Marcionism

Refers to an early Christian Gnostic movement that rivaled Catholic Christianity in the second and third centuries. The sect's founder, Marcion (died ca. 160), held the dualistic belief that the God of the Old Testament was not the same as the God of the New Testament and that the Old Testament was not a Christian book. As Christianity and Judaism are not connected in his view, he thought the New Testament should be purified of all Jewish elements. Marcion organized many ascetic communities and compiled the first known canon of scripture. Most Marcionites were absorbed into Manichaeism by the late third century. The term is sometimes used more generally to refer to deliberate or benign neglect of the Old Testament within Christianity.