Marcionism in the early church

Marcion's teaching (two gods, his canon) and its refutation. Part of Heresy.

First Apology 26Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Simon Magus, Menander, and Marcion, inspired by demons, are honored or tolerated, while true Christians are persecuted.
First Apology 58Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Marcion, prompted by demons, teaches another god than the Creator; the demons' whole aim is to draw people from God.
Dialogue with Trypho 35.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin names the Marcionites, Valentinians, Basilidians, and Saturnilians.
Against Heresies 1.27.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Cerdo, at Rome under Hyginus, taught that the God of the law and prophets is not the Father of Christ.
Against Heresies 1.27.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Marcion blasphemed the God of the law, cut down Luke's Gospel and Paul's letters, and taught that Jesus came from a higher Father.
Against Heresies 1.27.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Marcion taught that only the soul is saved and that Christ in Hades saved Cain and the Sodomites but not Abel, Noah, Abraham and the prophets.
Against Heresies 2.1.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The same reasoning refutes Marcion's two Gods and leads to endless worlds and gods.
Against Heresies 2.31.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The arguments against Valentinus overthrow all the other heresies too, from Marcion and Simon to Basilides and the Gnostics.
Against Heresies 3.11.9Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Those who add Gospels, like the Valentinians' “Gospel of Truth,” or reject them, like Marcion and the opponents of John's Gospel, destroy the Gospel's fourfold form.
Against Heresies 3.12.12Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The heretics, offended by the law of Moses, invented another God; Marcion mutilated the Scriptures, and the Valentinians made the Creator a product of defect.
Against Heresies 4.13.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ’s sayings in the Sermon on the Mount extend and fulfil the natural precepts of the law rather than abolishing them, against Marcion.
Against Heresies 5.26.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Since Christ, the stone of Daniel, fulfilled what the Creator foretold, those who blaspheme the Creator, like Marcion and the Valentinians, are instruments of Satan, who, as Justin said, began to blaspheme only after learning his condemnation.
Miscellanies 2.8.39Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Against the Marcionites, who call the law just but not good, Clement argues that the fear of the Lord destroys evil and so is good, bringing fearlessness and moderation; to fear sinning and keep the commandments honors God.
Miscellanies 3.3.12Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Marcionites refuse marriage not from choice but from hatred of the Creator, whose world they think evil; yet they eat his food, breathe his air, and received the gospel in his world.
Miscellanies 3.3.13Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Marcionites took from the philosophers the idea that birth is evil; but the philosophers meant that the divine soul is sent into the world as a place of punishment, a view belonging to believers in reincarnation.
Miscellanies 3.3.21Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Heraclitus too calls life death; Clement concludes that Marcion took his strange doctrines from Plato, ungratefully and ignorantly.
Miscellanies 3.4.25Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marcion is self-controlled only out of hatred of the Creator; Christ's “let the dead bury their dead” does not condemn the flesh; the Nicolaitans misuse a story of Nicolaus giving up his wife to justify sexual immorality.
On the Distribution of the TalentsHippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · From the discourse on the talents: heretics who deny either Christ's divinity or his real flesh, like Marcion and Valentinus, bury one of the talents.
Against All Heresies 6Anonymous · early 3rd cent. (disputed) · The author describes Cerdo's two gods, Marcion, his disciple Lucanus, and Apelles with his starry-fleshed Christ and the prophetess Philumene.
Prescription against Heretics 30Tertullian · ca. 203 · Marcion, Valentinus, and Apelles were recent, expelled from the church at Rome, and their own innovations prove them later than the truth; they cannot show apostolic authority or apostolic miracles.
Prescription against Heretics 33Tertullian · ca. 203 · Many heresies were already present or foreshadowed in the apostles' day and condemned by them: denial of the resurrection, Judaizing, forbidding marriage, endless genealogies, the Nicolaitans, docetism, and Simon's magic.
