What if the earliest Christians didn't believe the God of the Old Testament was God at all? That's the provocative thesis at the heart of this month's featured paper. We walk through the evidence from Paul's original canon, the forensic case against the heresiologists, and why it feels like Satan's earthly proxies are in growing control of the world. Plus: what apatheia is and why it matters right now. Join a panel of secular commentators as they discuss the paper and comment on Presbyter Darren Kelama's recent podcast which asks, "Is Yahweh actually Satan?"

Journal of Pre-Nicene Christian Studies

The Very First Bible 144 AD

Marcionite Church

• BeDuhn, Jason D. The First New Testament: Marcion's Scriptural Canon. Salem, OR: Polebridge Press, 2013.
• Clement of Alexandria. Stromateis VII. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, 520–560. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994.
• Epiphanius of Salamis. The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis: Book I (Sects 1–46). Translated by Frank Williams. 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
• Eusebius of Caesarea. The Church History. Translated by Paul L. Maier. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2007.
• Irenaeus of Lyons. Adversus Haereses. Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, 315–567. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994.
• The Very First Bible: The Evangelion and Apostolikon (144 AD). 2020. Marcionite Church (marcionitechurch.org). ISBN: 978-0578641591. Link
• Mitchell, A. W. "Papyrus 46 and the Marcionite Apostolikon: Codicological Constraints, Apostolic Warnings and the Adulteration of the Pauline Corpus." Journal of Pre-Nicene Christian Studies (June 2026). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20265848.
• Mitchell, A. W. "The Myth of the Jerusalem Continuity: Aelia Capitolina, the Marcionite Mission to Rome, and the Suppressed Apostolic Succession (AD 135–325)." Journal of Pre-Nicene Christian Studies, Special Issue (2026). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20481484.
• Mitchell, A. W. "The Theophanic Replacement Protocol: A Forensic Reconstruction of Divine Identity Theft, Textual Erasure, and the Formation of Nicene Christianity." Journal of Pre-Nicene Christian Studies (2025). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17964659.
• Romer, Thomas. The Invention of God. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.
• Sorabji, Richard. Emotion and Peace of Mind: From Stoic Agitation to Christian Temptation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Tertullian of Carthage. Adversus Marcionem. Edited and translated by Ernest Evans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.
• Tertullian of Carthage. De Praescriptione Haereticorum. Translated by Peter Holmes. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, 243–267. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994.

For two hundred years, the only Christianity that could legally exist inside the walls of Jerusalem was a faith that rejected the Old Testament, worshipped a God completely separate from Yahweh, and used a Bible without a single Jewish scripture. This isn't speculation - it's a structural consequence of Hadrian's ban on Judaism after the Bar Kokhba revolt in AD 135, which made possessing the Torah a capital offense within Aelia Capitolina, the pagan city built on Jerusalem's ruins.

In this paper, Chancellor A.W. Mitchell traces the untold story of Marcus, the first Gentile bishop of Jerusalem, who held the mother church's treasury and commissioned Marcion of Sinope as his personal emissary to Rome - armed with 200,000 sesterces and the unalloyed gospel of Paul. When Rome rejected the embassy and returned the money, the Yahwist temple-church alliance launched the greatest textual cover-up in Western history, erasing the true apostolic succession and replacing it with phantom bishops whose names appear in no records except Eusebius' carefully managed list. The forensic scars of that erasure - from Hegesippus' truncated succession to Epiphanius' conspicuous refusal to name Jerusalem - are still legible in the texts that survived.

Read the full paper: https://journal.pre-nicene.org/Special-Issue-2026

Acquire the first Christian bible 144 AD: https://theveryfirstbible.org (free) or hardcopy

Visit the Marcionite Church: https://marcionitechurch.org

Watch mass: https://www.youtube.com/@MarcioniteChurch

Twitter: https://x.com/MarcioniteChurc

This audio overview explores Chancellor A.W. Mitchell’s forensic investigation into the "thirty-year window" (AD 144–175), a critical period when the unalloyed Pauline corpus was systematically adulterated to serve the interests of the Yahwist temple-church alliance. It details the "micro-verse surgery" executed at Roman scriptorium desks, where redactors used "mechanical stitches" and "codicological mathematics" to wedge pro-Torah interpolations into the text while managing "text-inflation" within early single-quire codices like Papyrus 46. The overview further examines the fabrication of the Book of Acts as a "theological Bondo job"—a narrative cover-story designed to smooth over historical contradictions and domesticate the iconoclastic Paul into a Torah-compliant figure. It highlights the "Silent Guard"—the diagnostic silence of early church fathers regarding key verses—and the subsequent "geopolitical laundering" of the newly alloyed text through Irenaeus of Lyons in Gaul to create the illusion of a global consensus. Ultimately, the overview unmasks the "asymmetrical historical revenge" of drafting the ghost of the anti-nomistic Paul into a "chimerical monster" engineered to validate the deity Yahweh and the Hebrew scriptures.

