Ebionite Gospel

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The Ebionite Gospel (also Ebionäeregangelium; English Gospel of Ebionites ) is a pseudepigraphic script that is counted among the Reconstructed Gospels , but is largely considered lost. The few text fragments that are still known today were all handed down by Epiphanios of Salamis as quotations in his antiheretic writing medicine box against all heretics (Panarion omnium Haeresium, literally: "against all heresy").

Authorship and reference to other scriptures

Epiphanios of Salamis (fresco in Gračanica Monastery )

In contrast to other pseudepigraphies, which can be assigned to an author or a group of authors in a scientific context, the author of the Ebionite script remains unknown, which is not least due to the few text passages that have been preserved. While Irenaeus states that the Ebionites used the Gospel of Matthew (Haer. I 26.2), Eusebius of Caesarea erroneously writes of the "Gospel according to the Hebrews" and thus makes a mistake. He quotes seven passages from which he states that they are used by the Ebioneans. His relation to the Ebioneans in the East Bank is unclear, as he probably never had direct contact with them.

Epiphanios writes of a "shortened and mutilated edition" of the Gospel of Matthew, which is used by the "Jewish Christian sect of the Ebioneans". He clearly distinguishes it from the script used by the Nazarene, which he describes as a complete Hebrew "Ur-Mt". Whether he justified this relationship with the structure or a special function is unknown, since the text shows familiarity with all three Synoptics without any particular preference and suggests a “mixed text of synoptic type”. Equating it with the Gospel of Hebrews is a mistake and is likely to go back to the false generalization of a remark by Eusebius that a special branch of the Ebioneans only used the Gospel of Hebrews. It was assumed that the scriptures could be identical to the Gospel according to the Twelve (or the Twelve Apostles) mentioned by Origen and Jerome, but no text fragments at all have survived from this script and the equation of the two scriptures is also unclear. In contrast, the philologists Wilhelm von Christ , Otto Stählin and Wilhelm Schmid stated in their new edition of a work from 1924 in 1981 that the Ebionite Gospel was the "Gospel of the Twelve". However, it should not be confused with a Syrian manuscript (probably from post-Constantine times), which James Rendel Harris translated as the "Gospel of the Twelve Apostles" or with Coptic fragments that E. Revillout published as the "Gospel of the 12 Apostles". The quoted passages agree neither with the canonical Gospel of Matthew nor with the Gospel of Hebrews. The writing belongs next to the Hebrews Gospel to one of the three currently known Gospels of Jewish Christians , including the (only since the Middle Ages, so named) Nazoräerevangelium is expected. The known text fragments are likely to have been written by the same person in the second century . Probably because of the small amount of text, scholars tried again and again to add further fragments or pieces of text, e.g. B. from the pseudo-clementines . However, this possibility was refuted by Georg Strecker in 1958. Strecker even thinks it is conceivable that fragment No. 4 belongs to an independent work: “It is possible that Epiphanius shows by placing it in front that he has found a tradition independent of the Ebionean Gospel with this fragment, which leads to the assumption that an independent Gospel who is twelve at the time of Epiphanius suggests. "

Only Adolf Hilgenfeld recognized the independence of the magazine in 1863 and published his findings in the four-volume magazine Novum Testamentum extra-canonem receptum ( "The discovery of the New Testament except canonical [writings]"), which was published 1866th Today it is known that this is not a modified Gospel of Matthew, but a separate work that can be distinguished from the Gospel of Hebrews. The German Bible Society speaks of an early "Gospel or Synoptic harmony". In contrast, the Catholic church historian Franz Dünzl writes that the text was part of the dispute in the early church about the "integration and harmonization of different Christological ideas". It emerged in circles that did not take the overall view when compiling the New Testament canon , but gave preference to certain traditions, while rejecting others.

Language, place and time of origin

Syria and Palestine, east of the Jordan, is the most likely place of origin. The illustration shows the Roman provinces in the eastern Mediterranean around AD 117.

