Editing Ebionites

{{Short description|Early Christian sect}}
{{About|the early Jewish Christian sect|the gospel associated with them|Gospel of the Ebionites}}
{{Jewish Christianity|Ancient groups}}

'''Ebionites''' ({{langx|grc|Ἐβιωναῖοι|Ebiōnaîoi}}, derived from [[Hebrew]] {{Lang|he|אֶבְיוֹנִים}},<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Ebionites |volume=8 |page=842}}</ref> {{Lang|he-latn|ʾEḇyōnīm}}, meaning 'the poor' or 'poor ones') as a term refers to a [[Jewish Christian]] sect that existed during the early centuries of the [[Common Era]].<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia | url = https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/177608/Ebionites | encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica | title = Ebionites|access-date=2022-11-14}}</ref><ref name="CrossCross2005">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA526|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-19-280290-3|pages=526–}}</ref>

Since historical records by the Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and disputed, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the [[polemic]]s of their [[Gentile Christianity|Gentile Christian]] opponents, specifically the [[Church Fathers]] — [[Irenaeus]], [[Origen]], [[Eusebius]], and [[Epiphanius of Salamis]] — who saw the Ebionites as distinct from other Jewish Christian sects, such as the [[Nazarene (sect)|Nazarenes]].<ref name="MarjanenLuomanen2008">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=nqrCAz7UAJgC&pg=PA267 A Companion to Second-Century Christian 'Heretics']''. BRILL; 2008. {{ISBN|90-04-17038-3}}. {{p.|267–}}.</ref><ref name="Klijn & Reinink 1973">{{Cite book| first1 = AFJ | last1 = Klijn | first2 = GJ | last2 = Reinink | title = Patristic Evidence for Jewish-Christian Sects| publisher = Brill | year = 1973 | isbn = 90-04-03763-2}}</ref><ref name="Hegg 2007">{{Cite web| first = Tim | last = Hegg | title = The Virgin Birth — An Inquiry into the Biblical Doctrine | work = TorahResource | year = 2007 | url = http://www.torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/VirginBirth.pdf | access-date= 13 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070821045706/http://torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/VirginBirth.pdf|archive-date=2007-08-21 }}</ref><ref name="Nazarene/Ebionite">{{Cite book| author = Jeffrey Butz | title = The Secret Legacy of Jesus| publisher = Inner Traditions | year = 2010| isbn = 978-1-59477-307-5|quote-page=124|quote=In fact, the Ebionites and the Nazarenes are one and the same|postscript=none}}; {{p.|137}}: "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."; {{p.|137}}: "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."</ref>

The Church Fathers generally agree on key points about the majority of Ebionites, such as their [[voluntary poverty]] and rejection of [[proto-orthodox Christianity|proto-orthodox Christian]] beliefs in Jesus' [[Christology|divinity]], [[Pre-existence of Christ|pre-existence]], and [[virgin birth of Jesus|virgin birth]]; they argue these Ebionites believed that Jesus was a [[Psilanthropism|mere man]], born the natural son of [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]] and [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]], who, by virtue of his [[righteousness]] in perfectly following the [[Letter and spirit of the law|letter and spirit]] of the [[Law of Moses]], was [[Adoptionism|adopted as the son of God]] to be a [[Messiah in Judaism|Messiah]].<ref name="Ehrman2005-lc" />

According to these patristic sources, the Ebionites insisted on the necessity of following both the Law of Moses and the [[Sermon on the Mount|moral teachings of Jesus]] to be righteous; they revered [[James, brother of Jesus|James the Just, brother of Jesus]], as an exemplar of righteousness and the true successor to Jesus (rather than [[Saint Peter|Peter]]), while rejecting [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] as a [[False prophet|false apostle]] and an [[Antinomianism#Supporting Pauline passages|apostate from the Law]].<ref name="Kohler">{{Cite book|last=Kohler|first=Kaufmann|year=1901–1906|editor1-last=Singer|editor1-first=Isidore|editor2-last=Alder|editor2-first=Cyrus|chapter=EBIONITES (from = 'the poor')|chapter-url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5411-ebionites|title=Jewish Encyclopedia|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930031429/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5411-ebionites|access-date=26 July 2020|archive-date=2020-09-30}}</ref><ref name="Maccoby 1987">{{Cite book| author = Hyam Maccoby| title = The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity| pages = 172–183| publisher = HarperCollins | year = 1987 | isbn = 0-06-250585-8| author-link = Hyam Maccoby|postscript=none}}, [http://ebionite.tripod.com/mac15.htm an abridgement].</ref><ref name="Luomanen 2007">{{cite book|author=Petri Luomanen|title=Jewish Christianity Reconsidered|publisher=Fortress Press|editor=Matt Jackson-McCabe|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8006-3865-8}}</ref>{{rp|p=88}}

However, the Church Fathers diverge on details regarding some specific Ebionite views about Jesus (the nature and mission of [[Christology|Christ]]), their use of additional [[scripture]] to the [[Hebrew Bible]] (one, some or all of the [[Jewish–Christian gospels]]), and their lifestyle practices ([[Christian vegetarianism|religious vegetarianism]], [[ritual washing in Judaism|ritual washing]], etc.). These variations reflect the evolving and [[schism|schismatic]] nature of [[early Christian]] sects, as well as the tendency of patristic polemicists to conflate different sects and misattribute unusual views and practices, more typical of [[Gnostic Christianity]] than Jewish Christianity, to Ebionites to discredit them.<ref name="Pines1966"/>{{rp|p=39}}

Some [[Historical criticism|modern critical scholars]] argue the Church Fathers' condemnation of Ebionites as "[[heresy|heretics]]" and "[[Judaizers]]" is both ironic and tragic, since many Ebionite views may have been closer to the authentic views of not only the [[Apostles in the New Testament|first disciples of Jesus]] but also of the [[historical Jesus]] himself.<ref name="Tabor 2006">{{Cite book| author = James D. Tabor | author-link = James Tabor | title = [[The Jesus Dynasty]]: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity| publisher = Simon & Schuster | year = 2006| isbn = 978-0-7432-8723-4}}</ref><ref name="Ehrman2005-lc" />

==Name==
The hellenized Hebrew term ''Ebionite'' was first applied by [[Irenaeus]] in the [[Christianity in the 2nd century|second century]] without making mention of Nazarenes ({{circa|180 CE}}).<ref>Antti Marjanen, Petri Luomanen "A companion to second-century Christian "heretics" p250 "It is interesting to note that the Ebionites first appear in the catalogues in the latter half of the second century. The earliest reference to the Ebionites was included in a catalogue used by Irenaeus in his Refutation and Subversion ..."</ref><ref>Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible 2000 {{p.|364}} "EBIONITES Name for Jewish Christians first witnessed in Irenaeus (Adv. haer. 1.26.2; Gk. ebionaioi) ca. 180 ce".</ref> [[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."<ref>{{cite book|author=Origen|title=Contra Celsum|at=II, 1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.ix.ii.i.html|title=Philip Schaff: ANF04. Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second - Christian Classics Ethereal Library|website=www.ccel.org}}</ref> [[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.<ref name="Uhlhorn"/><ref name="RGG"/> The term ''the poor'' (Greek: ''ptōkhoí'') was still used in its original, more general sense.<ref name="Uhlhorn"/><ref name="RGG"/> Modern Hebrew still uses the Biblical Hebrew term ''the needy'' for almsgiving to the needy at [[Purim]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary|isbn=9780198601722}}</ref>

Scholar [[James D. Tabor]] argues that the Ebionites most likely named themselves after the poor, the first of many groups of people mentioned in the [[Beatitudes]] of [[Jesus]] as [[blessing|blessed]] and meriting entry in the coming [[Kingdom of God (Christianity)|Kingdom of God]] on Earth.<ref name="Tabor 2006"/>

== History ==
[[File:Thedecapolis.png|right|thumb|200px|Map of the [[Decapolis]] showing the location of Pella.]]

