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Ebionites, or Greek: Ἐβιωναῖοι Ebionaioi, (derived from Hebrew אביונים ebyonim, ebionim, meaning the poor or poor ones), is a patristic term referring to a Jewish Christian sect or sects that existed during the first centuries of the Christian Era. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah and insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites. The Ebionites used only one of the Jewish Gospels, revered James the Just and rejected Paul of Tarsus as an apostate from the Law. Their name suggests that they placed a special value on voluntary poverty.

Since historical records by the Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and disputed, much of what is known or conjectured about the Ebionites derives from the Church Fathers, who wrote polemics against the Ebionites, whom they deemed heretical Judaizers. Consequently very little about the Ebionite sect or sects is known with certainty, and most, if not all, statements about them are conjectural.

Many scholars distinguish the Ebionites from other Jewish Christian groups e.g. the Nazarenes.

Name

The term Ebionites derives from the Hebrew אביונים Ebionim, meaning "the Poor Ones", which has parallels in the Psalms and the self-given term of pious Jewish circles. The term "the poor" was at first a common designation for all Christians - a reference to their material as well their voluntary poverty. Following schisms within the early Church, the graecized Hebrew term "Ebionite" was applied exclusively to Jewish Christians separated from the developing Pauline Christianity, and later in the 4th century a specific group of Jewish Christians or to a Jewish Christian sect distinct from the Nazarenes. All the while, the designation "the Poor" in other languages was still used in its original, more general sense. Origen says "for Ebion signifies “poor” among the Jews, and those Jews who have received Jesus as Christ are called by the name of Ebionites." Tertullian was first to write against a non-existent heresiarch called Ebion and scholars believe he derived the name Ebion from a literal reading of Ebionaioi as meaning "followers of Ebion", a derivation now considered mistaken.

The divergent application of the term "Ebionite" persists today, as some authors choose to label as "Ebionites", Jewish Christians that maintained a continuity with the Messianic eschatology of the Jerusalem Church under James the Just while others, though agreeing about the historical events, use it in a more restricted sense. Mainstream scholarship commonly uses the term in the restricted sense.

History

The earliest reference to a group that might fit the description of the Ebionites appears in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho (c. 140). Justin distinguishes between Jewish Christians who observe the Law of Moses but do not require its observance upon others, and those who believe the Mosaic Law to be obligatory on all. Irenaeus (c. 180) was probably the first to use the term "Ebionites" to describe a heretical judaizing sect, which he regarded as stubbornly clinging to the Law. Origen (c. 212) remarks that the name derives from the Hebrew word "evyon," meaning "poor." Epiphanius of Salamis in the 4th century gives the most complete but also questionable account in his heresiology called Panarion, denouncing eighty heretical sects, among them the Ebionites. Epiphanius mostly gives general descriptions of their religious beliefs and includes quotations from their gospels, which have not survived. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Ebionite movement may have arisen about the time of the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem (AD 70). Others have argued that the Ebionites were more faithful to the authentic teachings of Jesus and constituted the mainstream of the Jerusalem church before being gradually marginalized by the followers of Paul of Tarsus.

The actual number of groups described as Ebionites is difficult to ascertain, as the contradictory patristic accounts in their attempt to distinguish various sects, sometimes confuse them with each other. Other groups mentioned are the Carpocratians, the Cerinthians, the Elcesaites, the Nazarenes, the Nazoraeans, and the Sampsaeans, most of whom were Jewish Christian sects who held gnostic or other views rejected by the Ebionites. Epiphanius, however, mentions that a group of Ebionites came to embrace some of these views despite keeping their name.

As the Ebionites are first mentioned as such in the 2nd century, their earlier history and their relation to the first Jerusalem church remains obscure and a matter of contention. Many scholars link the origin of the Ebionites with the First Jewish-Roman War of 66–70 CE. Prior to this, they are considered to be part of the Jerusalem church led by the Apostle Peter and later by Jesus' brother, or cousin, James. Eusebius relates a tradition, probably based on Aristo of Pella, that the early Christians left Jerusalem just prior to the war and fled to Pella beyond the Jordan River. They were led by Simeon of Jerusalem (d. 107) and during the Second Jewish-Roman War, they were persecuted by the Jewish followers of Bar Kochba for refusing to recognize his messianic claims.

