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The Ebionites, �poor ones,� were Christianized Jews, presumably messianic Pharisees, that broke with the Church over the Old Covenant-New Covenant issue sometime between CE 50 and the CE 70 destruction of Jerusalem. They appear to have been the first major faction to break with the apostles. They may have split off by the time of writing of Paul�s epistle to Titus ca. C.E. 62. Paul referred to �those of the circumcision� (Verse 10) teaching for �sordid gain��the offerings of the people.
The Ebionites were not the Nazarenes. Later Greco-Roman Christians not in their fellowship often confused the two groups as one and the same. Collectively both groups became known to Greco-Roman Christians as simply Jewish Christians. Unfortunately, the strategy of the leaders of the headquarters church at Jerusalem to conform with Jewish cultural and religious practices to keep the peace may have led to some misunderstanding and inadvertently fostered early ebionism. The strategy may not only have produced a false perception by some as to the nature of Christianity but drew others to the Church without fully understanding the implications of the New Covenant.
The Ebionites determined to remain a part of first-century Judaism. They appear to have failed to identify Jesus as divine and did not reach the conclusion that his death brought the cessation of the Old Covenant. When Paul wrote to the church at Philippi in ca. CE 61 (Philippians 3:2-3) warning them to �beware of the false circumcision, for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh� he appears to have been dealing with this group.
The faction desired to perpetuate the Jewish character of early Christianity and stood opposed to the apostle Paul and his teachings. They feared the open admissions policy preached by Paul and his companions believing it would undermine their struggle to keep the church a branch of first-century Judaism. They continued to plant doubt and confusion among the Gentiles by raising questions about their conversion.
Late in ca. CE 49 some of this group preached their message of messianic Judaism in southern Galatia to the predominately Gentile congregations organized by the apostles Paul and Barnabas. These messianic Pharisees placed a seed of doubt, of anxiety, which interfered with the spiritual growth of the Gentile brethren. They raised the issue of whether or not a Gentile had to first become a Jew as prerequisite to admission to the church (Acts 15:5).
Fairly soon after the evangelization of the Galatian region by the apostle Paul, Barnabas, and their companions, news reached Paul of some of this faction, in this case certain itinerant messianic Jews, visiting the churches in Southern Galatia and teaching that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could ever be true Christians. The ultimate split between the Ebionites from the Church of God, the Nazarenes, was likely over this issue and not over matters pertaining to the Gentiles.
Their teaching was that the observance of the �Law of Moses� and ritual �circumcision� were necessary requirements for salvation. They argued that to be a real Christian Gentiles had to keep the whole Law of Moses and Gentile males had to undergo ritual circumcision. In other words, they taught that Gentile converts first had to become practicing Jews, including the voluntarily assumption of the Old Covenant, as a prerequisite to becoming actual members of the Church.
The Ebionites would not abandon the Jew-Gentile dichotomy. Subsequently, the Ebionites became quite critical of Paul and attempted to discredit him. Undoubtedly they blamed Paul for taking the church outside of Judaism by the way he dealt with Gentile admission into the Church of God. In the Ascension of James, apparently an Ebionite writing ca. CE 150,F1 Paul was castigated in a scathing attack:
Paul was a man of Tarsus-indeed, a Hellene, the son of a Hellenist mother and a Hellenist father. Having gone up to Jerusalem and having remained there a long time, he desired to marry a daughter of the priest and on that account submitted himself as a proselyte for circumcision. When, however, he did not obtain the girl, he became furious and began to write against circumcision, the Sabbath, and the law. (Longenecker 1990:26.)
Following the Acts 15 meeting, the messianic Pharisee faction, who were pseudo-Christian Jews, the �false circumcision,� or heteros teachers (that is a different kind of teachers), who could be termed �Judaizers� or �Judaizing-Christians�, or preferably Christianized Jews were not willing to accept the teaching of the apostles on the question of circumcision and the Law of Moses. Splintering off as the Ebionites they continued to insist that Gentiles must come to God through Judaism, that a Gentile, in order to be a first class Christian, must first become a Jewish Proselyte and observe Torah.
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F1This passage from Epiphanius, Panarion, or Adv. Haer. 30.16; see also 30.25, was quoted in full by Richard N. Longenecker writing in the Word Biblical Commentary. See Richard N. Longenecker's "Galatians," Vol. 41, in the Word Biblical Commentary (Longenecker 1990:26). See also Glenn A. Koch's A Critical Investigation of Epiphanius� Knowledge of the Ebionites (Koch 1976).
Page last edited: 11/28/04 08:44 AM
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