===Emergence===
The earliest reference to a sect that might fit the description of the later Ebionites appears in [[Justin Martyr]]'s ''[[Dialogue with Trypho]]'' (c. 155-60).{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} Justin distinguishes between [[Jewish Christian]]s 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.<ref name="Justin">{{cite book|author=Justin Martyr|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01283.htm|title=Dialogue with Trypho|at=47}}</ref> [[Irenaeus]] (c. 180) was probably the first to use the term ''Ebionites'' to name a sect he labeled heretical "[[Judaizers]]" for "[[Legalism (theology)|stubbornly clinging to the Law]]".<ref name="Irenaeus">{{cite book|author=Irenaeus of Lyon|title-link=Against Heresies (Irenaeus)|title=Adversus Haereses|at=[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103126.htm I, 26]; [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103321.htm III,21]}}</ref> [[Origen]] (c. 212) remarks that the name derives from the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] word ''evyon'', meaning 'poor'.<ref>{{cite book|author=Origen|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04124.htm|title=De Principiis|at=IV, 22}}</ref> [[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.<ref name="Epiphanius">{{cite book|author=Epiphanius of Salamis|title=Panarion|title-link=Panarion}}</ref>{{rp|at=30}}<ref name="Koch 1976">{{Cite book| author = Glenn Alan Koch| title = A Critical Investigation of Epiphanius' Knowledge of the Ebionites: A Translation and Critical Discussion of 'Panarion' 30| publisher = University of Pennsylvania| year = 1976}}</ref> Epiphanius mostly gives general descriptions of their religious beliefs and includes quotations from their [[#Writings|gospel]]s, which have not survived. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Ebionite movement "may have arisen about the time of the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70)|destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem]]" (70 CE).<ref name="Britannica"/> The tentative dating of the origins of this sect depends on Epiphanius writing three centuries later and relying on information for the Ebionites from the ''[[Book of Elchasai]]'', which may not have had anything to do with the Ebionites.<ref>Hakkinen, Sakara. "Ebionites," in Marjanen, Antti, and Petri Luomanen, eds. ''A Companion to Second-Century Christian'Heretics''. Vol. 76. Brill, 2008, 257–278, esp. 259</ref>

[[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] talks of his collection for the "poor among the saints" in the Jerusalem church, but this is generally taken as meaning the poorer members of the church as a whole.<ref>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 sect 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 {{p.|364}}.</ref>

The actual number of sects described as Ebionites is difficult to ascertain, as the contradictory [[patristic]] accounts in their attempt to distinguish various sects sometimes confuse them with each other.<ref name="RGG"/> Other sects mentioned are the [[Carpocratians]], the [[Cerinthus|Cerinthians]], the [[Elcesaites]], the fourth century [[Nazarene (sect)|Nazarenes]] and the [[Sampsaeans]], most of whom were Jewish Christian sects who held [[Fathers of Christian Gnosticism|gnostic]] or other views rejected by the Ebionites. Epiphanius, however, mentions that a sect of Ebionites came to embrace some of these views despite keeping their name.<ref name="Wace 1911">{{Cite book| author = Henry Wace & William Piercy | title = A Dictionary of Early Christian Biography | year = 1911 | url = http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.html?term=Ebionism%20and%20Ebionites| access-date = 1 August 2007}}</ref>

As the Ebionites are first mentioned as such in the second century, their earlier history and any relation to the first [[Early centers of Christianity#Jerusalem|Jerusalem church]] remains obscure and a matter of contention. There is no evidence linking the origin of the later sect of the Ebionites with the [[First Jewish-Roman War]] of 66–70 CE or with the Jerusalem church led by [[James, brother of Jesus|James]]. [[Eusebius]] relates a tradition, probably based on [[Aristo of Pella]], that the early Christians left Jerusalem just prior to the war and [[Flight to Pella|fled to Pella]],<ref>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: {{cite book|author=Jonathan Bourgel|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/4909339|chapter=The Jewish Christians' Move from Jerusalem as a pragmatic choice|editor=[[Dan Jaffé]]|title=Studies in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity|location=Leyden|publisher=Brill|year=2010|pages=107–138}}</ref> [[Jordan]] beyond the [[Jordan River]], but does not connect this with Ebionites.<ref name="Uhlhorn">{{cite book|author=G. Uhlhorn|chapter=Ebionites|title=A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology|edition=3rd|editor=Philip Schaff|pages=684–685|volume=2}}</ref><ref name="RGG">{{cite book|author=O. Cullmann|chapter=Ebioniten|title=Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart|page=7435|volume=2}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Wace 1911"/> As late as Epiphanius (310–403), members of the Ebionite sect resided in [[Nabatea]], and [[Paneas]], [[Moab]]itis, and Kochaba in the region of [[Bashan]], near [[Daraa|Adraa]].<ref name= "Klijn1973">{{cite book |last1=Klijn |first1=A.F.J.|author-link1=Albertus Klijn |last2=Reinink |first2=G.J.|title=Patristic Evidence for Jewish-Christian Sects |date=1973 |publisher=[[E.J. Brill]]|location=Leiden |page=29 |language=en |oclc=1076236746|isbn=978-9-00403763-2}} (citing Epiphanius' ''Anacephalaiosis'' 30.18.1.)</ref> From these places, they dispersed and went into [[Asia-Minor|Asia]] (Anatolia), [[Rome]] and [[Cyprus]].<ref name= "Klijn1973"/>

According to Harnack, the influence of [[Elchasaites]] places some Ebionites in the context of the [[Gnosticism#Persian Gnosticism|gnostic movements widespread in Syria and the lands to the east]].<ref name="RGG"/><ref name="Harnack">{{cite book|author=Adolf von Harnack|author-link=Adolf von Harnack|title=The History of Dogma|chapter-url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19612/19612-h/19612-h.htm#SEC_I_VI_I|chapter=Chapter VI. The Christianity of the Jewish Christians|year=1907|isbn=978-1-57910-067-4}}</ref>

