Marcion and the early church is a big interest of mine, so automatically I'd have to agree with the last post, that this is true
Before an actual canon of scripture existed in Orthadox churches (as in a closed Book/New Testament canon), the bishop from Asia Minor, Marcion had compiled what was called the original Gospel, it was simply called "Gospel of the Lord." In Greek (Evangelion). And Paul's original, uncorrupted epistles from his various churches, in Greek this was called Apostilikon. Thirdly, we have understood Marcion as compiling as work of his own, named Antithesis. This book was a special work of Theology and Ethic used to contrast the old testament god with that of the Christ of the Gospel. He was a Dualist, believing in a god of ultimate Good, who Christ called Abba (Aramaic for the heavenly Father) and then one who was cruel and arrogant, the Creator of this imperfect world with his strict judgement, who can be called Satan. Marcion was a Pauline Puritan, believing only that Paul understood the message of Christ. He was trying to preserve what he believed to be Pure Christianity, without any foreign interpolation of ideas, whether it be Jewish, Philosophical, or Pagan. He rejected most of the Catholic rites, saying that we are free from rites and the Law, because Christ had set us free from the evil judgement of Satan's Laws.
The Gospel of Marcion closely resembles the Synoptic Gospels: Mark, Matthew, and Luke. Now Church authority traditionally attributes Marcion's Gospel to that of Luke's, but a closer look shows that Marcion's was shorter than Luke's, and more like Mark's Gospel. There was no mention of the Nativity, or Birth story of Christ. (they had a different understanding of how Christ came here). Marcionites traditionally attributed this Gospel to Paul as being the author. This was defended by the fact that in Galations Paul spoke of his Gospel only being the truth, and defended this truth against the other apostles and angelic beings alike. So it would seem that Paul was speaking of a Gospel he himself had taught and perhaps later even wrote.
Now for something even more intrigueing: There is a Catholic document called "Dialogues of Adamantius" that details a conversation between a Marcionite bishop and a Catholic bishop, where they debate over which is the most true doctrine of Christianity. In the debate, the Marcionite quotes verses from Matthew, Luke, and Mark. But lacks verses from John, and even refutes one of John's verses.
I am a practicing Dualist myself and I've come to some interesting conclusions about Marcion's Gospel. For one thing we can't trust Catholic sources completely because it's coming from the enemy. But this is my own theory (and I'm not alone in this one) as to what the original Gospel may have had in it.
I think Marcion's Gospel is the earliest link to the so-called "Gospel Q," where scholars believe writings of the Christ's traditional sayings would have been kept, and used later to write the other 4 or so Gospels where they could be altered, edited and mixed with all kinds of narrated stories. Anyway, from what little information we have, It seems that passages from all 3 Synoptic Gospels were also in Marcion's Gospel. I have not yet found evidence that any of John's writings were included, but the Gospel of John has always struck me as quite Marcionite in character. One last thing I might add, is that the Gospel of John had become very important among the later Dualists in Armenia and Bulgaria, who were interestingly called, "Paulicians," followers of Paul
So could it be? that Marcion's single Gospel already had most of the sayings and stories of Jesus? Did the Catholic church completely obliterate this Gospel to fit their own canon in which they had none until after Marcion's compilation turned up? Did we ever really need a complete higharchy of Church leaders with their splendid palaces and rich estates? With so much Power that lead to so much war and confusion against so called "heretics?" Was not the true body of the Church that which resides in our heart with Christ? Certainly Something to think about
