Who were the ebionites?

“The Messiah was not born of privilege, but of obedience.”

1. Basic definition

The ebionites were a current judeo-christian in the first centuries, formed by jews who accepted Jesus as Messiah, but:

• They did not accept his divinity, nor his pre-existence.
• They insisted on observing the Law of Moses (Torah) of strict form.
• They rejected Paul of Tarsus as an apostle legitimate.
• Used a gospel in Hebrew or aramaic (a type of “Gospel of the Hebrews” / “of the ebionites”).

Were considered heretical by the Church, which then would become dominant (the “proto-orthodox”).

2. The problem of sources

Key point: we have not written ebionites complete. All that we know comes from his opponents:

• Irenaeus of Lyon (s. II)
• Origins (s. III)
• Eusebius of Caesarea (s. IV)
• Epiphanius of Salamis (s. IV), in his Panarion (catalog of 80 “heresies”).

Consequences:

1. The information is filtered by an intention controversy: are described to refute them.
2. It is possible that several different groups have been put in the same bag under the label “ebionites”.
3. Part of what is attributed to them can be cartoon or simplification.

Modern research (Klijn, Reinink, Häkkinen, Schoeps, etc) works on those sources patristicas, by comparing details and detecting contradictions.

“The Law is the way, not a burden: the one who saves is life.”

3. Name and meaning

• The Greek term Ἐβιωναῖοι (Ebiōnaîoi) comes from the Hebrew אֶבְיוֹנִים (’ebyonim) = “poor”.
• For Origins, they were “poor people” among the jews who had accepted Jesus.
• Some Parents invent a course founder called “Ebión”but modern criticism agrees that that character will probably never existed; it is a misreading of the name collective.

Probably the name was designation theological: “the poor of Yahweh”, that is to say, a group of humble and faithful, in line with the beatitudes (“blessed are the poor...”).

4. Historical and geographical context

4.1 Origin

• Arose in the bosom of the judaism of the Second Temple and early christianity a jewish.
• Britannica and other sources place its origin in Palestine and Transjordan, possibly after the destruction of the Temple (70 ce.C.).
• Some link with the community of Jerusalem led by James the Just (brother of Jesus) and the group that fled to Pella (in Transjordan) after the jewish war.

4.2 Development and expansion

According to Parents:

• After 70, groups judeo-christian strict they would have remained faithful to the Law and completed separated from most gentilcristiana.
• In the II–III centuries they were located in:
  • Palestine and Transjordan
  • Syria
  • Asia Minor
  • Cyprus (Epiphanius still located there in the fourth century).

“The truth is held in justice, not in the force.”

5. Main beliefs

5.1 Monotheism and the Law of Moses

The ebionites were strict monotheists (practicing jews) and argued:

• Obligation of the Law of Moses for all the followers of Jesus:
  • circumcision,
  • Saturday,
  • dietary laws (kashrut),
  • calendar of jewish holidays.
• Likely rejection of the pauline theology “not under the Law” to the gentiles.

Some accounts (Epiphanius) describe them as ascetics with emphasis on ritual purifications and enforcement is very strict.

5.2 Christology: Jesus as a righteous man and Messiah

All Parents agree on these main points:

• Jesus is human; it is not God, is not pre-existent, there is no incarnation in the sense of nicene.
• Jesus is a righteous man that perfectly fulfils the Law, and therefore God choose him as the Messiah (Christology adoptacionista or “moral”).

Within the ebionites would have variants:

• Most: Jesus is the biological son of Joseph and Mary; rejection of the virgin birth.
• Minority: accept the virgin birth, but even so do not attribute divine nature; see it as the Messiah is a human sent by God.

Some of the stories (Epiphanius) suggest a vision, “separacionista”: “Jesus” and “Christ” would be differentbeing “Christ,” an angel or spirit that descended on the man Jesus at the baptism, and then leaves before the passion.

5.3 Rejection of Paul

• Origen and Epiphanius claim that the ebionites believed to Paul apostate from the Law, a traitor to judaism.
• They did not accept the pauline epistles as the authority.
• Epiphanius transmits a legend ebionita: Paul would have been a gentle who converted to judaism in order to marry the daughter of a high priest; to be rejected, he would have broken with the Law and developed his theology.

