Ebionites

The hellenized Hebrew term Ebionite was first applied by Irenaeus in the second century without making mention of Nazarenes (). Origen wrote "for Ebion signifies 'poor' among the Jews, and those Jews who have received Jesus as Christ are called by the name of Ebionites." Tertullian was the first to write against a heresiarch called Ebion; scholars believe he derived this name from a literal reading of Ebionaioi as 'followers of Ebion', a derivation now considered mistaken for lack of any more substantial references to such a figure. Scholar James Tabor argues that Ebionites most likely named themselves after "the poor in spirit", that is, people whose economic and social poverty foster spiritual humility and a conscious dependence on God. He connects this self-designation to the first of nine in-groups mentioned in the Beatitudes of Jesus in Matthew 5:3, who are described as blessed and as to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs. == History ==

showing the location of Pella. Emergence The earliest reference to a movement that might fit the description of the later Ebionites appears in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho (c. 155-60). Justin distinguishes between Jewish Christians who observe the Law of Moses but do not require its observance upon others and those who believe the Mosaic Law to be obligatory on all. Irenaeus (c. 180) was probably the first to use the term Ebionites to name a movement he labeled as a heretical sect of "Judaizers" for "stubbornly clinging to the Law". Origen (c. 212) remarks that the name derives from the Hebrew word evyon, meaning 'poor'. Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310–320 – 403) gives the most complete account in his heresiology called Panarion, denouncing eighty heretical sects, among them the Ebionites. Epiphanius mostly gives general descriptions of their religious beliefs and includes quotations from their gospels, which have not survived. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Ebionite movement "may have arisen about the time of the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem" (70 CE). 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. 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. 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, 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. From these places, they dispersed and went into Asia (Anatolia), Rome and Cyprus. Disappearance After the end of the First Jewish–Roman War, the importance of the early Jerusalem church began to fade. Jewish Christianity became dispersed throughout the Jewish diaspora in the Levant, where it was slowly eclipsed by proto-orthodox Christianity, which then spread throughout the Roman Empire without competition from Jewish Christian movements. Once the Jerusalem church was eliminated during the Bar Kokhba revolt, which ended in 136 CE, the Ebionites gradually lost influence and followers. Although some scholars, such as Hyam Maccoby, argued the decline of the Ebionites was due to marginalization and persecution by both Jews and Christians, Following the defeat of the rebellion and the subsequent expulsion of Jews from Judea, Jerusalem became the Gentile city of Aelia Capitolina. Many of the Jewish Christians residing at Pella renounced their Jewish practices at this time and joined the mainstream Christian church. Those who remained at Pella and continued in obedience to the Law were labeled heretics. In 375, Epiphanius records the settlement of Ebionites on Cyprus, but by the 5th century, Theodoret of Cyrrhus reported that they were no longer present in the region. 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. ==Beliefs and practices==

Judaism, Gnosticism and Essenism Most patristic sources portray Ebionites as Jews who faithfully observed the Law of Moses, revered Jerusalem as the holiest city Epiphanius of Salamis stated that Ebionites held a separationist "angelic possession" Christology, practiced vegetarianism 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 Elcesaite sect, which Epiphanius mistakenly attributed to Ebionites. On John the Baptist In the Gospel of the Ebionites, as quoted by Epiphanius, John the Baptist and Jesus are portrayed as vegetarians. Epiphanius states that Ebionites had amended "locusts" () to "honey cakes" (). This emendation is not found in any other New Testament manuscript or translation, though a different vegetarian reading is found in a late Slavonic version of Josephus' War of the Jews. Pines and other modern scholars propose that Ebionites were projecting their own vegetarianism onto John the Baptist. 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 pre-Flood 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, 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. Epiphanius is alone in claiming that Ebionites believed Jesus came to proclaim the abolishment of animal sacrifices. One of the popular primary connections of Ebionites to James is that the Ascents of James in the Pseudo-Clementine literature are related to Ebionites. 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 adopted by God). 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 schismatic sect of the early second century that rejected Paul. , Will Durant, Michael Goulder, Gerd Ludemann, John Painter and James Tabor, On Paul the Apostle Ebionites rejected the Pauline Epistles, Ebionites may have been spiritual and biological descendants of the "super-apostles" — talented and respected Jewish Christian ministers in favour of mandatory circumcision of converts — who sought to undermine Paul in Galatia and Corinth. Epiphanius relates that Ebionites opposed Paul, who they saw as responsible for the idea that Gentile Christians did not have to be circumcised or follow the Law of Moses, and named him an apostate from Judaism. ==Writings==

