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Ebionites

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The Ebionites (from Hebrew; Ebyonim, "the poor ones") were an early sect of mostly Jewish followers of Jesus, which flourished in the early centuries of the Common Era, one of several ancient "Jewish Christian" groups that existed during the Roman and Byzantine periods in the Levant. They called themselves the Poor Ones because they regarded a vow of poverty as a meritorious method of preparation for the "Kingdom of Heaven". Accordingly they dispossessed themselves of all their goods and lived in communistic societies.

Ebionites were in theological conflict with other strands of early Christianity. While Ebionites undoubtedly drew their doctrines from ideas circulating in the 1st century CE, Judeo-Christian origins scholar Robert Eisenman argues that they existed as a distinct group from Pauline Christians and Gnostic Christians before the destruction of Jerusalem. Some modern scholars, including Hyam Maccoby, Hugh J. Schonfield, Benjamin Urrutia, Keith Akers, Hans-Joachim Schoeps, and James Tabor contend that Ebionites were more faithful than Paul of Tarsus to the original and authentic teachings of Jesus.

Sources

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

  1. Brief references to Ebionites by Christian theologians, such as Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Epiphanius of Salamis, who considered Ebionites to be "heretics" and "Judaizers". The most complete of these comes from Epiphanius of Salamis, who wrote his Panarion in the 4th century, denouncing 80 heretical sects, among them Ebionites, described in Panarion 30. These are mostly general descriptions of their religious ideology, though sometimes there are quotations from their gospels, which are otherwise lost to us.
  2. 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, and probably Ebionite, in origin. These can be found in volume 8 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

History

Church Fathers sometimes distinguished Ebionites from Nazarenes, another early sect of Jewish followers of Jesus also believed to be an offshoot of the first Judeo-Christian synagogue,[1] one author often depending upon another for his assessment. However, Jerome clearly thinks that Ebionites and Nazoraeans were a single group (Letter 112). Without surviving texts, it it is difficult to establish exactly the basis for their distinction.

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 Christ/Messiah, 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. Therefore, of the books of the New Testament Ebionites only accepted an Aramaic version of the Gospel of Matthew, referred to as the Gospel of the Hebrews, as additional scripture. This version of Matthew, critics reported, omitted the first two chapters (on Jesus' virgin birth), and started with Jesus' baptism by John. [2]

James Tabor argues that Ebionites rejected doctrines and traditions, which they believed had been added to the Law, including scribal alterations of the texts of scripture; and that they had a superceding interest in restoring a form of worship reflected in pre-Sinai revelation, especially the antediluvian period from Enoch to Noah.[3] For example, Epiphanius describes them as rejecting parts of the Law, as vegetarians, as opposed to animal sacrifice, and quotes their gospel as ascribing these injunctions to Jesus (Panarion 30.16.5, 30.18.7-9, 30.22.4). This is in agreement with numerous passages found in the Recognitions and Homilies (e.g. Recognitions 1.36, 1.54, Homilies 3.45, 7.4, 7.8). Shlomo Pines counters that all these teachings are "Gnostic Christian" in origin and are characteristics of the Elcesaite sect, which have been mistakenly attributed to Ebionites.[4] Without a consensus among scholars, the issue remains contentious.

Ebionites revered John the Baptizer as the precursor to Jesus, and the Desposyni (a sacred name reserved only for Jesus' blood relatives), especially James the Just, as his legitimate successors, rather than Peter. Ebionites, however, denounced Paul as an apostate from the Law and a false apostle. Epiphanius claims that some Ebionites gossiped that Paul was a Greek who converted to Judaism in order to marry the High Priest's daughter, and then apostasized when she rejected him (Panarion 16:9).

The influence of Ebionites is debated. Hans-Joachim Schoeps argues that their primary influence on mainstream Christianity was to aid in the defeat of gnosticism.[5] It has also been argued by Keith Akers that they had an influence on Islam and the Sufis.[6] Ebionites may be represented in history as the sect encountered by the Muslim historian Abd al-Jabbar (c. 1000) almost 500 years later than most Christian historians admit for the survival of Ebionites.[7] An additional possible mention of surviving Ebionite communities existing in the lands of the east, Theyma and Thilmes, around the 11th century, is said to be in Sefer Ha'masaoth, the "Book of the Travels" of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, or Benyamin Bar-Yonnah, a sephardic rabbi of Spain. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, several small yet competing new religious movements have emerged claiming be the legitimate descendants in teaching and practice of ancient Ebionites. However, they possess no authentic historical ties to the early Ebionite movement.