In summary: for them, the pauline church is divertednot the authentic tradition of Jesus and Jerusalem.

5.4 Eschatology

• They were expecting an Kingdom of God on earthlinked to the restoration of Israel and the obedience to the Law.
• Jesus is the Messiah, the davidic human that opens or preparation of this Kingdom, but it is not the object of divine worship in the strict sense.

“The purity lies not in the sacrifices but in the conduct of the righteous.”

6. Writings and sacred texts

6.1 Scriptures that they accepted

1. Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) as Scripture fundamental.
2. A gospel in Hebrew or aramaic, which sources call:
   • “Gospel of Matthew” in the Hebrew version,
   • “Gospel of the Hebrews”,
   • what modern criticism designates “Gospel of the ebionites” although that name was not used in antiquity.

6.2 The so-called “Gospel of the ebionites”

From the dating of Epiphanius:

• It was a gospel harmonized of the synoptics, probably composed in Greekbut based on judeo-christian tradition.
• Suppresses the genealogy of Jesusemphasizing your choice by obedience rather than their lineage.
• Features John the Baptist and Jesus as a vegetarianby changing the text of “lobsters” by “cakes of honey” in the diet of John.

The majority of specialists are distinguished:

• Gospel of the Hebrews
• Gospel of the Nazarenes
• Gospel of the ebionites

Although there is debate about if they were originally one or more related texts.

6.3 Literature

A number of scholars relate it to the ebionites with:

• The works of pseudo-clementines (Homilies clementines, Recognitions of Clement):
  • Great emphasis on Santiago.
  • Image very critical of Paul (depicted in a figure pseudónima).
  • Defense Law and a christology low.
• The Book of Eljasai (Elcesai)a text apocalyptic jewish-christian used by sects like (Elquesaitas). Epiphanius argues that some ebionites also used.

However, the exact relationship between these texts and the ebionites still subject to discussion.

“Whoever abandons the Law deviates from the path of the prophets.”

7. Community practices

From the Parents (especially Epiphanius), are reconstructed several practices:

1. Enforcement jewish full:
   • circumcision,
   • Saturday,
   • parties,
   • ritual purity.
2. Ethics and lifestyle:
   • Image poverty voluntary and austere life (“the poor”).
   • Restriction of the food in common only the jews or proselytes fully observant.
3. Diet and sacrifices:
   • Several testimonies speak of vegetarianism and rejection of the animal sacrifices.
   • Celebration of a ritual meal with bread and waterin contrast to the eucharist wine-bread mainstream christian.
4. Rites of purification:
   • Consistent use of ritual washing (ablutions), possibly daily, in continuity with trends esenies or baptists.

All of this reinforces the image of a christianity very close to judaism, morally rigorous and communally closed.

8. Relationship with other groups judeo-christian

The ebionites were not the only group judeo-christian:

• Nazarenes: also jewish followers of Jesus-keepers of the Law, but:
  • accept more easily the narrative of the virgin birth,
  • does not seem to have rejected so head on to Paul.
• Elquesaitas: sect judeo-christian with a revealed book (Eljasai), of which some ebionites may have borrowed elements.
• Other groups mentioned in the lists heresiológicas: Carpocratianos, Cerintianos, Sampsenos, etc, sometimes confused with ebionites by the ancient authors.

The current research tends to think that the term “ebionites” was used as label umbrella for several subgroups judeo-christian that they shared:

• rejection of the christology high,
• fidelity to the Law,
• suspicion or rejection of Paul.

“We do not seek glory, but fidelity: that's why we are called ‘the poor’.”

9. James the Just, and the apostolic succession

Several data suggest that the ebionites saw James the Just (James the brother of Jesus):

• the true leader of the Jerusalem church,
• the model of the “just perfect” (tzadik),
• the successor legitimate of Jesusmore than Peter.

Works pseudo-clementines, and modern reconstructions (Eisenman, Tabor, Painter, etc) are used to hold a continuity between the community of st. James and the ebionites.

10. Historical evolution and disappearance

10.1 Until late Antiquity

• Epiphanius (fourth century) still speaks of ebionites on Cyprus and regions of the east.
• Theodoret of Cyrus (s. V) referred to as groups almost extinct.

