taken by Marcion of Sinope, and he had many followers. However, Marcion went much farther, jettisoning everything Jewish about the Christian religion as well—a sort of “ethnic cleansing” of Christianity. Such fratricide within the Christian movement is a clear indication of just how dangerous the differences among the Gospels were. The biblical scholars were quite aware of them, however little they said to the laity. Origen of Caesarea, the most gifted and accomplished text critic of the early Church,