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.