The relationship with the synoptic writings suggests that it was written in ancient Greek . Confirmation of this is provided by the similarity of the Greek words grasshopper ( ἀκρίς 'akrís' ) and cake ( ἐγκρίς 'egkrís [= eŋkrís]' ). When the food of John the Baptist is mentioned, instead of grasshoppers (scripture teaches vegetarianism), wild honey is used and is characterized, based on Num 11.8, with the description "whose taste was like manna, like cake in oil."

The Ebioneans called themselves “Ebionim” (i.e. “The Poor”, an honorary title that is already mentioned in the Psalms ) and, as a definition, indicates an order or a religious conviction or membership of a religious group rather than one Tribe. The main settlement area of ​​the Ebioneans was the East Bank, but they also settled in the entire area of ​​what was then Syria and Palestine , as well as in Cappadocia . According to the reports of the Church Fathers, the Ebionites had their headquarters in the East Bank and Epiphanius claims to have seen the book there and made extracts from it, so that the East Bank is the most likely place of origin.

Since the scriptures refer to the other Gospels and Irenaeus called them Adversus haereses (“Against the Heresies”, written 374–377), it cannot have originated until the beginning of the second century at the earliest. The latest possible date of origin before Epiphanius is not known, as there is no reliable evidence from this time. Petri Luomanen offers a text-critical analysis of the synoptic and non-canonical parallels to the Gospel of the Ebionite fragments Pan. 30.14.5, including the Gospel of Thomas logion 99. He concludes that the Ebionitenevangelium, the Gospel of Thomas and Second Epistle of Clement by a vordiatessaronisch depend -harmonisierenden tradition of the Gospel. Similar to Christopher Mark Tuckett: "Therefore it may well be that 2. Clemens is dependent on a different source here, which had already harmonized the various versions of the proverb in the Synoptic in its current form." Jörg Frey writes: "Der A comparison with Tatian's Diatessaron from around 170 , which, in addition to the Synoptics, already uses the Gospel of John and bases its outline, points to an origin in the time before Tatian, up to around 150 ”. Frey also justifies it with the fact that a consolidation of Jewish Christian traditions after the Bar Kochba uprising (132 to 135 AD) is historically plausible. According to this, the most probable time of origin can be narrowed down between 135 and 150 AD.

Content and exegetical tendencies

The Gospel begins with the fourth fragment of the text: “A certain man named Jesus came upon him, and he was about thirty years old, who chose us. And when he came to Capernaum, he went into the house of Simon, who is surnamed Peter, and opened his mouth and said, 'As I was walking along the lake of Tiberias, I chose John and James, the sons of Zebedee, and Simon and Andrew and Thaddäus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the Iscariot and you, Matthew, who was at the customs, I called, and you followed me. I want you twelve apostles to be a witness to Israel. '”(In Pan. 30,13,2 f.)

Classification of the text fragments

The order of the individual fragments is based on the sequence according to Epiphanius. Strecker's arrangement is based on the outline of the canonical gospels. It takes into account that fragment No. 4 could not be definitely identified as part of the Ebionite Gospel, but according to the Bible Lexicon (WiBiLex) it could be "a kind of incipit or preface" of the Ebionite Gospel.

Order according to Epiphanius Fragment according to Strecker / Lührmann Quote from Panarion omnium Haeresium theme Canonical reference Specialty
1 4th pan. 30,13,2f. introduces the person of Jesus and deals with the election of the twelve (named eight) Mk 1.16-20  EU Increased as a self-report ("chose us")
2 2 pan. 30.13.4 John the Baptist Mk 1,4  EU , Joh 1,19  EU Emphasis on the Aaronid descent of the Baptist; "It happened in the days of Herod, king of Judea" (lit. like Lk 1,5  EU )
3 1 or 1a pan. 30.13.6 John the Baptist Mk 1.6  EU or Mt 3.4  EU vegetarianism
4th 3 pan. 30.13.7-8 Baptism of Jesus Mk 1.11  EU "When the people were diving, Jesus also came ..."
5 1 or 1b pan. 30.14.3-5 Question of true relatives Mt 12.47-50  EU Reference to Jesus' word about his mother and brothers
6th 6th Preparation of the last Passover supper Last Supper as a purely symbolic act; Water cup instead of blood cup
7th 7th pan. 30.16.4 Prohibition of sacrificial service Lk 22.15  EU (negation) Vegetarianism; Logion not handed down in negation

