Ebionites

The Ebionites (from Hebrew; Ebionim, "the poor ones") were a sect of Judean followers of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth who existed in Iudaea Province (later Syria-Palestine) during the early centuries of the Common Era. The "Pauline Christians", those who were the spiritual antecedents of those who were ultimately successful in establishing a state-sanctioned church, did not consider Ebionites "real" Christians: the terms "Pauline Christians" and "Ebionites" are used in this article to distinguish these two threads in early Christianity. "Pauline Christians" not only included the orthodox, but also heretical gnostics such as Marcion, who considered Paul to be the true apostle and Peter to be a false apostle (Tertullian, "Against Marcion" 1.20, 4.3, 5.3). While the Ebionites undoubtedly drew their doctrines from ideas circulating in the first century, Robert Eisenman (Eisenman 1996) argues in great detail the extent to which they existed as a distinct group from the rest of "gentile" Christianity before the destruction of Jerusalem.

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 the Ebionites and these writings is not clear, but the description of the Ebionites in Panarion 30 (by Epiphanius) 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 the Ebionites is debated.

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

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• Ebionite Gospel. The 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 attributes this gospel to the Nazarenes, and claims that the 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.
• 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 supremacy 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 A. D. 100 and brought to Rome about A. D. 217 by Alcibiades of Apamea. Those who accepted its doctrines and its new baptism were called Elkasites. (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.

Related Topics:
Gospel of Barnabas - Muslim

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