Ebionite writings

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

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

  • Gospel of the Ebionites. Ebionites used only the Gospel of Matthew (according to Irenaeus). Eusebius (Historia Ecclesiae IV, xxi, 8) mentions a Gospel of the Hebrews, which is often identified as the Aramaic original of Matthew, written with Hebrew letters. Such a work was known to Hegesippus ( according to Eusebius, Historia Eccl., ), Origen (according to Jerome, De vir., ill., ii), and to Clement of Alexandria (Strom., II, ix, 45). Epiphanius of Salamis attributes this gospel to Nazarenes, and claims that Ebionites only possessed an incomplete, falsified, and truncated copy. (Adversus Haer., xxix, 9). The question remains whether or not Epiphanius was able to make a genuine distinction between Nazarenes and Ebionites.
  • New Testament apocrypha: The Circuits of Peter (periodoi Petrou) and Acts of the Apostles, amongst which is the work usually titled the Ascents of James (anabathmoi Iakobou). The first-named books are substantially contained in the Homilies of Clement under the title of Clement's Compendium of Peter's itinerary sermons, and also in the Recognitions attributed to Clement. They form an early Christian didactic fiction to express Ebionite views, i.e. the primacy of James, their connection with Rome, and their antagonism to Simon Magus, as well as Gnostic doctrines.
  • The Works of Symmachus the Ebionite, i.e. his elegant Greek translation of the Old Testament, used by Jerome, fragments of which exist, and his lost Hypomnemata which was written to counter the canonical Gospel of Matthew. The latter work, which is totally lost (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., VI, xvii; Jerome, De vir. ill., liv), is probably identical with De distinctione præceptorum, mentioned by Ebed Jesu (Assemani, Bibl. Or., III, 1).
  • The Book of Elchesai (Elxai), or of "The Hidden power", claimed to have been written about 100 CE and brought to Rome about 217 CE by Alcibiades of Apamea. Those who accepted its doctrines and new practices were 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 document.

Notes

  1. ^ Pixner 1990
  2. ^ Maccoby 1987
  3. ^ Tabor 1998
  4. ^ Pines 1966
  5. ^ Schoeps 1969
  6. ^ Akers 2000
  7. ^ Pines 1966

References

  • Akers, Keith. The Lost Religion of Jesus : Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity. New York: Lantern Books, 2000.
  • Cameron, Ron. The Other Gospels. Philadephia: Westminster Press, 1982, pp 103-106.
  • Danielou, Jean. The Theology of Jewish Christianity. Chicago: The Henry Regnery Company, 1964.
  • Eisenman, Robert. James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Viking, 1996.
  • Klijnm A.F.J.; Reinink, G.J. Patristic Evidence for Jewish-Christian Sects. 1973.
  • Lüdemann, Gerd. Opposition to Paul in Jewish Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989.
  • Maccoby, Hyam. The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
  • Pines, Shlomo. 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, 1966.
  • Pixner, Bargil. Church of the Apostles found on Mt. Zion. Biblical Archaeological Review. May/June 1990
  • Schoeps, Hans-Joachim. Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church. Trans. Douglas R. A. Hare. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
  • Skriver, Carl Anders. The Forgotten Beginnings of Creation and Christianity. Denver: Vegetarian Press, 1990.
  • Tabor, James D. Ancient Judaism: Nazarenes and Ebionites. The Jewish Roman World of Jesus, 31 August 2006, 20:02, <http://www.religiousstudies.uncc.edu/JDTABOR/ebionites.html> [accessed 31 August 2006]
  • Vaclavik, Charles. The Origin of Christianity: The Pacifism, Communalism, and Vegeterianism of Primitive Christianity. Platteville, Wisconsin: Kaweah Publishing Company, 2004.

See also

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