From the very beginning of the Christian church, errors arose from within. For example, one can think of Gnosticism, a movement that probably has its roots before the origins of the Christian church. This is where the name of the famous philosopher Plato comes up. He already taught the separation of soul and body: the body is the dungeon of the soul. Gnosticism has left deep traces, even in later centuries, even until now.
The Gnosticism
One of the most important errors from the first centuries of the Christian church’s existence is Gnosticism, a mixture of pagan philosophical and Christian elements. In this way they tried to arrive at a higher wisdom. Gnosticism can be labeled as dualistic because, among other things, it creates a separation between soul and body. These elements can already be found before the origins of the Christian church. In Christian doctrine the Gnostics have found points of departure to give their doctrine a new face.
Already Plato taught the separation between soul and body. He taught that man was actually a soul that came to earth from another reality and was confined in a body. Because man also has tendencies and drives that did not correspond with his view of the exalted origin of the soul, he made various distinctions in the human soul, namely three: the logistikon, which stands for the pursuit of true knowledge; the thumoeides , which focuses on honor, power and self-preservation and the epithumetikon , which aims at physical satisfaction and pleasure. He also assigned a physical location to these three parts of the soul: head, chest and lower body respectively.
Gnosticism teaches, following Plato, that the soul is a divine spark, trapped in a body. Many believe that Paul was also infected with this idea. This is derived from his statement: ,Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?, Now it is known that Paul knew his classics, but more can be said theologically about the statement used above. According to the followers of Gnosticism, that divine spark had to be released from the body and return to the plerooma, the realm of light. That salvation could take place through the practice of gnosis, the true and deep experiential knowledge of divine salvation. The gnosis (Greek = knowledge) is opposed to the pistis (Greek = faith).
Gnosticism had its heyday in the second century and found its advocates in Basileides in Alexandria , Valentinus in Rome and its most important representative Marcion. The latter mixed elements of Gnosticism with Christianity. (syncretism).
Marcion
With Marcion the theory of the aeons makes its appearance. Aeons are intermediate beings between God and man. He referred to Jesus as an aeon with an apparent body. So here he expands the original teachings of Gnosticism. He also does this with his doctrine of the Demiurge. In it he rejects the Old Testament and the God of the Old Testament. He calls him the Demiurge, the god of evil, the god of the Jews. He does accept parts of the New Testament. In this God is a God of love, who takes shape in the aeon of Jesus. He does not accept the entire New Testament. Actually only the Gospel of Luke and the letters of Paul. He refers everything that has to do with the Law in the New Testament to the god of the Old Testament, the Demiurge. The church then hastily decided to establish a canon of the Holy Scriptures, as a counterpart to all kinds of Gnostic writings.
Marcion was initially a wealthy ship owner from Sinope, located on the Black Sea. In Rome he joined the Christian community. He donated large amounts of money to this community, so that he was held in high esteem there. When he expressed his ideas about religion in Rome, he got his money back and was expelled from the Christian community. Marcion then founded his own church, which only ceased to exist under pressure from the state around the year 500. His works, ,Antitheses, and his Gospel Commentary have been lost. Tertullian’s opposition to his doctrine gives us an impression of its content. Marcion pushed his doctrine to the extreme. For example, he advocated far-reaching asceticism and total sexual abstinence.
Marcion’s teaching returns in a slightly modified form to the Cathars in the Middle Ages. In our time there are assimilations of this teaching with theosophy and anthroposophy.
Tertullian and Irenaeus fiercely opposed Marcion’s teachings in speech and writing.
Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens, or Tertullian, lived around the year 200. He studied letters and law. In 195 he converted to Christianity and set himself up as an apologist. In 197 he wrote his ,Apologeticus,. In his apologetic writings he mainly addressed Marcion. Many theological terms come from him. For example, he was the first to use the concepts of ,satisfaction,, ,merit, and ,trinity,. He also originated the theological formulations for the trinity ,one in essence, three persons, and for the natures of Christ ,two natures, one person,. Tertullian created the basic form of Western theology. For him, the relationship between God and man was primarily that of a legal relationship, containing the leading concepts of law, punishment, satisfaction, and merit. We recognize the lawyer in this. The cross was given great emphasis as an act of satisfaction. In fact, the history of dogma begins with Tertullian.
Through his work and through the work of his teacher Irenaeus, the insight grew that gnosticism was not Christian. Later Tertullian promoted the Logos doctrine, a mixture of Greek thought with ecclesiastical thought. In this Jesus became a semi-divine being, the Logos.
Tertullian continued to oppose too much absorption of Christians into the surrounding pagan culture. In fact, he advocated strict culture avoidance.