According to some scholars, it was beyond the Jordan, that the Nazarenes/Ebionites were first recognized as a distinct group when some Jewish Christians receded farther from mainstream Christianity, and approximated more and more closely to Rabbinical Judaism, resulting in a "degeneration" into an exclusively Jewish sect. Some from these groups later opened themselves to either Jewish Gnostic (and possibly Essene) or syncretic influences, as is seen in the book of Elchasai. The latter influence places some Ebionites in the context of the gnostic movements widespread in Syria and the lands to the east.

After the end of the First Jewish-Roman War, the importance of the Jerusalem church began to fade. Jewish Christianity became dispersed throughout the Jewish diaspora in the Levant, where it was slowly eclipsed by gentile Christianity, which then spread throughout the Roman Empire without competition from "judaizing" Christian groups. Once the Jerusalem church, still headed by Jesus' relatives, was eliminated during the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135, the Ebionites gradually lost influence and followers. According to one writer their decline was due to marginalization and "persecution" by both Jews and Christians. Following the defeat of the rebellion and the expulsion of all Jews from Judea, Jerusalem became the Gentile city of Aelia Capitolina. Many of the Jewish Christians residing at Pella renounced their Jewish practices at this time and joined to the mainstream Christian church. Those who remained at Pella and continued in obedience to the Law were deemed heretics. In 375, Epiphanius records the settlement of Ebionites on Cyprus, but by the mid-5th century, Theodoret of Cyrrhus reported that they were no longer present in the region.

Some scholars argue that the Ebionites survived much longer and identify them with a sect encountered by the historian Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad around the year 1000. Another possible reference to surviving Ebionite communities in northwestern Arabia, specifically the cities of Tayma and Tilmas, around the 11th century, appears in Sefer Ha'masaot, the "Book of the Travels" of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, a rabbi from Spain. 12th century Muslim historian Muhammad al-Shahrastani mentions Jews living in nearby Medina and Hejaz who accepted Jesus as a prophetic figure and followed traditional Judaism, rejecting mainstream Christian views. Some scholars argue that they contributed to the development of the Islamic view of Jesus due to exchanges of Ebionite remnants with the first Muslims. However, Muslim theologians and those who accept their narratives of early Islam maintain that the Islamic view of Jesus was revealed in the Quran well before any significant Muslim encounter with Christians such as the Migration to Abyssinia.

Legacy

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, several small yet competing new religious movements, such as the Ebionite Jewish Community and others, have emerged claiming to be revivalists of the views and practices of early Ebionites, 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. Some Messianic groups have expressed concern over leaders in Israel that deny Jesus' divinity and the possible collapse of the Messianic movement due to a resurgence of Ebionitism. In a recent polemic, a Messianic leader asked whether Christians should imitate the Torah-observance of "neo-Ebionites".

Views and practices

Judaic and Gnostic Ebionitism

Most patristic sources portray the Ebionites as traditional Jews, who zealously followed the Law of Moses, revered Jerusalem as the holiest city, and restricted table fellowship only to Gentiles who converted to Judaism.

Yet some Church Fathers describe some Ebionites as departing from traditional Jewish principles of faith and practice. For example, Epiphanius of Salamis stated that the Ebionites engaged in excessive ritual bathing, possessed an angelology which claimed that the Christ is a great archangel who was incarnated in Jesus and adopted as the son of God, opposed animal sacrifice, denying parts or most of the Law, and practiced religious vegetarianism, and celebrated a commemorative meal annually, on or around Passover, with unleavened bread and water only, in contrast to the daily Christian Eucharist.

However, the reliability of Epiphanius' account of the Ebionites is questioned by some scholars. Shlomo Pines, for example, argues that the heterodox views and practices he ascribes to some Ebionites originated in Gnostic Christianity rather than Jewish Christianity, and are characteristics of the Elcesaite sect, which Epiphanius mistakenly attributed to the Ebionites.

Another Church Father who described the Ebionites as departing from Christian Orthodoxy was Methodius of Olympus, who stated that the Ebionites believed that the prophets spoke only by their own power, and not by the power of the Holy Spirit.

