Biblical canon

====Marcion's list====
[[Marcion of Sinope]] was the first Christian leader in recorded history (though later considered [[heresy|heretical]]) to propose and delineate a uniquely Christian canon{{sfnp|Metzger|1997|p=98|ps=. "The question whether the Church's canon preceded or followed Marcion's canon continues to be debated."}} (c. 140). This included 10 epistles from [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]], as well as an edited version of the [[Gospel of Luke]], which today is known as the [[Gospel of Marcion]]. By doing this, he established a particular way of looking at [[religious text]]s that persists in Christian thought today.<ref name="Harnack">{{cite book |author-last=von Harnack |author-first=Adolf |chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/harnack/origin_nt.v.vi.html |chapter=Appendix VI |title=Origin of the New Testament |year=1914}}</ref>

After Marcion, Christians began to divide texts into those that aligned well with the "[[canon (basic principle)|canon]]" (meaning a measuring line, rule, or principle) of accepted theological thought and those that promoted heresy. This played a major role in finalizing the structure of the collection of works called the Bible. It has been proposed that the initial impetus for the [[Proto-orthodox Christianity|proto-orthodox Christian]] project of canonization flowed from opposition to the list produced by Marcion.<ref name="Harnack"/>