Prescription against Heretics 34Tertullian · ca. 203 · No heresy in the apostles' day questioned the Creator; Marcion, Apelles, and Valentinus were the first, so they are either condemned with the older heresies or condemned by their lateness.
Prescription against Heretics 38Tertullian · ca. 203 · Corrupt doctrine requires corrupted Scriptures: Marcion cut the text with a knife, Valentinus kept the text but twisted its meaning; the church's Scriptures are unaltered because its doctrine is original.
On the Flesh of Christ 2Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Marcion cut the whole nativity story out of the Gospel to deny Christ's flesh; having abandoned the faith handed down, he has no authority to do so.
On the Flesh of Christ 4Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Marcion scorns human birth as disgusting, but Christ loved and redeemed man, birth and flesh included; the “foolishness” God chose is precisely a God born of a virgin in the flesh.
On the Flesh of Christ 5Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · A crucified, dead, and risen God is the “foolishness” of the faith: it is credible because absurd, certain because impossible; and it is only true if Christ had real flesh, as he showed after the resurrection.
Against Marcion 1.1Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian explains that this is the third edition of his work, paints Marcion's homeland Pontus as a land of savagery, and declares Marcion a heretic because his teaching is newer than the faith he once held.
Against Marcion 1.2Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion, troubled by the problem of evil and misreading Jesus' saying about good and bad trees and Isaiah's “I create evil,” split God into an evil Creator and a new good god revealed in Christ.
Against Marcion 1.4Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The analogy of many kings, each supreme in his own realm, fails: nothing can be compared with God, and even among kings supremacy finally belongs to only one.
Against Marcion 1.6Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's two gods are in fact unequal (a harsh judge and a merely good god), but if both are truly God, neither can be less than the other, so inequality between them is impossible too.
Against Marcion 1.7Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · That Scripture calls others “gods” proves nothing: supreme greatness belongs to God's eternal substance, not to the name, and so two gods can be neither equal nor unequal.
Against Marcion 1.8Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The Marcionites boast of a “new” god, but a new god can only be a false one, since the true God is eternal and has neither beginning nor end.
Against Marcion 1.9Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god, unknown until Christ, is at best uncertain; and since both gods are claimed to share the same divine nature, the uncertain one must be tested by the pattern of the known Creator, who was never unknown.
Against Marcion 1.11Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · A god who created nothing, owns nothing, and has left no works by which to be known cannot be proved God; if Marcion's god wished to be known, he should have made himself known through works greater than the Creator's.
Against Marcion 1.14Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Even tiny creatures show the Creator's skill; Marcion's own Christ loved the Creator's man and uses the Creator's water, oil, milk, honey, and bread in his sacraments, and the Marcionites themselves live on the Creator's world.
Against Marcion 1.15Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god has no visible world of his own; and if he made one, the place and matter it required would themselves be gods, so that Marcion's system actually implies nine gods, not two.
Against Marcion 1.17Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Saying that Marcion's god saved mankind proves nothing until his existence is shown from works; and a good god who waited so long to reveal himself would be either ignorant, hesitant, powerless, or unwilling.
Against Marcion 1.18Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god has no works by which to be known and no prophets to proclaim him; if Marcion simply devised him, he is no more a god than the deities invented by Roman kings and emperors.
Against Marcion 1.19Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god appeared only in the reign of Antoninus Pius, over a century after Christ, and was born of Marcion's own Antitheses, which set the gospel against the law; so Christ did not reveal him.
Against Marcion 1.21Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The apostolic churches argued about conduct, never about which God to worship; their unbroken tradition confesses only the Creator, so Marcion's god is his own invention.
Against Marcion 1.22Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Real goodness in God must be natural and eternal, acting as soon as there is need; a god who let the human race suffer and perish for ages before helping would be malicious, like a doctor who lets a disease worsen to earn a bigger fee.
Against Marcion 1.23Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · True goodness is rational and just: it serves its own first and never wrongs another; Marcion's god, stealing the Creator's man like a kidnapper stealing another's slave, shows a goodness that is irrational and unjust.
