Conclusion

The conclusion sums up the work and makes several key points. First, Marcionites—among other early Christian groups—had biblical reasons for believing that the creator of this world was evil. Their interpretations did not all focus on Jewish scripture. Christian scripture—mainly Johannine and Pauline writings—were major foci. So-called gnostic and Marcionite Christians did not “split” the Jewish deity into a good and evil being. Some Gentile Christians may have never viewed the Judean god as universal or good in the first place. In fact, these Christians could not have viewed the creator as good given that he plotted against, killed, and cursed the Christian savior on the cross. The book closes by tracing the convergence of ancient and modern biblical interpretation regarding the evil creator. The idea of the evil creator persists because Jewish and Christian scriptures still foster the idea even in radically different settings and times.