c. 140–160

Marcion's Canon: "Gospel" and "Apostle" against the Old Testament

Regarding Paul as the only apostle who had truly understood the Gospel, Marcion rejected the Old Testament as the Scripture of the Creator and reduced Christian Scripture to the Gospel of Luke, purged of "Judaizing interpolations," and ten epistles of Paul. From the Gospel he removed, among other things, the account of the Nativity. According to González, the first New Testament canon was apparently that of Marcion: the church took from him not the idea of canonical literature but the impetus to determine which books should be considered Scripture. The response was to extend apostolic authority to the whole apostolic community and to the New Testament canon.