While mainstream biblical scholars do suppose some Essene influence on the nascent Jewish-Christian Church in some organizational, administrative and cultic respects, some scholars go beyond that assumption. Among them, some hold theories which have been discredited and others which remain controversial.

Regarding the Ebionites specifically, a number of scholars have different theories on how the Ebionites may have developed from an Essene Jewish messianic sect. Hans-Joachim Schoeps argues that the conversion of some Essenes to Jewish Christianity after the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE may be the source of some Ebionites adopting Essene views and practices; while some conclude that the Essenes did not become Jewish Christians but still had an influence on the Ebionites.

However, Epiphanius of Salamis, in his book Panarion, 30:17:5, said the following: "But I already showed above that Ebion did not know these things, but later, his followers that associated with Elchasai had the circumcision, the Sabbath and the customs of Ebion, but the imagination of Elchasai".

Doing so, Epiphanius made it clear that the original Ebionites were different from those heterodox Ebionites that he described.

John the Baptist

The Gospel of the Ebionites might have been named after the followers of John the Baptist, and Jesus initially may have been amongst his followers. The Ebionites shared many doctrines and practices with the Essenes, and possibly with those at Qumran.

In the Gospel of the Ebionites, as quoted by Epiphanius, John the Baptist and Jesus are portrayed as vegetarians. It is a matter of debate whether John was in fact a vegetarian (a notion reinforced by the "Slavonic version" of Josephus) or whether some Ebionites (or the related Elchasaite sect which Epiphanius may have mistaken for Ebionites) were projecting their vegetarianism onto him.

Jesus

See also Jesus in the Talmud

The majority of Church Fathers agree that the Ebionites rejected many of the precepts central to Nicene orthodoxy, such as his pre-existence, divinity, virgin birth, atoning death, and physical resurrection. The Ebionites are described as emphasizing the oneness of God and the humanity of 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.

Of the books of the New Testament, the Ebionites are said to have accepted only a Hebrew (or 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.

The Ebionites believed that all Jews and Gentiles must observe the commandments in the Law of Moses, in order to become righteous and seek communion with God, but these commandments must be understood in the light of Jesus' expounding of the Law, revealed during his sermon on the mount, and other evangelical counsels. 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 God might be understood as present in an incipient fashion, while at the same time awaiting consummation in the future age.

James vs. Paul

James, the brother of Jesus, was the leader of the Jerusalem church. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, established many churches and founded a Christian theology (see Pauline Christianity). At the Council of Jerusalem (c 49), Paul argued to abrogate Mosaic observances for his non-Jewish converts. When Paul recounted the events to the Galatians (Galatians 2:9–10), he referred only to the remembrance of the poor rather than conveying the four points of the council (Acts 15:19–21). The nature of the laws for the Gentiles described by James is contested (see Council of Jerusalem).

Scholars who have studied the role of James in the Jerusalem Church, including Pierre Antoine Bernheim, Robert Eisenman, Will Durant, John Painter, and James Tabor, argue that the Ebionites regarded James the Just as their leader, after Jesus' death. rather than Peter. Some scholars argue that the Ebionites claimed a dynastic apostolic succession for the relatives of Jesus. They opposed the Apostle Paul, who claimed that gentile Christians did not have to be circumcised or otherwise follow the Law of Moses, and named him an apostate. Epiphanius relates that some Ebionites alleged that Paul was a Greek who converted to Judaism in order to marry the daughter of a high priest of Israel but apostatized when she rejected him. Other scholars, such as Richard Bauckham, dispute this in part by arguing that the immediate successors to the Jerusalem Church under James and the relatives of Jesus were the Nazoraeans, who accepted Paul, while the Ebionites were a later offshoot of the early second century.

Ebionite 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 beliefs. The exact relationship between the Ebionites and these writings is debated, but Epiphanius's description of some Ebionites in Panarion 30 bears a 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. Some scholars also speculate that the core of the Gospel of Barnabas, beneath a polemical medieval Muslim overlay, may have been based upon an Ebionite or gnostic document. The existence and origin of this source continues to be debated by scholars.

The Catholic Encyclopedia classifies the Ebionite writings into four groups:

Gospel of the Ebionites

Irenaeus stated that these early Ebionite communities used Matthew's Gospel exclusively. Eusebius of Caesarea later wrote that they used only the Gospel of the Hebrews. From this Edwards and Nicholson claim that there was only one Hebrew gospel in circulation, Matthew's Gospel of the Hebrews. They also note that the title Gospel of the Ebionites, was never used by anyone in the early Church.

Epiphanius contended that the gospel the Ebionites used, was written by Matthew and called the Gospel of the Hebrews. Because Epiphanius said that it was "not wholly complete, but falsified and mutilated...", scholars such as Cassels, Theodoret and Parker consider it a different "edition" of Matthew's Hebrew Gospel; the Ebionites having added some of their oral tradition or Midrash (See Sitz im Leben). However, internal evidence from the quotations in Panarion 30.13.4 and 30.13.7 suggest that the text was a Gospel harmony originally composed in Greek.

The Jesus Seminar has argued that this work should now be called by the neologism, the Gospel of the Ebionites. This hypothetical term is not mentioned in any catalogs of the Early Church.

Clementine literature

The collection of New Testament apocrypha known as the Clementine literature included three works known in antiquity as the Circuits of Peter, the Acts of the Apostles and a work usually titled the Ascents of James. They are specifically referenced by Epiphanius in his polemic against the Ebionites. 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 E. 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". Despite this assertion, he expresses reservations that the material is genuinely Ebionite in origin.

Symmachus

Symmachus produced a translation of the Hebrew Bible in Koine Greek, which was used by Jerome and is still extant in fragments, and his lost Hypomnemata, written to counter the canonical Gospel of Matthew. Although lost, the Hypomnemata is probably identical to De distinctione præceptorum mentioned by Ebed Jesu (Assemani, Bibl. Or., III, 1). The identity of Symmachus as an Ebionite has been questioned in recent scholarship.

Book of Elchesai

The Book of Elchesai or Aramaic Hayil Kesai, meaning "Hidden Power" (see Pan. 19.2.2) is believed to have been written originally in Aramaic as a Jewish apocalypse, probably in Babylonia, in 116-117 CE. It was reported by Hippolytus to have been brought to Rome in c. 230 CE by Alcibiades of Apamea. Those who accepted its doctrines and new practices were called Elcesaites. Epiphanius claimed the Ebionites also used this book as a source for some of their beliefs and practices (Pan. 30.17).

Religious perspectives

The mainstream Christian view of the Ebionites is based on the polemical views of the Church Fathers who portrayed them as heretics for rejecting many of the central Christian views of Jesus, and allegedly having an improper fixation on the Law of Moses at the expense of the grace of God. In this view, the Ebionites may have been the descendants of a Jewish Christian sect within the early Jerusalem church which broke away from its mainstream theology.

The mainstream Jewish view of the Ebionites is that they were Jewish heretics due to their refusal to see Jesus as a false prophet and failed Jewish Messiah claimant but also for wanting to include their gospel into the canon of the Hebrew Bible.

Mainstream Islam charges mainstream Christianity with having corrupted the Bible. Some in the Muslim community believe that the Ebionites (as opposed to Christians they encountered) were faithful to the original teachings of Jesus with shared views about Jesus' humanity, though the Islamic view of Jesus conflicts with the Ebionites' views regarding the virgin birth and the crucifixion.

Some scholars (secular or from mainstream Christianity) are acknowledging the recent emphasis on the Jewishness of Jesus and his earliest followers, and commenting on how they reconcile the Jewish Jesus with the Christ of their faith. On the other hand, some Christian apologists have criticized the quest for the historical Jesus as having resulted in a "revival of the Ebionite heresy".

Neo-Ebionites

There are a number of internet groups which claim to be successors of the original Ebionites, such as the Ebionite Jewish Community, founded in 1995. The group's founder, Shemayah Phillips, had briefly been a member of the Assemblies of Yahweh in 1985, before becoming an Ebionite. The Ebionite Jewish Community is a part of the Sacred Name movement, and includes in its specific beliefs a denial of the divinity of Christ and a rejection of Trinitarianism, and sees Paul the Apostle as a false prophet.

References

1. F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingston (editors), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Oxford University Press, 1989. Article: Ebionites
2. Encyclopedia Britannica: Ebionites
3. Kaufmann Kohler, "Ebionites", in: Isidore Singer & Cyrus Alder (ed.), Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901-1906.
4. ^ Hyam Maccoby (1987). The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity. HarperCollins. pp. 172–183. ISBN 0062505858., an abridgement
5. ^ A.F.J. Klijn & G.J. Reinink (1973). Patristic Evidence for Jewish-Christian Sects. Brill. ISBN 9004037632.
6. See also Church Fathers on the Ebionites (Wikisource)
7. Tim Hegg (2007). "The Virgin Birth - An Inquiry into the Biblical Doctrine" (PDF). TorahResource. Retrieved 13 August 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
8. ^ G. Uhlhorn, "Ebionites", in: A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, 3rd ed. (edited by Philip Schaff), p. 684–685 (vol. 2).
9. The word is still in use in that sense in contemporary Israeli Hebrew
10. ^ O. Cullmann, "Ebioniten", in: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, p. 7435 (vol. 2).
11. PsSal 10, 6; 15, 1; 1 QpHab XII, 3.6.10
12. Minucius Felix, Octavius, 36: "That we are called the poor is not our disgrace, but our glory."
13. The Greek equivalent (Greek: πτωχοί) ptōkhoi appears in the New Testament (Romans 15, 26; Galatians 2,10), possibly as an honorary title of the Jerusalem church.
14. ^ James Tabor, Nazarenes and Ebionites
15. ^ Eisenman (1997), p. 4, 45.
16. Origen, Contra Celsum, II, 1.
17. ANF04. Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second | Christian Classics Ethereal Library
18. Robert Eisenman (2006). The New Testament Code. Watkins Publishing. pp. 34, 145, 273. ISBN 978-1-84293-186-8.
19. ^ Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 47.
20. ^ Irenaeus of Lyon, Adversus Haereses I, 26; II,21.
21. Origen, De Principiis, IV, 22.
22. ^ Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion, 30.
23. ^ Glenn Alan Koch (1976). A Critical Investigation of Epiphanius' Knowledge of the Ebionites: A Translation and Critical Discussion of 'Panarion' 30. University of Pennsylvania.
24. Encyclopædia Britannica article Ebionite
25. ^ James Tabor (2006). The Jesus Dynasty: A New Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743287231.
26. Tabor (2006), p. 286, 289-291.
27. ^ Hans-Joachim Schoeps (1969). Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church. Translation Douglas R. A. Hare. Fortress Press.
28. Robert Eisenman (1997). James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Viking. pp. 5–6. ISBN 1842930265.
29. Howard Bream's review of H. J. Schoeps, Theologie und Geschichte des Judenchristentums (1949), in: The Journal of Religion (1952), p. 58: "In the development of Christianity itself, he believes that they were in many respects closer to the teachings of Jesus than were the Gentiles. This is true particularly where the Ebionites differed from normative Judaism, as in rejecting animal sacrifice and in deleting certain passages from Scripture with the claim that they were interpolations."
30. ^ Henry Wace & William Piercy (1911). A Dictionary of Early Christian Biography. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
31. Peter Kirby. "Book of Elchasai". Retrieved 18 August 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
32. Adolf von Harnack, The History of Dogma, "Chapter VI. The Christianity of the Jewish Christians", 1907, ISBN 9781579100674.
33. Brandon, S. G. F (1968). The fall of Jerusalem and the Christian church: A study of the effects of the Jewish overthrow of A. D. 70 on Christianity. S.P. C.K. ISBN 0281004501.
34. Edward Gibbon (2003). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 15, p. 390–391. Random House, NY. ISBN 0375758119. Chapter 15. Retrieved 2 August 2007.
35. ^ Shlomo Pines (1966). The Jewish Christians Of The Early Centuries Of Christianity According To A New Source. Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities II, No. 13. ISBN 102-255-998. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help) Cite error: The named reference "Pines 1966" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
36. Marcus N. Adler (1907). The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Critical Text, Translation and Commentary, p. 70–72. Phillip Feldheim.
37. Muhammad al-Shahrastani (2002). The Book of Religious and Philosophical Sects, William Cureton edition, page 167. Gorgias Press.
38. Bentzion Kravitz (2001). The Jewish Response to Missionaries: Counter-Missionary Handbook. Jews for Judaism International.
39. Moshe Koniuchowsky (2007). ""Messianic" Leaders Deny Yeshua in Record Numbers". Retrieved 21 July 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
40. James Prasch (2007). "You Foolish Galatians, Who Bewitched You? A Crisis in Messianic Judaism?". Retrieved 21 July 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
41. John Parsons (2007). "Should Christians be Torah-observant?". Retrieved 21 July 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
42. Epiphanius, Panarion, 19:28–30.
43. Epiphanius, Panarion, 30, 14, 5.
44. ^ Epiphanius, Panarion, 30, 16, 4-5.
45. Epiphanius, Panarion, 30, 18, 7–9.
46. Epiphanius, Panarion, 30.22.4
47. W.M. Ramsey (1912). "The Tekmoreian Guest-Friends". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 32: 151–170. doi:10.2307/624138.
48. Exarch Anthony J. Aneed (1919). "Syrian Christians, A Brief History of the Catholic Church of St. George in Milwaukee, Wis. And a Sketch of the Eastern Church". Retrieved 28 April 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
49. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies V, 1.
50. ^ Robert E. van Voorst (1989). The Ascents of James: History and Theology of a Jewish-Christian Community. Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 1555402941.
51. Thomas C. Oden (2006). Ancient Christian commentary on Scripture: New Testament. InterVarsity Press. pp. 178–. ISBN 9780830814978. Retrieved 14 October 2010. excerpt from St. Methodius of Olympus, Symposium on Virginity, 8.10., "and with regard to the Spirit, such as the Ebionites, who contend that the prophets spoke only by their own power"
52. Géza Vermes (1992). "Brother James' Heirs? the community at Qumran and its relations to the first Christians (Times Literary Supplement)". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
53. Kriste Stendahl (1991). The Scrolls and the New Testament. Herder & Herder. ISBN 0824511360.
54. Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion, 30:17:5
55. Jeff Poplin, Post-Biblical Traditions on John the Baptizer and Essays on John the Baptizer
56. W. Barnes Tatum. John the Baptist and Jesus: A Report of the Jesus Seminar., Sonoma, California: Polebridge Press, 1994, ISBN 0944344429, ff. 93, Chapter 5 John and Jesus: The Two Baptists subsection: Jesus as John's Disciple;
57. Crossan, John Dominic (1998). The Essential Jesus. Edison: Castle Books; p. 146
58. Funk, et al. (1993), refer to John as Jesus' precursor and mentor. Funk, Robert W.;Hoover, Roy W. Hoover; & the Jesus Seminar. The Five Gospels. San Francisco: Harper. "Stages in the Development of Early Christian Tradition", p. 128
59. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
60. The Qumran community referred to themselves by many epithets, including "the poor".
61. Harris, Stephen L. (1985) Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield, ISBN 1-55934-655-8 John 1:36–40
62. J Verheyden, Epiphanius on the Ebionites, in The image of the Judaeo-Christians in ancient Jewish and Christian literature, eds Peter J. Tomson, Doris Lambers-Petry, ISBN 3161480945, pp. 188 "The vegetarianism of John the Baptist and of Jesus is an important issue too in the Ebionite interpretation of the Christian life. "
63. Eisenman (1997), pp. 240 "John (unlike Jesus) was both a ‘Rechabite’ or ‘Nazarite’ and vegetarian", 264 "John would have been one of those wilderness-dwelling, vegetable-eating persons", 326 "They ate nothing but wild fruit milk and honey - probably the same food that John the Baptist also ate.", 367 "We have already seen how in some traditions "carobs" were said to have been the true composition of John's food.", 403 "his diet was stems, roots and fruits. Like James and the other Nazirites/Rechabites, he is presented as a vegetarian ..", cf 295, 300, 331-2,.
64. Tabor (2006) p.134 and footnotes p.335
65. Bart D. Ehrman (2003). Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. Oxford University Press. pp. 102, 103. ISBN 0-19-514183-0. referring to Epiphanius quotation from the Gospel of the Ebionites in Panarion 30.13, "And his food, it says, was wild honey whose taste was of manna, as cake in oil".
66. Bart D. Ehrman (2003). Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament. Oxford University Press. p. 13. ISBN 0-19-514182-2.
67. The Slavonic Josephus' Account of the Baptist and Jesus
68. ^ Tabor, James D. (1998). "Ancient Judaism: Nazarenes and Ebionites". Retrieved 2006-09-31. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
69. Hippolytus
70. Francois P. Viljoen (2006). "Jesus' Teaching on the Torah in the Sermon on the Mount". Neotestamenica 40.1, pp. 135-155. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)"Jesus' Teaching on the Torah in the Sermon on the Mount" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2007. Retrieved 13 March 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
71. ^ Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, article Jerusalem
72. Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, article Paul, St
73. Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, article Acts of the Apostles
74. Eisenman (1997), p. 155-184.
75. Tabor (2006), p. 222-223, 231.
76. The Story of Civilization:III. Caesar and Christ, Will Durant, 1944. Page 577: James "the Just," "the brother of the Lord," became the head of the now reduced and impoverished church in Jerusalem Thereafter Judaic Christianity waned in number and power, Judaic Christianity survived for five centuries in a little group of Syriac Christians called Ebionim ("the poor"), who practiced Christian poverty and the full Jewish Law. At the end of the second century the Church condemned them as heretics.
77. John Painter (1999). Just James - The Brother of Jesus in History and Tradition. Fortress Press. pp. 83–102, 229. ISBN 0-8006-3169-2. p.229 "A connection between early Jerusalem Christianity (the Hebrews) and the later Ebionites is probable."
78. Gerd Luedemann (1996). Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity. John Knox Press. pp. 52–56. ISBN 0-664-22085-1.
79. Michael Goulder (1995). St. Paul versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions. John Knox Press. pp. 107–113, 134. ISBN 0-664-25561-2. p.134 "So the 'Ebionite' Christology, which we found first described in Irenaeus about 180 is not the invention of the late second century. It was the creed of the Jerusalem Church from early times."
80. Pierre-Antoine Bernheim, James, Brother of Jesus, ISBN 978 0 334026 95 2 "The fact that he became the head of the Jerusalem church is something which is generally accepted." from an ABC interview with author.
81. James is traditionally considered the leader of the Jerusalem church. As such he appears in Acts (15 and 21), Eusebius of Caesarea (Church History II, 1, 2), Clement of Alexandria (quoted by Eusebius in Church History I, 1, 3–4), Hegesippus (quoted by Eusebius in Church History II, 23, 4) and the Gospel of Thomas (saying 12).
82. Tabor (2006), p. 4-5, 79-80, 247, 249-251.
83. The Blessings of Africa: The Bible and African Christianity, Keith Augustus Burton, Intervarsity Press 2007, pp. 116,117. ISBN 978 0 8308 2762 5
84. " declare that he was a Greek He went up to Jerusalem, they say, and when he had spent some time there, he was seized with a passion to marry the daughter of the priest. For this reason he became a proselyte and was circumcised. Then, when he failed to get the girl, he flew into a rage and wrote against circumcision and against the sabbath and the Law " - Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 30.16.6-9
85. Petri Luomanen (2007). Matt Jackson-McCabe (ed.). Jewish Christianity Reconsidered. Fortress Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-8006-3865-8.
86. Richard Bauckham (2003). The Image of the Judeo-Christians in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature. Brill, Peter J. Tomson and Doris Lambers-Petry eds. pp. 162–181. ISBN 3-16-148094-5. Retrieved 11 February 2011. see particularly pp.174-175
87. Richard Bauckham (January 1996). "The Relatives of Jesus". Themelios 21.2: 18–21. Retrieved 11 February 2011. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) Reproduced in part by permission of the author.
88. John Toland, Nazarenus, or Jewish, Gentile and Mahometan Christianity, 1718.
89. Blackhirst, R. (2000). "Barnabas and the Gospels: Was There an Early Gospel of Barnabas?, Journal of Higher Criticism, 7/1, p. 1–22". Retrieved 11 March 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
90. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ebionites" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Cite error: The named reference "Arendzen 1909" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
91. "Those who are called Ebionites accept that God made the world. However their opinions with respect to the Lord are quite similar to those of Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They use Matthew's gospel only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the Law." - Irenaeus, Haer 1.26.2
92. Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, IV, 21, 8.
93. James R. Edwards, The Hebrew Gospel & the Development of the Synoptic Tradition, 2009 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2009. pp 121
94. Nicholson The Gospel according to the Hebrews, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009. pp 1-81
95. William Whiston & H. Stebbing, The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus, Vol II, Kessinger Publishing, 2006. p 576
96. They too accept the Matthew's gospel, and like the followers of Cerinthus and Merinthus, they use it alone. They call it the Gospel of the Hebrews, for in truth Matthew alone in the New Testament expounded and declared the Gospel in Hebrew using Hebrew script. - Epiphanius, Panarion 30.3.7
97. Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.1
98. Walter Richard Cassels, Supernatural Religion - An Inquiry Into the Reality of Divine Revelation, Read Books, 2010. Vol. 1, p 419- 422
99. Pierson Parker, A Proto-Lukan Basis for the Gospel According to the Hebrews, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 59, No. 4, 1940. pp 471
100. The Complete Gospels. Polebridge Press, Robert J. Miller ed. 1994. p. 436. ISBN 0-06-065587-9.
101. Robert Walter Funk, The Gospel of Jesus: according to the Jesus Seminar, Publisher Polebridge Press, 1999.
102. F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingston, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, © 1989, Oxford University Press, p. 438 - 439.
103. Symmachus' Hypomnemata is mentioned by Eusebius in his Historia Ecclesiae, VI, xvii: "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."; Jerome, De Viris Illustribus, chapter 54, Church History, VI, 17.
104. Jerome, De viris illustribus, 54.
105. Oscar Skarsaune (2007). Jewish Believers in Jesus. Hendrickson Publishers. pp. 448–450. ISBN 9781565637634. Skarsaune argues that Eusebius may have only inferred that Symmachus was an Ebionite based on his commentaries on certain passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. E.g., Eusebius mentions Isa 7:14 where Symmachus reads "young woman" based on the Hebrew text rather than "virgin" as in the LXX, and he interprets this commentary as attacking the Gospel of Matthew.(Dem. ev. 7.1) and (Hist. eccl. 5.17)
106. Luomanen (2003) pp.96,299,331:note 7
107. Hippolytus, Philosophumena, IX, 14-17.
108. Epiphanius, Panarion, 19, 1; 53, 1.
109. Jean Daniélou (1964). The theology of Jewish Christianity: The Development of Christian doctrine before the Council of Nicea. H. Regnery Co. ASIN B0007FOFQI.
110. Abdulhaq al-Ashanti & Abdur-Rahmaan Bowes (2005). Before Nicea: The Early Followers of Prophet Jesus. Jamia Media. ISBN 0955109906.
111. William Loader. "Jesus the Jew". Retrieved 5 August 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
112. Brad Bromling (1995). "Jesus: Truly God and Truly Human". Apologetics Press. Retrieved 5 August 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
113. Walker, James K. (2007). The Concise Guide to Today's Religions and Spirituality. Harvest House Publishers. ISBN 9780736920117. Retrieved 16 September 2010.

Literature

• Rev. J. M. Fuller, "Ebionism and Ebionites", in Henry Wace (ed.), A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies. ISBN 1565634608
• G. Uhlhorn, "Ebionites", in: Philip Schaff (ed.), A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, 3rd ed. (1894), p. 684–685 (vol. 2).
• Wilson, Barrie (2008). How Jesus Became Chrisitan - The early Christians and the transformation of a Jewish teacher into the Son of God. Orion. ISBN 978 0 297 85200 1.
• Eisenman, Robert (1997). James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Viking. ISBN 1842930265.
• Tabor, James D. (2006). The Jesus Dynasty: A New Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743287231.

Primary sources

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