Ebionites

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The Ebionites (from Hebrew; אביונים, Ebyonim, "the Poor Ones") were an early sect of mostly Jewish disciples of John the Baptizer, Jesus the Nazarene and James the Just, who flourished in and around the land of Israel as one of several so-called "Jewish Christian" communities coexisting from the 1st to the 5th century of the Common Era.^[1] Where they took their name from is unclear, since the same self-identification appears in several religious texts, such as the Dead Sea scrolls,^[2] the Epistle of James,^[3] and the Gospel of Luke which features one of Jesus' most well-known beatitudes: "Congratulations, you poor! God's domain belongs to you."^[4] They are said to have dispossessed themselves of all their goods, and to have lived in religious communes.^[1]

The Ebionites were in theological conflict with other streams of early Christianity. As a result, our knowledge of them is fragmentary, originating primarily from the polemics of the early Church Fathers. These accounts at times seem to be contradictory arising from the double application of the term "Ebionite", some referring to Jewish Christianity as a whole, others only to a sect within it.^[5] According to the select few modern scholars who have studied the historicity of the Ebionites, they may have existed as a community distinct from "Pauline Christians" and "Gnostic Christians" before and after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.. Some commentators even contend that the Ebionites were more faithful than Paul of Tarsus to the authentic teachings of the historical Jesus.^[6][7][3][8]

Contents 1 History 2 Views and practices 2.1 Judaism 2.2 Essenism or Gnosticism? 2.3 John the Baptizer 2.4 Jesus the Nazarene 2.5 James the Just 2.6 Paul of Tarsus 3 Writings 4 Archaeology 5 Sources 6 Notes and References

History

Part of the series on Jewish Christians

Figures John the Baptizer Yeshua James the Just Simeon of Jerusalem Jude, brother of Jesus Desposyni Pillars of the Church Patriarchs of Jerusalem Symmachus the Ebionite

Early sects Ebionites Elcesaites Nasoraeans Nazarenes Nazoraeans

Modern sects Ebionite Jewish Community Messianic Jews Sacred Name Movement

Writings Clementine literature Didache Gospel of the Ebionites Gospel of the Hebrews Gospel of the Nazoraeans Epistle of James

Issues Expounding of the Law Council of Jerusalem Sabbath Quartodecimanism Christian Torah-submission Aramaic of Jesus

Pejoratives Judaizers Legalists This box: view • talk • edit

Since there is, as of yet, no authenticated archaeological evidence for the existence of the Ebionites, their nature and history cannot be definitely reconstructed from surviving references. The little that is known about them comes from brief references by early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, who considered them to be "heretics" and "Judaizers".^[5]

In 140 C.E., Justin Martyr, in the earliest text known to us, describes an unnamed sect estranged from the Church who observe the Law of Moses, and who hold it of universal obligation.^[9] In 180 C.E, Irenaeus was the first to use the term "Ebionites" to describe a heretical judaizing sect, which he regarded as stubbornly clinging to the Law.^[10] In 212 C.E., Origen remarks that the name derives from the Hebrew word "evyon", meaning "poor".^[11] The most complete yet questionable account comes from Epiphanius of Salamis, who wrote a heresiology in the 4th century, denouncing 80 heretical sects, among them the Ebionites, as having poor opinions.^[12] These are mostly general descriptions of their religious ideology, though sometimes there are quotations from their gospels, which are otherwise lost to us.

The Fathers of the Church sometimes distinguished Ebionites from Nazarenes, another early sect of Jewish disciples of Jesus also believed to be a faction within, or an offshoot of, the first "Christian church of Jerusalem" (which thrived from c. 30 to 135 C.E.) or the first "Judeo-Christian synagogue" (built on Mount Zion between 70 and 132 C.E.),^[13] one polemicist often depending upon another for his assessment. However, Jerome clearly thinks that the Ebionites and Nazoraeans were a single community.^[14] Without surviving texts, it is difficult to establish exactly the basis for their distinction.

