Marcion and the introduction of a scriptural canon

A new article about Marcion, the man who came up with the idea of having a definitive scriptural canon.

Jason BeDuhn - The New Marcion, Rethinking the ”Arch-Heretic”

Quote

It has long been understood that Marcion resolved certain ambiguities he found in Christianity through the bold polarities of his theology. But it remains underappreciated just how much the authority he placed in texts subverted all prior expectations of the Christian movement. Nothing necessitates that a religion, founded by individuals and spread through personal contacts, develop a written sacred literature or that such a literature assume an authority superior in theory to any living voice of the faith. In past ages where illiteracy predominated, a written codification of a religious community’s faith would have remained directly accessible to few, and treated by the rest more as a symbol and reference point for the tradition rather than something they regularly consulted. The earliest Christians lived in an oral society that only flirted with literacy, and transmitted the teachings of Jesus and the exemplary stories about him primarily by word of mouth. The written word entered their world only sporadically, and even then only as a script to be read aloud. There were always a small number of more literate followers of Jesus who sought to put his ideas into conversation with textual traditions, but they could hardly be representative of the spirit of the larger movement.

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Topic: Marcion and the introduction of a scriptural canon

zeca

OP - December 18, 2015, 09:19 PM

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