Troy Konicki

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Marks, Susan

Keywords

Markcion, Synoptic Problem, Luke, Heresy

Area of Concentration

Religion

Abstract

This thesis argues for a new narrative of Marcion�s life, exposing the inaccuracies of previous narratives and setting the scene for a Marcion that changed Christian history. Historians and theologians since the second century CE have depicted this man as insignificant and deranged, but this could not be further from the truth. Marcion was intelligent, creative and effective, penning a gospel that would serve as the cornerstone of the synoptic tradition, developing a theology and church structure that held a pervasive influence over the places and times of Christianity, and, in doing so, challenging the dominant forms of the fledgling faith and forcing it to change and form a scriptural and social identity. Against the majority of voices in church history, this thesis argues with Matthias Klinghardt that Marcion�s gospel preceded canonical Luke. Further, it adds to Klinghardt�s work by maintaining that Marcion�s document surfaces as synonymous with the Q document of the synoptic problem and, thus, as the theological mentor of Luke and the textual source for his sondergut material.

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