Ebionites

The Ebionites (from Hebrew; Ebionim, "the poor ones") were a sect of Judean followers of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth who existed in the Iudaea Province of the Roman Empire during the early centuries of the Common Era.

The Ebionites were in theological conflict with other strands of early Christianity. While the Ebionites undoubtedly drew their doctrines from ideas circulating in the 1st century, Dr. Robert H. Eisenman, professor of Middle East religions and archaeology and director of the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins, argues that they existed as a distinct group from Pauline Christians and Gnostic Christians before the destruction of Jerusalem.

Several modern scholars, including Hyam Maccoby, Robert Graves, Hugh J. Schonfield, Keith Akers, Benjamin Urrutia and Joshua Podro contend that the Ebionites were more faithful than Paul of Tarsus to the original and authentic teachings of Jesus and/or James the Just.

History

Few writings of the Ebionites have survived, and in uncertain form (see below). There are two chief sources for our knowledge of the literature and ideas of the Ebionites:

(1) Brief quotations from their writings in orthodox Christian theologians, such as Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Epiphanius of Salamis, who considered the Ebionites to be heretics. The most complete of these comes from Epiphanius of Salamis, who wrote his "Panarion" in the fourth century, denouncing 80 heretical sects, among them the Ebionites, described in Panarion 30. In addition to quotations from their gospels, there are also general descriptions of their ideas and point of view.

(2) The Recognitions of Clement and the Clementine Homilies, two third-century Christian works, are regarded by general scholarly consensus as largely or entirely Jewish-Christian, and specifically Ebionite, in origin. These can be found in volume 8 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

Proto-orthodox writers sometimes distinguished the Ebionites from the Nazarenes, one patristic author often depending upon another for his assessment. In any event, there is far more information in the Church Fathers about Ebionites than about Nazoraeans, Nasaraeans, or Nazarenes (in any spelling). Jerome clearly thinks that the Nazoraeans and the Ebionites were a single group (Letter 112). Without surviving texts, it is even less easy now for us to establish exactly the basis for their distinction. The "Nazarenes" are spelled "Nazoraeans" by Epiphanius, a slight but clear difference in Greek from the terms used to refer to "Nazarenes" or "residents of Nazareth," and since this spelling is also found in the New Testament (though usually translated "Nazarene") it is likely the original spelling. Even more confusingly, Epiphanius also refers to yet another group, the "Nasaraeans," which has beliefs very close to the Ebionites.

All these sources within mainstream Christianity agree that the Ebionites denied the divinity of Jesus, the doctrine of the Trinity, the Virgin Birth and the death of Jesus as an atonement for the Original Sin. Epiphanius describes them as opposing animal sacrifice and as vegetarians. Epiphanius quotes their gospel as ascribing the words to Jesus, "I have come to destroy the sacrifices" (Panarion 30.16.5), and as ascribing to Jesus rejection of the Passover meat (Panarion 30.22.4). This is in agreement with numerous passages found in the Recognitions and Homilies (e. g. Recognitions 1.36, 1.54, Homilies 3.45, 7.4, 7.8).

The Ebionites emphasized the humanity of Jesus as the mortal son of Mary and Joseph, who was 'adopted' as a son of God when he was anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism, and therefore could have become the messianic king-priest of Israel (by virtue of also being both a descendant of king David through his father and a descendant of high priest Aaron through his mother) but was chosen to be the last and greatest of the prophets.

The Ebionites may have revered the Desposyni (a sacred name reserved only for Jesus' blood relatives), especially James the Just (Yakov or Jacob), as the legitimate apostolic successors of Jesus, rather than Peter. This claim is supported by passages in the Pauline epistles (Galatians 2), and portions of the Book of Acts (e. g. Acts 15) that supposedly present James as outranking Peter.

The Gospel of the Ebionites, or Gospel of the Hebrews, tells how the resurrected Jesus appeared to his brother Jacob ("James") and persuaded him to eat bread. This visit is possibly mentioned in I Corinthians 15:7. Since the early Ebionites clearly did believe in the ability of Jesus to perform powerful miracles, it may be possible that the charges of their denying his divinity, etc. were merely propaganda on the part of the patristic sources, eager to paint them as heretics.

Epiphanius states (Panarion 16:9) that some Ebionites gossiped that Paul was a Greek who converted to Sadduceean Judaism in order to marry the High Priest's daughter, and then apostasized when she rejected him.

Of the books of the New Testament the Ebionites only accepted an Aramaic version of the Gospel of Matthew, referred to as the Gospel of the Hebrews, as scripture. This version of Matthew, Pauline Christian critics reported, omitted the first two chapters (on Jesus' virgin birth), and started with Jesus' baptism by John.

