Marcion, Acts of the Apostles and Galatians

Marcion lived approximately 140 AD. He was a bishop and the son of a bishop.

He taught that the Creator God of the Jews, Yahweh, was not the same as the loving Father God revealed by Jesus.

He accepted that Yahweh was the Creator of the world, but that he was a lesser god or angel and that as such Christianity should break all ties with Judaism and go it's own course.

He rejected the Old Testament as scripture and wrote a book entitled "Antithesis" in which he contrasted the two Gods and showed that the Old Testament God was inferior. This book is refereed to by early Church Fathers but has not survived.

He was the first to collect together a New Testament of sorts made up of a shorter version of the Gospel of Luke and 8 Epistles of Paul. He regarded all other books as false or questionable.

Marcionism spread throughout Asia Minor and the Middle East and was a major competitor to main stream Christianity of the time.

The oldest known Christian Church uncovered archaeologically is a Marcionite church.

Here's the theory - Part 1

Acts of the Apostles was NOT written in the first century by Luke but in the second by Jewish-Christians.

By making it's supposed author Luke, a supposed companion of Paul, it purports to have first hand knowledge of what it is about.

It's purpose was to show Paul as inferior to the Apostles and to show the continuity from Judaism into Christianity.

Here's the theory - Part 2

The Epistle to the Galatians was not written by Paul in the first century, but by Marcion or a supporter in response to Acts of the Apostles.

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