Ebionites

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Ebionites (also Ebioneans, Hebrew - Aramaic ebionim, the poor) was a self-designation of ancient Jewish Christians who formed a group separate from the church.

Origin and history

The Ebionites differed from the so-called “Nazarenes” who, like them, had emigrated from Jerusalem to the East Bank in 66/67 AD . The Ebionites were mostly widespread in Transjordan and Syria . It remains unclear whether the origin of the Ebionites lies in the early Jerusalem community . With Ebionim were in the Torah , the (JHWH-) faithful Israelites called, 1 Sam 2,8  EU , Hes 22.29  EU , Amos 5,12  EU . Ebionim stood for an honorable name for godly Israelites.

It was Irenaeus of Lyon who was the first author to mention a separate 'heretical' group of Ebioneans or Ebionites around 180 AD, separate from the old church ( Adversus haereses I 26.2; III 11.7). About the antiheretic writing medicine box ( panárion ) of Epiphanius of Salamis , parts of a text have been handed down to this day, which is called Ebionite Gospel or Ebionaean Gospel , but Epiphanius wrongly called Hebrew Gospel . Epiphanius said of the Ebioneans that they only used the Gospel of Matthew .

Originally “the poor” was a name of honor. In the course of time the meaning changed to the negative, because the group had enemies on all sides: They were excluded from their community by the Jews, although they considered themselves Jews, because they saw Jesus as the Messiah and because they saw animal sacrifices refused, even developed into vegetarians. They were regarded as heretics by the Gentile Christians because they opposed Paul and did not interpret Jesus' death as a bloody atoning death. They celebrated the Lord's Supper as a mere reminder of Jesus and replaced the “blood cup” with a water cup. The Romans classified the Ebionites as Jews and Christians as a group of potential rebels and accordingly suspected them.

The Ebionites are related to other Jewish followers of the Jesus movement, such as the Nazarenes . So tried Epiphanius of Salamis , the non-, heretical 'considered nasaraioi by as, heretic' considered nazoraioi, or distinguish Ebionites.

Ebionite positions

For the Ebionites, Jesus was a human being, born through his parents, consequently the virgin birth was rejected. God ( YHWH ) bestowed on him through the Ruach HaQodesh , ( Hebrew רוח הקודש ruach ha-kodesh ) prophetic gifts. He was a law abiding Jew who, according to the halacha , observed the 613 mitzvot (commandments). For the Ebonites, the Torah was always valid; for them Jesus as a human being was a prophet of God. They were closely related to the attitude and views of the early Jerusalem community and were hostile to Pauline ideas . In the writings of some church fathers , their 'anti-Pauline stance' is mentioned. a. with Justin the Martyr , Irenaeus of Lyons , Hippolytus of Rome , Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus , Origen .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Kleine: Fragments, Quotes and Logies Jewish Christian Gospels, the Thomas Gospel and a Jewish Anti-Gospel. January 28, 2011, www.pastoralservice.de, accessed on April 14, 2018 [1]
  2. ↑ Jörg Frey : Ebionite Gospel. Alternative spelling: Ebionean Gospel; Gospel of Ebionites. Created: April 2013, ( [2] on www.bibelwissenschaft.de)
  3. ↑ Hermann Detering : The opponents of Paul - Judaist thesis 2nd century. July 4th, 2018 [3]
  4. ^ Rainer Riesner : Nazarenes. In Manfred Görg , Bernhard Lang (Ed.): New Bible Lexicon. Vol. 2, Benziger, Zurich 1995, col. 908-912.
  5. ↑ Hyam Maccoby : The Mythmaker. Paul and the Invention of Christianity. Transl. And ed. by Fritz Erik Hoevels, Ahriman-Verlag, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89484-605-3 , pp. 194-195; 200
  6. ↑ Gerd Lüdemann : Paulus, the Gentile Apostle: Anti-Paulinism in early Christianity. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1980, ISBN 978-3-5255-3801-2 ; P. 17 f.