The Marcionite Church of Christ is proud to announce that we have recently reconstructed the lost Marcionite Book of Psalms, or the ‘Psalmicon.’
This text contains forty psalms that have been reconstructed from historical records. The Psalmicon is the earliest Christian hymnbook dating from around 134 C.E.
The Muratorian Fragment mentioned a rejected book of psalms for Marcion, and these Marcionite Psalms are also mentioned by Maruthas of Martyropolis:
“…instead of the Psalms they [the Marcionites] have made themselves hymns for their services.”
It has been theorized the apocryphal ‘Odes to Solomon’ were originally these Marcionite psalms that were composed in Greek by Marcion and his disciples, but later, due to their popularity, they were expanded upon and interpolated in a similar manner to how the Evangelicon was later transformed into the Gospel of Luke. The psalms may have also been used contemporaneously by gnostic sects such as the Valentinians.
Many scholars believe these psalms were composed by a disciple of the Apostle John, which Marcion of Sinope was.
Further, Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Epiphanius all mentioned Marcion taught that the crucifixion and death of Christ were followed by a “Descent into Hell” or “Harrowing of Hell.” This narrative is not found within the Evangelicon, but it is referenced directly and indirectly in several psalms of the Psalmicon.
It seems that when the Church Father Lactantius was translating the psalms into Latin, he inserted an additional psalm about the Virgin Birth, and later, when the psalms were translated into Syriac, they were Judaized in their tone further to bring them closer to the prevailing orthodoxy. At some point, these Marcionite psalms were renamed as the Odes of Solomon to erroneously tie them to the Hebrew Bible and King Solomon despite their clear Christian overtones.
These psalms were originally referred to as ‘psalmoi idiotikoi’, which means psalms not pertaining to the canon of scripture, or at least not the direct product of divine inspiration. The psalms may have originated as a collection of baptismal hymns.
Interestingly, Tertullian described a Marcionite church tradition of giving a mixture of milk and honey to the newly baptized. One of the psalms of the Psalmicon makes explicit reference to giving this very mixture to a newly baptized Christian.
At the Council of Laodicea in 360 C.E., it was decreed that no psalms composed by uninspired men should be used in the Church service. These compositions were thus excluded despite their growing popularity.
The Marcionite Church of Christ recognizes these psalms are not divinely inspired or part of the official canon but sees them as useful for liturgical purposes.
The Psalmicon will now be included in all future editions of the Testamentum. You can view the Psalmicon here.
Our reconstruction of the Psalmicon is based on the work of James H. Charlesworth (The Earliest Christian Hymnbook: The Odes of Solomon, 2009).
