Three against Tertullian: the Second Tradition about Marcion's Life

摘要

Jürgen Regul argued in Die antimarcionitischen Evangelienprologe that there are two different traditions concerning the life of Marcion, one based on Tertullian and one based on Pseudo-Tertullian, Epiphanius, and Philastrius. I question the coherence of the second tradition on the heresiarch's life, as well as the classical theory by Richard Adelbert Lipsius, Zur Quellenkritik des Epiphanios, that all these sources go back to the lost Syntagma of Hippolytus. Accordingly, I also question the credibility of the corresponding sources, coming to the conclusion that the second tradition provides almost no reliable information for the reconstruction of Marcion's biography.