If Marcion pioneered the concept of the New Testament, did he come up with its name? The Pontian was presumably familiar with Paul’s use of “new testament (or covenant)” to designate the new agreement that God made with humanity (2 Cor 3:6). But Paul did not use “new testament” to refer to a discrete collection of texts. Wolfram Kinzig attributes that innovation to Marcion.

Wolfram Kinzig,

“Καινὴ διαθήκη: The Title of New Testament in the Second and Third Centuries,” JTS 45.2 (1994): 519-44

Yet the evidence he cites, largely from Tertullian, never exactly specifies that it is Marcion himself, or later Marcionites, who used the terms “Old Testament” and “New Testament.” Let’s examine the evidence.

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