Very many heresy people grossly misunderstand and misapply the concept of Marcionism. Its been said that to a man whose only tool is a hammer, everything he sees appears as a nail. The same could be said for those heresy hunters who accuse any who dare advocate a non-literal reading of the Old Testament as being Marcionites. Marcion is their hammer, and any Christological or Allegorical reading of the Old Testament resembles a nail which they feel obliged to smite into oblivion. Marcion was an early Christian heretic who advocated eliminating the entire Old Testament as inspired Christian Scripture because the God it describes is incompatible with the New Testament nature of God revealed by Jesus. Here is the problem with accusing Christological/Allegorical readings as Marcionite heresy. And its a huge one for the hammer-heavy heresy hunters. Allegorical reading is NOT Marcionism, not now, not ever. First, Marcion never believed the Old Testament Scriptures were to be read Christologically or Allegorically. Marcion believed that they werent to be read at all. To Marcion, the Old Testament described a demonic demiurge, not the loving Abba of Jesus Christ. Thus, he allegedly believed that those Scriptures had no benefit. If true, then Allegorical/Christological readings simply had no place in his canon. Second, the majority of the early Church Fathers read the Old Testament allegorically. To call Augustine, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Ignatius, Barnabas, Justin Martyr, Clement, Valentinus, Heracleon, Saint Ambrose, Ephraem the Syrian of Edessa/Nisibis, Philoxenus of Mabbug, and Scores of others Marcionites is outrageous. There were six known Christian theological schools in the early church: Alexandria, Antioch, Caesarea, Edessa/Nisbis, Ephesus, and Rome/Carthage. The early Churchs hermeneutic, except for the Antiochan school, largely held to a hermeneutic which commonly allegorized the Old Testament whenever It seemed to literally (by the dead letter) attribute evil or unworthy attributes to God. If this is Marcionsm, then most all the church fathers would be called Marcionites, and THAT has never been so asserted by any competent scholar of any age. Much of modern Christianity is woefully ignorant of our Patristic theology, and that is a shame. Many who are called heretics today are in intimate alignment with what the church fathers wrote and taught, whereas many who claim the fundamental high ground couldnt be further away from the early churchs views. Third, to be fair to Marcion, none of his writings still exist. All we know about him today comes from those who loathed him as a heretic. What I attributed to him above may or may not be accurate. I would hate to have my enemies describe the worth and conclusions of my theology without any of my being writings available for review and confirmation. I cant tell you how often my proposals get misstated and twisted into things I have never come close to saying. Our ability to misunderstand and misstate one anothers true position is humongous. Marcion may well have believed the Old Testament needed to be excised from the Bible. And if he did, then I believe he was wrong and I disagree with him. But the lawyer in me wants to give him a chance to personally respond before we hang him up by his thumbs. We need to trade in our hard hammers for soft ears that earnestly seek after the legacy the early fathers left us.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 00:19:27 +0000
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