Download The Ebionites - Holy Spirit Anglican Church

THE EBIONITES
Heresy: Then & Now
Origins of the Ebionites
• Jewish Christians
• Earliest evidence: Pharisees who became Christian, present in Jerusalem and
instigate the Jerusalem Council (cf. Acts 15:5ff)
• May have also been the Judaizers or ‘circumcision party’ whom Paul opposes
• After the Fall of Jerusalem (AD 70)
• Most Jewish Christians became less and less Jewish and became part of the
larger orthodox Christian community
• A few groups, however, held on to Judaism in different forms
• Ebionites possibly mixed with refugee Essenes
• Later evidence shows that these two groups held some similar beliefs and
practices
• Essenes called themselves ‘the poor’, which in Aramaic is ‘ebionim’
• Believers motivated by a desire to evangelize to faithful Jews
• Wanted to understand Jesus and Christianity in exclusively Jewish categories
Ebionite Beliefs
• God
• Creator of the world
• Creation included a good, masculine force and an evil, feminine force
• The Law
• Strict observance of the law
• Kept Sabbath and the Lord’s Day, circumcision, dietary laws
• Extended it to include vegetarianism, ritual washings
• Separated table fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers
• Sacrificial system was a corruption of God’s original intent
• The Scriptures
• Old Testament
• Accept Moses and the Pentateuch
• Believe that some of the Pentateuch was corrupted
• New Testament
• Used truncated form of the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of the Hebrews
• Rejected Paul
Ebionite Beliefs
• Jesus
• No virgin birth
• A mighty prophet like Moses (cf. Deut 18:15)
• Jesus was the final teacher of Torah
• Jesus rejected the sacrificial system
• He did not eat the passover lamb before his death
• Indwelt by an archangel (‘Christ’) at baptism
• Empowered his ministry
• Taught through him to reveal the unknown god
• Left him before the crucifixion
• Jesus’ death was not a sacrifice
Ebionite Beliefs
What makes ebionite beliefs heretical?
“In the end, Ebionitism became heretical because it was a symbol of
parochialism within a faith that was clear about its universal significance and
calling.”
--Alister McGarth, Heresy, 110
Ebionitism Today
• Later Adoptionism
• Groups which wish to understand Jesus only within the framework
of Judaism (no new wineskins)
• Some forms of Messianic Judaism (Jews for Judaism)
• The Quests for the Historical Jesus