älteste Evangelium und die Entstehung der kanonischen Evangelien'', Francke A. Verlag (in German); translated in English as
* Klinghardt, Matthias (2018), ''The Oldest gospel: Klinghardt Edition,'' Quiet Waters Publications
* Vinzent, Markus (2014) ''Marcion and the Dating of the Synoptic Gospels,'' Studia Patristica, Peeters.
*
*
External links
Early Christian Writings: MarcionThe Center for Marcionite Research Library
{{Synoptic problem
Synoptic problem
Hypotheses
Biblical criticism
Marcionism