Podcast based on paper from: A.W. Mitchell, Chancellor:

https://journal.pre-nicene.org/JPCS-June-2026

Marcionite Keleuthos Divinity School

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20265848

Free PDF download: https://payhip.com/b/9Pgbp

The Very First Bible 144 AD

Primary Sources & Archetypes

Apostolikon (The Marcionite Pauline Corpus). Archived Digital Edition. Marcionite

Research Library. Accessed May 17, 2026. https://theveryfirstbible.org.

Evangelion (The First Gospel). Archived Digital Edition. Marcionite Church

Canon Archive Project. Accessed May 17, 2026. https://theveryfirstbible.org.

Epiphanius of Salamis. The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis: Book I (Sects 1–46).

Translated by Frank Williams. 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

Eusebius of Caesarea. The Church History. Translated by Paul L. Maier.

Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2007.

Irenaeus of Lyons. Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies). In The Ante-Nicene Fathers,

edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, vol. 1, 315–567.

Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994.

Tertullian of Carthage. Adversus Marcionem (Against Marcion). Edited and translated

by Ernest Evans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Vatican Library. Latin Manuscript: Archivio Capitolo di San Pietro A.1 (Containing

the Stolen Marcionite Prologues). Digitized Manuscript Archive. Biblioteca

Apostolica Vaticana. https://digi.vatlib.it/mss/detail/214664

BeDuhn, Jason David. The First New Testament: Marcion’s Scriptural Canon.

Polebridge Press, 2013.

Mitchell, A. W. “The Palimpsest and Mosaic Plagiarism.” *Journal of Pre‑Nicene

Christian Studies* 14, no. 2 (May 2026): 112–145. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20059604.

The paper, The Palimpsest and Mosaic Plagiarism, argues that the canonical Pauline corpus is a "palimpsest" that has been systematically "larded" with seven specific intercalations designed to bind the original, law-free Gospel to the Abrahamic covenant, Mosaic Law, and Davidic lineage.

The research further establishes a "Triune Witness of Descent" through Evangelion 1:1, 1 Corinthians 15:47, and John 3:13, which preserves the original celestial Christology of a pre-existent Son with no earthly biography. Ultimately, the paper concludes that later fabrications like the "Harrowing of Hell" were engineered to neutralize this primitive witness and solidify the orthodox graft.

Let's join the roundtable discussion.

Full paper: https://journal.pre-nicene.org/JPCS-May-2026

Primary Sources:

The Very First Bible: The Evangelion and Apostolikon. Marcionite Church, 2020. ISBN 978‑0578641591. ()Tertullian. Against Marcion. c. 207‑212.Jerome. Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. Migne PL 26.Epiphanius of Salamis. Panarion. c. 374‑377.Eusebius of Caesarea. Church History. c. 325.Origen of Alexandria. Commentaries on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Fragments. c. 240.Burkitt, F.C., trans. “The Marcionite Prologues to the Letters of St. Paul.” In The Gospel History and its Transmission, 1906.Le Bas, P., and Waddington, W. H. Inscriptions grecques et latines recueillies en Grèce et en Asie Mineure. Vol. 3, inscription 2558 (Deir Ali). 1870.Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Codex Vaticanus Arch. B. S. Pietro A 3 (Vat. lat. 214664). 12th century.Muratorian Canon. c. 170‑200. In Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 3.Gospel of Nicodemus (Acts of Pilate). 4th‑6th century.

Secondary Sources:

Barnes, Timothy D. Constantine and Eusebius. Harvard University Press, 1981.BeDuhn, Jason D. The First New Testament: Marcion’s Scriptural Canon. Polebridge Press, 2013.Dunn, James D. G. The Epistle to the Galatians. Black’s New Testament Commentary. Hendrickson Publishers, 1993.Ehrman, Bart D. Forged: Writing in the Name of God. HarperOne, 2011.Ehrman, Bart D. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament. Oxford University Press, 1993.Hay, David M. Glory at the Right Hand: Psalm 110 in Early Christianity. Abingdon Press, 1973.Knox, John. Marcion and the New Testament: An Essay in the Early History of the Canon. University of Chicago Press, 1942.Tyson, Joseph B. Marcion and Luke‑Acts: A Defining Struggle. University of South Carolina Press, 2006.Lardner, Nathaniel. The Works of Nathaniel Lardner. 1788.Mitchell, A. W. “One Eclipse, Two Earthquakes: The 29 AD Eclipse-Seismic Theophany and the Unified Geophysical Witness for the Primitive Christian Evangelion.” DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17964722, 2026.Mitchell, A. W. “.” DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17964659, 2025.

