Ebionites
Ebionites (Ancient Greek: Ἐβιωναῖοι, romanized: Ebiōnaîoi, derived from Hebrew אֶבְיוֹנִים,[1] 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.
[4][5][6][7] The Church Fathers generally agree on key points about the majority of Ebionites, such as their voluntary poverty and rejection of proto-orthodox Christian beliefs in Jesus' divinity, pre-existence, and virgin birth; they argue these Ebionites believed that Jesus was a mere man, born the natural son of Joseph and Mary, who, by virtue of his righteousness in perfectly following the letter and spirit of the Law of Moses, was adopted as the son of God to be a Messiah.
[9][10][11]: 88 However, the Church Fathers diverge on details regarding some specific Ebionite views about Jesus (the nature and mission of Christ), their use of additional scripture to the Hebrew Bible (one, some or all of the Jewish–Christian gospels), and their lifestyle practices (religious vegetarianism, ritual washing, etc.).
[20] 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 blessed and meriting entry in the coming Kingdom of God on Earth.
[18][19] 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.
[28] As late as Epiphanius (310–403), members of the Ebionite sect resided in Nabatea, and Paneas, Moabitis, and Kochaba in the region of Bashan, near Adraa.
[32][page needed] Once the Jerusalem church was eliminated during the Bar Kokhba revolt, which ended in 136 CE, the Ebionites gradually lost influence and followers.
[34][better source needed] 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.
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.
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.
[19][37] Most patristic sources[citation needed] portray the Ebionites as Jews who zealously followed the Law of Moses, revered Jerusalem as the holiest city[22] and restricted table fellowship only to God-fearing Gentiles who converted to Judaism.
[38] 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 God who was incarnated in Jesus when he was adopted as the son of God during his baptism,[24]: 30.14.5 [24]: 30.16.4–5 engaged in excessive ritual washing,[24]: 30.19.28–30 denied parts of the Law deemed obsolete or corrupt,[24]: 30.18.7–9 opposed animal sacrifice,[24]: 30.16.4–5 [39] practiced vegetarianism[24]: 30.22.4 and celebrated a commemorative meal annually[40] on or around Passover with unleavened bread and water only, in contrast to the daily Christian Eucharist.
[12]: 39 The strict vegetarianism of the Ebionites may have been a reaction to the cessation of animal sacrifices after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE and a safeguard against the consumption of unclean meat in a pagan environment.
[51] 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.
[13] The Church Fathers agree that most or all of the Ebionites rejected many of the precepts central to proto-orthodox Christianity, such as Jesus' divinity, pre-existence, and virgin birth.
[56][57] According to Epiphanius alone, the Ebionites believed Jesus' mission as prophet and reformer included proclaiming the abolishment of animal sacrifices,[24]: 30, 16, 4–5 [39] rather than substituting himself for them through intentional self-sacrifice.
The Ebionites appear to have revered Jesus not as a savior, but as a martyr, who was arrested and sentenced to death by crucifixion, both for his messianic claim and his failed attempt at ending the Temple sacrificial system, in order to establish a more simple form of worship based on authentic repentance and works of mercy.
[43] 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 that the Ebionites interpreted a prophecy of Isaiah as foretelling the murder of James.
[72] The Ebionites may have been spiritual and physical 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.
[73] Epiphanius relates that the 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.
[22] Epiphanius further relates that some Ebionites alleged that Paul was a Greek who converted to Judaism in order to marry the daughter of a High Priest of Israel, but apostatized when she rejected him.
[25] Some scholars also speculate that the core of the Gospel of Barnabas, beneath a polemical medieval Muslim overlay, may have been based upon an Ebionite or gnostic document.
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".
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 Hypomnemata,[89][90] written to counter the canonical Gospel of Matthew.
[95][page needed] 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.
