In order to fend off the relentless advance of Marcionism, Tertullian wrote a large tome, Adversus Marcionem (“Against Marcion”). This was a watershed document in Christian history (as had been Irenaeus’ Adversus Haeresis). Tertullian slowly built a case against Marcion’s sect, in a relentless, lawerly fashion (as one might expect of him). One of the hallmarks of Marcionism had been Marcion’s utter rejection of Judaic scripture; for Marcion, YHWH, the God of the Jews, was an evil being who had trapped human souls — beings of light — in the prison of the material world. Thus, according to Marcion, Judaic scripture had no place in the new religion. Furthermore, with the proliferation of Christian writings, Marcion had settled upon only a few as having any significance. These were a few of Paul’s epistles, as well as Marcion’s own redacted version of the gospel of Luke. All other Marcionist teachings were conveyed verbally to initiates, being esoteric in nature (as was the case with Gnosticism in general).