Although it is an open question whether the Ebionites, denounced by the Church Fathers, were direct descendants of the earliest Jerusalem Church,^[5] some scholars argue that the first self-identified Ebionites began as followers of John the Baptizer c. 23 C.E.. After the death of John, many of them joined the movement led by Jesus, along with four of the twelve apostles who were originally John's followers. After the death of Jesus, the Ebionites followed Jesus' brother James the Just as the patriarch of the Jerusalem church.^[8]

It was during the stewardship of James, whose authority was accepted by remote communities, that Paul of Tarsus joined the movement. This eventually led to a dispute with regard to the circumcision of gentile converts, which Paul maintained was unnecessary. The book of the Acts of the Apostles records the compromise that James allegedly brokered during the Council of Jerusalem c. 49 C.E., which only required that gentile converts observe Noahide Laws without having to circumcize.^[15] However, in 58 C.E., Paul complains in one of his epistles of "super-apostles", most likely the Ebionites, sent from Jerusalem who question his honesty and continue to counter his mission.^[16]

After James' extra-legal execution in 62 C.E (which may have triggered the First Jewish-Roman War from 66 to 73 C.E.),^[3] the movement fled Jerusalem to Pella, Jordan, across the Jordan river, under the leadership of Simeon of Jerusalem, another of Jesus' brothers. After Simeon's execution c. 106 C.E., the Ebionites begin to disperse throughout Southwest Asia, but are eclipsed by Pauline Christianity, and vanish from the historical record after their encounters with the Church Fathers in the following centuries.

The legacy of the Ebionites is debated. Once the Roman army decimated the Jerusalemite leadership of the mother church of all Christendom during Bar Kokhba's revolt in 135 C.E., Jewish Christians gradually lost the struggle for the claim to orthodoxy owing to marginalization and persecution.^[7] Scholar Jans-Hoachim Schoeps, however, argues that the primary influence of the Ebionites was on the nontrinitarian origins of Islam due to their exchanges with proto-Muslims.^[6]

The Ebionites might be represented in history as the sect encountered by the Muslim historian Abd al-Jabbar c. 1000 C.E., almost 500 years later than most Christian historians allow for their survival.^[17] An additional possible mention of surviving Ebionite communities existing in the lands of north-western Arabia, specifically the cities of Tayma and Tilmas, around the 11th century, is said to be in Sefer Ha'masaoth, the "Book of the Travels" of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, a sephardic rabbi of Spain.^[18] 12th century historian Mohammad al-Shahrastani, in his book Religious and Philosophical Sects, mentions Jews living in nearby Medina and Hejaz who accepted Jesus as a prophetic figure and followed traditional Judaism, rejecting mainstream Christian views.^[19]

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, several small yet competing new religious movements, such as the Ebionite Jewish Community, have emerged claiming to be revivalists of the views and practices of early Ebionites,^[20] although their idiosyncratic claims to authenticity cannot be verified. The counter-missionary group Jews for Judaism favorably mentions the historical Ebionites in their literature in order to argue that "Messianic Judaism", as promoted by missionary groups such as Jews for Jesus, is Pauline Christianity misrepresenting itself as Judaism.^[21]

Views and practices

Judaism

Most patristic sources portray the Ebionites as traditional yet ascetic Jews, possibly permanent Nazirites, who zealously followed the Law of Moses, revered Jerusalem as the holiest city,^[22] and restricted table fellowship only to gentiles who converted to Judaism.^[23]

Essenism or Gnosticism?

Epiphanius of Salamis is the only Church Father who describes some Ebionites as departing from traditional Jewish principles of faith and practice; specifically by engaging in excessive ritual bathing,^[24] possessing an angelology which claimed that the Christ is a great archangel who was incarnated in Jesus when he was adopted as the son of God,^[25] opposing animal sacrifice,^[26] rejecting doctrines and traditions believed to have been added to the Law of Moses, including scribal alterations of the texts of scripture,^[27] and practicing religious vegetarianism.^[28]

According to Robert Eisenman, James Tabor, Martin A. Larson and other scholars the Ebionites were therefore a messianic Essene sect within Judaism. In this view, the Ebionites originated with, and drew much of their original inspiration, rules, customs, theology, beliefs and even their name from either the alleged Essene roots of John the Baptizer and James the Just or other Essene sects. The Qumran community, for example, referred to themselves by many epithets, including "the poor".^[3][8][29]

The reliability of Epiphanius' claims, however, is questioned by some scholars.^[5][30] Shlomo Pines, for example, argues that all these heterodox doctrines originated in Gnostic Christianity rather than Essenism, and are characteristics of the Elcesaite sect, which Epiphanius mistakenly attributed to the Ebionites.^[17]

John the Baptizer

In the Gospel of the Ebionites, John the Baptizer is portrayed as a vegetarian Nazirite teacher and a forerunner to Jesus. Jewish Christians viewed John as the lawful high priest of Israel, by virtue of his mother, Elizabeth, being a daughter of Aaron (in opposition to the high priest recognized by the Roman Empire), and possibly the priestly Messiah of Jewish eschatology until his execution by Herod Antipas.^[3][8][29]