Against Marcion 1.28Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god hands sinners over to the Creator's fire, and his baptism makes no sense: he forgives sins he never charged, frees from a death he never imposed, and washes flesh he will not save.
Against Marcion 1.29Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion baptized only the celibate and those who divorced, condemning marriage; Tertullian answers that marriage is good, blessed by the Creator, and that celibacy is better only as a free choice, while abolishing marriage would destroy both holiness and the human race.
Against Marcion 2.20Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcionites accuse the Creator of theft for telling the Hebrews to take the Egyptians' gold and silver, but it was modest back pay for generations of unpaid slave labour and murdered children.
Against Marcion 2.28Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian turns Marcion's method back on him: every charge made against the Creator — ignorance, change of mind, repentance, fraud, cruelty — can be made against Marcion's own god.
Against Marcion 2.29Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's Antitheses, which set Christ's mercy against the Creator's severity, actually show one God who is both good and just, gentler once his people had been trained; the world itself is built of harmonized opposites made by one Creator.
Against Marcion 3.2Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · A son should be acknowledged by his father and a messenger by his sender beforehand; nothing from God is sudden, so Marcion's unannounced Christ is suspect.
Against Marcion 3.4Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god came at an absurd time, too late to correct the Creator and too early to forestall the Creator's Christ, and so shows himself inconsistent.
Against Marcion 3.10Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · If Marcion's god despised flesh, he should also have scorned its likeness; by feigning flesh he honors it, and the Creator could appear without flesh when he chose.
Against Marcion 3.11Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion denied Christ's real flesh to avoid his birth, but a real birth is no more unworthy of God than a real death; if Christ had flesh he was born, as the prophets foretold.
Against Marcion 3.15Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The title “Christ” belongs to the Creator's plan and means “anointed,” which requires a body; Marcion's god borrowing it would be both inconsistent and deceitful.
Against Marcion 4.1Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Opening his examination of Marcion's gospel, Tertullian turns Marcion's Antitheses against him: the Creator himself foretold a new law and covenant, and contrasts in his works point to one God, not two.
Against Marcion 4.2Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The gospels rest on apostles (Matthew, John) and apostolic men (Mark, Luke); Marcion's gospel, a cut-down Luke with no author's name, lacks the apostolic authority even Paul sought.
Against Marcion 4.3Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Paul's rebuke of Peter concerned conduct, not doctrine; if the apostolic gospel was wholly corrupted, Marcion has no true gospel either, and if his agrees with ours, ours is apostolic too.
Against Marcion 4.4Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Truth comes before its corruption; Marcion once held the church's gospel and wrote the Antitheses against it, which proves the church's Luke is older than his altered version.
Against Marcion 4.6Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian sets his test: whatever in Marcion's own gospel shows Christ fulfilling the Creator's law, prophecies, and character proves Christ is the Creator's.
Against Marcion 4.7Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's Christ begins at Capernaum, in the Galilee Isaiah foretold; he teaches in the synagogue without opposing the law, and the demon who names him Holy One recognizes the Creator's Christ.
Against Marcion 4.9Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The call of fishermen fulfills Jeremiah; Christ's cleansing of the leper and his command to show himself to the priest confirm the law, as Elisha's cure of Naaman prefigured.
Against Marcion 4.11Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The call of Levi, the question of fasting, Christ as bridegroom, and the sayings on new wine and patches all show Christ fulfilling the Creator's law and prophets, not separating from a foreign god.
Against Marcion 4.12Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In the sabbath controversies Christ did not destroy the Creator's sabbath but fulfilled it, allowing the relief of hunger as David did and doing God's work of saving life, as Elisha had done.
Against Marcion 4.15Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The woes on the rich, the full, the laughing, and the praised are the Creator's own warnings from the law and prophets; the same God who blesses the poor rebukes the rich, so there is one God, not two.