Important topics

The baptism of Jesus in a representation by Francesco Albani (1578–1660)

Scripture gives an insight into the faith of the Christian community of Ebioneans. It is not only the scarce content that is still known today that is significant, but also that which the synoptic script leaves out when comparing the three synoptic Gospels of the Bible canon. It is noticeable that the gospel only begins with the baptism by John, which confirms two theological beliefs of the Ebioneans: The Ebioneans believed in Jesus as the son of Joseph with Mary, but not in the virgin birth. According to their conviction, the sonship of God was not based on divine generation, but the text describes baptism with the words: The spirit "went into him", which includes a union of the heavenly spirit with the physical Jesus as the Son of God at the time of baptism. In a modification of the heavenly voice mentioned in Mk 1, 11 and Lk 3, 22 (“You are my beloved son, I have found pleasure in you”), fragment 3 narrates: “Jesus came and was baptized by John. And as he came up from the water, the heavens opened, and he saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, coming down and entering into him [sic!]. And a voice came out of heaven, which said: 'You are my beloved son, I have taken pleasure in you' "and in a modification of Ps 2, 7 (" You are my son, I myself have begotten you today ") in Connection adds: “Today I have you.” This point in time “today” is confirmed with a light phenomenon. Martin Dibelius sees this as a Gnostic feature in the Christology of the Ebioneans.

There is a noticeable similarity with the Gospel of Mark : Both only begin with the baptism on the Jordan and thus oppose the attempts to harmonize the christological concepts of all four canonical gospels. In addition to omitting the miraculous birth of Jesus, in contrast to the Gospel of Mark, the scriptures were considered to be "heretical" due to such exaggerations as the "procreation" of the sonship of God ("dynamic adoptianism") of the major church. According to Dünzl, it offers the advantage from the standpoint of monotheism that the exaltation of Jesus does not call into question the uniqueness of God, but it degrades Jesus to the "exemplary case among many" and to the model in following Jesus, which, in the opinion of most communities, does not adequate representation of the importance of the Savior and Revelator was more. Dünzl cites the relationship between father and son as an example for the challenge of the young church to clarify the special position of the “son” between the “father” and human beings in the context of the whole divine revelation, especially as the traditions of early Christianity as well The term "son" was not clear enough for this.

The rejection of the temple cult documents a modification of Mt 5:17 ff. (“ 17 Do not think that I came to abolish the law and the prophets […], but to fulfill. 20 … if your righteousness is not far greater than those of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not come to the kingdom of heaven. ") with the quote:" I have come to abolish the sacrifices, and if you do not cease to sacrifice, the anger will not cease from you. "Vegetarianism becomes not only taught in the replacement of locusts by “cakes in oil” (cf. the section on language ), but also in a modification (with negation) of Lk 22.15 (“... I longed for it, before mine Suffering to eat this Passover meal with you. "), Which says:" Have I desired to eat meat with you on this Passover? "

Philipp Vielhauer notes that even these few theological characteristics - even if they certainly do not fully describe the Ebionean theology - indicate that the Ebioneans were less “big ecclesiastical” than the Nazarene, and “that and how strong dogmatic tendencies they were be able to redesign established gospel material. "

