Deposit of Faith: Gnosticism, Marcion, and the Church's Response

Deposit of the Faith

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Irenaeus of Lyon: "Error never shows itself in its naked reality… it dresses elegantly so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself."

Early Church Diversity & Interpretations

• Early converts came from diverse backgrounds, enriching the church but also leading to differing interpretations of the Christian message.

• Christianity was still ill-defined, with varying views and emphases visible in the New Testament itself (e.g., comparing Mark, John, Romans, Revelation).

• A key question emerged: Were all interpretations equally valid? Was there a danger of interpretations threatening Christianity's integrity?

The Threat of Syncretism

• Syncretism, seeking truth by combining bits and pieces from various systems, increased the danger of misinterpretations.

• Some claiming the name of Christ interpreted it in ways that others felt obscured or denied the core message.

Orthodox Christianity's Response

• In response to these threats, what became Orthodox Christianity began to define itself.

• It did so by reaffirming elements of its Jewish heritage:

  • Doctrines of creation.

  • Positive value of the created world.

  • God's rule over history.

  • Resurrection of the body (doctrine learned from the Pharisees).

  • Coming final reign of God.

• It developed instruments to reaffirm these doctrines:

  • Creeds.

  • Canon of Scripture.

  • Apostolic Succession.

• These set limits on orthodoxy and became central themes in Christian life and teaching.

• Even those whose views were rejected (heretics) left their mark on the church's self-understanding.

Gnosticism

Gnosticism as a Threat

• Gnosticism was a vast, amorphous movement both within and outside of Christianity.

• Within Judaism:

  • Some embraced Gnostic ideas after the fall of Jerusalem (70 AD), leading to Gnostic Judaism.

  • This contradicted traditional Jewish teachings, especially regarding divine creation.

• Within Christianity:

  • Gnosticism incorporated Christ but reinterpreted crucial elements of the faith.

Sources for Understanding Gnosticism

• Early sources were primarily descriptions from heresiologists (Christian writers against Gnosticism).

• In 1945, a collection of Gnostic writings was discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt.

  • Included the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Truth of Valentinus.

• These writings became generally known in the 1970s.

• Discoveries like the Gospel of Judas (2006) have corrected and reinforced what heresiologists told us.

Core Beliefs of Gnosticism

• Derived from the Greek word "gnosis" (knowledge).

• Gnostics claimed to possess special, mystical knowledge reserved for those with true understanding.

• This knowledge was the secret key to salvation.

• Salvation, not just speculation, was the main concern.

• All matter is evil or unreal.

• Humans are eternal spirits imprisoned in bodies; the body is evil because it imprisons the spirit and misleads us.

• The goal is to escape from the body and the material world.

The Gnostic View of the World

• The world is an obstacle to the salvation of the spirit.

• Orthodox Christianity officially rejected this view, but it has frequently been a part of it.

• Originally, all reality was spiritual.

• The supreme being only intended to create a spiritual world.

• A number of spiritual beings (eons) were generated. Gnostic systems posited up to 365 eons.

• One of these eons, far removed from the supreme being, fell into error and created the material world (e.g., Wisdom wishing to produce something by herself resulted in the world as an "abortion").

• The world is an abortion of the spirit, not a divine creation.

• Since the world was made by a spiritual being, there are sparks of spirit in it, imprisoned in human bodies. These must be liberated through gnosis.

The Role of the Heavenly Messenger

• A spiritual messenger must come to awaken us from our spiritual confusion.

• The messenger brings gnosis – the secret knowledge and inspiration necessary for salvation.

• Heavenly spheres, each ruled by an evil power, impede our progress to the spiritual realm.

• To reach spiritual fullness (pleroma), we must break through these spheres using secret knowledge. This messenger provides that knowledge, without which there is no salvation.

• In Christian Gnosticism, this messenger is Christ.

Christian Gnostic Christology

• Christ came to Earth to remind us of our heavenly origin and give us secret knowledge.

• Most Christian Gnostics rejected the notion that Christ had a body like ours.

