THE qOSPEL OFTHE EBIONITES 1t

Gospel. This is shown, for example, in the reference to the diet of John the
The Çospel of
Baptist, in which the canonical statement that he ate locusts (i.e., meat) and
wild honey was modifred by the change of simply one letter, so that now
the Baptist, in anticþation of the Ebionites themselves, maintains a vege-
tarian cuisine: here he is said to have eaten pancakes and wild honey.

the Ebionites It is difficult to assign a date to this Gospel, but since it betrays a
knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and presupposes a thriving com-
munity of Jewish Christians, it is perhaps best to locate it sometime early
in the second century. The following extracts are all that remain of the
Gospel, drawn from Epiphanius's work, the Panarion (:The Medícine
Cåesr), Book 30.

rbignftes were a group of Jewish christians located in different regions

lrg 4 The beginning of the Gospel they John. When he came up out of the water,
of the Mediterranean from at least the second to the fourth centuries.r úIhat
distinguished this group of christians from many others was their I u.e reads as follows: 'And so in the heavens opened and he saw the Holy
attempt
to combine Jewish views and lifestyles with the belief that Jesus was tie the days of Herod, King of Judea, John Spirit in the form of a dove, descending
In particular,
they were said to have emphasized beliefin only one came baptizing a baptism of repentance and entering him. And a voice came from
lessiah. in the Jordan River. He was said to have heaven, 'You are my beloved Son, in you
God to such an extent that they denied, as a consequence, Jesus,own
divinity. At the same time, the Ebionites differed from non-christian come from the tribe of Aaron, the priest, I am well pleased.'Then it said, 'Today
Jews
in asserting that Jesus was the sacrifice for the sins of the world and that and was the child ofZacharias and Eliz- I have given you birth.' Immediately a
all abeth. And everyone went out to him." great light enlightened the place. When
other sacrifices had therefore become meaningless. Among other
things,
this belief led them to embrace.a vegetarian diet, since most meat (Bpiphanius, Panarion, 30, 13, 6) John saw this," it says, "he said to him,
was
procured, in the ancient world, through the religious 'Who are you Lord?'Yet again a voice
act of sacrificing an
animal. For by chopping off the genealo- came from heaven to him, 'This is my
One of the sacred books these Jewish Ch¡istians appealed to
in support
2 gies of Matthew they make their beloved Son, with whom I am well
of their views was known in antiquity as the Gospel of the Gospel begin as we indicated before, with pleased.' And then," it says, "John fell
Ebionites.
Regrettably- the book as whole has been lost; but we are fortunate the words: 'And so in the days of Herod, before him and said, 'I beg you, Lord-
to have
some quotations of it in the writings of an opponent of the King of Judea, when Caiaphas was high you baptize me ! ' But Jesus restrained him
Ebioniæs, the
fourtli-century heresy-hunter, Epiphanius of salamis. These quotations give priest, a certain one named John came by saying, 'læt it be, for it is fitting that
us a good idea of what the entire Gospel must have looked like. It baptizing a baptism of repentance in the all things be fulfilled in this way.' " (Epi-
was
w-ritten in Greek, and represented a kind of harmony of the Jordan River." (Epiphanius, Panarion, 3O, phanius, Panarion, 30, 13, 3-4)
Gospels of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This can be seen most clearly in t4,3)
the accàunt of
thevoice at Jesus' baptism. In the three canonicar accounts, the voice In the GÒspel that they call "ac-
slightly different things. These differences are harmonized, however,
says
And so John was baptizing, and 5 cording to Matthew"-which is
Gospel according to the Ebionites, where the voice comes
in the
from heaven
3 Pharisees came to him and were not at all complete, but is falsified and
th¡ee times, saying something slightly different on each occasion, baptized, as was all of Jerusalem. John mutilated-which they refer to as the He-
corre_
sponding to the words found in each of the three earlier Gospels. wore a gannent of camel hair and a brew Gospel, the following is found:
Some of the Ebionites' distinctive concems are embodied Ieather belt around his waist: and his food 'And so there was a certain man named
