The Ebionites and the Nazarenes

3.1 The Ebionites and the Nazarenes

The word Ebionite is an Aramaic transliteration meaning poor one. It was taken from the teachings of Jesus: "Blessed are you Poor Ones, for yours is the Kingdom of God," Luke 6:20. The word Nazarene means a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. The word used in the Quran for Christians is "Nasara" (plural) or "Nasrani" (singular), which is very close to "Nazarene." This same name still exists in the Arabic language of the Middle East to refer to a Christian. The Nazarenes are often referred to synonymously with the Ebionites. Some scholars suggest this name was applied to the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem headed by James, the brother of Jesus. Others scholars consider one as a sect of the other. The name Nazarene is used in Matthew 2:23 and Acts 24:5 and it may only refer to the Jerusalem Christians who were poor and pursued a humble life, like Jesus himself. James became the community leader in Jerusalem and its first bishop (Acts 12:17; 15:13–21; Gal. 1:19) and was regarded as one of the pillars of the Christian Church (Gal. 2:9). He is the author of the Epistle of James of the New Testament.

After the destruction of Jerusalem (70 CE), the Jewish Christians, including the relatives of Jesus and the surviving apostles, escaped to Pella, Jordan with the second Bishop, Simon son of Cleopas (Luke 24:18; John 19:25), who was the cousin of Jesus and the next-of-kin. Jesus’ family occupied an outstanding faithful position in the Ebionites/Nazarenes community. Simon was executed in 107 CE in the reign of Emperor Trajan at the age of a hundred and twenty years. According to Eusebius “Church History”, the Church historian and theologian, the Church at that time continued as a pure and uncorrupt virgin. After the defeat of the third Jewish revolt in 135 CE, the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem and Jewish Christians congregation of Jerusalem stopped. The gentile Catholic Church, followers of Pauline Christianity, hijacked the Church of Jerusalem in Pella. The next Bishop in the Episcopal seat of James, Marcus, was a gentile, probably a native of Italy. Marcus proceeded to declare his disconnection to those few who remained faithful to the true doctrine of Jesus Christ! The Gentile Christian era now began! At his persuasion, the Mosaic Law was renounced. By this sacrifice, the few Jewish Christians were admitted back in Jerusalem and gradually accepted the Catholic Church.

The Ebionites were not hostile to the Christian gentiles, but they warned of false leaders who would claim apostolic authority in replacing the Mosaic Law with false doctrines. They indicted the fathers of the Church for corrupting the original teachings of Jesus. The Catholic Church labeled these Jewish “original” Christians as heretics and sought their destruction. The doctrinal position of the Ebionites overlapped the beliefs of the Jews and Catholic Christians, and caused them to be condemned by both. In turn, the Ebionites regarded the Jews as unenlightened and damned Paul as the first Christian heretic, Acts 24:14. The sect proclaimed that most of the scriptures of the Catholics Church were not authentic.

The Gospel of the Ebionites was preserved by Epiphanius of Salamis, one of the fathers of Church, in the latter part of the fourth century. Unfortunately, he was a rather a hostile witness to the traditions contained in their Gospel, and his statements were at times confusing or contradictory. Epiphanius wrote his "Panarion" in the fourth century, denouncing 80 heretical sects, among them the Ebionites, described in Panarion 30. Ebionites used only the Aramaic original of Matthew, written with Hebrew letters and referred to as the Gospel of the Hebrews. Advocates of Pauline Christianity stated this version of Matthew omitted the first two chapters (on Jesus' virgin birth), and started with Jesus' baptism by John. This Gospel appears to be in harmony with all the synoptic gospels, with some changes to reflect their theology. Scholars suggested that Gospel of Barnabas, favored by Muslims, may have been based upon an Ebionite document. Ebionites believed that Jesus was fully human, but was chosen as the son of God in the Jewish sense at his baptism. Ebionites believed that all followers of Jesus, whether they be Jewish or gentile should follow the Mosaic Law through interpretation and observance of either conservative Essense or progressive Pharisee, implemented with the wisdom teachings of Jesus.

The Ebionites is the earliest Christian sect after Jesus, and it included James and other apostles and disciples, and the relatives of Jesus including, perhaps, Virgin Mary. They saw Jesus and listened to him. They knew and understood what Jesus preached. They believed in the Old Testament and the Ten commandments. They believed that Jesus came to fulfill and not to destroy. And, just like Jesus, they were poor. For these reasons, the Ebionites may well be the true Christians that held the message of Jesus that conformed with God’s message in the Old Testament and in Islam.

According to Eusebius' Church History, the Ebionites accepted Jesus as the Messiah, but they differed with the Catholic Church in the following:

Denied the divinity of Jesus.
Denied that Jesus is the Son of God.
Believed that salvation is not achieved by faith in Jesus, but only by the Mercy of God.
Reproach Christians for eating unclean meats.
Practice circumcision, and observe the Law of Moses.
Refused to accept that Jesus abolished or abrogated the Jewish Law.
Refused to acknowledge that Jesus had a pre-existed life.
Rejected the Gospel of John and all the epistles of Paul, whom they called an apostate from the law owing to his claims that belief in Christ made the entirety of Jewish law irrelevant for salvation.
Held James in the highest regard, while Paul was considered “The Enemy”, (Matt 13:25–40).

Eusebius also talks about another group of Ebionites who accepted the virgin birth and the Holy Spirit, but refused to accept Jesus pre-existence as “God the Word and Wisdom”.

Ebionites were not heretics, as the Church asserted, nor "re-Judaizers," as modern scholars call them, but the authentic successors of the immediate disciples and followers of Jesus, whose views and doctrines they faithfully transmitted, believing correctly that they were derived from Jesus himself. They were the same group that had earlier been called the Nazarenes, who were led by James and Peter, who had known Jesus during his lifetime, and were in a far better position to know his aims than Paul, who met Jesus only in dreams and visions. Thus the opinion held by the Ebionites about Paul is of extraordinary interest and deserves respectful consideration, instead of dismissal as outrageous propaganda - the reaction of Pauline Christian scholars from ancient to modern times. The Ebionites testified that Paul had no Pharisaic background or training; he was the son of Gentiles, converted to Judaism in Tarsus, came to Jerusalem when an adult, and attached himself to the High Priest as a henchman. Disappointed in his hopes of advancement, Paul broke with the High Priest and sought fame by founding a new religion. He became Christian, perhaps, to become a community leader in the new religion. When he could not advance with the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, he turned to the gentiles. These accounts, while not exactly reliable in all its details may be substantially correct. It makes far more sense of all the puzzling and contradictory features of the story of Paul than the account of the official documents of the Orthodox Church.

In summary, the Ebionite Christians believed that Jesus was the Messiah sent from the Jewish God to the Jewish people in fulfillment of the Jewish scripture to reform the Jewish religion. Most likely they were the true followers of Jesus while the mainstream Christians follow the new religion developed by Paul. In this new religion, central story was that of an atoning death of a Divine being. Belief in this sacrifice, and a mystical sharing of the death of the deity, formed the only path to salvation. Paul alone was the creator of this amalgam.

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