===Disappearance===
After the end of the [[First Jewish–Roman War]], the importance of the [[Early centers of Christianity#Jerusalem|Jerusalem church]] began to fade. [[Jewish Christianity]] became dispersed throughout the [[Jewish diaspora]] in the [[Levant]], where it was slowly eclipsed by [[Gentile Christianity]], which then spread throughout the [[Roman Empire]] without competition from Jewish Christian sects.<ref name="Brandon 1968">{{Cite book |last=Brandon |first=S. G. F. |title = The fall of Jerusalem and the Christian church: A study of the effects of the Jewish overthrow of A. D. 70 on Christianity |publisher = S.P. C.K. | year = 1968 | isbn = 0-281-00450-1 }}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2014}} Once the Jerusalem church was eliminated during the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]], which ended in 136 CE, the Ebionites gradually lost influence and followers. Some modern scholars, such as [[Hyam Maccoby]], argue the decline of the Ebionites was due to marginalization and [[Persecution of Christians|persecution]] by both Jews and Christians.<ref name="Maccoby 1987"/> Maccoby's views as expressed in his works from the 1980s and 1990s have, however, been nearly universally rejected by scholars.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gregerman |first=Adam |date=2012-02-09 |title=It's 'Kosher' To Accept Real Jesus? |url=https://forward.com/culture/151028/its-kosher-to-accept-real-jesus/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427064939/http://forward.com/culture/151028/its-kosher-to-accept-real-jesus/ |archive-date=2016-04-27 |access-date=2023-03-11 |website=The Forward |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Gibbon 2003">{{Cite book |first=Edward |last=Gibbon | title = The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire| publisher = Random House, NY| year = 2003 | isbn = 0-375-75811-9| author-link = Edward Gibbon| title-link = The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire| at = [https://web.archive.org/web/20070906220839/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/g/gibbon/edward/g43d/chapter15.html Chapter 15, pp. 390–391]}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=May 2024}} In 375, Epiphanius records the settlement of Ebionites on Cyprus, but by the 5th century, [[Theodoret|Theodoret of Cyrrhus]] reported that they were no longer present in the region.<ref name="Wace 1911"/>

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.<ref name=Pines1966>{{Cite book| author = Shlomo Pines|author-link = Shlomo Pines| title = The Jewish Christians Of The Early Centuries Of Christianity According To A New Source | publisher = Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities II, No. 13| year = 1966 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9yIUAQAAMAAJ|oclc=13610178}}</ref> There is another possible reference to Ebionite communities has them existing around the 11th century in northwestern [[Arabia]], in ''[[Sefer (Hebrew)|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",<ref name="Adler 1907">{{Cite book| first = Marcus N. |last=Adler| title = The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Critical Text, Translation and Commentary|pages=70–72| publisher = Phillip Feldheim| year = 1907}}</ref> 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 [[Jesus in Christianity|Christian views]].<ref name="Shahrastani 1842">{{Cite book| first = Muhammad |last=al-Shahrastani| title = The Book of Religious and Philosophical Sects, William Cureton edition|page=167| publisher = Gorgias Press| year = 2002| author-link = Muhammad al-Shahrastani}}</ref> Some scholars propose that interactions between Ebionite communities and early Muslims played a role in shaping the [[Jesus in Islam|Islamic perspective on Jesus]].<ref name="RGG"/><ref name="Schoeps 1969">{{Cite book| first = Hans-Joachim |last=Schoeps| title = Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church. Translation Douglas R. A. Hare| publisher = Fortress Press| year = 1969}}</ref>

==Views and practices==
===Judaism, Gnosticism and Essenism===
Most patristic sources{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} portray the Ebionites as Jews who zealously followed the [[Law of Moses]], revered [[Jerusalem]] as the holiest city<ref name="Irenaeus"/> and restricted [[Kashrut|table fellowship]] only to [[God-fearer|God-fearing]] Gentiles who [[Conversion to Judaism|converted to Judaism]].<ref name="Justin"/>

Some Church Fathers describe some Ebionites as departing from traditional [[Jewish principles of faith]] and [[Orthopraxis#Judaism|practice]]. For example, [[Methodius of Olympus]] stated that the Ebionites believed that the [[prophets in Judaism|prophets]] spoke only by their own power and not by the power of the [[Holy Spirit in Judaism|Holy Spirit]].<ref name="Oden2006">{{cite book|author=Thomas C. Oden|title=Ancient Christian commentary on Scripture: New Testament|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=irWI6DUtPncC&pg=PA178|access-date=14 October 2010|year=2006|publisher=InterVarsity Press|isbn=978-0-8308-1497-8|pages=178–}} 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".</ref> [[Epiphanius of Salamis]] stated that the Ebionites possessed a separationist [[Christology]], which claimed that Jesus and the Christ are two different beings, and, therefore, the Christ is an [[Angel of the Lord|angel of God]] who was incarnated in Jesus when he was [[adoptionism|adopted as the son of God]] during his [[baptism of Jesus|baptism]],<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.14.5}}<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.16.4–5}}  engaged in excessive [[ritual washing in Judaism|ritual washing]],<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.19.28–30}} [[Antinomianism|denied parts of the Law]] deemed obsolete or corrupt,<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.18.7–9}} opposed [[Korban|animal sacrifice]],<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.16.4–5}}<ref name="Joseph 2017">{{Cite journal| author = Simon J. Joseph | title = 'I Have Come to Abolish Sacrifices' (Epiphanius, Pan. 30.16.5): Re-examining a Jewish Christian Text and Tradition | journal = New Testament Studies | publisher = New Testament Studies, Volume 63, Issue 1 | date = January 2017 | volume = 63 | pages = 92–110 | doi = 10.1017/S0028688516000345 | s2cid = 164739491 | doi-access = free }}</ref> practiced [[Jewish vegetarianism|vegetarianism]]<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.22.4}} and celebrated a commemorative meal annually<ref name="Ramsey 1912">{{Cite journal| doi = 10.2307/624138| author = W.M. Ramsey| title = The Tekmoreian Guest-Friends | journal=Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=32 |pages=151–170| year = 1912| jstor = 624138| s2cid = 162190693| url = https://zenodo.org/record/1449930}}</ref> on or around [[Passover]] with [[unleavened bread]] and water only, in contrast to the daily Christian [[Eucharist]].<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30}}<ref>{{Cite book| author = Exarch Anthony J. Aneed| title = Syrian Christians, A Brief History of the Catholic Church of St. George in Milwaukee, Wis. And a Sketch of the Eastern Church| year = 1919| url = http://www.melkite.org/HolyCommunion.html| access-date = 28 April 2007| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070417161817/http://www.melkite.org/HolyCommunion.html| archive-date = 17 April 2007| df = dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="Irenaeus5">{{cite book|author=Irenaeus of Lyon|title=Adversus Haereses|at=[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103501.htm V, 1]}}</ref> The reliability of Epiphanius' account of the Ebionites is questioned by some scholars.<ref name="Klijn & Reinink 1973"/>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}}<ref name="Van Voorst 1989">{{Cite book| author = Robert E. van Voorst| author-link = Robert E. Van Voorst| title = The Ascents of James: History and Theology of a Jewish-Christian Community| publisher = Society of Biblical Literature| year = 1989| isbn = 1-55540-294-1}}</ref> Modern scholar [[Shlomo Pines]], for example, argues that the [[heterodox]] views and practices he ascribes to some Ebionites originated in [[Fathers of Christian Gnosticism|Gnostic Christianity]] rather than [[Jewish Christianity]] and are characteristics of the Jewish [[Elcesaites|Elcesaite]] sect, which Epiphanius mistakenly attributed to the Ebionites.<ref name="Pines1966"/>{{rp|p=39}}