Jesus the Nazarene

The majority of Church Fathers are in agreement in claiming that the Ebionites rejected many of the central Christian views of Jesus such as the trinity of God, the pre-existence and divinity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the death of Jesus as an atonement for sin, and the physical resurrection of Jesus.^[5] The Ebionites are described as emphasizing the oneness of God and the humanity of Yeshua (the Aramaic name for Jesus) as the biological son of both Mary and Joseph, who by virtue of his righteousness, was chosen by God to be the messianic "prophet like Moses" foretold in Deuteronomy 18:14-22 when he was anointed with the holy spirit at his baptism.^[7][1]

Of the books of the New Testament, the Ebionites are said to have accepted only an Aramaic version of the Gospel of Matthew, referred to as the Gospel of the Hebrews, as additional scripture to the Hebrew Bible. This version of Matthew, Irenaeus reports, omitted the first two chapters (on the nativity of Jesus), and started with the baptism of Jesus by John.^[31]

Modern scholars argue that the Ebionites understood Jesus as inviting believers to live according to an ethic of social justice that would be standard in the future kingdom of Heaven. Since the Ebionites believed that this would be the ethic of the Messianic Age, they went ahead and adjusted their lives to this ethic in this age.^[32] They therefore believed that all Jews and gentiles must observe the commandments in the Law of Moses,^[33] in order to become righteous and seek communion with God;^[34] but that these commandments must be understood in the light of Jesus' expounding of the Law,^[1] which he taught during his Sermon on the Mount.^[35] The Ebionites may have held a form of "inaugurated eschatology" positing that the ministry of Jesus had ushered in the Messianic Age so that the kingdom of Heaven might be understood as present in an incipient fashion, while at the same time awaiting consummation in the future age.^[7][1]

James the Just

Although he is not mentioned in patristic sources for the Ebionites, James the Just, the brother of Jesus, was the hereditary leader of the Jerusalem church; followed by other members of the Desposyni (the blood relatives of Jesus) who Jewish Christians regarded as the legitimate apostolic successors to James as patriarchs of the Jerusalem church, rather than Peter. Jewish Christians also viewed James as the legitimate high priest of Israel, by virtue of his righteousness (in opposition to the high priest recognized by the Roman Empire), and possibly the priestly Messiah of Jewish eschatology, following the death of John the Baptizer, until his execution by Ananus ben Ananus.^[3][8][29]

Paul of Tarsus

Patristic sources report Ebionites as denouncing Paul of Tarsus as an apostate from the Law and a false apostle,^[36] for his slander of the pillars of the church and condemnation of their "judaizing teachings" as a threat to the spread of his schismatic religion.^[37] Epiphanius claims that some Ebionites fought back by gossiping that Paul was a Greek who converted to Judaism in order to marry the daughter of (Annas?) a high priest of Israel, apostasized when she rejected him;^[38] and later, according to scholar Hyam Maccoby, developed the early Christian church as a Gnostic Jewish mystery religion.^[7]

Writings

Few writings of the Ebionites have survived, and these are in uncertain form. The Recognitions of Clement and the Clementine Homilies, two 3rd-century Christian works, are regarded by general scholarly consensus as largely or entirely Jewish Christian in origin and reflect Jewish Christian ideology. These can be found in volume 8 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. The exact relationship between the Ebionites and these writings is debated, but Epiphanius's description of some Ebionites in Panarion 30 bears repeated and striking similarity to the ideas in the Recognitions and Homilies. Scholar Glenn Alan Koch speculates that Epiphanius likely relied upon a version of the Homilies as a source document.^[12]

The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908, mentions four classes of Ebionite writings:^[39]

• Gospel of the Ebionites. According to Irenaeus, the Ebionites used only the Gospel of Matthew. Eusebius of Caesarea (Historia Ecclesiae IV, xxi, 8) mentions a Gospel of the Hebrews, 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's De viris illustribus ii, and to Clement of Alexandria (Strom., II, ix, 45). Epiphanius of Salamis attributes this gospel to Nazarenes, and claims that Ebionites only possessed an incomplete, falsified, and truncated copy. (Adversus Haereses, xxix, 9). The question remains whether or not Epiphanius was able to make a genuine distinction between Nazarenes and Ebionites.
• New Testament apocrypha: The Circuits of Peter and Acts of the Apostles, including the work usually titled the Ascents of James. 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 Jewish Christian views, i.e. the primacy of James the Just, their connection with the episcopal see of Rome, and their antagonism to Simon Magus, as well as gnostic doctrines. Scholar Robert Van Voorst opines of the Ascents of James (R 1.33-71), "There is, in fact, no section of the Clementine literature about whose origin in Jewish Christianity one may be more certain".^[30] Despite this assertion, he expresses reservations that the material is genuinely Ebionite in origin.
• The Works of Symmachus the Ebionite, i.e. his Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, used by Jerome, fragments of which exist, and his lost Hypomnemata, 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 100 CE and brought to Rome in c. 217 CE by Alcibiades of Apamea. Ebionites who accepted its gnostic doctrines were judged to be apostates and called Elcesaites. (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 or gnostic document.^[40] The existence and origin of this source continues to be debated by scholars.^[41]