Against Marcion 4.17Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian argues that Christ's teaching on lending, mercy, judging, and being called “Lord” in Luke 6 continues the Creator's law and prophets, and mocks Marcion's god as a eunuch who forbids marriage yet claims sons.
Against Marcion 4.23Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's rebuke of unbelief, his love for children, his gentleness toward the Samaritans, and his hard sayings to would-be followers all fit the Creator, who had long dealt with Israel, blessed marriage and children, and gave the laws of priesthood and vows.
Against Marcion 4.25Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's thanksgiving that things hidden from the wise are revealed to little ones, his claim that all things were delivered to him, and his answer to the lawyer about eternal life all point to the Creator, who hid and promised to reveal through his Christ.
Against Marcion 4.26Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The Lord's Prayer, the teaching on asking and knocking, the casting out of demons “by the finger of God,” and the blessing of those who hear God's word all point to the Creator as the Father to whom Christ taught his disciples to pray.
Against Marcion 4.27Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's own apparent inconsistencies and his rebukes of the Pharisees and lawyers over washing, tithes, honors, burdens, the prophets' tombs, and the key of knowledge show that he upheld the Creator's law rather than attacking it.
Against Marcion 5.8Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Paul's teaching on headship, the veil, the Lord's Supper, and above all the spiritual gifts matches Isaiah's prophecy of the Spirit resting on Christ and Joel's promise, so the gifts belong to the Creator; Marcion's church cannot produce them.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 2Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Heretics who deny another God than the Creator attack the resurrection of the flesh first; Tertullian, having written against Marcion and on Christ's flesh, now defends the flesh's resurrection itself.
On First Principles 2.4.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Against those who distinguish the Father of Christ from the God of the law, Origen shows from the Gospels that Jesus' Father is the Creator who spoke through Moses and the prophets.
On First Principles 2.4.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Acts, the great commandment and Paul's letters show that the God of the law is the God of the Gospel, preached by Christ and the apostles.
On First Principles 2.4.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The heretics' claim that the Creator was seen while the Father is invisible fails: God is incorporeal and invisible, and between Father and Son, as for Moses, there is knowing rather than seeing.
On First Principles 2.5.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Origen introduces the heretics' division between a good God, the Father of Christ, and a just but not good God of the law, which they support by the Old Testament punishments.
On First Principles 2.5.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The heretics' own definitions fail: the Old Testament punishments must be read spiritually, while the Gospels too show the Father of Christ punishing, as in the parable of the wedding garment.
On First Principles 2.5.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Since justice and goodness are both virtues, the just God is good; his punishments are remedies for amendment, as Peter's words on those who perished in the flood show.
On First Principles 2.5.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Against the heretics' appeal to “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit” and “no one is good but God,” Origen shows that the law is called good and the Father of Christ is called just.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 163Origen · ca. 220-254 · Those who lack the fear of God are insensible to wisdom, like those who reject the Old Testament; the soul that goes out from wickedness becomes the broad place where Wisdom speaks.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.5.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Contents: Marcion's doctrine comes from Empedocles, not Scripture.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.10.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Contents: Cerdo, Marcion's teacher.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.11.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Contents: Lucian, a disciple of Marcion.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.12.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Contents: Apelles, Marcion's disciple, who departed from his teacher.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.29.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcion of Pontus taught two principles, one good and one evil, and founded a school of harsh Cynic living.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.29.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus claims Marcion took his two principles from Empedocles' Strife and Love.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.30.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus says Marcion's contrast of good and evil gods comes not from Paul or Mark but from Empedocles of Sicily.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.30.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus addresses Marcion directly: calling the Creator evil is teaching Empedocles to the church.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.30.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcion's good God is Empedocles' Love, and his ban on marriage and foods is Empedocles' purifications.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.30.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcion forbids meat and dissolves marriages joined by God, following Empedocles' view that marriage divides the One.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.31.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus turns to a newer Marcionite, Prepon the Assyrian, who wrote against Bardesanes.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.31.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Prepon added a third, just principle between good and evil, but this too came from Empedocles.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.31.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcion denied Christ's birth, saying he came down from heaven in Tiberius's fifteenth year and taught in the synagogues.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.31.6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Prepon's Jesus came down unborn, free from both evil and good, as a middle being, citing “Why do you call me good?”