While mainstream [[biblical scholarship|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 the Ebionites specifically, a number of scholars have different theories on how the Ebionites may have developed from an Essene [[Jewish messianism|Jewish messianic]] sect. [[Hans-Joachim Schoeps]] argues that the conversion of some Essenes to Jewish Christianity after the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70)|Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE]] may be the source of some Ebionites adopting Essene views and practices,<ref name="Schoeps 1969"/>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}} while some conclude that the Essenes did not become Jewish Christians, but still had an influence on the Ebionites.<ref name="Stendahl 1991">{{Cite book| author = Kriste Stendahl | title = The Scrolls and the New Testament | publisher = Herder & Herder | year = 1991 | isbn = 0-8245-1136-0}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}}

===On John the Baptist===
In the ''[[Gospel of the Ebionites]]'', as quoted by Epiphanius, [[John the Baptist]] and Jesus are portrayed as [[Jewish vegetarianism|vegetarians]].<ref name="Verheyden">{{cite book|author=J Verheyden|chapter=Epiphanius on the Ebionites|title=The image of the Judaeo-Christians in ancient Jewish and Christian literature|year=2003 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |editor1=Peter J. Tomson|editor2=Doris Lambers-Petry|isbn=3-16-148094-5|quote-page=188|quote=The vegetarianism of John the Baptist and of Jesus is an important issue too in the Ebionite interpretation of the Christian life.}}</ref><ref name="Ehrman 2005 on Gospel of the Ebionites">{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/lostchristianiti00ehrm|title=Lost Christianities : the battle for Scripture and the faiths we never knew|first=Bart D.|last=Ehrman|date=February 7, 2003|publisher=New York : Oxford University Press|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name="Ehrman 2003-ls">{{Cite book |first=Bart D. |last=Ehrman |author-link=Bart D. Ehrman |title=Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament|page=[https://archive.org/details/lostscripturesbo00ehrm/page/13 13]|publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2003 |isbn=0-19-514182-2|url=https://archive.org/details/lostscripturesbo00ehrm/page/13}} Referring to Epiphanius' quotation from the ''Gospel of the Ebionites'' in ''Panarion'' 30.13, "And his food, it says, was wild honey whose taste was of ''manna'', as cake in oil".</ref> Epiphanius states that the Ebionites had amended "locusts" ({{langx|grc|ἀκρίδες|akrídes}}) to "honey cakes" ({{langx|grc|ἐγκρίδες|enkrídes}}). This emendation is not found in any other New Testament manuscript or translation,<ref>{{cite book|title=Textual Apparatus of the UBS Greek New Testament|publisher=United Bible Societies|year=1993|postscript=none}} - with Peshitta, Old Latin etc.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=James A. Kelhoffer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzTcB8yMnrcC&q=The+diet+of+John+the+Baptist:+%22Locusts+and+wild+honey%22+in+synoptic+and+patristic+interpretation|title=The Diet of John the Baptist| year=2005 |isbn=978-3-16-148460-5|pages=19–21| publisher=Mohr Siebeck }}</ref> though a different vegetarian reading is found in a late [[Slavonic Josephus|Slavonic version]] of [[Josephus]]' ''[[War of the Jews]]''.<ref name="Mead 2007">{{cite book| author=G.R.S. Mead| title=Gnostic John the Baptizer: Selections from the Mandæan John-Book| quote-page=104| publisher=Forgotten Books| year=2007| isbn=978-1-60506-210-5| url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/gno/gjb/gjb-3.htm|quote=And when he had been brought to Archelaus and the doctors of the Law had assembled, they asked him who he is and where he has been until then. And to this he made answer and spake: ''I am pure; [for] the Spirit of God hath led me on, and [I live on] cane and roots and tree-food.''}}</ref> Pines and other modern scholars propose that the Ebionites were projecting their own vegetarianism onto John the Baptist.<ref name=Pines1966/>{{rp|p=39}}

The strict vegetarianism of the Ebionites may have been a reaction to the cessation of [[korban|animal sacrifices]] after the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE]] and a safeguard against the consumption of [[kosher|unclean meat]] in a [[pagan]] environment.<ref name="Klauck2003">{{cite book|author=[[Hans-Josef Klauck]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WoqXMHPY5EgC&pg=PA52|title=The Apocryphal Gospels: An Introduction|publisher=A&C Black|year=2003|isbn=978-0-567-08390-6|page=52–}}</ref> [[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|pre-Flood]] diet and what they took to be the original form of worship. In this view, the Ebionites had an interest in reviving the traditions inspired by pre-[[Mount Sinai (bible)|Sinai]] revelation, especially the time from [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|Enoch]] to [[Noah]].<ref name="Tabor 2006"/>

===On Jesus the Nazarene===
The Church Fathers agree that most or all of the Ebionites rejected many of the precepts central to [[proto-orthodox Christianity]], such as Jesus' [[Christology|divinity]], [[Pre-existence of Christ|pre-existence]], and [[Virgin birth of Jesus|virgin birth]].<ref name="Klijn & Reinink 1973"/>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}} The Ebionites are described as emphasizing the [[Psilanthropism|humanity of Jesus]] as the biological son of [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]] and [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary]], who, by virtue of his [[righteousness]] in perfectly following the [[Letter and spirit of the law|letter and spirit]] of the [[Law of Moses]], was [[adoptionism|adopted as the son of God]] to fulfill the Hebrew scriptures.<ref name="Ehrman2005-lc">{{cite book |first=Bart D. |last=Ehrman |author-link=Bart D. Ehrman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHDNe8KmMAIC&pg=PA100 |title=Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew|publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2005 |orig-date=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-975668-1 |pages=100–103}}</ref>

Origen (''[[Contra Celsum]]'' 5.61)<ref>{{cite book|last=Schaff|title=A select library of Nicene and post-Nicene fathers of the Christian church|year=1904|quote-page=footnote 828|quote=That there were two different views among the Ebionites as to the birth of Christ is stated frequently by Origen (cf. e.g. Contra Celsum V. 61), but there was unanimity in the denial of his pre-existence and essential divinity, and this constituted the essence of the heresy in the eyes of the Fathers from Irenæus on.}}</ref> and Eusebius (''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Historia Ecclesiastica]]'' 3.27.3) recognize some variation in the Christology of Ebionite sects; for example, that while all Ebionites denied Jesus' pre-existence, there was a sub-sect which did not [[Denial of the virgin birth of Jesus|deny the virgin birth]].<ref>{{cite book|title=International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J|page=9|author=Geoffrey W. Bromiley|year=1982|chapter=Ebionites|postscript=none}} citing E.H.3.27.3 "There were others, however, besides them, that were of the same name, that avoided the strange and absurd beliefs of the former, and did not deny that the Lord was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless, inasmuch as they also refused to acknowledge that he pre-existed, being God, Word, and Wisdom, they turned aside into the impiety of the former, especially when they, like them, endeavored to observe strictly the bodily worship of the law." Also source text [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.viii.xxvii.html online] at CCEL.org.</ref> [[Theodoret]], while dependent on earlier writers,<ref>{{cite book|author=Albertus Frederik Johannes Klijn, G. J. Reinink|title=Patristic evidence for Jewish-Christian sects|year=1973|quote-page=42|quote=Irenaeus wrote that these Ebionites used the Gospel of Matthew, which explains Theodoret's remark. Unlike Eusebius, he did not link Irenaeus' reference to Matthew with Origen's remarks about the 'Gospel of the Hebrews<span style="padding-right:.15em;">'</span>}}</ref> draws the conclusion that the two sub-sects would have used different gospels.<ref>{{cite book|author=Edwin K. Broadhead|title=Jewish Ways of Following Jesus: Redrawing the Religious Map of Antiquity|year=2010|quote-page=209|quote=Theodoret describes two groups of Ebionites on the basis of their view of the virgin birth. Those who deny the virgin birth use the Gospel of the Hebrews; those who accept it use the Gospel of Matthew.}}</ref> The Ebionites may have used only some or all of the [[Jewish–Christian gospels]] as additional [[scripture]] to the [[Hebrew Bible]]. However, Irenaeus reports that they only used a version of the ''[[Gospel of Matthew]]'', which omitted the first two chapters (on the [[nativity of Jesus]]) and started with the [[baptism of Jesus]] by [[John the Baptist]].<ref name="Irenaeus"/>

