The Very First Bible

Where it Comes From

Paul insisted that the gospel he preached was not something he learned from men. On the road to Damascus, he received it directly - a revelation of Jesus Christ, independent of any prior tradition. He was adamant about this: "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).

A century later, Marcion of Sinope retraced Paul’s routes through the Mediterranean, gathered the original scrolls still held by the Pauline churches, and transcribed them into a single codex. What he published - in 144 A.D. - was the first Christian bible.

What it Contains

The Evangelion, or Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins without a birth story, without a genealogy, without any account of Jesus’ childhood. The opening is stark: "In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Jesus descended into Capernaum." From that moment, he teaches with authority, heals the sick, casts out devils, and speaks constantly of the Father - a God he has come to reveal. A God previously unknown.

The Apostolikon - ten epistles of Paul: Galatians, First and Second Corinthians, Romans, First and Second Thessalonians, Laodiceans, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians. Each letter opens with an original prologue, written by Marcion to situate the epistle in Paul’s missionary career. These prologues are a window into the second-century conflicts that shaped the text - and they were stripped from every subsequent version of the bible.

What is absent from this collection matters as much as what is present. The Pastoral Epistles - First and Second Timothy, Titus - are not here. Neither is Hebrews. And within the epistles that do appear, the text is shorter. The verses that anchor Christ to Abraham, to the Mosaic Law, and to Davidic lineage - Galatians 3:6–9, Galatians 4:4, Romans 1:3, and others - are missing. Everything that ties the new faith to the Hebrew faith is absent, because it had not yet been written in.

Why it was Suppressed

The God revealed in these texts is the Father. He forgives sins. He asks for mercy rather than sacrifice. He gives no law, demands no circumcision, commands no wars of conquest. He was not the god of the Hebrew scriptures. He was unknown before Jesus descended to reveal him.

This was the problem.

In the centuries that followed, a different version of Christianity gained political power. It merged the Father with Yahweh, the tribal deity of the Hebrew books, and claimed they were the same being. To make the merger credible, Paul’s letters were expanded - verses inserted, epistles forged, a theological bridge built to the old covenant in the form of Hebrews. The Evangelion was rewritten into what later editors called the Gospel of Luke: birth narratives added, genealogies tracing Jesus to Adam and Abraham, proof-texts from the prophets woven through. What had been a revelation of something new was reframed as the fulfillment of something old.

The original was condemned as heresy. Marcion’s churches were persecuted. During the Diocletian persecution, their scriptures were specifically targeted for destruction. The text survived only because the men who wrote against it - Tertullian, Epiphanius, Jerome - quoted it extensively in order to refute it. Their hostility preserved what imperial policy tried to erase.

This Edition

Translated from the Koine Greek. Complete. Free. No Old Testament appended. No pastoral forgeries inserted. No harmonizing verses interpolated. The first Christian bible, restored to the form it held before the merger.