Acquire physical copy of Pre-Nicene bible here.

The Central Pontiate of the Marcionite Church has officially launched a Religious Accommodation (RA) program to assist parishioners currently serving in the military or facing a potential draft. This initiative provides legal and theological support for those seeking to opt out of the conflict in Iran, which the church characterizes as an act of “compelled idolatry."

The program is a direct response to the March 26, 2026, prayer service led by U.S. Secretary of War Peter Hegseth. During this service, the Secretary invoked Psalm 18 from the Torah to pray for 'overwhelming violence,' an act the church contends has "officially consecrated the war in the name of the deity Yahweh."

In this episode a secular panel explores the controversy and compares the stark differences between a Religious Accommodation (RA) and Conscientious Objector status. Complete walkthrough of the RA submission process.

Official Marcionite Church Statement On Iran War:

https://www.marcionitechurch.org/Military-Exemption

Federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act Overview:

https://www.findlaw.com/civilrights/discrimination/federal-religious-freedom-restoration-act-overview.html

The Very First Bible:

https://theveryfirstbible.org

RA Press Release:

https://www.prlog.org/13136836-marcionite-church-announces-military-exemption-help-after-pentagons-theological-blunder.html

Direct RA Template Link & Instructions:

https://payhip.com/b/uVIhP

You’ve likely seen the headlines recently - a story centering around an academic paper studying a massive earthquake that struck the Dead Sea sometime between 26 and 36 AD. The headlines were typical clickbait, claiming "scientific proof" of the crucifixion. It turns out that earthquake was part of a much larger seismic event coupled with a total solar eclipse - and it wasn't marking a death - it marked an ARRIVAL.

Journal of Pre-Nicene Christian Studies:

https://journal.pre-nicene.org/One-Eclipse-Two-Earthquakes.html

NASA:

https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=00291124

The first Christian bible 144 AD

https://theveryfirstbible.org

Raw academic paper (A.W. Mitchell):

https://zenodo.org/records/18805868

Evangelion overview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-AKnEbLD5w

Theophanic Replacement Protocol (TRP):

https://journal.pre-nicene.org/TheophanicReplacementProtocol.html

The following is a roundtable discussion of the origins of Christianity, divine identity theft and a forensic reconstruction of how the deity Yahweh was grafted onto God Our Father. Participants are not members of the Marcionite Church and are reacting to reading an academic paper entitled: The Theophanic Replacement Protocol.

https://zenodo.org/records/17964660

https://journal.pre-nicene.org/TheophanicReplacementProtocol.html

https://marcionitechurch.org

https://theveryfirstbible.org (Evangelion)

Learn how the real story of Jesus' arrival on earth was hijacked and in its place a Judaized Bethlehem horse stall narrative was substituted. The Eclipse Theophany: The foundational astronomical event of Christianity suppressed for millennia, now the subject of a groundbreaking academic paper.

The question isn't what are the implications - the question is what AREN'T the implications.

Notes:

The Theophanic Replacement Protocol: A Forensic Reconstruction of Divine Identity Theft, Textual Erasure, and the Formation of Nicene Christianity

(DOI 10.5281/zenodo.17964659)

Journal of Pre-Nicene Christian Studies (free download of complete paper)

⁠https://journal.pre-nicene.org/⁠

NASA Eclipse Website

⁠https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=00291124⁠

Marcionite Church Eclipse Theophany Page

⁠https://www.marcionitechurch.org/Eclipse-Theophany.html⁠

The Very First Bible

⁠https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/⁠

Learn more about Pre-Nicene Christianity: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@prenicenetv⁠

PCRN Listen Live: ⁠https://fra-pioneer01.dedicateware.com:2135/stream

t's a question that Christian churches and denominations of all stripes would rather you didn't think about, much less ask out loud. It's a question that theologians and biblical scholars have struggled to answer for millenia, and none with any success. How is it that a man who thousands of books, billions of words and millions of letters have been written about could himself have not written down a single word or letter?

The Gospel of The Lord:

https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/

Marcionite Christian Church:

https://www.marcionitechurch.org/

Pre-Nicene Christian Television:

https://pre-nicene.org/

Vatican Library Links to Marcionite Church:

https://www.theveryfirstbible.org/vatican.html