John2 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 11:35 am
For me, Hegesippus makes it clear that Marcion was just another name on a list of gnostics who sprang up after James died.
Sure, there were a lot of branches of Christianity back then. An amazing number.
Technically, Marcionites were not gnostics. Gnostics believe that you need special knowledge (gnosis) to escape this cosmic disaster area known as material embodied existence. They also believed that only a small percentage of people even have the capacity to gain this knowledge. Its for the few, not the many.
Marcionism was not like that. Sure, there are two Gods, but the good god accepts everybody. It was explicitly for the many, not for the few. If it hadn't endorsed celibacy, it might very well have swamped all other forms of Christianity. It was by far the most dangerous competition that the proto-orthodox faced.
As far as originality goes, Marcion never claimed to be a religions innovator. He claimed that his Evangelion and his Pauline letter collection were the original, unadulterated versions, and for all we know that might even be true.
Fun fact: As far as apostolic authority goes, Marcion's connection to the apostles is far better known than most proto-orthodox. Marcion was (as you say) a student of Cerdo, who was a student of Simon Magus, who was baptized by Phillip, and who was also a student of Peter. Acts doesn't even condemn Simon Magus as a heretic. Sure, he had to be corrected by Peter, but the same goes for a lot of people in the NT--including Peter.
What's Iraneus's chain of apostolic descent? Why does he tell us all about Marcion's, but nothing about his own??