Archaeology

In his 2004 book Buried Angels, biblical scholar Jacob Rabinowitz suggests that a body of archaeological evidence discovered by Franciscan biblical archaeologists in Jerusalem, Hebron and Nazareth may be a record of the original Ebionite community. The items, consisting of ossuaries, figures and ritual objects, incorporate the cross as a decorative motif combined with other biblical symbols. The Franciscans describe the finds as the work of a late 3rd or 4th century heretical judaizing sect, but since the dating is very approximate, the material could as well be 1st century. The objects themselves may be significant examples of early Christian art, whatever their exact date, and Rabinowitz' argument, supported by citations of New Testament, patristic, and Dead Sea Scrolls material, and in accord with the visual evidence, are notable.^[43]

Sources

Primary sources for the Ebionites are found in the works of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers:

The Ebionaeans, however, acknowledge that the world was made by Him Who is in reality God, but they propound legends concerning the Christ similarly with Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They live conformably to the customs of the Jews, alleging that they are justified. according to the law, and saying that Jesus was justified by fulfilling the law. And therefore it was, (according to the Ebionaeans,) that (the Saviour) was named (the) Christ of God and Jesus, since not one of the rest (of mankind) had observed completely the law. For if even any other had fulfilled the commandments (contained) in the law, he would have been that Christ. And the (Ebionaeans allege) that they themselves also, when in like manner they fulfil (the law), are able to become Christs; for they assert that our Lord Himself was a man in a like sense with all (the rest of the human family).

– Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies 7.22

Those who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made by God; but their opinions with respect to the Lord are similar to those of Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the law. As to the prophetical writings, they endeavour to expound them in a somewhat singular manner: they practise circumcision, persevere in the observance of those customs which are enjoined by the law, and are so Judaic in their style of life, that they even adore Jerusalem as if it were the house of God.

– Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.26.2

The matter in debate, therefore, or I should rather say your opinion regarding it, is summed up in this: that since the preaching of the gospel of Christ, the believing Jews do well in observing the precepts of the law, i.e. in offering sacrifices as Paul did, in circumcising their children, as Paul did in the case of Timothy, and keeping the Jewish Sabbath, as all the Jews have been accustomed to do. If this be true, we fall into the heresy of Cerinthus and Ebion, who, though believing in Christ, were anathematized by the fathers for this one error, that they mixed up the ceremonies of the law with the gospel of Christ, and professed their faith in that which was new, without letting go what was old. Why do I speak of the Ebionites, who make pretensions to the name of Christian? In our own day there exists a sect among the Jews throughout all the synagogues of the East, which is called the sect of the Minei, and is even now condemned by the Pharisees. The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarenes; they believe in Christ the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; and they say that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again, is the same as the one in whom we believe. But while they desire to be both Jews and Christians, they are neither the one nor the other. I therefore beseech you, who think that you are called upon to heal my slight wound, which is no more, so to speak, than a prick or scratch from a needle, to devote your skill in the healing art to this grievous wound, which has been opened by a spear driven home with the impetus of a javelin. For there is surely no proportion between the culpability of him who exhibits the various opinions held by the fathers in a commentary on Scripture, and the guilt of him who reintroduces within the Church a most pestilential heresy. If, however, there is for us no alternative but to receive the Jews into the Church, along with the usages prescribed by their law; if, in short, it shall be declared lawful for them to continue in the Churches of Christ what they have been accustomed to practise in the synagogues of Satan, I will tell you my opinion of the matter: they will not become Christians, but they will make us Jews.

– Jerome, Epistle to Augustine 112.13

But if, Trypho," I continued, "some of your race, who say they believe in this Christ, compel those Gentiles who believe in this Christ to live in all respects according to the law given by Moses, or choose not to associate so intimately with them, I in like manner do not approve of them. But I believe that even those, who have been persuaded by them to observe the legal dispensation along with their confession of God in Christ, shall probably be saved.

– Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho The Jew 47.4, 48

the Ebionites, who derive the appellation of "poor" from their very name (for "Ebion" means "poor" in Hebrew)

– Origen, De Principiis 4.3.8

The evil demon, however, being unable to tear certain others from their allegiance to the Christ of God, yet found them susceptible in a different direction, and so brought them over to his own purposes. The ancients quite properly called these men Ebionites, because they held poor and mean opinions concerning Christ. For they considered him a plain and common man, who was justified only because of his superior virtue, and who was the fruit of the intercourse of a man with Mary. In their opinion the observance of the ceremonial law was altogether necessary, on the ground that they could not be saved by faith in Christ alone and by a corresponding life. There were others, however, besides them, that were of the same name, but avoided the strange and absurd beliefs of the former, and did not deny that the Lord was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless, inasmuch as they also refused to acknowledge that he pre-existed, being God, Word, and Wisdom, they turned aside into the impiety of the former, especially when they, like them, endeavored to observe strictly the bodily worship of the law. These men, moreover, thought that it was necessary to reject all the epistles of the apostle, whom they called an apostate from the law; and they used only the so-called Gospel according to the Hebrews and made small account of the rest. The Sabbath and the rest of the discipline of the Jews they observed just like them, but at the same time, like us, they celebrated the Lord’s days as a memorial of the resurrection of the Saviour. Wherefore, in consequence of such a course they received the name of Ebionites, which signified the poverty of their understanding. For this is the name by which a poor man is called among the Hebrews.

– Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Chp. 27

As to these translators it should be stated that Symmachus was an Ebionite. But the heresy of the Ebionites, as it is called, asserts that Christ was the son of Joseph and Mary, considering him a mere man, and insists strongly on keeping the law in a Jewish manner, as we have seen already in this history. Commentaries of Symmachus are still extant in which he appears to support this heresy by attacking the Gospel of Matthew. Origen states that he obtained these and other commentaries of Symmachus on the Scriptures from a certain Juliana, who, he says, received the books by inheritance from Symmachus himself.

– Nicene Fathers, The Translator Symmachus, Chp. 17

Ebionites are very like the Cerinthians and Nazoraeans; the sect of the Sampsaeans and Elkasaites was associated with them to a degree.

– Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 30

For since they wish Jesus to be in reality a man, as I have said before, Christ came in him having descended in the form of a dove and was joined to him (as already we have found among other heresies also), and became the Christ from God above, but Jesus was born from the seed of man and woman.

– Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 30.14.4-5

They do not say that he was born of God the Father, but that he was created as one of the archangels, that he rules both the angels and all those things created by the Almighty, and he came and gave instructions to abolish sacrifices as the gospel which they recognize contains the provision that "I came to abolish sacrifices, and unless you cease sacrificing, my anger will not cease from you". These and such like them are their deceitful conceptions.

– Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 30.16.4-5

They say that the Christ is the True Prophet and that the Christ is son of God by spiritual progress and a union which came to him by a lifting up from above; but they say that the prophets are prophets through their own intelligence and not from truth. Him alone they wish to be both prophet and man, and son of God and Christ, and mere man, as we have mentioned before, but because of excellence of life he came to be called the Son of God. And neither do they receive the whole pentateuch of Moses, but cast out certain passages. But whenever you speak to them about food which has life in it, "How therefore did Abraham set before the angels the calf and the milk?" Or , "How did Noah eat, and he heard God saying, 'Sacrifice and eat'? How did Isaac and Jacob sacrifice to God? Likewise, also Moses in the desert?" It is incredible to them and he says, "What need is there for me to read the things in the Law since the gospel has come?" "Whence is it to you to know the things concerning Moses and Abraham? For I know that you confess them to be righteous and to acknowledge them as your own fathers." Then he replies and says that Christ revealed it to me, and he discredits even more the matters pertaining to Mosaic Law and the accounts concerning Sampson, David, Elijah, Samuel, Elisha, and the others.

– Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 30.18.5-9

Again the Lord himself says, "I have eagerly desired to eat this passover with you". And he does not say simply "passover" but "this passover", lest someone treat it according to his own opinion. However, it was a passover, as I said, with meat broiled in fire and all the rest. But they, having removed from themselves the sequence of truth, changed the saying, which is manifest to all from the readings joined to it, and they make the disciples say, "Where do you wish that we should prepare for you to eat the passover?" And he then replies, "I have no desire whatsoever to eat this passover meat with you." For what reason will their fraud not be detected, when the sequence cries out that the negative has been added? For instead of saying, "I have eagerly desired", they added the word "no".

– Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 30.22.3-5

Notes and References