Cream hardback with black title on the spine and front board.

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For conditions, please view the photographs. If you’re not reading the same bible as the first Christians in 144 A.D. you’re reading just another book. The first Christian bible is not only the foundation of faith that virtually every denomination traces its canonical roots back to – it’s also the only place you’ll find the gospel preached by Paul the Apostle that he specifically references numerous times: “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:8-9) ***In addition to the Gospel of the Lord you’ll also read in their original, unedited form Galatians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Romans, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, Ephesians, Laodiceans, Colossians, Philemon and Philippians. That is the entirety of the first Christian bible as it was gathered and transcribed in 144 A.D. and as it is now. Numbered chapters and verses in standard bible format.***The Very First Bible also acts as a cryptographic key, allowing us to see which scriptures were edited and added as it ballooned from one gospel and eleven books into 73 books and four gospels over time. For the first time you will read the first Christian bible exactly as it was transcribed in 144 A.D. and one of the first things you’ll notice is that it doesn’t contain the Torah* (Old Testament). You will see the original Gospel of the Lord that was preached by the Apostle Paul and Scriptures reveal God through Jesus, as it happened. After 2,000-years of ‘interpretive editing,’ additions, deletions, theological focus groups and sloppy translations, the modern bible has more in common with modern art than it does with the very first Christian bible. ***This special first edition includes illustrations along with a Study and Reference Guide where you’ll learn about the key people and events surrounding The Very First Bible and Marcion of Sinope, the man that religious scholars say is responsible for the format of the New Testament.*The apostles agreed to exclude the Torah (Old Testament) law from Christian canon at the Council of Jerusalem in 48 A.D. after determining it was antithetical to the gospel of Christ. It was later added to the first Christian bible in 325 A.D. by order of a pagan Roman emperor at the Council of Nicaea. This subject and others are covered more fully in the study guide included in the book.

Review: It is fascinating to learn that Christians attacked and destroyed one another – albeit with the help of Rome. Church history, particularly Catholic history, is a dirty affair. I believe there are no extant copies of the Marcionite Bible and so this is a reconstruction built from existing texts contained within the received Bible. Perhaps an old copy will be found at some point in an archaeological dig. The single Gospel in the Marcionite Bible appears to be a reworking of Luke.

Marcion of Sinope (c. 85 – c. 160) was a theologian in early Christianity. Marcion preached that God had sent Jesus Christ, who was distinct from the “vengeful” God (Demiurge) who had created the world. He considered himself a follower of Paul the Apostle, whom he believed to have been the only true apostle of Jesus Christ; his doctrine is called Marcionism. Marcion published the earliest record of a canon of New Testament books.

Early Church writers such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian denounced Marcion as a heretic or antichrist, and he was excommunicated by the church of Rome around 144. He published his own canon of Christian sacred scriptures, which contained ten Pauline epistles (including the Epistle to the Laodiceans, while excluding the Pastoral epistles) and the Gospel of Marcion which historically is claimed to be an edited version of the Gospel of Luke. Some modern scholars, such as Matthias Klinghardt, have theorized that Marcion’s Gospel was the oldest, although this has been contested.

This made Marcionism a catalyst in the process of the development of the New Testament canon by forcing the proto-orthodox Church to respond to his canon.