Gospel of Marcion A form of the Gospel of Luke edited by Marcion (ca. ad 100–165), who was deemed a heretic by church fathers (e.g., Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 7.19; 10.15; Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 4.25; 5.13). The Gospel of Marcion was never widely authoritative in the early church period.

Marcion’s gospel was shorter than Luke’s Gospel, and Marcion did not make use of Matthew, Mark, or John. Marcion has been labeled “the first actual heretic” (Moll, Arch-Heretic Marcion, 44) because “he was the first Christian ever to be actually outside the Church for doctrinal reasons” (Moll, Arch-Heretic Marcion, 46). Most of what can be known about Marcion’s gospel comes from the early church father Tertullian (ca. ad 160–225), who interacted with it.

Church tradition holds that Marcion produced his gospel by cutting out the parts of Luke’s Gospel that he did not think should be included. Although some past scholarship has rejected this scenario, the majority position among scholars, according to Foster, “is the one originally advocated by the earliest critics of Marcion—namely that he was a mutilator and corruptor of Luke’s Gospel” (Foster, “Marcion,” 275). No manuscripts of Marcion’s gospel are confirmed to exist. Although the New Testament papyrus P69 might be a fragment of Marcion’s gospel (see below), that possibility exists only because P69 is too small to know with certainty whether it is a fragment of Luke’s Gospel or of Marcion’s edited version.