Refutation of All Heresies 7.37.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Cerdo taught that the just God of Moses and the prophets is not the unknown, good Father of Jesus Christ.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.37.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcion built on Cerdo's teaching in his Antitheses, and his disciple Lucian did the same.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 34, part 2)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen explains that refusing the marital debt without agreement is “defrauding,” that abstinence belongs to times of prayer, fasting and menstruation, and that marriage between believers is a gift of the one God against Marcion's prohibition of marriage.
Commentary on John 1.253Origen · ca. 230–248 · The heretics' distinction between a just Creator and a good Father can be rightly applied to the Son as righteousness and the Father as goodness.
Commentary on John 2.201Origen · ca. 230–248 · The heretics claim the prophecies were used to bind Christ to the old God rather than a new one.
Commentary on John 10.24Origen · ca. 230–248 · Marcion, and those who deny either Christ's humanity or his divinity, went wrong by taking only one side of what Scripture says.
Commentary on John 19.12Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heretics argue from this that Christ's Father is not the Jews' God, the Creator; Origen says they misread Scripture's usage.
On Prayer 29.12Origen · ca. 233–234 · Paul says God “gave up” sinners to their desires; this refutes those who divide the Godhead into a just God of the law and a merely good Father who never judges.
On Prayer 29.13Origen · ca. 233–234 · God governs each free soul toward its eternal life, sometimes letting sinners have their fill of sin so that they come to hate it, as he gave Israel quail until they loathed it.
Homilies on Judges 1.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Each person has in himself either the days of Jesus, lit by Christ the true light, or evil days lit by the false light of the devil.
Against Celsus 6.53Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus confuses the church's arguments against Marcion with Christianity itself, and then charges Christians with making God the author of evil, a charge that applies equally to his own views.
Against Celsus 6.74Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus rehearses Marcion's views and ridicules the idea of rival sons of rival gods fighting like quails, but Origen says such buffoonery only shows that Celsus lacks serious arguments.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 38Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Figuratively, the wars among nations are rival heresies, the famines a lack of understanding in reading Scripture, and the pestilences the teachings of Marcion, Valentinus, and Basilides, which the one awaiting Christ's coming in the soul must see without harm.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 46Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · False christs are heretical teachers who cite either secret writings (“the wilderness”) or twisted canonical Scripture (“the houses”); the truth shines like lightning through all Scripture and in the Church alone, and the eagles are believers gathered to Christ's passion.
Commentary on Romans 3.11Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul does not destroy the law through faith but confirms it, because believing in Christ fulfills what Moses wrote, while Marcion, the Ebionites, and unrepentant sinners destroy it; the law's glory is not abolished by anyone but eclipsed by the greater glory of Christ, as a pedagogue's office ends when the child comes of age.
Commentary on Romans 4.12Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · That enemies can be reconciled refutes Marcion and Valentinus, who make some natures hostile to God by nature; enmity and friendship with God have degrees according to deeds, so one who persists in sin cannot claim to be reconciled; and from Ephesians Origen distinguishes Christ's 'dissolving' the enmity in those still struggling and 'killing' it in those dead to sin.
Commentary on Romans 5.6Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen refutes Marcion’s reading of “the law came in” by showing that sin abounded before Moses, and explains it of the law of the members that slips in under the natural law, overcome by superabounding grace.
Commentary on Romans 10.43Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Marcion removed the doxology and cut away Rom 14:23 to the end, while other manuscripts place the doxology after 14:23 or at the end; the gospel strengthens all believers, but the revelation of the long-silent mystery, known to the prophets yet kept hidden until the Incarnation, is for the chosen few; God is 'only wise' as the begetter of Wisdom, Christ.