No writings of Ebionites have survived outside of a few quotes by others and they are in uncertain form. The existence and origin of this source continues to be debated by scholars. John Arendzen classifies the Ebionite writings into four groups. Gospel of the Ebionites Irenaeus stated that Ebionites used the Gospel of Matthew exclusively. Eusebius of Caesarea wrote that they used only the Gospel of the Hebrews. From this, the minority view of James R. Edwards and Bodley's Librarian Edward Nicholson claim that there was only one Hebrew gospel in circulation, Matthew's Gospel of the Hebrews. They also note that the title "Gospel of the Ebionites" was never used by anyone in the early church. Epiphanius contended that the gospel Ebionites used was written by Matthew and called the "Gospel of the Hebrews". Because Epiphanius said that it was "not wholly complete, but falsified and mutilated", Clementine literature The collection of New Testament apocrypha known as the Clementine literature included three works known in antiquity as the Circuits of Peter, the Acts of the Apostles and a work usually titled the Ascents of James. They are specifically referenced by Epiphanius in his polemic against Ebionites. 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 in the Recognitions attributed to Clement. They form an early Christian didactic fiction to express Jewish Christian beliefs, such as the primacy of James the Just, brother of Jesus; their connection with the episcopal see of Rome; and their antagonism to Simon Magus, as well as gnostic doctrines. Scholar Robert E. Van Voorst opines of the Ascents of James (R 1.33–71), "There is, in fact, no section of the Clementine literature about whose origin in Jewish Christianity one may be more certain". written to counter the canonical Gospel of Matthew. Although lost, the Hypomnemata is probably identical to De distinctione præceptorum mentioned by Ebed Jesu (Assemani, Bibl. Or.'', III, 1). The identity of Symmachus as an Ebionite has been questioned in recent scholarship. Elcesaites Hippolytus of Rome reported that a Jewish Christian, Alcibiades of Apamea, appeared in Rome teaching from a book which he claimed to be the revelation which a righteous man, Elchasai, had received from an angel, though Hippolytus suspected that Alcibiades was himself the author. Shortly afterwards, Origen recorded a sect, the Elcesaites, with the same beliefs. Epiphanius claimed Ebionites also used this book as a source for some of their beliefs and practices (Panarion 30.17). Epiphanius explains the origin of the name Elchasai to be Aramaic El Ksai, meaning "hidden power" (Panarion 19.2.1). Scholar Petri Luomanen believes the book to have been written originally in Aramaic as a Jewish apocalypse, probably in Babylonia in 116–117. ==Religious and critical perspectives==

Christianity The mainstream Christian view of Ebionites is partly based on interpretation of the polemical views of the Church Fathers, who portrayed them as heretics for rejecting many of the proto-orthodox Christian beliefs of Jesus and allegedly having an improper fixation on the Law of Moses at the expense of the grace of God. Islam Islam charges Christianity with having distorted the pure monotheism of the God of Abraham through the doctrines of the Trinity and through the veneration of icons. Paul Addae and Tim Bowes write that Ebionites were faithful to the original teachings of the historical Jesus and thus shared the Islamic view of Jesus' humanity and also rejected proto-orthodox theories of atonement. Furthermore, the Islamic view of Jesus is compatible with the view of a minor sect within Ebionites who embraced rather than disputed the virgin birth of Jesus. 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 Monophysite beliefs": Judaism The counter-missionary group Jews for Judaism favorably mentions historical Ebionites in their literature in order to argue that "Messianic Judaism", as promoted by missionary groups such as Jews for Jesus, is Pauline Christianity misrepresenting itself as Judaism. In 2007, some Messianic commentators expressed concern over a possible existential crisis for the Messianic movement in Israel due to a resurgence of Ebionitism, specifically the problem of Israeli Messianic leaders apostatizing from the belief in the divinity of Jesus. ==See also==

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