What if Marcionite Christianity (i.e. Christianity without anything Jewish) became the main form of Christianity?
What if Marcionite Christianity (i.e. Christianity without anything Jewish) became the main form of Christianity?
And I would follow the hell out of it.*Except Jesus, I assume
You could see somehow worse treatment of the Jews in Christian lands than OTL, which isn't a pleasant thought... But you might see better relations between Marcionite Rome and Zoroastrian Persia, especially if Manichaeism still arises and becomes dominant in the latter. In fact, in some contexts we might so Manichaeism spreading to (and remaining strong) in the Roman world, and similar Marcionite communities could appear in the Persian world.
Of course, there's also a good chance Marcionism and Manichaeism could develop antagonistic tendencies toward each other... Or that the existence of Mani would be butterflied entirely.
Gnostic sects would probably become the secondary powers within Christianity.
*Except Jesus, I assume
You could see somehow worse treatment of the Jews in Christian lands than OTL, which isn't a pleasant thought... But you might see better relations between Marcionite Rome and Zoroastrian Persia, especially if Manichaeism still arises and becomes dominant in the latter. In fact, in some contexts we might so Manichaeism spreading to (and remaining strong) in the Roman world, and similar Marcionite communities could appear in the Persian world.
Of course, there's also a good chance Marcionism and Manichaeism could develop antagonistic tendencies toward each other... Or that the existence of Mani would be butterflied entirely.
Gnostic sects would probably become the secondary powers within Christianity.
Marcion died in 160, and Mani lived in the 3rd century, teaching mainly in the time of Shapur I.
A Marcionite Christianity would make the Sassanid Empire disappear, let alone Manichaeism.
Marcion died in 160, and Mani lived in the 3rd century, teaching mainly in the time of Shapur I.
<snip>
Okay, Marcion's canon was based on Paul's letters and Luke, but not quite as we know them. Many parts were removed from Marcion's version, because he thought the Jews had corrupted the texts.
Are we SURE that was the case? Certainly this is what the later Orthodox Christians would prefer to have happened, but Marcion lived very early, before any of the surviving versions of Christianity even emerged.
I am far from an expert in early Christianity, but couldn't Marcion's versions of Luke and the Pauline epistles be the original versions, with their additional content only added later to suit the emerging Orthodoxy?
Unless Marcion himself states that he edited them, of course. I am not counting later Orthodox commentators on Marcion, who would naturally accuse him of doing that, regardless of whether he actually edited them or not.