Letter 73.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Marcion does not confess the Trinity, the Creator, or Christ's true incarnation and bodily resurrection, so his baptism, given in a false faith, conveys nothing true.
Letter 74.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Stephen's appeal to “tradition” has no basis in the gospel or the apostles, who condemned heretics; true tradition is what Scripture commands.
Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 21Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · Pionius is nailed to the stake and dies in the fire beside a Marcionite presbyter.
Lepr. 2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The good seed of faith is planted by the Father; the saying about plants not planted by him does not support Gnostic classes of souls or Marcion's two gods.
Church History 4.11.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus (quoted): Cerdo taught that the just God of the law is not the good, unknown Father of Christ; Marcion developed his school.
Church History 4.11.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin, a philosopher-apologist, also wrote against Marcion while Marcion was still alive.
Church History 4.11.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): Marcion teaches that a god greater than the Creator is Christ's Father; his followers are still called Christians.
Church History 4.14.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus (quoted): Polycarp called Marcion “the firstborn of Satan”; the apostles avoided all contact with heretics, as Paul teaches.
Church History 4.23.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius's letter to Nicomedia attacks Marcion's heresy.
Church History 4.25.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Philip of Gortyna, Irenaeus, Modestus, and others wrote against Marcion.
Church History 5.8.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus cites Justin and Ignatius and promised a separate work against Marcion.
Church History 5.13.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Rhodon, a pupil of Tatian, wrote against Marcion's heresy and its divisions.
Church History 5.13.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Rhodon: the Marcionites disagree; Apelles holds one first principle but ascribes the prophecies to a hostile spirit, following the prophetess Philumene.
Church History 5.13.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Rhodon: others, like Marcion, hold two first principles.
Church History 5.13.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Rhodon: some Marcionites assert two principles without proof, and Syneros's followers assert three.
Church History 5.13.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Rhodon reports a debate with Apelles, who said doctrine need not be examined and that those who hope in the Crucified and do good works will be saved.
Church History 5.13.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Apelles told Rhodon that the prophecies refute themselves and that he could not prove his belief in one principle.
Church History 5.13.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Apelles admitted he believed in one unbegotten God without knowing how to prove it, and Rhodon mocked him.
Church History 5.16.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Martyrs prove nothing: the Marcionites have many martyrs but do not truly confess Christ.
Church History 7.12.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander volunteered for martyrdom at Caesarea and were thrown to beasts; a Marcionite woman also died.
Prophetic Extracts 3.19Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius uses Micah's prophecy of Bethlehem against those who deny Christ's pre-existence (Artemon, Paul of Samosata, the Ebionites) and those who deny his real birth (Marcion); the section is badly damaged.
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 10.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · Asclepius, a Marcionite bishop, was burned on the same pyre.
Demonstration 3.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · The fasting of Marcionites, Valentinians, and Manichaeans earns no reward, since they deny the true Maker.
Catechetical Lecture 6.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Simon Magus, the first heretic, claimed to be Father, Son, and Spirit, and was brought down by the prayer of Peter and Paul; after him came Cerinthus, Menander, Carpocrates, the Ebionites, and Marcion, who cut the Old Testament testimonies out of the New.
Catechetical Lecture 16.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Marcion cut the Old Testament testimonies out of the New, and the Gnostics blasphemed the Spirit.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 4:1–5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Spirit foretold heretics, such as the Marcionites, Patricians, and Manichees, who deny Christ’s birth, forbid marriage, and reject foods, though everything God made is good when received with thanksgiving.
Commentary on Romans 1:1Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster explains Paul’s name, his title “servant of Christ Jesus” as a sign of both natures, and his being set apart from Judaism for the gospel, which surpasses the law as better surpasses good.
Question 3, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Moses wrote the creation account only when Egyptian teaching, later followed by Marcion and the Manichees, ascribed the world or man to a lesser maker; his miracles confirm that God made both.
