The Five Books Against Marcion, Book I

Book I

• The Five Books Against Marcion I.1 — Marcion, Aided by Cerdon, Teaches a Duality of Gods; How He Constructed This Heresy of an Evil and a Good God. Chapter II.—Marcion, Aided by Cerdon, Teaches a Duality of Gods; How He Constructed This Heresy of an…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.2 — The Unity of God. He is the Supreme Being, and There Cannot Be a Second Supreme. Chapter III.—The Unity of God. He is the Supreme Being, and There Cannot Be a Second Supreme. The principal, and indeed the whole,…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.3 — Chapter IV.—Defence of the Divine Unity Against Objection. No Analogy Between Human Powers and God’s Sovereignty. The Objection Otherwise Untenable, for Why Stop at Two Gods? But some one may contend that two great…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.4 — Chapter V.—The Dual Principle Falls to the Ground; Plurality of Gods, of Whatever Number, More Consistent. Absurdity and Injury to Piety Resulting from Marcion’s Duality. But on what principle did Marcion confine his…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.5 — Chapter VI.—Marcion Untrue to His Theory. He Pretends that His Gods are Equal, But He Really Makes Them Diverse. Then, Allowing Their Divinity, Denies This Diversity. Thus far our discussion seems to imply that…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.6 — Chapter VII.—Other Beings Besides God are in Scripture Called God. This Objection Frivolous, for It is Not a Question of Names. The Divine Essence is the Thing at Issue. Heresy, in Its General Terms, Thus Far…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.7 — Specific Points. The Novelty of Marcion's God Fatal to His Pretensions. God is from Everlasting, He Cannot Be in Any Wise New. Chapter VIII.—Specific Points. The Novelty of Marcion’s God Fatal to His Pretensions. God…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.8 — Chapter IX.—Marcion’s Gnostic Pretensions Vain, for the True God is Neither Unknown Nor Uncertain. The Creator, Whom He Owns to Be God, Alone Supplies an Induction, by Which to Judge of the True God. Now I know full…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.9 — Chapter X.—The Creator Was Known as the True God from the First by His Creation. Acknowledged by the Soul and Conscience of Man Before He Was Revealed by Moses. For indeed, as the Creator of all things, He was from…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.10 — Chapter XI.—The Evidence for God External to Him; But the External Creation Which Yields This Evidence is Really Not Extraneous, for All Things are God’s. Marcion’s God, Having Nothing to Show for Himself, No God at…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.11 — Chapter XII.—Impossibility of Acknowledging God Without This External Evidence Of His Existence. Marcion’s Rejection of Such Evidence for His God Savours of Impudence and Malignity. But even if we were able to allow…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.12 — Chapter XIII.—The Marcionites Depreciate the Creation, Which, However, is a Worthy Witness of God. This Worthiness Illustrated by References to the Heathen Philosophers, Who Were Apt to Invest the Several Parts of…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.13 — Chapter XIV.—All Portions of Creation Attest the Excellence of the Creator, Whom Marcion Vilifies. His Inconsistency Herein Exposed. Marcion’s Own God Did Not Hesitate to Use the Creator’s Works in Instituting His…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.14 — Chapter XV.—The Lateness of the Revelation of Marcion’s God. The Question of the Place Occupied by the Rival Deities. Instead of Two Gods, Marcion Really (Although, as It Would Seem, Unconsciously) Had Nine Gods in…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.15 — Chapter XVI.—Marcion Assumes the Existence of Two Gods from the Antithesis Between Things Visible and Things Invisible. This Antithetical Principle in Fact Characteristic of the Works of the Creator, the One…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.16 — Chapter XVII.—Not Enough, as the Marcionites Pretend, that the Supreme God Should Rescue Man; He Must Also Have Created Him. The Existence of God Proved by His Creation, a Prior Consideration to His Character.…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.17 — Notwithstanding Their Conceits, the God of the Marcionites Fails in the Vouchers Both of Created Evidence and of Adequate Revelation. Chapter XVIII.—Notwithstanding Their Conceits, the God of the Marcionites Fails in…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.18 — Chapter XIX.—Jesus Christ, the Revealer of the Creator, Could Not Be the Same as Marcion’s God, Who Was Only Made Known by the Heretic Some CXV. Years After Christ, and That, Too, on a Principle Utterly Unsuited to…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.19 — Chapter XX.—Marcion, Justifying His Antithesis Between the Law and the Gospel by the Contention of St. Paul with St. Peter, Shown to Have Mistaken St. Paul’s Position and Argument. Marcion’s Doctrine Confuted Out of…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.20 — Chapter XXI.—St. Paul Preached No New God, When He Announced the Repeal of Some of God’s Ancient Ordinances. Never Any Hesitation About Belief in the Creator, as the God Whom Christ Revealed, Until Marcion’s Heresy.…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.21 — God's Attribute of Goodness Considered as Natural; The God of Marcion Found Wanting Herein. It Came Not to Man's Rescue When First Wanted. Chapter XXII.—God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Natural; The God of…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.22 — God's Attribute of Goodness Considered as Rational. Marcion's God Defective Here Also; His Goodness Irrational and Misapplied. Chapter XXIII.—God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Rational. Marcion’s God…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.23 — Chapter XXIV.—The Goodness of Marcion’s God Only Imperfectly Manifested; It Saves But Few, and the Souls Merely of These. Marcion’s Contempt of the Body Absurd. But as God is eternal and rational, so, I think, He is…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.24 — Chapter XXV.—God is Not a Being of Simple Goodness; Other Attributes Belong to Him. Marcion Shows Inconsistency in the Portraiture of His Simply Good and Emotionless God. As touching this question of goodness, we…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.25 — In the Attribute of Justice, Marcion's God is Hopelessly Weak and Ungodlike. He Dislikes Evil, But Does Not Punish Its Perpetration. Chapter XXVI.—In the Attribute of Justice, Marcion’s God is Hopelessly Weak and…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.26 — Dangerous Effects to Religion and Morality of the Doctrine of So Weak a God. Chapter XXVII.—Dangerous Effects to Religion and Morality of the Doctrine of So Weak a God. Again, he plainly judges evil by not willing…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.27 — Chapter XXVIII.—This Perverse Doctrine Deprives Baptism of All Its Grace. If Marcion Be Right, the Sacrament Would Confer No Remission of Sins, No Regeneration, No Gift of the Spirit. And what will happen to him…vatican.va
• The Five Books Against Marcion I.28 — Chapter XXIX.—Marcion Forbids Marriage. Tertullian Eloquently Defends It as Holy, and Carefully Discriminates Between Marcion’s Doctrine and His Own Montanism. The flesh is not, according to Marcion, immersed in the…vatican.va