The Ebionites viewed Jesus as a [[Messiah in Judaism|Messiah]] in the mold of a new "prophet like Moses" foretold in [[Deuteronomy]] 18:15-19. They believed Jesus came to call all descendants of the [[Twelve Tribes of Israel]] who had strayed from the [[covenant (biblical)|covenant with God]], as well as potential converts from all Gentile nations, to repent and follow both the Law of Moses and Jesus' own [[Sermon on the Mount|expounding of the Law]] in order to become righteous and merit entry into the coming [[Kingdom of God (Christianity)|kingdom of God]] on Earth.<ref name="Bauckham 2003">{{cite book| author=Richard Bauckham | title=The Image of the Judeo-Christians in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature | contribution = The Origin of the Ebionites | pages=162–181 | publisher=Brill, Peter J. Tomson and Doris Lambers-Petry eds.| year=2003 | isbn=3-16-148094-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9bbWbMGekWoC&q=Richard+Bauckham+origin&pg=PA162 }}</ref><ref name="Viljoen 2006">{{Cite journal| first = Francois | last = Viljoen | title = Jesus' Teaching on the Torah in the Sermon on the Mount | journal = Neotestamentica | publisher = Neotestamenica / New Testament Society of Southern Africa | year = 2006 | volume = 40 | issue = 1 | pages = 135–155 | jstor = 43049229 }}</ref>  

According to Epiphanius alone, the Ebionites believed Jesus' mission as prophet and reformer included proclaiming the abolishment of [[Korban|animal sacrifices]],<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30, 16, 4–5}}<ref name="Joseph 2017"/> rather than [[substitutionary atonement|substituting]] himself for them through intentional [[Self-sacrifice in Jewish law|self-sacrifice]]. Consequently, they did not believe Jesus suffered and died for the [[Atonement in Judaism|atonement]] of the sins of Israelites or mankind. The Ebionites appear to have revered Jesus not as a [[Redeemer (Christianity)|savior]], but as a [[Martyrdom in Judaism|martyr]], who was arrested and sentenced to death by [[crucifixion of Jesus|crucifixion]], both for his [[List of Jewish messiah claimants|messianic claim]] and his failed attempt at ending the Temple sacrificial system, in order to establish a more [[Simple living|simple form of worship]] based on authentic [[repentance in Judaism|repentance]] and [[works of mercy]].<ref name="Bauckham 2003"/><ref name="Viljoen 2006"/> Rejecting the belief in a [[universal resurrection|physical resurrection of the dead]], while embracing a belief in immortal human [[soul]]s, some Ebionites may have believed [[resurrection of Jesus|Jesus was resurrected]] in a [[spiritual body]], rather than a physical one.{{Sfn|Akers|2000|p=195–197}}{{Sfn|Atkins|2019|p=261}}

===On James the Just===
Some of the Church Fathers argue that the Ebionites revered [[James, brother of Jesus|James the Just, brother of Jesus]] and leader of the [[Early centers of Christianity#Jerusalem|Jerusalem church]], as the true successor to Jesus (rather than [[Saint Peter|Peter]]) and an exemplar of [[righteousness]].<ref name="Eisenman 1998">{{Cite book|author=Robert Eisenman| author-link=Robert Eisenman|title=James the brother of Jesus: the key to unlocking the secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls|pages=36–7, 156, 224, 432, 495, 566, 674, 744, 781, 941|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1998|isbn=0-14-025773-X}}</ref> One of the popular primary connections of the Ebionites to James is that the ''[[Ascents of James]]'' in the [[Pseudo-Clementine]] literature are related to the Ebionites.<ref name="Van Voorst 1989"/> The other popularly proposed connection is that mentioned by [[William Whiston]] in his 1794 edition of [[Josephus]], where he notes that we learn from fragments of [[Hegesippus (chronicler)|Hegesippus]] that the Ebionites interpreted a prophecy of [[Isaiah]] as foretelling the [[James, brother of Jesus#Death|murder of James]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Whiston|first=W.|title=Antiquities|edition=2008|page=594}}</ref>

Scholars, including [[Robert Eisenman]],<ref name="Eisenman 1997 James as successor">{{Cite book|author=Robert Eisenman|author-link=Robert Eisenman|title=James, Brother of Jesus: The key to unlocking the secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls|publisher=Viking|year=1997}} E.g. {{p.|154}}: "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." {{p.|156}}: "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.''"</ref><ref name="Eisenman 2006">{{cite book| author=Robert Eisenman| title=The New Testament Code| pages=[https://archive.org/details/newtestamentcode00robe/page/34 34,145,273]| publisher=Watkins Publishing| year=2006| isbn=978-1-84293-186-8| url=https://archive.org/details/newtestamentcode00robe/page/34|quote-page=34|quote=These {{'}}''Ebionites''{{'}} are also the followers of James ''par excellence'', himself considered (even in early Christian accounts) to be the leader of {{'}}''the Poor''{{'}} or these selfsame {{'}}''Ebionites''<span style="padding-right:.15em;">'</span>}}; {{p.|145}}: "For James 2:5, of course, it is {{'}}{{em|the Poor of this world ({{'}}the Ebionim{{'}} or {{'}}Ebionites{{'}}) whom God chose as Heirs to the Kingdom He promised to those that love Him}}<span style="padding-right:.15em;">'</span>"; {{p.|273}}: "...{{'}}''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''{{'}})."</ref> {{ill|Pierre-Antoine Bernheim|fr|}},<ref>{{cite book|author=Pierre-Antoine Bernheim|title=James, Brother of Jesus|year=1997 |publisher=SCM Press |isbn=978-0-334-02695-2|url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifeandtimes/stories/2009/2538660.htm|quote=The fact that he became the head of the Jerusalem church is something which is generally accepted.}} From an ABC interview with author.</ref> [[Will Durant]], [[Michael Goulder]],<ref name="Goulder 1995">{{cite book| author=Michael Goulder| title=St. Paul versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions| pages=107–113, 134| publisher=John Knox Press| year=1995| isbn=0-664-25561-2|quote-page=134|quote=So the 'Ebionite' Christology, which we found first described in Irenaeus about 180 is not the invention of the late second century. It was the creed of the Jerusalem Church from early times.}}</ref> [[Gerd Ludemann]],<ref name="Luedemann 1996">{{cite book |first=Gerd |last=Ludemann | author-link=Gerd Ludemann |title=Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity| pages=52–56| publisher=John Knox Press| year=1996| isbn=0-664-22085-1| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHB9gYY_hdsC&q=heretics:+the+other+side+of+early+Christianity+Part+II:+The+Jewish+Christians+of+Jerusalem+after+the+Jewish+War&pg=PA52| access-date=27 March 2011|quote-pages=52–53|quote=Since there is a good century between the end of the Jerusalem community and the writing down of the report quoted above (by Irenaeus), of course reasons must be given why the group of Ebionites should be seen as an offshoot of the Jerusalem community. The following considerations tell in favor of the historical plausibility of this: 1. The name 'Ebionites' might be the term this group used to denote themselves. 2. Hostility to Paul in the Christian sphere before 70 is attested above all in groups which come from Jerusalem. 3. The same is true of observance of the law culminating in circumcision. 4. The direction of prayer towards Jerusalem makes the derivation of the Ebionites from there probable.}} {{p.|56}}: "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."</ref> [[John Painter (theologian)|John Painter]]<ref name="Painter 1999 Peter and James as Opponents of Paul">{{cite book| author=John Painter| title=Just James - The Brother of Jesus in History and Tradition| pages=83–102, 229| publisher=Fortress Press| year=1999| isbn=0-8006-3169-2|quote-page=229|quote=A connection between early Jerusalem Christianity (the Hebrews) and the later Ebionites is probable.}}</ref> and [[James Tabor]],<ref name="Tabor 2006"/> argue for some form of continuity of the Jerusalem church into the second and third centuries and that the Ebionites regarded James as their [[Apostolic succession#Apostolic founders|apostolic founder]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Blessing of Africa: The Bible and African Christianity|author=Keith Augustus Burton|publisher=Intervarsity Press|year=2007|pages=116–117|isbn=978-0-8308-2762-6}}</ref><ref name="Dunn 1977">{{Cite book | author = James D. G. Dunn | author-link = James Dunn (theologian) | title = Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: an inquiry into the character of earliest Christianity | publisher = S.C.M. Press | year = 1997 | isbn = 9780334024040}}</ref>

