Product Code Database
Ebionites (Ancient Greek: Ἐβιωναῖοι, romanized: Ebiōnaîoi, derived from the Hebrew language אֶבְיוֹנִים, ʾEḇyōnīm, meaning 'the poor' or 'poor ones') were an adoptionism Torah observance Jewish-Christian movement that existed in and around Transjordan during the early centuries of the Common Era.
Since original writings by Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and contested, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the reports by their proto-orthodox and later orthodox Christian opponents, the Church Fathers (Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, and Epiphanius of Salamis), who generally portrayed Ebionites as a "heretical" sect doctrinally distinct from other so-called "Judaizers" Jewish-Christian sects, such as the Nazarenes. A Companion to Second-Century Christian 'Heretics'. BRILL; 2008. . . (1973). 9789004037632, Brill. ISBN 9789004037632; : "Following the devastation of the Jewish War, the Nazarenes took refuge in Pella, a community in exile, where they lay in anxious wait with their fellow Jews. From this point on it is preferable to call them the Ebionites. There was no clear demarcation or formal transition from Nazarene to Ebionite; there was no sudden change of theology or Christology."; : "While the writings of later church fathers speak of Nazarenes and Ebionites as if they were different Jewish Christian groups, they are mistaken in that assessment. The Nazarenes and the Ebionites were one and the same group, but for clarity we will refer to the pre-70 group in Jerusalem as Nazarenes, and the post-70 group in Pella and elsewhere as Ebionites."
Most Church Fathers characterize Ebionites as holding a functional adoptionist Christology that rejects the claim that Jesus was a divine being (God the Son) at any stage of his earthly life, whether before (pre-existence), during (incarnation), or after it (exaltation), and instead presents him as a Tzadik who, through faithful observance of the Law of Moses, was adopted by God at his baptism to fulfill the role of prophet and Jewish Messiah.
Condemning Paul as a False prophet and an apostate from the Law,, an abridgement. Ebionites are said to have used an abridged Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew, or one of the Jewish-Christian gospels, as their only additional scripture alongside the Hebrew Bible, and to have maintained faithful observance of the mitzvah of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenant covenants as binding on all followers of Jesus, with an emphasis on his authoritative teachings on the Law.
Some patristic heresiologists recognize variations in Christology among Ebionites: a majority did not believe Jesus was born of a virgin, affirming he was the natural son of Saint Joseph and Mary, while a minority believed in the virgin birth, with both groups rejecting belief in the divinity of Jesus. Epiphanius is the only Church Father who claims Ebionites held a separationist "angelic possession" Christology, opposed animal sacrifice and embraced vegetarianism. Some modern commentators regard many of Epiphanius’ additional details as unreliable, so the theological diversity among Ebionites he describes cannot be taken at face value.
Critical Scholarly method judge that the Church Fathers' condemnation of Ebionites as "heretics" reflects the inherently biased perspective of Christian heresiographies. Some scholars argue that core Ebionite beliefs rooted in late Second Temple Judaism, particularly the emphasis on covenant faithfulness and the expectation of a fully human Messiah in the mold of a "prophet like Moses", may reflect traditions inherited directly from the early Jerusalem church, led by James the Just, brother of Jesus, and possibly from the historical Jesus himself.
Scholar James Tabor argues that Ebionites most likely named themselves after "" — people whose condition of economic and social poverty leaves them in a situation of spiritual humility and acknowledged dependence on God — as the first of nine in-groups mentioned in the Beatitudes of Jesus (according to ), that are Bracha and to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs.
Paul talks of his collection for the "poor among the saints" in the early Jerusalem church, but this is generally taken as meaning the poorer members of the church as a whole.Some scholars see the title present already in Paul's references to a collection for the "poor" in Jerusalem (Gal.1:10). But in Rom.15:26 Paul distinguishes this movement from the other Jerusalem believers by speaking of "the poor among the saints." In 2 Cor.9:12 Paul further confirms the economic, or literal, aspect by speaking of the collection as making up for "the deficiencies of the saints". E. Stanley Jones, '"Ebionites", in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, Amsterdam University Press, 2000 .
