Destroyer of the Law I

This chapter examines the Marcionite reception of Ephesians 2:15 (Christ “destroyed the Law of commandments by [his] teachings”). If Christ destroyed the Law by his teachings, the Law could not be good. Paul called the Law “good” in the sense of “just” (Rom 7:12), but for Marcion the creator’s justice was only a cover for his savagery. From Marcion’s perspective, the Law revealed sin and thus enslaved people to the creator. Christ came to abolish the entirety of this Law to free humanity from slavery to the creator. Since Christ came as destroyer of the creator’s Law, he proved that the Law was evil, yet if the Law was evil, so was the divine Lawgiver.