Conservative Christian scholars, such as [[Richard Bauckham]], hold that James and his circle in the early Jerusalem church held a "[[Christology#Development of "low Christology" and "high Christology"|high Christology]]" (i.e. Jesus was a [[angel of the Lord|pre-existent angelic or divine being]]) while the Ebionites held a "[[Christology#Development of "low Christology" and "high Christology"|low Christology]]" (i.e. Jesus was a mere man [[adoptionism|adopted by God]]).<ref>{{cite book|quote=We may now assert quite confidently that the self-consciously low christology of the later Jewish sect known as the Ebionites does not, as has sometimes been asserted, go back to James and his circle in the early Jerusalem church.|contributor=Richard Bauckham|contribution=James and Jesus|author1=Bruce Chilton|author2=Jacob Neusner|title=The brother of Jesus: James the Just and his mission|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|year=2001|pages=100–137, 135}}</ref> As an alternative to the traditional view of [[Eusebius]] that the Jewish Jerusalem church gradually adopted the [[proto-orthodox Christianity|proto-orthodox Christian]] theology of the [[Church of Antioch|Gentile church]], Bauckham and others suggest immediate successors to the Jerusalem church under James and the other relatives of Jesus were the [[Nazarene (sect)|Nazarenes]] who accepted [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] as an "apostle to the Gentiles", while the Ebionites were a later [[schism|schismatic sect]] of the early second century that rejected Paul.<ref name="Bauckham 1996">{{cite journal| author=Richard Bauckham| title=The Relatives of Jesus| pages=18–21| journal=[[Themelios]]|volume=21|issue=2| date=January 1996| url=http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_relatives_bauckham.html| access-date=11 February 2011}} Reproduced in part by permission of the author.</ref><ref name="Bauckham 2003"/>

===On Paul the Apostle===
The Ebionites rejected the [[Pauline epistles|Pauline Epistles]],<ref name="CrossCross2005"/> and, according to Origen, they viewed Paul as an "[[Antinomianism#Supporting Pauline passages|apostate from the Law]]".<ref name="BirdDodson2011">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRkk20VIZS8C&pg=PA164|title=Paul and the Second Century|publisher=A&C Black|year=2011|isbn=978-0-567-15827-7|page=164–}}</ref> The Ebionites may have been spiritual and physical descendants of the "super-[[Apostles in the New Testament|apostle]]s" — talented and respected Jewish Christian [[Minister (Christianity)|ministers]] in favour of [[Circumcision controversy in early Christianity|mandatory circumcision of converts]] — who sought to undermine Paul in [[Galatia]] and [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]].<ref name="Ehrman 2014">{{Cite book|first= Bart D. |last=Ehrman | author-link= Bart D. Ehrman |title= How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee|publisher= HarperOne|year= 2014|isbn= 978-0-06-177818-6}}</ref>

Epiphanius relates that the Ebionites opposed Paul, who they saw as responsible for the idea that [[Gentile Christians]] did not have to be [[Circumcision|circumcised]] or follow the [[Law of Moses]], and named him an [[apostasy in Judaism|apostate from Judaism]].<ref name="Irenaeus"/> Epiphanius further relates that some Ebionites alleged that Paul was a Greek who [[Conversion to Judaism|converted to Judaism]] in order to marry the daughter of a [[High Priest of Israel]], but apostatized when she rejected him.<ref>"[The Ebionites] 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</ref><ref name="Luomanen 2007"/>{{rp|p=88}}

==Writings==
No writings of the Ebionites have survived outside of a few quotes by others and they are in uncertain form.<ref name="Britannica"/> The [[Clementine literature|''Recognitions of Clement'' and the ''Clementine Homilies'']], two third century Christian works, are regarded by general scholarly consensus as largely or entirely [[Jewish Christians|Jewish Christian]] in origin and reflect Jewish Christian beliefs. The exact relationship between the Ebionites and these writings is debated, but Epiphanius's description of some Ebionites in ''[[Panarion]]'' 30 bears a striking similarity to the ideas in the ''Recognitions'' and ''Homilies''. Scholar Glenn Alan Koch speculates that Epiphanius likely relied upon a version of the ''Homilies'' as a source document.<ref name="Koch 1976"/> Some scholars also speculate that the core of the ''[[Gospel of Barnabas]]'', beneath a polemical medieval [[Islam|Muslim]] overlay, may have been based upon an Ebionite or gnostic document.<ref name="Toland 1718">{{cite book|author-link=John Toland|author=John Toland|title=Nazarenus, or Jewish, Gentile and Mahometan Christianity|year=1718}}</ref> The existence and origin of this source continues to be debated by scholars.<ref name="Blackhirst 2000">{{Cite journal| author = Blackhirst, R.| title = Barnabas and the Gospels: Was There an Early ''Gospel of Barnabas''?|journal=Journal of Higher Criticism|volume=7|number=1|pages=1–22| year = 2000| url = http://depts.drew.edu/jhc/Blackhirst_Barnabas.html| access-date = 11 March 2007}}</ref>

[[John Arendzen]] classifies the Ebionite writings into four groups.<ref name="Arendzen 1909">{{Cite CE1913|author=J.P Arendzen|year=1909|wstitle=Ebionites}}</ref>