In general, it is considered that as a visible movement dissolve between the fourth and fifth centuries, absorbed or marginalized by:

• the christianity of constantine already dominant in the Empire,
• the rabbinical judaism, which also rejected Jesus.

10.2 Possible survivals later

Some evidence questionable but interesting:

• The muslim philosopher al-Shahrastani (s. XII), he speaks of the jews in Hijaz and Medina they accepted Jesus as a prophet, but were still practicing judaism, rejecting the christology, christian; some of the identified tentatively with heirs ebionites.
• The traveler jewish Benjamin of Tudela (s. XII) mentions communities peculiar in Tayma and other city of Arabia that some have wanted to relate with the current judeo-christian.

Are hypotheses, not certainties. The majority of specialists consider that the ebionismo organized disappeared as such.

“God chooses the righteous by their works, not because of his lineage.”

11. Ebionites and Islam (possible influence)

Some scholars have proposed that:

• The image of Jesus in the Islam (prophet human, not divine, not crucified actually in some stories) reflects at least in part contacts with current judeo-christian type ebionita or nazarene.

However:

• There is No direct evidence of a historical line continuous.
• It is more prudent to speak of common environment monotheistic in the middle East, where there was:
  • rabbinical judaism,
  • current judeo-christian,
  • christianity imperial,
  • preaching early islamic.

12. “Ebionismo” in the modern use

Today the term “ebionismo” it is used sometimes in a theological to designate:

• any current christian:
  • insists on the humanity of Jesus,
  • minimizes or denies his divinity ontological,
  • places strong emphasis on the Law or in ethics.

But that does not imply continuity of the actual historical with the ebionites old; it is analogy doctrinalnothing more.

13. Main academic debates

13.1 what A group or several?

• What existed “the ebionites” as coherent group, or is a sign to controversial on multiple sects?
• The variety of doctrines that Parents attribute (for example, about the virgin birth) suggests subcorrientes internal.

13.2 Reliability of the Fathers of the Church

• Irenaeus, Origen, Epiphanius described the ebionites-to to combat them, not to understand them.
• Some traits could be exaggerations or projections (for example, vegetarianism total of John and Jesus).
• Modern criticism is dedicated to:
  • compare versions
  • detect contradictions,
  • to separate what seems to historical data from what it sounds like rhetoric antiherética.

13.3 Continuity with the church of Jerusalem

• An important line of research suggests that:
  • the church of Jerusalem (James, Peter, John) was originally very close to what was later called ebionismo,
  • the christianity that becomes dominant is basically the christianity pauline,
  • the ebionites would be the heirs of the line of Jerusalem defeated in the history of the Church.

There is No absolute consensus, but the idea of a “historic defeat” of the judeo-christianism in front of the christianity gentile is very influential in the historiography.

“The Messiah is the perfect man who meets the perfect will.”

14. The essential

For a complete overview of the topic, these are the key points:

1. Identity
   • Group judeo-christian the centuries I–IV (and perhaps remains later).
   • Jews who accept Jesus as the Messiah, but not as a God.
2. Doctrine
   • Strict monotheism; there is no Trinity and incarnation.
   • Jesus: righteous man chosen by God, christology adoptacionista.
   • The Law of Moses it is mandatory for all the followers of Jesus.
   • Rejection of Paul and his letters.
3. Texts
   • Tanakh as a basis.
   • Use of a gospel Hebrew/judeo-christian (today called “Gospel of the ebionites” or “Hebrews”), other than the canonical gospels greeks as we know it.
4. Practices
   • Enforcement jewish strict: circumcision, the sabbath, purity.
   • Trends ascetic and possibly vegetarian.
   • Rejection of animal sacrifices after the destruction of the Temple.
5. History
   • Probable origin at the end of the s. I, around Palestine and Transjordan.
   • Testimonies to the fourth and fifth centuries, especially in the East.
   • Disappearance as a visible movement; may eco in marginal communities and in the context surrounding the rise of Islam.
6. Sources and criticism
   • Only we know by hostile sources (Fathers of the Church).
   • Important part of what is said on them is reconstruction conjectural.
   • Modern research sees them as a key piece to understand the early christianity, non-pauline.