The actual number of movements described as Ebionites is difficult to ascertain, as the contradictory patristic accounts in their attempt to distinguish various movements sometimes confuse them with each other. Other movements mentioned are the Carpocratians, the Cerinthus, the Elcesaites, the fourth century Nazarenes and the Sampsaeans, most of whom were Jewish Christian sects who held gnostic or other beliefs rejected by the Ebionites. Epiphanius, however, mentions that a sect of Ebionites came to embrace some of these beliefs despite keeping their name.
As the Ebionites are first mentioned as such in the second century, their earlier history and any relation to the Jerusalem church remains obscure and a matter of contention. There is no evidence linking the origin of the later movement of the Ebionites with the First Jewish-Roman War of 66–70 CE or with the Jerusalem church led by 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,Eusebius, Church History 3, 5, 3; Epiphanius, Panarion 29,7,7-8; 30, 2, 7; On Weights and Measures 15. On the flight to Pella see: Jordan beyond the Jordan River, but does not connect this with Ebionites. They were led by Simeon of Jerusalem (d. 107) and during the Second Jewish-Roman War of 115–117, they were persecuted by the Jewish followers of Bar Kochba for refusing to recognize his messianic claims. As late as Epiphanius (310–403), members of the Ebionite movement resided in Nabatea, and Paneas, , and Kochaba in the region of Bashan, near Daraa. (1973). 9789004037632, E.J. Brill. ISBN 9789004037632 (citing Epiphanius' Anacephalaiosis 30.18.1.) From these places, they dispersed and went into Asia-Minor (Anatolia), Rome and Cyprus.
According to Harnack, the influence of Elchasaites places some Ebionites in the context of the gnostic movements widespread in Syria and the lands to the east.
The Ebionites are still attested, if as marginal communities, down to the 7th century. Some modern 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. There is another possible reference to Ebionite communities that has them existing around the 11th century in northwestern Arabia, in Sefer Ha'masaot, the "Book of the Travels" of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, a rabbi from Spain. These communities were located in two cities, Tayma and "Tilmas", possibly Saada in Yemen. The 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 beliefs. Some scholars propose that interactions between Ebionite communities and early Muslims played a role in shaping the Islamic perspective on Jesus.
Some Church Fathers describe some Ebionites as departing from traditional Second Temple period Jewish principles of faith and practice. For example, Methodius of Olympus stated that Ebionites believed that the prophets spoke only by their own power and not by the power of the Holy Spirit. 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". Epiphanius of Salamis stated that Ebionites held a separationist "angelic possession" Christology, engaged in excessive ritual washing, Antinomianism deemed obsolete or corrupt, opposed Korban, practiced vegetarianism and celebrated a commemorative meal annually on or around Passover with unleavened bread and water only, in contrast to the daily Christian Eucharist. The reliability of Epiphanius' account of Ebionites is questioned by some scholars. Modern scholar Shlomo Pines, for example, argues that the heterodox beliefs and practices he ascribes to some Ebionites originated in Gnostic Christianity rather than Jewish Christianity and are characteristics of the Jewish Elcesaites sect, which Epiphanius mistakenly attributed to Ebionites.
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. Regarding Ebionites specifically, a number of scholars have different theories on how 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 beliefs and practices,while some conclude that Essenes did not become Jewish Christians, but still had an influence on Ebionites.
The strict vegetarianism of Ebionites may have been a reaction to the cessation of korban after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE and a safeguard against the consumption of kosher in a pagan environment. Scholar James Tabor, however, argues that Ebionite disdain for eating meat and the Temple sacrifice of animals is due to their preference for the ideal Antediluvian diet and what they took to be the original form of worship. In this view, Ebionites had an interest in reviving the traditions inspired by pre-Sinai revelation, especially the time from Enoch to Noah, though this view is unattested.
According to most patristic sources, Ebionites held that Jesus' role as the Messiah was to call for repentance, teach proper observance of the Law, and embody covenant faithfulness.Richard Bauckham (2026). 9783161480942, Brill, Peter J. Tomson and Doris Lambers-Petry eds.. . ISBN 9783161480942 Epiphanius is alone in claiming that Ebionites believed Jesus came to proclaim the abolishment of Korban. Modern scholars infer that Ebionites did not believe Jesus was a cosmic savior-redeemer who suffered and died through intentional self-sacrifice as a Christus Victor from the enslaving powers of sin and death, an undoing of original sin, or an opening for universal reconciliation. Accordingly, Ebionites most likely revered Jesus as the culminating figure in a long line of true prophets, whose obedient life and martyrial death reaffirmed Israel's covenant with God, functioned as a powerful moral example for imitation, and served to call straying Israelites back to faithful obedience.