• Some said his body was an appearance (a ghost-like form).

• Many distinguished between the heavenly Christ and the earthly Jesus, believing the latter was merely the shell in which Christ appeared.

• Some believed Jesus' body was of a spiritual matter, different from ours.

• Most denied the birth of Jesus, which would have placed him under the power of the material world.

• All these notions are forms of docetism (from Greek "to seem"), implying Jesus' body appeared human but was not.

Gnostic Soteriology (Doctrine of Salvation)

• Not all human beings have a spirit.

• Some are purely carnal and are irreparably condemned.

• The sparks of spirit within the "spiritual" (those deemed spiritual by the Gnostics) will necessarily be saved.

• To be saved, they must learn the secret knowledge from Gnostic teachers.

• How to live life in the meantime?

  • Most Gnostics practiced asceticism to control the body and its passions.

  • Some (according to heresiologists) were libertines, believing the spirit is inherently good, so the body should be left to its own devices.

Gnostic Communities

• The social composition and religious life of Gnostic communities are difficult to reconstruct because their gnosis was secret.

• Most historians agree that Gnostic societies were clubs confined to intellectuals in an expanding provincial society (Giovanni Filoramo's assessment).

• However, the Nag Hammadi documents being in Coptic suggests inroads among the lower classes.

• Women had a prominence in many Gnostic circles that they lacked in society at large.

  • The spirit, not the body, is important.

  • Gnostic genealogies of eons included female eons.

  • Orthodox Christianity may have restricted the role of women in the church partly in response to this.

• Gnosticism was a serious threat to Christianity throughout the second century; church leaders tenaciously opposed it, seeing it as a denial of creation, incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.

Marcion

Marcion's Theology

• Marcion's father was a bishop of Sinope.

• He disliked Judaism and the material world, developing an anti-Jewish and anti-material understanding of Christianity.

• He went to Rome around 144 AD and gathered a following.

• Eventually, the church concluded his doctrines contradicted fundamental Christian points.

• He founded his own church, which lasted for centuries.

• Since the world is evil, its creator must be evil or ignorant.

• Instead of a series of eons, Marcion proposed a simpler solution: the God of the Old Testament (Yahweh) is distinct from the Father of Jesus.

  • Yahweh made this world, out of ignorance or evil intent.

  • This theme is found in many Gnostic writings.

• The Hebrew scriptures are inspired by Yahweh, not the supreme Father.

• Yahweh is an arbitrary and vindictive god of justice.

• The Father of Christians is loving and gives everything freely, including salvation. He seeks to be loved, not obeyed.

• Out of compassion for Yahweh's creatures, the supreme God sent his son to save us.

• Jesus was not born of Mary, which would subject him to Yahweh. Instead, he simply appeared as a grown man during the reign of Tiberius, and his body was not material.

• There will be no final judgment since the supreme God is absolutely loving and will forgive us.

Marcion's Canon

• Marcion set aside the Hebrew scriptures because they were the word of an inferior god.

• He compiled a list of true Christian scriptures: the epistles of Paul and the Gospel of Luke (Paul's companion).

• He considered other Christian books to be plagued by Jewish views.

• He explained away Old Testament quotations in Luke and Paul as interpolations by Judaizers.

Marcion's Threat to the Church

• Like the Gnostics, he rejected/reinterpreted creation, incarnation, and resurrection.

• He went further by organizing a rival church with its own bishops and scripture.

• His church achieved success for years and lingered for centuries after its defeat.

The Church's Response: Canon, Creed, and Apostolic Succession

The Development of the New Testament Canon

• Marcion's list was the first attempt to compile a New Testament canon.

• Early Christians considered the Hebrew scriptures to be "scripture".

• It was customary to read passages from the gospels and epistles in church.

• Different gospels were read in different churches.

• Marcion's challenge required a response, so the church began to compile a list of sacred Christian writings through gradual consensus.

• There was general agreement on the basic books but it took a long time to come to an absolute consensus on every minor detail.

