Ebionites
Ebionites were an adoptionist Mosaic Law-observant Jewish-Christian movement that existed in and around Transjordan during the early centuries of the Common Era.
Since original writings by Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and contested, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the polemical reports by their proto-orthodox and later orthodox Christian opponents, the Church Fathers, who generally portrayed Ebionites as a "heretical" sect doctrinally distinct from other so-called "judaizing" Jewish-Christian sects, such as the Nazarenes.; : "Following the devastation of the Jewish War, the Nazarenes took refuge in Pella, a community in exile, where they lay in anxious wait with their fellow Jews. From this point on it is preferable to call them the Ebionites. There was no clear demarcation or formal transition from Nazarene to Ebionite; there was no sudden change of theology or Christology."; : "While the writings of later church fathers speak of Nazarenes and Ebionites as if they were different Jewish Christian groups, they are mistaken in that assessment. The Nazarenes and the Ebionites were one and the same group, but for clarity we will refer to the pre-70 group in Jerusalem as Nazarenes, and the post-70 group in Pella and elsewhere as Ebionites."
Most Church Fathers characterize Ebionites as holding a functional adoptionist Christology that rejects the claim that Jesus was a divine being at any stage of his earthly life, whether before, during, or after it, and instead presents him as a righteous human being who, through faithful observance of the Law of Moses, was adopted by God at his baptism to fulfill the role of prophet and Jewish Messiah.
Condemning Paul as a false apostle and an apostate from the Law, Ebionites are said to have used an abridged Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew, or one of the Jewish-Christian gospels, as their only additional scripture alongside the Hebrew Bible, and to have maintained faithful observance of the commandments of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants as binding on all followers of Jesus, with an emphasis on the radical demands of his interpretation of the Law.
Some patristic heresiologists recognize variations in Christology among Ebionites: a majority did not believe Jesus was born of a virgin, affirming he was the natural son of Joseph and Mary, while a minority believed in the virgin birth, with both groups rejecting belief in the divinity of Jesus. Epiphanius is the only Church Father who claims Ebionites held a separationist "angelic possession" Christology, opposed animal sacrifice and embraced vegetarianism. Some modern commentators regard many of Epiphanius’ additional details as unreliable, so the theological diversity among Ebionites he describes cannot be taken at face value.
Critical scholars judge that the Church Fathers' condemnation of Ebionites as "heretics" reflects the inherently biased perspective of Christian heresiographies. Some scholars argue that core Ebionite beliefs rooted in late Second Temple Judaism, particularly the emphasis on covenant faithfulness and the expectation of a fully human Messiah in the mold of a "prophet like Moses", may reflect traditions inherited directly from the early Jerusalem church, led by James the Just, brother of Jesus, and possibly from the historical Jesus himself.
Name
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. The term the poor was still used in its original, more general sense. Modern Hebrew still uses the Biblical Hebrew term the needy for almsgiving to the needy at Purim.Scholar James Tabor argues that Ebionites most likely named themselves after "the poor in spirit" — people whose condition of economic and social poverty leaves them in a situation of spiritual humility and acknowledged dependence on God — as the first of nine in-groups mentioned in the Beatitudes of Jesus, that are blessed and to whom the Kingdom of God belongs.
History
Emergence
The earliest reference to a sect that might fit the description of the later Ebionites appears in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho. 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 was probably the first to use the term Ebionites to name a sect he labeled heretical "Judaizers" for "stubbornly clinging to the Law". Origen remarks that the name derives from the Hebrew word evyon, meaning 'poor'. Epiphanius of Salamis 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". 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.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 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. 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 beliefs rejected by the Ebionites. Epiphanius, however, mentions that a sect of Ebionites came to embrace some of these beliefs despite keeping their name.
As the Ebionites are first mentioned as such in the second century, their earlier history and any relation to the Jerusalem church remains obscure and a matter of contention. There is no evidence linking the origin of the later 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, Jordan beyond the Jordan River, but does not connect this with Ebionites. They were led by Simeon of Jerusalem and during the Second Jewish-Roman War of 115–117, they were persecuted by the Jewish followers of Bar Kochba for refusing to recognize his messianic claims. As late as Epiphanius, members of the Ebionite sect resided in Nabatea, and Paneas, Moabitis, and Kochaba in the region of Bashan, near Adraa. From these places, they dispersed and went into Asia, Rome and Cyprus.
According to Harnack, the influence of Elchasaites places some Ebionites in the context of the gnostic movements widespread in Syria and the lands to the east.
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 sects. 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 by both Jews and Christians. Maccoby's views as expressed in his works from the 1980s and 1990s have, however, been nearly universally rejected by scholars. 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.The Ebionites are still attested, if as marginal communities, down to the 7th century. Some modern scholars argue that the Ebionites survived much longer and identify them with a sect encountered by the historian Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad around the year 1000. There is another possible reference to Ebionite communities that has them existing around the 11th century in northwestern Arabia, in Sefer Ha'masaot, the "Book of the Travels" of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, a rabbi from Spain. These communities were located in two cities, Tayma and "Tilmas", possibly Saada in Yemen. The 12th century Muslim historian Muhammad al-Shahrastani mentions Jews living in nearby Medina and Hejaz who accepted Jesus as a prophetic figure and followed traditional Judaism, rejecting mainstream Christian beliefs. Some scholars propose that interactions between Ebionite communities and early Muslims played a role in shaping the Islamic perspective on Jesus.