Marcionite Church Issues Warning Over Plagiarized Bibles, Fraudulent Websites

Christians are urged to double-check URLs and keep an eye out for a common spelling error

The Marcionite Church has become aware of a growing problem involving bibles published by the church being plagiarized, edited and passed off as authentic scripture with many being offered for sale through online retailers.

Additionally, fraudulent websites have sprung up as 'virtual churches' used as tools to market these false gospels while deceiving Christians who are attempting to reconnect with the original scriptures and faith.

Background: In late 2019, the decision was made by the Marcionite Church in Greece to establish a presence in the Western hemisphere for the first time in history and register a website in the Americas (marcionitechurch.org). It was also decided to publish and distribute the English translation of the bible used by the church since 144 A.D., titled, The Very First Bible (theveryfirstbible.org).

Both of these projects were completed in early 2020 and are reflected in an ICANN lookup of the domain marcionitechurch.org created in October of that year. ISBN registration was successfully acquired for all formats of The Very First Bible (ISBN-13: 978-0578648149) in February of 2020. You will note that the fraudulent websites and plagiarized, edited bibles will all reflect dates well after these.

Official Marcionite Church website: https://www.marcionitechurch.org
Official Bible: The Very First Bible: https://www.theveryfirstbible.org

The Marcionite Church is scripturally-bound to distribute these Pre-Nicene Christian bibles free of charge to the public and the format used was both Epub and PDF. In short order, copies were downloaded and the plagiarizing began. However, what the thieves didn't realize is that all of those early free versions contained a glaring typographical error that, because of the subject matter, they would be unaware of and fail to correct.

Most of the plagiarized bibles and websites will reflect the word 'Evangelion' misspelled as 'Evangelicon.'

To verify that you have the original, unedited scripture visit: TheVeryFirstBible.org and click on 'Full Text' under Evangelion and Apostolikon.

Our concern is not monetary as we distribute the bibles free of charge. Rather, our overarching desire is to prevent well-meaning Christians seeking to reconnect with the true faith and church from being led astray and deceived. The problem is not new as it is the same problem experienced by the Apostle Paul 2,000 years ago when The Gospel of The Lord was edited and Judaized. In fact, he addresses the issue directly in his epistles as we read in Galatians 1:4-6 "I marvel that ye are so quickly changed, from him that called you in the grace unto a different gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel should announce to you a gospel contrary to what ye have received, let him be accursed."

What was once old is now new again.

The Very First Bible is available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese at no charge.