Marcion and the Gnostics were not only endeavoring to explain a flawed and sinful world at odds with the notion of a flawless and sinless Creator; they were seeking to absolve Jesus of the heinous acts with which Yahweh is credited in the Hebrew Bible. But there was something else, too. In arguing for the existence of two gods, these Christians were trying to pull Christianity free of its Jewish roots, to declare it a wholly new religion, with a new revelation, and a new God.