===Gospel of the Ebionites===
Irenaeus stated that the Ebionites used the ''[[Gospel of Matthew]]'' exclusively.<ref>''"Those who are called Ebionites accept that God made the world. However, their opinions with respect to the Lord are quite similar to those of [[Cerinthus]] and [[Carpocrates]]. They use ''Matthew's gospel'' only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the Law."'' - Irenaeus, ''Haer'' 1.26.2</ref> [[Eusebius of Caesarea]] wrote that they used only the ''[[Gospel of the Hebrews]]''.<ref name="Eusebius IV">Eusebius of Caesarea, ''[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm Church History]'', [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm III, 27, 4].</ref> From this, the minority view of [[James R. Edwards]] and [[Bodley's Librarian]] [[Edward Nicholson (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.<ref>{{cite book|author=James R. Edwards|title=The Hebrew Gospel & the Development of the Synoptic Tradition|year=2009|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co|page=121}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Nicholson|title=The Gospel according to the Hebrews|year=1879|postscript=none}}, reprinted print on demand BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009. {{pp.|1|81}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=William Whiston|author2=H. Stebbing|title=The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus|postscript=none}}, reprinted Vol. II, Kessinger Publishing, 2006. {{p.|576}}.</ref> Epiphanius contended that the gospel the Ebionites used was written by Matthew and called the "Gospel of the Hebrews".<ref>They too accept the Matthew's gospel, and like the followers of Cerinthus and Merinthus, they use it alone. They call it the ''Gospel of the Hebrews'', for in truth Matthew alone in the New Testament expounded and declared the ''Gospel in Hebrew'' using Hebrew script. - Epiphanius, ''Panarion'' 30.3.7</ref> Because Epiphanius said that it was "not wholly complete, but falsified and mutilated",<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.13.1}} writers such as [[Walter Richard Cassels]] and [[Pierson Parker]] consider it a different "edition" of Matthew's Hebrew Gospel;<ref>{{cite book|author=Walter Richard Cassels|title=Supernatural Religion - An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine Revelation|year=1877|postscript=none}}, reprinted print on demand Read Books, 2010. Vol. 1, {{pp.|419|422}}.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Pierson |last=Parker 
|author-link=Pierson Parker|title=A Proto-Lukan Basis for the Gospel According to the Hebrews|journal=Journal of Biblical Literature|volume=59|number=4|year=1940|pages=471–478|doi=10.2307/3262407 |jstor=3262407 }}</ref> however, internal evidence from the quotations in ''Panarion'' 30.13.4 and 30.13.7 suggest that the text was a [[gospel harmony]] originally composed in Greek.<ref name="Gospel of the Ebionites - The Complete Gospels p.436 1994">{{cite book| title=The Complete Gospels| page=[https://archive.org/details/completegospels00robe/page/436 436]| publisher=Polebridge Press, Robert J. Miller ed.| year=1994| isbn=0-06-065587-9| url=https://archive.org/details/completegospels00robe/page/436}}</ref>

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 the Ebionites as the ''Gospel of the Ebionites'', though this is not a term current in the early church.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Walter Funk|title=The Gospel of Jesus: according to the Jesus Seminar|publisher=Polebridge Press|year=1999}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=F.L. Cross|author2=E.A. Livingston|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|year=1989|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=438–439}}</ref>

===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 the 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 views, such as the primacy of [[James, brother of Jesus|James the Just, brother of Jesus]]; their connection with the [[Holy See|episcopal see of Rome]]; and their antagonism to [[Simon Magus]], as well as [[gnosticism|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".<ref name="Van Voorst 1989"/> Despite this assertion, he expresses reservations that the material is genuinely Ebionite in origin.

===Symmachus===
Symmachus produced a translation of the [[Hebrew Bible]] in [[Koine Greek]], which was used by Jerome and is still extant in fragments, and his lost ''[[Symmachus (translator)|Hypomnemata]]'',<ref name="Eusebius VI">Symmachus' Hypomnemata is mentioned by [[Eusebius of Caesarea|Eusebius]] in his ''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Historia Ecclesiae]]'', VI, xvii: "As to these translators it should be stated that Symmachus was an Ebionite. But the heresy of the Ebionites, as it is called, asserts that Christ was the son of Joseph and Mary, considering him a [[Psilanthropism|mere man]], and insists strongly on keeping the law in a Jewish manner, as we have seen already in this history. Commentaries of Symmachus are still extant in which he appears to support this heresy by attacking the ''Gospel of Matthew''. Origen states that he obtained these and other commentaries of Symmachus on the Scriptures from a certain Juliana, who, he says, received the books by inheritance from Symmachus himself."; [[Jerome]], ''[[De Viris Illustribus (Jerome)|De Viris Illustribus]]'', chapter 54; {{cite book|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm|title=Church History|at=VI, 17}}</ref><ref>[[Jerome]], ''[[De Viris Illustribus (Jerome)|De viris illustribus]]'', [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2708.htm 54].</ref> 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.<ref name="Skarsaune 2007">{{cite book |first=Oskar |last=Skarsaune |author-link=Oskar Skarsaune| title=Jewish Believers in Jesus| pages=448–450| publisher=Hendrickson Publishers| year=2007| isbn=978-1-56563-763-4}} Skarsaune argues that Eusebius may have only {{em|inferred}} that Symmachus was an Ebionite based on his commentaries on certain passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. E.g., Eusebius mentions Isa 7:14 where Symmachus reads "young woman" based on the Hebrew text rather than "virgin" as in the LXX, and he interprets this commentary as attacking the ''Gospel of Matthew''.(''Dem. ev.'' 7.1) and (''Hist. eccl.'' 5.17).</ref>

===Elcesaites===
[[Hippolytus of Rome]] reported that a Jewish Christian, [[Alcibiades of Apamea]], appeared in Rome teaching from a [[Book of Elchasai|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.<ref>
{{cite book |title=The Revelation of Elchasai: Investigations into the Evidence for a Mesopotamian Jewish Apocalypse of the Second Century and its Reception by Judeo-Christian Propagandists |date=1985 |author-link=Gerard Luttikhuizen |first=Gerard |last=Luttikhuizen |location=Tubingen |series=Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 8 |page=216 }}</ref> Shortly afterwards, [[Origen]] recorded a sect, the [[Elcesaites]], with the same beliefs.<ref>Antti Marjanen, Petri Luomanen ''A companion to second-century Christian "heretics"'' p336</ref> Epiphanius claimed the Ebionites also used this book as a source for some of their beliefs and practices (''Panarion'' 30.17).<ref name="Koch 1976"/><ref>''[[Refutation of all Heresies|Philosophumena]]'', IX, 14–17. {{harvnb|Luttikhuizen|1985}}: "Epiphanius deviates so strikingly from Hippolytus' account of the heresy of Alcibiades that we cannot possibly assume that he is dependent on the Refutation."</ref><ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=19, 1; 53, 1}} Epiphanius explains the origin of the name Elchasai to be [[Aramaic language|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.<ref name="Luomanen 2007"/>{{rp|p=96, 299, 331:note 7}}

