- Gospel Of The Ebionites Pdf
- Gospel Of The Ebionites English Translation Pdf
- Gospel Of The Ebionites Pdf
The Gospel of the Ebionites is the conventional name given by scholars to an apocryphal gospel extant only as seven brief quotations in a heresiology known as the Panarion, by Epiphanius of Salamis; he misidentified it as the Hebrew gospel, believing it to be a truncated and modified version of the. Scholars have established central Ebionite beliefs from references in the New Testamant and the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. To the Ebionites, Jesus was a prophet like Moses and a 'true teacher' but he was not the son of God. They adopted dietary laws, based on references in Genesis and Isaiah to a pre-Flood diet, that excluded meat. There are other interesting features of the Gospel of the Ebionites, known from the quotations of Epiphanius, the fourth-century heresiologist (= heresy-hunter). We wish we had the whole Gospel. We have only these eight fragments that Epiphanius quotes. We wish we knew who actually used the Gospel. When the Gospel account of Jesus spoke of fulfilling the tenets of the Old Testament, he was referring to the fact that the Old Testament is an allegorical portrayal of the Laws that must be fulfilled within the seeker/disciples own mind and being in order for the lost prodigal sons to be restored to the Edenic Kingdom of origination.
The Ebionites are considered some of the earliest followers of Jesus, with roots tracing to the early Jewish-Christians called the Nazarenes. The term Ebionite is derived from the Hebrew word אביונים (ebyonim), which means “the poor,” as they maintained a vow of poverty. As referenced by early Church fathers, this Lost Gospel is thought to have been written in the First or Second Century. Excerpts of this lost Gospel have been found among seven fragments as quoted in the writings of Epiphanius. The lost Gospel text indicates that neither John nor Jesus ate meat, and Jesus did not condone animal sacrifice. Please find the English translation of the fragments of the lost Gospel of the Ebionites below:| Gospel of the Ebionites |
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The Gospel of the Ebionites
Fragment One1. During the time of Herod, the Governor of Judea, during the reign of Chief Priest Caiaphas, John appeared and baptized with the immersion for a change of heart at the river Jordan.
2. He was considered to be in succession from the lineage of Aaron, and was the son of Elizabeth and Zacharias the priest. And everyone traveled out to see him.
Fragment Two
1. During the time when John was baptizing, the Pharisees approached him and were baptized – along with many from Jerusalem.
2. He wore clothing made of camels' hair, with a leather belt around his hips. And his food was wild honey prepared with oil cakes, which tasted like manna.
Fragment Three
1. Many people were baptized, and Jesus also came to be baptized by John. And as he came up from the water, the heavens opened and he saw the Holy Spirit descend in the form of a dove and enter into him.
2. Then a voice from heaven was heard, “You are my beloved Representative, and I am very pleased with you.”
Gospel Of The Ebionites Pdf
3. He continued, “I have given you life on this day.”4. Then suddenly a great light began to shine onto that place. Then John saw him and said, “Who are you, Master?”
5. Then a voice from heaven was heard, “This is my beloved Representative, of whom I am very pleased.”
6. Then John fell down at his feet and said, “I beg you to baptize me, Master.”
7. But he would not. He said, “Accept this, because it is appropriate in order for everything to be achieved.”
Fragment Four
1. Then there was a man named Jesus. He was about thirty years old. He has chosen us.
2. Then he went to Capernaum and entered the house of Simon Peter.
3. He opened his mouth and said, “While walking by the sea of Tiberias, I recruited John and James, the sons of Zebedee, and Simon and Andrew and Thaddaeus and Simon Zelotes, and Judas Iscariot; as well as you, Matthew. When you were sitting at the taxation desk, I called and you followed me.
4. “Accordingly, it is fitting that you will be the twelve messengers that will bear witness unto Judea.”
Fragment Five
1. “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside.”
Gospel Of The Ebionites English Translation Pdf
2. “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?”3. Then he stretched out his hand towards his disciples and said, “These are my brothers, my mother and sisters – those who do the will of my Creator.”
Fragment Six
1. “I have come to abolish the sacrifices.
2. “If you don’t stop sacrificing, the suffering won’t stop weighing upon you.”
Fragment Seven
1. “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat for the Passover?”
2. To this, he replied, “I do not want to eat the flesh of this Paschal Lamb with you.”
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Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, by G.R.S. Mead, [1900], at sacred-texts.com
THE EBIONITES.
The Nazoræans.Epiphanius would have it that the Christians were first called Iessæi, and says they are mentioned under this name in the writings of Philo. The followers of the earliest converts of Jesus are also said to have been called Nazoræi. Even towards the end of the fourth century the Nazoræans were still found scattered throughout Cœle-Syria, Decapolis, Pella (whither they fled at the destruction of Jerusalem), the region beyond Jordan, and far away to Mesopotamia. Their collection of the logoi was called The Gospel according to the Hebrews, and differed greatly from the synoptic accounts of the Canon. Even to this day a remnant of the Nazoræans is said by some to survive in the Mandaïtes, a strange sect dwelling in the marshes of Southern Babylonia, but their curious scripture, The Book of Adam, as preserved in the Codex Nasaræus, bears no resemblance whatever to the known fragments of The Gospel according to the Hebrews, though some of their rites are very similar to the rites of some communities of the 'Righteous' referred to in that strange Jewish pseudepigraph The Sibylline Oracles.
