There are signs of an anti-Marcion polemic in the Pastorals.15 They make Paul urge Timothy to “turn a deaf ear to empty and irreligious chatter, and the antitheses which some falsely call gnosis,”16 clearly a slighting reference to Marcion’s famous treatise Antitheses. The same letter condemns those who “forbid marriage, and insist on abstinence from foods which God created to be enjoyed with thanksgiving by believers.”17 They clearly disapproved of Marcion’s women in ministry;