==Religious and critical perspectives==

===Christianity===
The mainstream Christian view of the Ebionites is partly based on interpretation of the polemical views of the [[Church Fathers]], who portrayed them as [[Heresy|heretics]] for rejecting many of the [[Proto-orthodox Christianity|proto-orthodox Christian]] views of Jesus and allegedly having an improper fixation on the [[Law of Moses]] at the expense of the [[divine grace|grace of God]].<ref name="Arendzen 1909"/> In this view, the Ebionites may have been the descendants of a [[Jewish Christian]] sect within the early [[Early centers of Christianity#Jerusalem|Jerusalem church]] which broke away from its proto-orthodox theology possibly in reaction to the [[Council of Jerusalem]] compromise of 50 CE.<ref name="Daniélou 1964">{{Cite book| author = Jean Daniélou| title = The theology of Jewish Christianity: The Development of Christian doctrine before the Council of Nicea | publisher = H. Regnery Co | year = 1964 | asin = B0007FOFQI| author-link = Jean Daniélou }}</ref>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}}

===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 [[icon]]s. Paul Addae and Tim Bowes write that the Ebionites were faithful to the original teachings of the [[historical Jesus]] and thus shared [[Islamic view of Jesus]]' humanity and also rejected proto-orthodox theories of [[Salvation in Christianity|atonement]].<ref name="Baus 1980">
{{Cite book| author = Karl Baus | title = From the Apostolic Community to Constantine | pages = 155 | publisher = Crossroad | year = 1980 | isbn = 978-0-824-50314-7}}
</ref> Furthermore, the Islamic view of Jesus is compatible with the view of a minor sect within the Ebionites who embraced rather than denied the virgin birth of Jesus.<ref name="al-Ashanti 2005">{{Cite book| author = Abdulhaq al-Ashanti & Abdur-Rahmaan Bowes (Paul Addae and Tim Bowes 1998)| title = Before Nicea: The Early Followers of Prophet Jesus | publisher = Jamia Media | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-9551099-0-6}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}}<ref>{{Cite CE1913|author=J.P Arendzen|year=1909|wstitle=Ebionites|quote=Those who accepted the virginal birth seem to have had more exalted views concerning Christ and, besides observing the Sabbath, to have kept the Sunday as a memorial of His Resurrection. The milder sort of Ebionites were probably fewer and less important than their stricter brethren, because the denial of the virgin birth was commonly attributed to all. (Origen, Horn. in Luc., xvii.) St. Epiphanius calls the more heretical section Ebionites, and the more Catholic-minded, Nazarenes.}}</ref>

[[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|Monophysite]] views":<ref name="Schoeps 1969"/>{{rp|137}}

{{blockquote|Thus we have a paradox of world-historical proportions, viz., the fact that Jewish Christianity indeed disappeared within the Christian church, but was preserved in Islam and thereby extended some of its basic ideas even to our own day. According to Islamic doctrine, the Ebionite combination of Moses and Jesus found its fulfillment in Muhammad.|author=Hans Joachim Schoeps|source=''Jewish Christianity''<ref name="Schoeps 1969"/>{{rp|140}}}}

[[Irfan Shahîd]], a Palestinian Christian scholar in the field of [[Oriental studies]], counters that there is no evidence that the Ebionites remained until the 7th century, much less that they had a presence in [[Mecca]].<ref name="Irfan">[[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.</ref>

===Judaism===
The [[proselytization and counter-proselytization of Jews|counter-missionary]] group [[Jews for Judaism]] favorably mentions the 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.<ref name="Kravitz 2001">{{Cite book| author = Bentzion Kravitz| title = The Jewish Response to Missionaries: Counter-Missionary Handbook | publisher = [[Jews for Judaism]] International | year = 2001}}</ref> 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 [[Apostasy|apostatizing]] from the belief in the divinity of Jesus.<ref name="Messianic Leaders Deny Yeshua">{{Cite web| author = Moshe Koniuchowsky| title = 'Messianic' Leaders Deny Yeshua in Record Numbers| year = 2007| url = http://yourarmstoisrael.org/Editorials/?page=MESSIANIC_LEADERS_DENY&type=2| access-date = 21 July 2007| url-status = usurped| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070812083612/http://yourarmstoisrael.org/Editorials/?page=MESSIANIC_LEADERS_DENY&type=2| archive-date = 12 August 2007| df = dmy-all|work=yourarmstoisrael.org}}</ref><ref name="New Galatians">{{Cite web| author = James Prasch| title = You Foolish Galatians, Who Bewitched You? A Crisis in Messianic Judaism?| year = 2007| url = http://www.moriel.org/articles/sermons/new_galatians.htm| access-date = 21 July 2007| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040811203131/http://moriel.org/articles/sermons/new_galatians.htm| archive-date = 11 August 2004| df = dmy-all|publisher=Moriel Ministries}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=20em|content=
*[[Adoptionism]]
*[[Christianity and Judaism]]
*[[Christianity in the 1st century]]
*[[Conversion to Judaism]]
*[[Diversity in early Christian theology]]
*[[Gospel of the Ebionites]]
*[[Hebrew Roots]]
*[[Heresy in Christianity]]
*[[History of Christianity]]
*[[Jesuism]]
*[[Judaizers]]
*[[List of heresies in the Catholic Church]]
*[[Nazarene (sect)|Nazarenes]]
*[[Option for the poor]]
*[[Pauline Christianity]]
*[[Proto-orthodox Christianity]]
*[[Restorationism]]
*[[Unitarianism]]
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Literature==
*{{Cite book |last=Akers |first=Keith |title=The Lost Religion of Jesus: Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity |date=2000 |publisher=Lantern Books}}
*{{Cite book |last=Atkins |first=J.D. |title=The Doubt of the Apostles and the Resurrection Faith of the Early Church: The Post-resurrection Appearance Stories of the Gospels in Ancient Reception and Modern Debate |date=2019 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck}}
*{{Cite book| author = Butz, Jeffrey | title = The Secret Legacy of Jesus| publisher = Inner Traditions | year = 2010| isbn = 978-1-59477-307-5}}
*{{cite book|author=G. Uhlhorn|chapter=Ebionites|editor=Philip Schaff|title=A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology|edition=3rd|year=1894|pages=684–685|volume=2}}
*{{Cite book|last=Goranson|first=Stephen|chapter=Ebionites|editor=D Freedman|title=The Anchor Bible Dictionary|location=New York|publisher=Doubleday|year=1992|volume=2|pages=260–1}}
*{{cite book|author=J. M. Fuller|chapter=Ebionism and Ebionites|editor=Henry Wace|title=A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies|year=1999 |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |isbn=1-56563-460-8}}
*{{Cite book| author = Wilson, Barrie| title = How Jesus Became Christian - The early Christians and the transformation of a Jewish teacher into the Son of God | publisher = Orion | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0-297-85200-1}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|Ebionite}}
{{Wikisource|Ebionites according to the Church Fathers}}
* {{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Ebionites |short=x}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090325102931/http://www.ebionite.org/ Yahad Ebyoni: Ebionite Jewish Community] (archived website of a modern Ebionite revival group founded by Shemayah Phillips in 1985)
* [https://ebionite.com/ The Ebionite Home Page by Allan Cronshaw]

{{Heresies condemned by the Catholic Church|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Christian terminology]]
[[Category:Christianity and Judaism related controversies]]
[[Category:Denial of the virgin birth of Jesus]]
[[Category:Early Jewish Christian sects]]
[[Category:Elcesaites]]
[[Category:Heresy in ancient Christianity]]
[[Category:Jewish religious movements]]
[[Category:Nature of Jesus Christ]]
[[Category:Nontrinitarian denominations]]
[[Category:Patristics]]