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Ebionites (Greek: Ἐβιωναῖοι, Ebionaioi, derived from Hebrew אביונים ebyonim, ebionim, meaning ‘the poor’ or ‘poor ones’) as a term refers to a Jewish Christian sect who were vegetarians, viewed poverty as holy, believed in ritual ablutions, and rejected animal sacrifices.[1] They existed during the early centuries of the Common Era.[2] The Ebionites embraced an adoptionist Christology, thus understanding Jesus of Nazareth as a mere man who, by virtue of his righteousness, was chosen by God to be a true prophet. A majority of the Ebionites rejected as heresies the proto-orthodox Christian beliefs in Jesus’s divinity and virgin birth.[3] They maintained that Jesus was the natural son of Joseph and Mary who became the Messiah because he obeyed the Jewish law.[1]
Accordingly, the Ebionites insisted on the necessity of following the Written Law of Moses alone (without the Oral Law); used one, some or all of the Jewish–Christian gospels, such as the Gospel of the Ebionites, as additional scripture to the Hebrew Bible; and revered James the Just as an exemplar of righteousness and the true successor to Jesus (rather than Peter), while rejecting Paul as a false apostle and an apostate from the Law.[4][5][6]
Since historical records by the Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and disputed, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the Church Fathers who saw all Jewish Christians as Ebionites and confused different groups in their polemics whom they labeled heretical “Judaizers“.[7][8] Consequently, very little about the Ebionite sect or sects is known with certainty, and most, if not all, statements about them are speculative. The Church Fathers consider the Ebionites identical with other Jewish Christian sects, such as the Nazarenes.[9][10]
Name
The hellenized Hebrew term Ebionite (Ebionai) was first applied by Irenaeus in the second century without making mention of Nazarenes (c.180 CE).[11][12] 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.”[13][14] 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.[15][16] The term the poor (Greek: ptōkhoí) was still used in its original, more general sense.[15][16] Modern Hebrew still uses the Biblical Hebrew term the needy both in histories of Christianity for “Ebionites” (אביונים) and for almsgiving to the needy at Purim.[17]
History
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. 140).[citation needed] 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.[18] Irenaeus (c. 180) was probably the first to use the term Ebionites to name a sect he labeled heretical “Judaizers” for “stubbornly clinging to the Law“.[19] Origen (c. 212) remarks that the name derives from the Hebrew word evyon, meaning ‘poor’.[20] 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.[21][22] 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).”[23] 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.[24]
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 rather than a schismatic sect.[25]
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.[16] Other sects mentioned are the Carpocratians, the Cerinthians, the Elcesaites, the fourth century Nazarenes and the Sampsaeans, most of whom were Jewish Christian sects who held 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.[26]
As the Ebionites are first mentioned as such in the second century, their earlier history and any relation to the first 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. 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,[27] Jordan beyond the Jordan River, but does not connect this with Ebionites.[15][16] 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.[26] As late as Epiphanius of Salamis (310–403), members of the Ebionite sect resided in Nabatea, and Paneas, Moabitis, and Kochaba in the region of Bashan, near Adraa.[28] From these places, they dispersed and went into Asia (Turkey), Rome and Cyprus.[28]
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.[16][29]
Disappearance
After the end of the First Jewish–Roman War, the importance of the 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.[30] Once the Jerusalem church was eliminated during the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135, 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 by both Jews and Christians.[5] Following the defeat of the rebellion and the 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 to the mainstream Christian church. Those who remained at Pella and continued in obedience to the Law were labeled heretics.[31] In 375, Epiphanius records the settlement of Ebionites on Cyprus, but by the fifth century, Theodoret of Cyrrhus reported that they were no longer present in the region.[26]
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.[32] There is another possible reference to Ebionite communities 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”,[33] possibly Sa`dah 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 views.[34] Some scholars argue that they contributed to the development of the Islamic view of Jesus due to exchanges of Ebionite remnants with the first Muslims.[16][35]
