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What if a gospel survives only in the words of those who opposed it?
Marcion’s Gospel brings you close to a disputed text of early Christianity. No manuscript survives. Its words reach us through church writers, chiefly Tertullian and Epiphanius, who quote and challenge it. Their accounts offer clues, but their hostility also calls for care: this is a gospel known through its critics.
At its heart lies Marcion of Sinope’s striking belief: Jesus comes from a good God unknown to this world, distinct from the creator described in the Hebrew Scriptures. Closely related to Luke, this gospel has no birth story or family tree. Its differences open questions about scripture, belonging, and how the New Testament takes shape.
What you’ll discover
- A gospel through hostile eyes Follow quotations and disputes that preserve traces of a text its opponents reject.
- The stranger God Explore Marcion’s contrast between the creator and a previously unknown God of goodness.
- A different beginning Encounter a gospel without a nativity narrative, yet with familiar teachings and healings.
- What stays and changes Consider how similarities with Luke sit beside omissions that reflect Marcion’s central beliefs.
- The boundaries of scripture Examine Marcion’s collection of Christian scriptures and the conflict surrounding its place outside the Bible.
Who will love it
For readers curious about how the New Testament took shape, and for anyone who loves textual detective work, lost gospels and early Christian disputes over which books to trust.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A gospel known only through its critics
- Marcion breaks with the church in Rome
- Two gods and the stranger from above
- A gospel with no birth and no past
- What the gospel keeps, cuts and changes
- Why it stands outside the Bible
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Marcion’s Gospel
by Attributed to Marcion of Sinope · 140
A lost gospel survives in its critics’ words, revealing Marcion’s disputed vision of Jesus and a good, unknown God.
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In short
Marcion's Gospel is the single gospel used by Marcion of Sinope, a teacher from the Black Sea region who came to Rome around 140. No manuscript of it survives.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A gospel known only through its critics
Marcion's Gospel was never preserved by the people who copied the books we now call the New Testament. Its followers belonged to churches that later faded, and the larger church did not copy their scriptures. What remains are the pages of those who wrote against him. Tertullian, in his work Against Marcion, goes through the gospel in order and answers it verse by verse. Epiphanius, a bishop of the fourth century, lists passages he says Marcion cut or changed. A later work called the Dialogue of Adamantius adds more.
Because of this, the text is a reconstruction. Scholars lay the quotations side by side and rebuild the order of the gospel from Tertullian's walk through it. Adolf von Harnack, a German historian, gave the most influential modern study of Marcion in 1921. Later scholars such as Dieter Roth and Jason BeDuhn have produced fresh reconstructions in English. Each one shows its gaps and its guesses.
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What is Marcion's Gospel?
It is the gospel used by Marcion of Sinope in the second century. It resembled Luke but lacked the birth stories and many links to the Hebrew Scriptures. It survives only in quotations by opponents such as Tertullian and Epiphanius.
Who was Marcion and what did he teach?
Marcion was a Christian teacher from Sinope who came to Rome around 140. He taught that the just creator god of the Hebrew Scriptures differed from the good God revealed by Jesus. The Roman church expelled him about 144.
Did Marcion write his own gospel or edit Luke?
Tertullian and Epiphanius say Marcion edited Luke, and most scholars agree. A minority, including Matthias Klinghardt, argue that Marcion's text came first and that Luke built on it. The question is still debated.
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