Who the original Iessæans or Nazoræans were, is wrapped in the greatest obscurity; under another of their designations, however, the Ebionites or 'Poor Men,' we can obtain some further information. These early outer followers of Jesus were finally ostracized from the orthodox fold, and so completely
were their origin and history obscured by the subsequent industry of heresy-hunters, that we finally find them fathered on a certain Ebion, who is as non-existent as several other heretics, such as Epiphanes, Kolarbasus and Elkesai, who were invented by the zeal and ignorance of fourth-century hæresiologists and 'historians.' Epiphanes is the later personification of an unnamed 'distinguished' (epiphanes) teacher; Kolarbasus is the personification of the 'sacred four' (kol-arba), and Elkesai the personification of the 'hidden power' (elkesai). So eager were the later refutators to add to their list of heretics, that they invented the names of persons from epithets and doctrines. So with Ebion.
The Ebionites were originally so called because they were 'poor'; the later orthodox subsequently The Poor Men. added 'in intelligence' or 'in their ideas about Christ.' And this may very well have been the case, and doubtless many grossly misunderstood the public teaching of Jesus, for it should not be forgotten that one of the main factors to be taken into account in reviewing the subsequent rapid progress of the new religion was the social revolution. In the minds of the most ignorant of the earliest followers of the public teaching, the greatest hope aroused may well have been the near approach of the day when the 'poor' should be elevated above the 'rich.' But this was the view of the most ignorant only; though doubtless they were numerous enough.
Nevertheless it was Ebionism which preserved the tradition of the earliest converts of the public teaching, and the Ebionite communities doubtless
possessed a collection of the public Sayings and based their lives upon them.
It was against these original followers of the public teaching of Jesus that Paul contended in his efforts to gentilize Christianity. For many a long year this Petro-Pauline controversy was waged with great bitterness, and the Canon of the New Testament is thought by some to have been the means adopted to form the basis of a future reconciliation; the Petrine and Pauline documents were carefully edited, and between the Gospel portion and the Pauline letters was inserted the new-forged link of the Acts of the Apostles, a carefully edited selection from a huge mass of legendary Acts, welded together into a narrative and embellished with speeches after the manner of Thucydides.
The Ebionite Tradition of Jesus.How then did the original Ebionites view the person and teaching of Jesus? They regarded their leader as a wise man, a prophet, a Jonas, nay even a Solomon. Moreover, he was a manifestation of the Messiah, the Anointed, who was to come, but he had not yet appeared as the Messiah; that would only be at his second coming. In his birth as Jesus, he was a prophet simply. The New Dispensation was but the continuation of the Old Law; all was essentially Jewish. They therefore expected the coming of the Messiah as literally prophesied by their men of old. He was to come as king, and then all the nations would be subjected to the power of the Chosen People, and for a thousand years there would be peace and prosperity and plenty on earth.
Jesus was a man, born as all men, the human son of Joseph and Mary. It was only at his baptism, at thirty years of age, that the Spirit descended upon him and he became a prophet. They, therefore, guarded his Sayings as a precious deposit, handing them down by word of mouth. The Ebionites knew nothing of the pre-existence or divinity of their revered prophet. It is true that Jesus was 'christ,' but so also would all be who fulfilled the Law. Thus they naturally repudiated Paul and his new doctrine entirely; for them Paul was a deceiver and an apostate from the Law, they even denied that he was a Jew.
It was only later that they used The Gospel according to the Hebrews, which Jerome says was the same as The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles and The Gospel of the Nazarenes, that is to say, of the Nazoræans. It should be remembered that these Nazoræans knew nothing of the Nazareth legend, which was subsequently developed by the 'in order that it might be fulfilled' school of historicizers.
The Ebionites did not return to Jerusalem when the emperor permitted the new colony of Ælia Capitolina to be established in 138, for no Jew was allowed to return. The new town was Gentile. Therefore, when we read of 'the re-constitution of the mother church' at Ælia Colonia, in Church historians, little reliance can be placed upon such assertions. The 'mother church,' based on the public teaching, was Ebionite and remained Ebionite, the community at Ælia Colonia was Gentile and therefore Pauline.
Christianity, as understood by the Ebionites, being an essentially national doctrine, Paulinism was a necessity if any public attempt at universality was to be made; therefore it was that the true historical side of popular Christianity (the original Ebionite tradition) became more and more obscured, until finally it had so completely disappeared from the area of such tradition, that a new 'history' could with safety be developed to suit the dogmatic evolution inaugurated by Paul.
Gospel Of The Ebionites Pdf
The later forms of Ebionism, however, which survived for several centuries, were of a Gnostic nature, and reveal the contact of these outer communities of primitive Christendom based on the public teaching with an inner Jewish tradition, which evidently existed contemporaneously with Paul, and may have existed far earlier.