Not much is known about Marcion due to differences in the writers stories about him.[11][12] Though, it is known that he collected the epistles at each of the churches Paul sent his epistles to. This was prior to him establishing the
Marcionite Church.[13] He also was popular enough that early church fathers like
Justin Martyr and
Irenaeus had to write about him.[14][15] It is unknown how he was able to get his Gospel but it has been proven that our modern
Gospels come from this work.[16]
Schism within Marcionism
By the reign of emperor
Commodus (180–192), Marcionism was divided into various opinions with various leaders; among whom was
Apelles, whom
Rhodo describes as: "... priding himself on his manner of life and his age, acknowledges one principle, but says that the prophecies are from an opposing principle, being led to this view by the responses of a maiden by name Philumene, who was possessed by a demon".[citation needed]
However, others, among whom were Potitus and Basilicus, held to two principles, as did Marcion himself. Others consider that there are not only two, but three natures. Of these, Syneros was the leader and chief.[17]
The canon contains a preface titled
Antithesis, two sections of scripture. Section 1 being Evangelion, 2 being Apostolikon.[18][19][20][21] The canon order based was very
different then our modern day
New Testament as well with it likely being Galatians first instead of Romans.[22][23][24]Though, the Muratorian canon states that it was Alexandrians first.[25][26][27] A majority of Marcion's works are completely lost but some scholars have been able to reconstruct certain texts. One notable scholar is
Adolf von Harnack.Michael Xoroaster appears to have collected enough sources to reconstruct Marcion's scripture portion of the Bible.[28] The Marcionite canon compared to our modern
New Testament can be seen below: