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Revision as of 00:31, 4 December 2006 editIgnocrates (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users11,170 editsm Reference check: sp← Previous edit Latest revision as of 11:49, 28 June 2024 edit undoLoremaster (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers55,212 editsm Robert Eisenman 
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'''Before we push the article to ] - a step that should always be taken before the ] Candidacy step - , we need to 1) preserve a neutral point of view ; and 2) extensively provided references for every paragraph in this article following ] guidelines.''' --] 14:29, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
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== This article has an unclear citation style ==
'''According to a Misplaced Pages rule of thumb: 1) if something is in ''See also'', try to incorporate it into main body 2) if something is in main body, it should not be in ''See also'' and therefore 3) good articles have no ''See also'' sections.''' --] 01:29, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
Shalom Loremaster,


I suggest that all contributors to the ] article follow the example of the ] article when it comes to notes, citations and sources from now on. So we have a lot of work to do. —-] (]) 15:53, 26 August 2020 (UTC)
:Articals explaining offical Misplaced Pages policy have "see also" sections.] 00:13, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


== No primary sources ==
::I know. However, I have a spoken to Misplaced Pages administrators about this issue and I've confirmed that this rule of thumb is an unofficial policy that is highly recommended. --] 02:07, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


Here we have an article about a "group of Christians" that are devoid of any primary sources. I notice one contributor is obsessed with the "bloodline theory of Jesus Christ" as found in the book "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" even though it had nothing to do with Pierre Plantard and the Priory of Sion, and Plantard distanced himself from the nonsense in late 1982 on a French radio programme. Also Plantard actively criticised the book from 1989 onwards. The subject matter has been dead in France for ages. Plantard was a spent force in 1989 when his latest manifestation of the Priory of Sion was responsible for the final demise of Pierre Plantard, who died in 2000. It's only the British people that ever became obsessed with "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail". Plantard himself had no interest in the "Jesus Bloodline" from the get-go because he was an old-fashioned French Roman Catholic, as can be gleaned from his works and writings. ] (]) 07:47, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
==Toward Peer Review==


:As the Misplaced Pages article on the ] clearly states in the introduction section: "Since historical records by the Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and disputed, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the polemics of their Gentile Christian opponents, specifically the Church Fathers." This fact has never prevented numerous respected secular and religious encyclopedias of having entries on the subject of Ebionites.
I am now satisfied with the . --] 17:34, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


:As I suggested 4 years ago, the Ebionites article has an unclear citation style. We should all focus on improving it, which means, among other things, making proper use of primary sources (the Church Fathers and the Jewish-Christian gospels) when and where needed.
:I am also satisfied with the . I will initiate the ] process. Thanks ], for your efforts to make this article into a candidate for ] status. ] 18:42, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


:That being said, you are the one who is obsessed with ] since no one here currently believes in the Priory of Sion myth of Pierre Plantard nor the conspiracy theories of the authors of <i>The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail</i>. I've been watching over the ] article for years to ensure, among other things, that readers know that the Priory of Sion has been thoroughly debunked as a hoax.
:::You're welcome. --] 19:37, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


:However, what you seem to fail to understand is that the uncontroversial notion that James the Just is the biological brother (or half-brother) of Jesus is NOT related to unfounded speculation of a Jesus bloodline from Mary Magdalene. (For the record, I personally think that Jesus didn't father any biological children due to a vow of celibacy because of his belief that marriage would cease to exist in the Kingdom of God on Earth, and his alleged promotion of ]s as role models.)
:::I will continue to make some minor edits to the article but nothing that will change it's structure or core content. --] 17:27, 12 September 2006 (UTC)


:Bottom line: Please avoid engaging in unprovoked and absurd personal attacks against contributors to the Ebionites article. --] (]) 14:14, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
'''See ]'''


::FYI: You'll be happy to know that the mention of ″relatives of Jesus″ (which could be misinterpreted as promoting the hypothesis of Jesus bloodline from Mary Magdalene) has now been deleted from the Ebionites article. --] (]) 09:26, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
:I have just made a series of suggestions here ] | ] 20:56, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
::Thank you. --] 21:39, 12 September 2006 (UTC)


== Robert Eisenman ==
] I suggest we reserve this page for disussions relating to peer review and follow-up work resulting from the peer review. I suggest moving the last two sections discussing editorial changes made prior to the peer review to Archive 2. I would move the rant about changes to the archived pages to Archive 1, where it can be combined with all the other POV material. ] 02:05, 17 September 2006 (UTC)


Fringe. His works on The Dead Sea Scrolls are rightfully rejected. He is a Muslim by faith. ] (]) 07:52, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
:Agreed. Done. --] 02:27, 17 September 2006 (UTC)


:I hope you are not suggesting that someone's Muslim faith (or Jewish faith or liberal Christian faith or lack of faith) automatically prevents him or her from doing good scholarship on Christianity... That being said, although I'm not a fan of Robert Eisenman's works, we cannot deny or suppress the fact that he is among the few modern scholars who have written on the subject of Ebionites. Furthemore, although one of Eisenman's book is used as a source, the article does not discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls nor link them to the Ebionites. --] (]) 14:28, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
::Its interesting that actual discussion about changes to the artical you call rants. then archiving it by moving it to a different section only makes for confusion. Do smoke screens and confusion work in your favor?] 00:50, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

:::Whether they are rants or not, I only archive discussions that have ended and disputes have been resolved. Anyone can easily find and read the archives so my acts cannot be interpreted as some attempt to limit your freedom of speech. --] 16:11, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
'''The peer review has been archived. It contains several ideas we can use to improve the Ebionites article.''' --] 14:26, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

==Slrubenstein's suggestions==
This is an important article but clearly it needs work. I have three general comments.
# A definition or account of what the Ebionites believed should be in the first paragraph. Later in the text we find this: "All these Christian sources agree that 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. Ebionites seemed to have emphasized the humanity of Jesus as the mortal son of Mary and Joseph who became the Messiah as "prophet like Moses" when he was anointed with the "holy spirit" at his baptism. Sources also suggest that Ebionites believed all Jews and Gentiles must observe Mosaic Law; but it must be understood through the Sermon on the Mount's expounding of the Law by Jesus." I think an abbreviated version of this should be the second sentence. I am not sure that the vows of poverty needs to be in the first paragraph.

Loremaster, let's consider Slrub's first suggestion. Basically, he's arguing for an abstract of Ebionite beliefs. Can you craft this in one sentence for the lead paragraph? I think the vow of poverty material should stay as is in a third sentence. ] 02:09, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

:Craft it and I will improve it if necessary. --] 19:18, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Loremaster, I made the suggested improvements to the lead paragraph. Here are the references to back up the changes:

''Catholic Encyclopedia''

They denied the Divinity and the virginal birth of Christ; they clung to the observance of the Jewish Law; they regarded St. Paul as an apostate, and used only a Gospel according to St. Matthew. Some Ebionites accept, but others reject, the virginal birth of Christ, though all reject His pre-existence and His Divinity. Those who accepted the virginal birth seem to have had more exalted views concerning Christ and, besides observing the Sabbath, to have kept the Sunday as a memorial of His Resurrection. The milder sort of Ebionites were probably fewer and less important than their stricter brethren, because the denial of the virgin birth was commonly attributed to all.

''Jewish Encyclopedia''

They believed in the Messianic character of Jesus, but denied his divinity and supernatural origin; observed all the Jewish rites, such as circumcision and the seventh-day Sabbath; and used a gospel according to Matthew written in Hebrew or Aramaic, while rejecting the writings of Paul as those of an apostate.

''Robert Van Voorst "Ascents of James"''

As the AJ has a form of pre-existence christology and shows no evidence of adoptionism or an ideal of poverty, its community probably should not be considered Ebionite.

I took the statement about the last and greatest of the prophets from your earlier version of the article. ] 19:28, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

2.
:I think this article needs to be conceived as one of a series of articles on non-Pauline early Christianity e.g. along with the so-called gnostics, Nazarenes, etc. So I suggest an overview article on 2nd century Christianity i.e. Christianity before Pauline :Christianity emerged as the clear dominant form of Christianity (I am no expert, I know the Council of Jerusalem is important and the Nicean councils would provide an outer limit, or whenever most people agree the NT was effectively canonized). Such an article would provide a brief description of each variant of Christianity, and I would encourage editors to coordinate their work on developing corresponding articles for each movement (like Ebionites) so that each one has a similar organization, they are all linked to one another, and a clear portrait of heterogeneous and heterodox early Christianity emerges.

I think Slrub's second suggestion about the need for an umbrella article has much to recommend it. However, it is beyond the scope of the current article. Let's table this one for a future project. ] 19:53, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

:I agree. Good work. --] 21:54, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

::Loremaster, thanks for your helpful edits. The lead paragraph looks great! ] 00:42, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

3.
:I know one problem with the discussion of most early non-Pauline is that the primary sources were written by opponents of these movements. I think every article in this series therefore should have three components (1) a summary of what people like Irenaeus and Tertullian wrote about the movement, (2) a discussion of how historians have used these texts to better understand the early Catholic Church - i.e. make the point that before interpreting what these sources reveal about groups like the Ebionites, historians first try to figure out what they reveal about early Catholic orthodoxy and struggles among early Christians (e.g. Elaine Pagels argues that one thing that made the Gnostic Gospels so threatening to Irenaeus and others was not just the theological claims about Jesus, but the threat to the authority of the bishops which is what early Church fathers were struggling to establish), (3) finally a more detailed presentations of how historians have tried to reconstuct what the Ebionites (and other groups) really believed and practiced, and why. One strength of this article is that it names major scholars researching this area. The problem is these scholars are named in the second paragraph. I think the introduction is too early to name specific scholars (instead, the second paragraph should just summarize what it is these scholars are asking or arguing over). The good news is that this list provides a starting point for a more detailed section that really draws on these sources to spell out (a) what they all agree about (b) what most agree about and (c) what many of them are still arguing about or unsure of.

I don't have the energy to take this one on tonight. Loremaster, what do you recommend we do in response to Slrub's last comment? ] 01:06, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

:I've followed Alec's last suggestion regarding the naming of sholars in the second paragraph of the lead (which should be expanded). As for the rest of his great suggestions, I will be too busy in the next weeks to follow them. --] 20:04, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

::I will attempt to expand the summary in the second paragraph of the lead while you are away and leave the final edits to you. ] 04:08, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

I created a short second paragraph in the lead section to mention the polemics of the early church fathers. This could be expanded, but I wanted to keep it general. I kept the material about scholars intact as a third paragraph. I also added info to the history section about Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, as the oldest second century sources. ] 03:21, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Loremaster, I am finished incorporating Slrub's suggestions for improving the lead section. I also added two references to the Writings section to clear up a few points. Please review my changes and let's discuss next steps. ] 17:14, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

:I approve of all your changes. --] 17:19, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

==POV comments regarding peer review==
Since Scholars have such different views of the source of thier writings from one claiming they are Gnostic christian in an attempt to make them sound wrongfuly atributed to Ebionite and anothers that claim they came directly from jewish thought that already existed at the time, to try to follow that editors sugestion would clearly be tring to deside truth rather then lay out a factual artical when the facts themselves are highly debated "NazireneMystic"

:NM, scholars agree on certain basic facts about the Ebionites, even if you don't. These could be captured in a sentence in the lead paragraph. In any case, we have an obligation to address the comments of the reviewers. ] 02:50, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

The request i put in yesterday for my password just arrived AOL is just wonderful.

A Scholar who thinks the universal mindset shown in the Clementine writings come directly from Hebrew foundations that preexisted them in the form of Enoch and Jubilees or one who states Ebionite's believed the literal Torah had been falsified would have a totally different idea of Ebionite beliefs then a scholar that formed their opinion based on a medieval Muslims account of a group that had no authentic ties to Ebionites or claimed to be Ebionites.
Ironically the very short intro paragraph your looking for already exist in a few different forms in the early Christian witnesses but you call all these Gnostic Christian POV. Even the earliest of them all state Ebionites Believed He became the Messiah/Christ at baptism because he forfilled the law and THEY to become the Messiah/Christ when they forfill the law.
Having a paragraph start off claiming all the early Christian sources agree.... and then leaving out that they ALL claimed Ebionites believed THEY TO become Messiah/ Christ's when they forfill the law is kind of silly to anyone who has read them. That part of what all the sources agree with is currently only being withheld to appease you ] ] 03:47, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

:What is silly is your idea that becoming a Christ is somehow a unique characteristic of the historical Ebionites (and by extension your group). This supposed great revelation, called ''']''', is common to Eastern Orthodox Christian denominations. They regard salvation as a journey (perfection in the way) rather than a condition, as is more typical in Western denominations. It is of minimal relevance from an Ebionite perspective, but highly relevant to certain Christian groups. ] 05:29, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Loremaster,

You do not own this artical and should explain yourself before moving edits of mine into a section called POV. My comments were directly related to this section. BTW isnt Slrubenstein
a POV that ] went shopping for? I remember seeing this on his contribution page. No wonder his sugestion was to try to force a POV while the scholars are so divided.

]'s replay I do agree is POV and his pretending that Ebionite thought has nothing to do with spiritual revelation is pure silly. All the Hebrew prophets were not only seeking the "small still voice" of the true prophet the clementine writings spoke of but like Danial they didnt eat meat. Like Jeremiah they said Noone ever commanded the animal sacrifices.

Scholars have stated the mind set shown in the Clementine writings was founded apart from the church or temple but in the writings of hebrews and copies of these writings were later discovered in the Dead sea scrolls. A certain early christian witness that has been nailed to the cross in the main artical by a vandalous POV also agrees with the clementine writings. On top of this a reincarnating soul that evolves to perfection over a number of lives is accepted doctorine among many sect of jews still today so ]'s reply was realy just a rant because he can not give one GOOD reason to surpress the fact all the early christian witnesses claim " They to become Christ/Messiah's when they to forfill the law." This agrees with the clementine writings which scholars agree reflect Ebionite views... of which Scholars claim are founded in pre christian, Jewish writings. You have some thinking to do before you write your short paragraph.] 16:57, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

:NM, it's interesting that you spend your time trolling on my contribution page. For your information, Rubenstein is a PhD scholar with extensive knowledge of early Christianity and Judaism. This should be obvious, even to you, from a cursory examination of his many contributions on Misplaced Pages. He is quite simply, one of the best reviewers we have on this subject. ] 19:38, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

:NazireneMystic, I have never acted like I own the Ebionite article or its talk page. However, I have a right to edit them as I see fit as long as I respect Misplaced Pages guidelines. For the record, I didn't move your comments in a section called POV but feel free to rename it. --] 21:57, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

You have acted like you own the artical the whole time ive been hear and you still act like it. Your correct you didnt move my edit to another section someone else did and after I restored it THEN you reverted it so are we spliting hairs now?] 08:41, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

::Lore and Ovad-- just for the record, don't feel like you have to convince all parties of the direction the article needs to go. Between you, SLRubenstein, and myself, I'd say you've got a pretty good mandate to try to improve in the directions suggested by the peer review. By all means, keep discussing the issue if you feel it helpful, but after a certain point, some discussion may just degrade into incivility, rather than being productive. --] 22:54, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

:::I agree. --] 00:39, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

:::Alec, thanks for your perspective, as always. ] 00:45, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

== "Easy Yoke" Halakha? ==

Due to my coming to this subject from a ] perspective, I've always thought that the Ebionites struggled to follow a third way between the extreme legalism of Pharisee Jews and the extreme antinomianism of Pauline Christians.

James Tabor argues that the Ebionites were dedicate to following the whole Torah, as applicable to Israel and to Gentiles, but through the "easy yoke" ] of their Teacher Jesus, which emphasized the spirit of the biblical prophets in a restoration of the "True Faith," the Ancient Paths (Jeremiah 6:16), from which, by and large, they believed the establishment Jewish groups of 2nd Temple times had lost.

Ovadyah, from everything you've read, do you believe that, while not rejecting the Torah like Paul preached, Jesus thought a more liberal observation of the Torah but the Ebionites were swayed by the more fundamentalist teachings of James and his successors? --] 17:32, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

A great question! This was much debated earler this year on Mark Goodacre's and Loren Rosson's blogs . A view currently held by many scholars is that Jesus relaxed the requirements of the Torah ''for Gentiles'' because he expected the imminent coming of the kingdom, part of which was to be the ingathering of the Gentiles. Problems arose, however, when the kingdom did not come as expected, as to what to do with all the Gentiles that had been admitted into the nascent Nazarene movement. The thinking is that the Jerusalem Church insisted that they either convert to Judaism or be expelled, since table-fellowship with Goyim was considered a violation of Jewish Law. A more liberal group, Peter's faction perhaps, may have thought that the Gentiles could remain as Gentiles but maintain a kind of separate but equal relationship within the sect. It's doubtful that anyone, other than Paul and his followers, advocated that Jews stop following the halakha of Jewish Law before their expulsion from the synagogue and curse of the Birkat ha-Minim. So, I don't agree with James T.'s interpetation of a kind of compromise solution.

Restoration of the True Faith, imho, was a dispute over the relative importance of Prophesy vs. the Oral Torah. The Pharisees (and Rabbis later) declared an end to prophesy with Malachi and sought to codify the Oral Law in the Mishnah. Other groups undoubtedly disputed this means of interpretation of scripture. I also think it is significant that the disputes over Divorce, Riches, and the Cleansing of the Temple in the gospel of Mark closely parallel the Three Nets of Belial (Fornication, Riches, and Pollution of the Temple) in the Covenant of Damascus. In every case, the proclamation stories move from the lesser to the greater, arguing against using strict adherence to narrow rules as a way of subverting the intent of more fundamental principles. ] 18:31, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

:A great answer! --] 18:36, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

==Featured Article Nomination==
Loremaster, I propose that we ask ] and/or ] to give the article one more look and ask one of them to nominate the article for review to become a Featured Article. Is this acceptable? ] 20:30, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

:Yes. --] 22:27, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

::I contacted IZAK and asked him to review the article. Hopefully, he can find the time. ] 05:45, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

::I also contacted Jayjg and asked him to review the article. Slrubenstein made several suggestions of potential reviewers that are knowledgeable in this area. I will follow-up with them shortly. ] 16:43, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Great news! James Tabor has responded to my request, and he will be joining us (soon?) to review the article. I am looking forward to hearing his current thinking on the Ebionites. ] 17:08, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

I have contacted ]; ]; and ] per Slrubenstein's suggestion to get a talented group of reviewers together with diverse points of view. Welcome all to the Ebionites article! ] 11:30, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

:Bravo! --] 18:38, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

== Drive-by Observations ==

I'll do some further examination of the article later, but here are a few suggestion:

This is quite close, if not at ] state. Why not nominate it and get another review? Having weighed in here already, I can't do that review, but an other editor will.

Since the majority of Christians would have a hard time with calling the Ebionites Christian, I think you need to find language that does not take the position that they are Christian. You can quote them or others saying they are Christian (with a cite, of course) and other nuanced language. Having been through the mind-numbing process with articles on theologians who confess Jesus as the Christ, but being asked not to use language in the article that calls him the Christ directly (only on Misplaced Pages would this happen), I can understand how difficult that can be. If you haven't had a hostile reaction from some committed Christians on this point, expect it will sometime come up.

Are there any images you can put in here?

Include page numbers in your inline citations. The point behind these citations is that a reader can quickly find the source of your information or quote, sometimes so that they can learn more about the detail you've mentioned. Page numbers are not strictly necessary in the works cited section, unless you are referencing a specific portion of a whole book. So, if there were a chapter by a John Brown entitled Ebionites in an imaginary book <i>Early Challenges to Orthodox Christianity</i>, you would put the page range in the Works Cited list. If the whole work is about the Ebionites, however, no pagination is needed in such a list.

Move all the parenthetical references to Church Fathers, etc. to their own notes. You may even want to link to the text as it appears online in the set.

That's all for a quickie. --<b><font style="font-family: Andale Mono IPA" color="navy">]</font></b><font style="font-family: Andale Mono IPA" color="maroon">Wyneken</font><sup><font style="font-family: Andale Mono IPA" color="maroon">]</font></sup> 12:04, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

:Thanks for your prompt reply! All good points. I agree with you, speaking personally as an Ebionite. I don't consider Ebionites to be Christian, whether historical or modern. Some of our fellow editors who are Jewish, however, will have problems with the historical context of Ebionites within Judaism. ] 14:09, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

:Thinking about your comments in a more historical context, I'm having second thoughts. While I don't think of Ebionites as Christian (particularly Chalcedonian), the Church Fathers clearly did in some sense, or they wouldn't be denouncing them as heretics. In that context, I can live with the majority of Christians being offended. It's not Misplaced Pages's burden to assuage their hostility to historical facts. ] 00:54, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

::I agree. --] 21:19, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

:I have added the chapter reference for Jerome and an online link. Can someone add the missing chapter/page references for the Homilies/Recognitions? I think that will cover the missing inline citations. ] 00:57, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