Question 127, section 17Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Against Marcion, who forbade marriage, Ambrosiaster argues that the soul’s liberation through knowledge requires birth, so opposing birth is opposing souls.
Letter to Adelphius 2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius identifies the new error with the old heresies of Valentinus, Marcion and Mani, and explains why he answers it.
Letter 121.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome rejects Marcionite and Arian readings of Rom 5:7 and explains that Paul contrasts the rarity of dying for a just man with Christ's dying for the ungodly.
Ancoratus 107.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · They refute Manichaeans and Marcionites.
Ancoratus 107.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · These heretics blaspheme the Creator and the prophets.
Ancoratus 108.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Marcionites mock the Old Testament God's questions.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.11.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius lists 78 passages from Marcion's gospel, noting what Marcion cut, added and changed from Luke.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.11.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius lists 40 excerpts from Marcion's Apostolikon, with Marcion's changes, arranged by letter.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.11.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius repeats each of his 78 excerpts from Marcion's gospel and refutes Marcion from it, chiefly on Christ's real flesh, the unity of God, and the Old Testament.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.12.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius repeats each of his 40 excerpts from Marcion's Pauline letters and refutes Marcion from them, arguing that Paul upholds the Law, the prophets, the one Creator and the resurrection of the body.
Book of Heresies 45.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Marcion came to Rome and questioned the presbyters.
Book of Heresies 45.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Marcion rejected the presbyters' interpretation and taught two gods.
Book of Heresies 45.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Marcion accepted only Luke's gospel.
Book of Heresies 47.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Apelles, Marcion's disciple, rejected two coeternal principles.
Exposition of Psalm 118 13.4.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Neither the Marcionite nor the Jew can truly love the law; only the Christian, who reads it spiritually, can.
Homilies on Matthew 7.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The star led the magi to the very child and stood over him, confirming their faith; their gifts refute Marcion (Christ truly in the flesh) and Paul of Samosata (not a mere man); the magi's precedence over the Jews foreshadowed the Gentiles' faith.
Homilies on Matthew 43.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The three days in the heart of the earth prove a real death against Marcion’s denial of the passion; the Ninevites will condemn this generation, for Christ is greater than Jonah in every respect.
Homilies on Matthew 49.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ looks up to heaven to show that he is from the Father, multiplies existing bread to refute Marcion and Mani, and the homily turns to almsgiving as the true craft of the rich and against useless luxury such as ornate shoes.
Homilies on Matthew 82.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Judas partook of the mysteries unchanged; Christ instituted the Eucharist at the Passover, the type giving way to the truth, as the memorial of his death for the forgiveness of sins—a memorial that refutes those who deny his passion—and after foretelling the disciples’ flight promised to meet them in Galilee.
On Illustrious Men 25Jerome · 392–393 · Theophilus of Antioch wrote against Marcion and Hermogenes and three books To Autolycus.
On Illustrious Men 30Jerome · 392–393 · Philip of Gortyna wrote against Marcion.
On Illustrious Men 32Jerome · 392–393 · Modestus wrote against Marcion.
On Illustrious Men 37Jerome · 392–393 · Rhodon, Tatian's pupil, wrote against Marcion, on the Hexaemeron, and against the Montanists.
Against Jovinianus 2.16Jerome · 393 · Jerome explains that Paul's condemnation of those who forbid foods is aimed at heretics who despise creation, and that Romans 14 concerns Jewish food laws, not fasting.
Canon 21.8Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Anathema on those who separate the God of the Old Testament from the God of the Gospels.
Tractates 7Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · Against Marcion and Mani, who called the God of the Law evil, Gaudentius defends the law of unleavened bread as a memorial of the Exodus and reads the leaven as corrupting teaching and the bitter herbs as the self-denial of the Christian life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Against the Manichees and Marcionites, Christ shows that the God of the Jews is his Father, whom he knows and whose word he keeps, being himself that Word.