The Jewish-Christian gospels differ in their treatment of the resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel of the Ebionites, seeming to end before the passion of Jesus, leaving its position unclear, while the Gospel of the Hebrews includes an appearance of the risen Jesus to his brother James the Just, and the Gospel of the Nazarenes preserves resurrection stories similar to the Gospel of Matthew. Some modern scholars argue that Ebionites most likely affirmed Jesus' resurrection as vindication of his role as the Messiah and as an end-time sign of the coming universal resurrection of the dead and the Annihilationism of the wicked, while rejecting Paul’s reinterpretation of the resurrection as God’s confirmation that Jesus’ death was a universally atoning sacrifice.
Conservative Christian scholars, such as Richard Bauckham, hold that James and his circle in the early Jerusalem church held a "high Christology" (i.e. Jesus was a pre-existent angelic or divine being) while Ebionites held a "low Christology" (i.e. Jesus was a mere man adoptionism). As an alternative to the traditional view of Eusebius that the Jewish Jerusalem church gradually adopted the proto-orthodox Christian theology of the Gentile church, Bauckham and others suggest immediate successors to the Jerusalem church under James and the other relatives of Jesus were Nazarenes who accepted Paul as an "apostle to the Gentiles", while Ebionites were a later schism of the early second century that rejected Paul. Reproduced in part by permission of the author.
Modern critical scholars, including Robert Eisenman, E.g. : "As presented by Paul, James is the Leader of the early Church par excellence. Terms like 'Bishop of the Jerusalem Church' or 'Leader of the Jerusalem Community' are of little actual moment at this point, because from the 40s to the 60s CE, when James held sway in Jerusalem, there really were no other centres of any importance." : "there can be little doubt that 'the Poor' was the name for James' Community in Jerusalem or that Community descended from it in the East in the next two-three centuries, the Ebionites."; : "For James 2:5, of course, it is '"; : "... the Righteous Teacher and those of his followers (called the Poor or Ebionim - in our view, James and his Community, pointedly referred to in the early Church literature, as will by now have become crystal clear, as the Ebionites or the Poor)." , From an ABC interview with author. Will Durant, Michael Goulder, Gerd Ludemann, : "therefore, it seems that we should conclude that Justin's Jewish Christians are a historical connecting link between the Jewish Christianity of Jerusalem before the year 70 and the Jewish Christian communities summed up in Irenaeus' account of the heretics." John Painter and James Tabor, respond that the sharp distinction between an early Jerusalem church with a “high Christology” and later Ebionites with a “low Christology” reflects second-century heresiological polemics rather than first-century realities. They emphasize the documented diversity of early Jewish Christologies, including angelic, adoptionism, and exaltationist models, within the Jesus movement itself. From this perspective, Ebionite beliefs represent the preservation of an early Jerusalem trajectory centered on the "Jewish Jesus", covenant faithfulness, and James as apostolic founder. The portrayal of Ebionites as a late schismatic sect is therefore understood as a retroactive construction shaped by emerging proto-orthodox norms.
Epiphanius relates that Ebionites opposed Paul, who they saw as responsible for the idea that Gentile Christians did not have to be Circumcision or follow the Law of Moses, and named him an apostate from Judaism. Epiphanius further 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."The 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
John Arendzen classifies the Ebionite writings into four groups.
Mainstream scholarly texts, such as the standard edition of the New Testament apocrypha edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher, generally refer to the text Jerome cites as used by Ebionites as the "Gospel of the Ebionites", though this is not a term current in the early church.
Hans Joachim Schoeps observes that the Christianity which Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was likely to have encountered on the Arabian peninsula "was not the state religion of Byzantium but a schismatic Christianity characterized by Ebionite and Monophysitism beliefs":
Irfan Shahîd, a Palestinian Christian scholar in the field of Oriental studies, counters that there is no evidence that Ebionites remained until the 7th century, much less that they had a presence in Mecca.Irfan Shahîd. Islam And Oriens Christianus: Makka 610-622 Ad. in Mark Swanson et al, eds. The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006. p18.
|
|