==Reference check==
To save time, I decided to verify the chapter and page references myself for the Recognitions and Homilies that are cited in the article (R 1.36, R 1.54, H 3.54, H 7.4, H 7.8). What I found was that these citations have nothing whatever to do with Ebionites. R 1.36 concerns sacrifice in the temple and says that it is temporary, but it appears to be addressed to Jews in general. R 1.54 lists various Jewish sects including Sadducees, Pharisees, and followers of John the Baptist. It says nothing whatever about Ebionites. H 3.54 retells Jesus' pronouncement story to the Sadducees regarding marriage. Nothing to do with Ebionites. H 7.4 Lists the Noahide Laws, similar to what is found in Acts, and recites the Golden Rule. Nothing to do with Ebionites. H 7.8 again discusses the Noahide Laws. Again, nothing whatever to do with Ebionites. Unless someone can explain why these references belong in the article, I am striking the entire sentence. ] 02:02, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

:Strike it. --] 21:17, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

::Done. I also removed the next sentence citing Schoeps about Clementine literature parallels, as it was completely dependent on the previous R & H citations. ] 00:29, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

==Image for the article==
It would be helpful to find an image appropriate to the article. Two possibilities are an image of James the Just or a Menorah. Any others come to mind? ] 04:09, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

:Did Ebionites have a symbol like the ]? --] 21:21, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 11:49, 28 June 2024

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Peer Review Archive
Spiritual Ebionite Archive
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This article has an unclear citation style

I suggest that all contributors to the Ebionites article follow the example of the Gospel of the Ebionites article when it comes to notes, citations and sources from now on. So we have a lot of work to do. —-Loremaster (talk) 15:53, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

No primary sources

Here we have an article about a "group of Christians" that are devoid of any primary sources. I notice one contributor is obsessed with the "bloodline theory of Jesus Christ" as found in the book "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" even though it had nothing to do with Pierre Plantard and the Priory of Sion, and Plantard distanced himself from the nonsense in late 1982 on a French radio programme. Also Plantard actively criticised the book from 1989 onwards. The subject matter has been dead in France for ages. Plantard was a spent force in 1989 when his latest manifestation of the Priory of Sion was responsible for the final demise of Pierre Plantard, who died in 2000. It's only the British people that ever became obsessed with "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail". Plantard himself had no interest in the "Jesus Bloodline" from the get-go because he was an old-fashioned French Roman Catholic, as can be gleaned from his works and writings. Octavius88 (talk) 07:47, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

As the Misplaced Pages article on the Ebionites clearly states in the introduction section: "Since historical records by the Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and disputed, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the polemics of their Gentile Christian opponents, specifically the Church Fathers." This fact has never prevented numerous respected secular and religious encyclopedias of having entries on the subject of Ebionites.
As I suggested 4 years ago, the Ebionites article has an unclear citation style. We should all focus on improving it, which means, among other things, making proper use of primary sources (the Church Fathers and the Jewish-Christian gospels) when and where needed.
That being said, you are the one who is obsessed with flogging a dead horse since no one here currently believes in the Priory of Sion myth of Pierre Plantard nor the conspiracy theories of the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. I've been watching over the Priory of Sion article for years to ensure, among other things, that readers know that the Priory of Sion has been thoroughly debunked as a hoax.
However, what you seem to fail to understand is that the uncontroversial notion that James the Just is the biological brother (or half-brother) of Jesus is NOT related to unfounded speculation of a Jesus bloodline from Mary Magdalene. (For the record, I personally think that Jesus didn't father any biological children due to a vow of celibacy because of his belief that marriage would cease to exist in the Kingdom of God on Earth, and his alleged promotion of eunuchs as role models.)
Bottom line: Please avoid engaging in unprovoked and absurd personal attacks against contributors to the Ebionites article. --Loremaster (talk) 14:14, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
FYI: You'll be happy to know that the mention of ″relatives of Jesus″ (which could be misinterpreted as promoting the hypothesis of Jesus bloodline from Mary Magdalene) has now been deleted from the Ebionites article. --Loremaster (talk) 09:26, 18 June 2024 (UTC)

Robert Eisenman

Fringe. His works on The Dead Sea Scrolls are rightfully rejected. He is a Muslim by faith. Octavius88 (talk) 07:52, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

I hope you are not suggesting that someone's Muslim faith (or Jewish faith or liberal Christian faith or lack of faith) automatically prevents him or her from doing good scholarship on Christianity... That being said, although I'm not a fan of Robert Eisenman's works, we cannot deny or suppress the fact that he is among the few modern scholars who have written on the subject of Ebionites. Furthemore, although one of Eisenman's book is used as a source, the article does not discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls nor link them to the Ebionites. --Loremaster (talk) 14:28, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
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