Ebionites believed that all followers of Jesus, whether they be Hebrew or Gentile, must adhere to Noahide Laws and Mosaic law through either more reconstructionist (Essene) or progressive (Pharisee) interpretation and observance, tempered with the wisdom teachings of Jesus.

The Church Fathers describe the Cerinthians as "Jewish Christian" but this is disputed among scholars, and it is unlikely that Cerinthus or the Cerinthians were closely related to the Ebionites.

The influence of the Ebionites is debated. Hans-Joachim Schoeps argues that their primary influence on orthodox Christianity was to aid in the defeat of gnosticism. It has also been argued (Akers, The Lost Religion of Jesus) that they had an influence on Islam and the Sufis. However, the Ebionites are represented in history as the sect encountered by the Muslim historian Abd al-Jabbar (ca. 1000 A.D.) almost 500 years later than most Christian historians admit for the survival of the Ebionites. An additional possible mention of surviving Ebionite communities existing in the lands of the east, Theyma and Thilmes, around the 11th century, is said to be in Sefer Ha'masaoth, the "Book of the Travels" of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, or Benyamin Bar-Yonnah, a sephardic rabbi of Spain.

Ebionite writings

The Recognitions of Clement and The Clementine Homilies are the most expansive of the writings derived from the Ebionites. The exact relationship between the Ebionites and these writings is not clear, but the description of the Ebionites in Panarion 30 (by Epiphanius) bears repeated and striking similarity to the ideas in the Recognitions and Homilies. By scholarly consensus, these writings are Jewish Christian in origin and reflect Jewish Christian ideas and beliefs, though the exact relationship between the writings and the Ebionites is debated.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908, mentions four classes of Ebionite writings:

Gospel of the Ebionites. The Ebionites used only the Gospel of Matthew (according to Irenaeus). Eusebius (Historia Ecclesiae IV, xxi, 8) mentions a Gospel of the Hebrews, which is often identified as the Aramaic original of Matthew, written with Hebrew letters. Such a work was known to Hegesippus ( according to Eusebius, Historia Eccl., ), Origen (according to Jerome, De vir., ill., ii), and to Clement of Alexandria (Strom., II, ix, 45). Epiphanius attributes this gospel to the Nazarenes, and claims that the Ebionites only possessed an incomplete, falsified, and truncated copy. (Adversus Haer., xxix, 9). The question remains whether or not Epiphanius was able to make a genuine distinction between Nazarenes and Ebionites.

Apocrypha: The Circuits of Peter (periodoi Petrou) and Acts of the Apostles, amongst which is the work usually titled the Ascents of James (anabathmoi Iakobou). The first-named books are substantially contained in the Homilies of Clement under the title of Clement's Compendium of Peter's itinerary sermons, and also in the Recognitions attributed to Clement. They form an early Christian didactic fiction to express Ebionite views, i.e. the supremacy of James, their connection with Rome, and their antagonism to Simon Magus, as well as Gnostic doctrines.

The Works of Symmachus the Ebionite, i.e. his elegant Greek translation of the Old Testament, used by Jerome, fragments of which exist, and his lost Hypomnemata which was written to counter the canonical Gospel of Matthew. The latter work, which is totally lost (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., VI, xvii; Jerome, De vir. ill., liv), is probably identical with De distinctione præceptorum, mentioned by Ebed Jesu (Assemani, Bibl. Or., III, 1).

The Book of Elchesai (Elxai), or of "The Hidden power", claimed to have been written about A. D. 100 and brought to Rome about A. D. 217 by Alcibiades of Apamea. Those who accepted its doctrines and its new baptism were called Elkasites. (Hipp., Philos., IX, xiv-xvii; Epiphanius., Adv. Haer., xix, 1; liii, 1.)

It is also speculated that the core of the Gospel of Barnabas, beneath a polemical medieval Muslim overlay, may have been based upon an Ebionite document.

Modern Ebionites

In 1985, Shemayah Phillips founded a movement that would eventually grow into the online Ebionite Jewish Community by 1995. This movement claims to be the legitimate descendant in teaching and practice of the original Ebionites.

The Ebionite Jewish Community promotes Yahwism, the recognition of Jesus as a Jewish prophet (rather than as a Messiah as he is portrayed in Christian writing), and claims that Christianity is not a biblically-based religion. Ebionites actively campaign against missionary work done by Christian groups, and encourages a return to a Tanakh-reliant approach to Judaism amongst messianic Jews, Hebrew Christians, Gentile Christians and others.

Modern Ebionites are not gnostic, or dualist, but strictly monotheistic. Ebionites believe that monotheism disallows a belief in a "Satan" that competes with God. Modern Ebionitism emphasizes the social justice aspect of the Tanakh, and Yahwism as a socio-economic as well as a religious idea. They also reject membership for those involved in occupations deemed to be "exploitive."

Ebionites

History

Ebionite writings

Modern Ebionites

See also

External links

Further reading