I have just finished reading another book by a successful biblical scholar and only remember one sentence from it.

“First, because I am advocating for an approach to these writings and history that foregrounds concrete data without appealing to inherited assumptions and methods to” fill in the blanks, “this monograph accounts for Christian beginnings from the perspective of Occam’s razor: What is the simplest solution given the evidence we have at our disposal? “

I remember them probably because once again the historian refers to the Occam’s razor. Again, this is simply reality enchantment. Time to call a crap.

Bible scholars see Marcion through the eyes of his enemies, through polemics that are de facto hostile libels and accusations that we cannot verify. And those that we verify are simply untrue.

There is, however, a simple method to view Marcion differently. See his cursory résumé through the prism of common sense.

Marcion was a sea freight forwarder or shipbuilder. He operated in an industry that required logistics talents due to its dispersion in many locations and cooperation with many partners, customers and suppliers. Before he came to Rome, business talents and professional practice were useful to him in creating an effective religious organization equipped with a canon, staff trained on it and know how to set up a local representative office, what to do to make it self-sufficient and profitable as soon as possible. And how to manage the network of these representative offices.

Armed with success in many fields – canon, network of congregations, money, he went to Rome to impress and bewilder the members of the local Christian community. He chose the moment according to the entrepreneur’s criteria: I have a unique, proven product and I’m better than the rest.

An ascetic big boss, the winner, a generous man of success, an organizer and leader who stood out against the background of a chatty group of all kinds of theologians, without any practical skills, came to Rome.

Rome welcomed him with open arms. Finally, someone who knows how to organize this boiling pot full of various theological ideas and give action a measurable order and some direction.

Marcion conquered Rome, gaining followers and creating a great army of enemies. The competition could not come to terms with the fact that the game is settled and from now on it will be led by one leader.

And Marcion ultimately lost, because bigger ones than him became interested in the Christian movement, and there are many of them in a large city. The enemies raised funds, copied Marcion’s know-how and began fighting him. Marcion withdrew from Rome, but continued to act so vigorously that he did not cease to be the main threat to Rome. It’s a business decision for once – it was impossible in the capital, too bad, so we operate everywhere else.

Its effectiveness is evidenced by the works of orthodox opponents and the changes in early Christian literature, the appearance of new gospels and letters.

The Roman Conflict of 144 CE was a us-them rivalry, clothed in theological pretense. Theology became a battlefield pending until the beginning of the 4th century. Only the administrative decision of the empire allowed for the closure of the churches of Marcon.

Marcion was attacked by pretenders who united against him because they themselves were too weak to defeat him alone and take his place. Thus, Proto-Orthodox and Proto-Catholics became more open to the ideas of their colleagues and ceased to be so attached to their own ideas. More gospels, more LXX, new interpretations.

With time, they grew so much that they became the greatest Christian sect and a partner to the apparatus of the empire. 

The NT canon is largely the result of this first major conflict.

In his activities, Marcion used the corpus of letters from Paul, who himself allegedly created a network of churches before him. None of them survived, if any existed at all. If the letters are to prove the existence of these gatherings, then at best they were fan clubs after Paweł’s performances in those locations with which he lost contact after a longer or shorter period of time. Remote management of organizationally primitive communities was difficult in antiquity and missionary activity is not a trip around the world with a few stops. Whoever invented it did not bother to check if such a scheme had a chance to work. 

Simply, Paweł is a mythical hero, a role model for the missionaries of Marcion and his so-called Letters are their textbook. Previously, no one saw them and they were not propagated individually and in the corpus.

Marcion created a canon, he limited the field of theological interpretations, which was unacceptable from the point of view of other players. And he was not a caliph so that his decision would become law.