literature

  • Overall index for Epiphanius Ancoratus, Panarion Haeresium and De fide. Edited by Christoph Markschies , arr. by Arnd Rattmann. De Gruyter, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-11-017904-0 .
  • Antilegomena: The remains of the extra-canonical Gospels and early Christian traditions. Edited and translated by Erwin Preuschen . Töppelmann, Giessen 1901, pp. 110–112 ( Scan  - Internet Archive ); 2., reworked and exp. Edition. Ibid. 1905, pp. 141-143 ( Scan  - Internet Archive ).
  • Hans-Ulrich Rüegger : «It was a man by the name of Jesus…» Philological considerations on the composition of the Gospel of the Ebioneans. Theological Journal 1/62 (2006) 24-40 ( [1] on theologie.uzh.ch)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Panarion 30, 13 ff. In: Philipp Vielhauer : History of early Christian literature. Introduction to the New Testament, the Apocrypha, and the Apostolic Fathers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1975, ISBN 3-11-007763-9 , p. 653.
  2. ↑ Philipp Vielhauer : History of early Christian literature. Introduction to the New Testament, the Apocrypha, and the Apostolic Fathers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1975, ISBN 3-11-007763-9 , p. 654 ( preview in Google book search).
  3. ↑ Philipp Vielhauer : History of early Christian literature. Introduction to the New Testament, the Apocrypha, and the Apostolic Fathers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1975, ISBN 3-11-007763-9 , p. 653.
  4. ↑ a b cf. B. Origen: Greek fragment for Luke 1 in E. Klostermann, Apokrypha II (KL text 8) (929) 4; Euseb KG III 27, 4; IV 22.8; in Philipp Vielhauer: History of early Christian literature. Introduction to the New Testament, the Apocrypha, and the Apostolic Fathers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1975, ISBN 3-11-007763-9 .
  5. ↑ Wilhelm von Christ , Otto Stählin , Wilhelm Schmid : History of Greek Literature: From 100 to 530. Verlag Beck, 1924 and 1981, ISBN 3-406-01388-0 , p. 1189 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  6. ↑ Georg Strecker: Das Judenchristentum in den Pseudoklementinen (= texts and studies on the history of early Christian literature. Series 5, volume 15 = 70). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1958, DNB 454928475 , p. 117 ff.
  7. ↑ a b c Fragments of Gospels that have become apocryphal in Greek and Latin (= Marburg Theological Studies. Volume 59). Ed., Trans. and initiated by Dieter Lührmann in cooperation with Egbert Schlarb . Elwert, Marburg 2000, ISBN 3-374-02535-8 ; quoted n .: Hans-Ulrich Rüegger: "It was a man with the name Jesus ...". Philological reflections on the composition of the Gospel of the Ebioneans. In: Theological Journal. 1/62 (2006), pp. 24–40, here note 1 ( theologie.uzh.ch [PDF; 173 kB; online on the website of the University of Zurich, with its own pagination : pp. 1–18]).
  8. ↑ a b c Cf. Jörg Frey : Ebionitenevangelium. In: Wissenschaftlichen Bibellexikon (WiBiLex). German Bible Society , April 2013, accessed on May 11, 2020.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Franz Dünzl: Brief history of the Trinitarian dogma in the old church. New edition (2nd, complete and extended edition). Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-451-33676-8 , p. 18 ff. ( Preview in Google book search).
  10. ^ Wilhelm Schneemelcher , Robert McLachlan Wilson: New Testament Apocrypha. Volume 1. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville / London 2005, ISBN 0-664-22721-X , p. 169 ( preview in Google Book Search).
  11. ↑ Petri Luomanen: Recovering Jewish-Christian sects and gospels. (German: recovery of Jewish-Christian sects and gospels. ) Brill, 2012, ISBN 978-90-04-20971-8 , p. 223 ( preview in Google book search).
  12. ↑ Christopher M. Tuckett: 2 Clement. Introduction, text, and commentary. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-969460-0 , pp. 202 ff.
  13. ↑ Cf. Walter Bauer : The Life of Jesus in the Age of the New Testament Apocrypha. Wissenschaftliche Buchgemeinschaft, Darmstadt 1967, p. 134 ff. (Reprint of the edition: Tübingen 1909).
  14. ↑ Martin Dibelius: History of early Christian literature. Edited by Ferdinand Hahn . Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-459-01870-4 .
  15. ↑ Philipp Vielhauer : History of early Christian literature. Introduction to the New Testament, the Apocrypha, and the Apostolic Fathers. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1975, ISBN 3-11-007763-9 , p. 655 ( preview in Google book search).