mons, as the first-born of Satan (Polyc., Justin,
Irenaeus). Because he rejected the allegoric interpretation of the Old
Testament, and explained its predictions as referring to a Messiah of
the Jews who was yet to come, he seemed to be a Jew (Tertull., adv.
Marc. III.). Because he deprived Christianity of the apologetic proof
(the proof from antiquity) he seemed to be a heathen and a Jew at the
same time (see my Texte u. Unters. I. 3, p. 68; the antitheses of
Marcion became very important for the heathen and Manichaean assaults on
Christianity). Because he represented the twelve Apostles as unreliable
witnesses, he appeared to be the most wicked and shameless of all
heretics. Finally, because he gained so many adherents, and actually
founded a church, he appeared to be the ravening wolf (Justin, Rhodon),
and his church as the spurious church. (Tertull., adv. Marc. IV. 5). In
Marcion the Church Fathers chiefly attacked what they attacked in all
Gnostic heretics, but here error shewed itself in its worst form. They
learned much in opposing Marcion (see Bk. II.). For instance, their
interpretation of the _regula fidei_ and of the New Testament received a
directly Antimarcionite expression in the Church. One thing, however,
they could not learn from him, and that was how to make Christianity
into a philosophic system. He formed no such system, but he has given a
clearly outlined conception, based on historic documents, of
Christianity as the religion which redeems the world.

_Literature._--All anti-heretical writings of the early Church, but
especially Justin, Apol. I. 26, 58; Iren. I. 27; Tertull., adv. Marc.
I-V.; de praescr.; Hippol., Philos.; Adamant., de recta in deum fidei;
Epiph. h. 42; Ephr. Syr.; Esnik. The older attempts to restore the
Marcionite Gospel and Apostolicum have been antiquated by Zahn's
Kanonsgeschichte, l. c. Hahn (Regimonti, 1823) has attempted to restore
the Antitheses. We are still in want of a German monograph on Marcion
(see the whole presentation of Gnosticism by Zahn, with his Excursus, l.
c.). Hilgenfeld, Ketzergesch. p. 316 f. 522 f.; cf. my works, Zur
Quellenkritik des Gnosticismus, 1873; de Apelles Gnosis Monarchia, 1874;
Beitraege z. Gesch. der Marcionitischen Kirchen (Ztschr. f. wiss. Theol.
1876). Marcion's Commentar zum Evangelium (Ztschr. f. K. G. Bd. IV. 4).
Apelles Syllogismen in the Texte u. Unters. VI. H. 3. Zahn, die Dialoge
des Adamantius in the Ztschr. f. K.-Gesch. IX. p. 193