in their was wild honey that tasted like manna, Jesus, who was about thirty years old. He
like a cake cooked in oil. (Epiphanius, is the one who chose us. When he came
tSæ Ehmm, Panarion,30, 13,4-5) to Capernaum he entered the house of
lrrr Cå rßtianìt¡es, chap. 6.
Simon, also called Peter, and he opened
Translation by Bart D. Ehrman based on the Greek text found
in Egbert Schlarb and And after a good deal more, it says: his mouth to say, As I was passing by
Diêter LtlhÌmann, Fragrcnte apocryph geword,ener Evangelien
Inteinischer Spracåe (Marburg: N. G. Elwert, ZOOO) ¡S_¡ó.
in griechischer und 4 "When the people were baptized, the lake of Tiberias I chose John and
Jesus also came and was baptized by James, the sons of Zebedee, and Simon,
12
14
Andrew, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot,
and Judas Iscariot; and I called you, Mat,
thew, while you were sitting at the tax
collector's booth, and you followed me.
I want you, therefore, to be the twelve
apostles as a witness to Israel." (Epiphan-
ius, Panarion, 30, 13, 2-3)
Again they deny that he was a man,
6 even basing their view on the word
the Savior spoke when it was reported to
him, "See, your mother and brothers are
standing outside." "Who," he asked, "is
my mother and brothers?" Stretching out
his hand to his disciples he said, "These
are my brothers and mother and sisters-
those who do the will of my Father."
(Epiphanius, Panarion, 30, 14, 5)
They do not allege that he was bom
7 from God the Father, but that he
NON-CANONTCAL qOSPE[5
was created as one of the archangels, yet
was made greater than they, since he rules
over the angels and all things made by
the Almighty. And, as found in thei¡ Gos-
pel, they say that when he came
taught, "I have come to destroy the sac-
rifices. And if you do not stop making
sacrifice, God's wráth will not stop af-
flicting you." (Epiphanius, Panarion, 30,
16, 4-5)
They have changed the saying and
B abandoned its true sequence, as is
clear to everyone who considers the com-
bination of the words. For they have the
disciples say, "Where do you want us to
make preparations for you to eat the Pass-
over lamb?" And they indicate that he
responded, "I
have no desire to eat the
meat of this Passover lamb with you.',
(Epiphanius, Panarion, 30, 22, 4)
he
The Çospel According
to the Hebrews
The Gospel according to the Hebrews is quoted by a number of church
fathers connected with the city of Alexandria, Egypt-Clement, Origen,
Didymus the Blind, and Jerome (who studied with Didymus in Alexandria);
for this reason, scholars assume that it was used, and possibly written, there,
probably during the fi¡st half of the second century. Regrettably, the book
no longer survives intact, but only in the scattered references to it in these
other authors' writings. Its name probably derives from the circumstance
that it was used principally by Jewish-Christians in that large and thriving
mehopolis-i.e., it was called this by outsiders of that communit¡ not by
those who actually used it.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews was written in Greek and narrated
important events of Jesus' life, including his baptism, temptation, and res-
urrection. It appears, however, that these stories were not simply taken over
and modified from the Gospels that came to be included in the New
Testament, They were instead alternative forms of these traditions that had
been passed along orally until the unknown author of this Gospel heard
them and wrote them down.
The Jewish emphases of the Gospel are evident in a several of the
surviving quotations, such as fragment 5, which presupposes the importance
of James, the brother of Jesus, the head of the Jewish-Christian community
in Jerusalem after Jesus' death. Yet some of the sayings of the Gospel have
a Gnostic tone to them (see fragment l, which is quite similar to Coptic
Gospel of Thomas 2).t It may be, then, that this particular Jewish-Christian
community was more sympathetic than others to the prominent Gnostic
teachers in Alexandria in the second century. In any event, the Gospel
evidently contained a number of Jesus' ethical teachings (fragments 4 and
7). And some of its accounts were highly legendary-including the post-
f
On Gnosticism, we Ehmñ,Inst Christ¡anítìes, 713-34.
Translation by Bart D. Ehrman, based on the Greek, Latin, and Syriac texts in A. F. J.
Kijin,Jewísh-ChristlanGospelTladitlon (VC Supp 17; L¡iden: E. J. Brill, 1992) 47-1 15.
15