Views and practices
Judaism, Gnosticism and Essenism
Most patristic sources[citation needed] portray the Ebionites as Jews who zealously followed the Written Law alone (without the Oral Law), revered Jerusalem as the holiest city[19] and restricted table fellowship only to Gentiles who converted to Judaism.[18]
Some Church Fathers describe some Ebionites as departing from traditional Jewish principles of faith and practice. For example, Methodius of Olympus stated that the Ebionites believed that the prophets spoke only by their own power and not by the power of the Holy Spirit.[36] Epiphanius of Salamis stated that the Ebionites engaged in excessive ritual bathing,[37] possessed an angelology which claimed that the Christ is an angel of God who was incarnated in Jesus when he was adopted as the son of God during his baptism,[38][39] denied parts of the Law deemed obsolete or corrupt,[40] opposed animal sacrifice,[39][41] practiced Jewish vegetarianism[42] and celebrated a commemorative meal annually[43] on or around Passover with unleavened bread and water only, in contrast to the daily Christian Eucharist.[21][44][45] The reliability of Epiphanius’ account of the Ebionites is questioned by some scholars.[8][46] Modern scholar Shlomo Pines, for example, argues that the heterodox views and practices he ascribes to some Ebionites originated in Gnostic Christianity rather than Jewish Christianity and are characteristics of the Elcesaite sect, which Epiphanius mistakenly attributed to the Ebionites.[47]
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 the Ebionites specifically, a number of scholars have different theories on how the 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 views and practices,[35] while some conclude that the Essenes did not become Jewish Christians, but still had an influence on the Ebionites.[48]
On John the Baptist
In the Gospel of the Ebionites, as quoted by Epiphanius, John the Baptist and Jesus are portrayed as vegetarians.[49][50][51] Epiphanius states that the Ebionites had amended “locusts” (Greek akris) to “honey cake” (Greek ekris). This emendation is not found in any other New Testament manuscript or translation,[52][53] though a different vegetarian reading is found in a late Slavonic version of Josephus‘ War of the Jews.[54] Pines and other modern scholars propose that the Ebionites were projecting their own vegetarianism onto John the Baptist.[47]
The strict vegetarianism of the Ebionites may have been a reaction to the cessation of animal sacrifices after the destruction of Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE and a safeguard against the consumption of unclean meat in a pagan environment.[55] 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, the Ebionites had an interest in reviving the traditions inspired by pre-Sinai revelation, especially the time from Enoch to Noah.[56]
On Jesus the Nazarene
The Church Fathers agree that some or all of the Ebionites rejected many of the precepts central to proto-orthodox Christianity, such as Jesus’ divinity, pre-existence, virgin birth and substitutionary atonement.[8] The Ebionites are described as emphasizing the humanity of Jesus as the biological son of Mary and Joseph, who, by virtue of his righteousness in keeping the law perfectly, was adopted as the son of God to fulfill the Jewish scriptures.[57][page needed] According to Bart D. Ehrman the Ebionites viewed Jesus as the perfect sacrifice who went to the cross for the sins of the world and was raised from the dead and exalted to heaven.[57]
Origen (Contra Celsum 5.61)[58] and 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 deny the virgin birth.[59] Theodoret, while dependent on earlier writers,[60] draws the conclusion that the two sub-sects would have used different gospels.[61] The Ebionites may have used only one, 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.[19]
The Ebionites appear to have understood Jesus not as the Messiah but as a prophetic precursor who heralds the coming kingdom of God on Earth in which two human Messiahs (a Davidic king and an Aaronite high priest) and/or an angelic Messiah (a cosmic judge of the Earth from heaven known as the “Son of man“) will reign forever.[56] Consequently, Jesus is believed to have come to fulfill a threefold mission: 1) teach all Israelites to live immediately according to a radical ethic of inward and outward righteousness that will be standard in the Messianic Age; 2) complete the work of Moses by calling for the abolishment of animal sacrifices[39][41] during a cleansing of the Temple; and 3) die as a moral exemplar (rather than as a substitutionary atonement) to move Israelites to the repentance necessary for personal atonement and national redemption in order to prepare for the world to come.[62]
Therefore, in order to become righteous, achieve communion with God[63] and be saved from annihilation, the Ebionites insisted that Jews and Gentiles must observe all the commandments in the Written Law[18] (except for those concerning animal sacrifice) but they must be interpreted through Jesus’ expounding of the Law (rather than the Oral Law).[64]