• The Hebrew scriptures were accepted as proof that God prepared the way for Christianity.

• The gospels were the first New Testament books to attain general recognition.

• Early Christians included more than one gospel in their canon because churches in different regions had particular gospels closely connected to their history and traditions.

• As contact among churches developed, they shared manuscripts and traditions, seeing the acceptance of various gospels as a sign of unity.

• The early Christians were aware of the inconsistencies among the four gospels in matters of detail.

• The early church insisted on using more than one gospel in response to the challenge of Marcion and Gnosticism.

• Many Gnostic teachers claimed the heavenly messenger entrusted secret knowledge to a particular disciple who was the true interpreter of the message.

• Marcion used an expurgated Gospel of Luke.

• The church sought to show that its doctrines were based on a consensus of the apostolic tradition, not on a single apostle or gospel.

• The fact that the various gospels differed in detail but agreed on basic issues made their agreement more convincing.

• Against Marcion's expurgated Gospel of Luke, the church offered a number of gospels, sometimes three or four.

• Against the secret traditions of the Gnostics, the church had recourse to an open tradition known to all.

• In the first four or five centuries of Christianity, there were dozens or hundreds of gospels and writings about the acts of Mary and the apostles, most of which are now lost.

Noncanonical Gospels

• Noncanonical gospels fall into two categories:

  • Gnostic gospels (mostly from the second century, with possible exceptions like the Gospel of Thomas):

    • Each was considered scripture by a particular group that rejected all others.

    • They were never considered part of a canon either by the Orthodox Christian community or by their proponents.

  • Pious stories about Jesus (mostly from the third century or later):

    • The church never rejected these but did not include them in the New Testament canon.

    • They continued to be read for centuries; episodes from such documents are found in medieval cathedrals.

    • An example is the Protoevangelium of James, which tells the story of Mary's parents.

• Next to the gospels, the book of Acts and the epistles enjoyed early recognition.

Consensus on the Canon

• By the end of the second century, the core of the canon was established: the four gospels, Acts, and the Pauline epistles.

• There was no consensus on the shorter books until later, but there also was little debate.

• The Book of Revelation, widely accepted by the third century, was questioned after Constantine's conversion because its words about the empire seemed too harsh.

• A complete consensus on the New Testament canon was achieved in the second half of the fourth century.

• This was a matter of consensus, not an official council decision.

• The guiding concern was the life of worship: Is this book to be read in church?

The Use of Creeds

• Another element in the church's response to heresies was the use of various creeds, particularly in baptism.

• The church in a particular city had its own creedal formula, although similar to others in neighboring cities.

• Scholars have classified ancient creeds into families to trace relationships among churches.

• One of these creeds was an earlier and shorter formulation of what we now call the Apostles' Creed.

The Apostles' Creed

• The notion that the apostles composed this creed before beginning their mission is fiction.

• Its basic text was put together in Rome around 100 AD.

• The ancient form of the Apostles' Creed is called "r" by scholars.

• At the time, it was called the "symbol of the faith." The word "symbol" meant a means of recognition.

• The symbol put together in Rome was a way for Christians to distinguish true believers from Gnostics and Marcionites.

• Anyone affirming this creed was neither Gnostic nor Marcionite.

• One of the main uses of this symbol was in baptism: it was presented to the candidate in the form of three questions:

  • "Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?"

  • Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the son of God, who was born of the Holy Ghost and of Mary the virgin, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and died and rose again at the third day living from among the dead, and descended onto heaven and sat at the right of the father and will come to judge the quick and the dead?"

  • "Do you believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Church, and the resurrection of the flesh?"

• This is the core of what historians call the old Roman symbol or simply "r".

Analysis of the Old Roman Symbol

• The creed is built around the Trinitarian formula used in baptism.

• These questions tested true belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

• This early creed is directed against Marcion and the Gnostics.

Specific Points Against Heresies

• "Almighty" (Greek: all-ruling) means nothing falls outside of God's rule, including the material world.

• Other ancient creeds say