Nazarenes were not Ebionites - NazareneSpace Blog

Nazarenes were not Ebionites
By
James Scott Trimm

In restoring the ancient sect of Nazarene Judaism, it is important to distinguish the ancient Nazarenes from another ancient sect of Jewish believers in Yeshua as Messiah, the Ebionites (Evionim).

The forth century “Church Father” Epiphanius was the first “Church Father” to list the Nazarenes as “heretics”. Epiphanius also distinguishes the Nazarenes from the Ebionites. He gives his description of the Nazarenes in chapter 29 of his book Panarion and the Ebionites, separately as chapter 30.

In his book Nazarene Jewish Christianity*, Ray A. Pritz writes:

[*Note: Modern academics insist on referring to the ancient Nazarenes as “Jewish Christianity” and “Jewish Christians, despite the fact that Epiphanius tells us that they did not call themselves Christians (Panarion 29)]

…Nazarenes were not mentioned by earlier Fathers not because they did not exist but rather because they were still generally considered to be acceptably orthodox. The history of the Nazarene sect must be clearly distinguished from that of the Ebionites.
(Nazarene Jewish Christianity; Ray A. Pritz p. 82)

We see evidence of this in the writings of the earlier “Church Father” Justin Martyr in his book Dialog with Trypho the Jew, he speaks of two different types of Jewish believers in Yeshua as Messiah, but never names these sects.

Pritz writes:

Suffice it to say at this point that Justin, around the beginning of the second half of the second century, recognizes two kinds of Christians of the Jewish race whom he differentiates on christological grounds. One group, whom Justin condemns, holds doctrines which line up well with what is known to us of Ebionite teaching. The other group differs from Justin’s orthodoxy only in its continued adherence to Mosaic Law.
(Nazarene Jewish Christianity; Ray A. Pritz p. 27)

In fact, Justin says of this second group:

I hold that we ought to join ourselves to such, and associate with them in all things as kinsmen and brethren.
(Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Typho the Jew; 47 (PG 6, 577)

The confusion seems to have begun with Origen, as Pritz writes:

How did this confusion come about? Justin knew of two kinds of Jewish Christians but gives them no name in his extant works. Irenaeus wrote against Ebionites but knew of no distinctions, Christological or otherwise, within Ebionism itself. The same could be said of Tertullian and Hippolytus. When we come to Origen, however (and return to the East), we again find two classes of Jewish Christians which he calls Ebionites. From this point on, the name Ebionite becomes a catch-all for Law-Keeping Christians of Jewish background. …. Eusebius, in his turn, cannot avoid seeing– in his sources, if not from hearsay– two distinguishable Jewish Christian groups, but he does not succeed very well in discerning the beliefs which seperate them. For him there is one name, Ebionite.
(Nazarene Jewish Christianity; Ray A. Pritz p. 28)

Until Epiphanius. the Church Fathers don’t mention the Nazarenes by name, not because they did not exist, but because they were generally not listed as heretical and were often confused with the Ebionites.

However, a comparison of the characteristics of Nazarenes and Ebionites, from ancient sources, will demonstrate that these were not the same:

WHAT THEY THOUGHT ABOUT YESHUA

NAZARENES:

“The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarenes; they believe in Christ the Son of God, born of, the Virgin Mary; and they say that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again, is the same as the one in whom we believe.”
(Letter 75 Jerome to Augustine)

“For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that G-d is one, and that his son is Y’shua the Messiah.”
(Epiphanius; Panarion 29)

EBIONITES:

“Those who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made by God; but their opinions with respect to the Lord (Yeshua as a human prophet) are similar to those of Cerinthus and Carpocrates.”
(Irenaeus; Aganist Heresies 1:26)

“The Ebionaeans, however, acknowledge that the world was made by Him Who is in reality God, but they propound legends concerning the Christ similarly with Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They live conformably to the customs of the Jews, alleging that they are justified. according to the law, and saying that Jesus was justified by fulfilling the law. And therefore it was, (according to the Ebionaeans,) that (the Savior) was named (the) Christ of God and Jesus, since not one of the rest (of mankind) had observed completely the law. For if even any other had fulfilled the commandments (contained) in the law, he would have been that Christ. And the (Ebionaeans allege) that they themselves also, when in like manner they fulfill (the law), are able to become Christs; for they assert that our Lord Himself was a man in a like sense with all (the rest of the human family).”
(Hippolytus; Against All Heresies, 7.22)

ABOUT VIRGIN BIRTH

NAZARENES:

EBIONITES:

“God, then, was made man, and the Lord did Himself save us, giving us the token of the Virgin. But not as some allege, among those now presuming to expound the Scripture, [thus:] ‘Behold, a young woman shall conceive, and bring forth a son,’ as Theodotion the Ephesian has interpreted, and Aquila of Pontus, both Jewish proselytes. The Ebionites, following these, assert that He was begotten by Joseph; thus destroying, as far as in them lies, such a marvelous dispensation of God, and setting aside the testimony of the prophets which proceeded from God.”
(Irenaeus; Aganist Heresies 3:21)

“The evil demon, however, being unable to tear certain others from their allegiance to the Christ of God, yet found them susceptible in a different direction, and so brought them over to his own purposes. The ancients quite properly called these men Ebionites, because they held poor and mean opinions concerning Christ. For they considered him a plain and common man, who was justified only because of his superior virtue, and who was the fruit of the intercourse of a man with Mary.”
(Eusebius; Ecclesiastical History 3.27)

“But the heresy of the Ebionites, as it is called, asserts that Christ was the son of Joseph and Mary, considering him a mere man…”
(Eusebius; Ecclesiastical History 6:17)

WHAT THEY THOUGHT ABOUT PAUL

NAZARENES:

“The proclaiming was multiplied, through the Goodnews of the emissary Paul who was the least of all the emissaries.”
(Nazarene commentary on Is. 8:23-9:3, Is. 9:1-4 in Christian editions)

EBIONITES:

“But the Ebionites… repudiate the apostle Paul.”
(Irenaeus; Aganist Heresies 1:16:2)

“They declare that he was a Greek….He went up to Jerusalem, they say, and when he had spent some time there, he was seized with a passion to marry the daugher of the priest. For this reason he became a proselyte [through the Saducee movement, hence his working for the Temple police] and was circumcised. Then, when he failed to get the girl, he flew into a rage and wrote against cirumcision and against the sabbath and the Law.”
(Epiphanius; Panarion 30:16-19)

THEIR SCRIPTURES

NAZARENES:

“But these sectarians… did not call themselves Christians–but ‘Nazarenes,’… However they are simply complete Jews. They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do…”
(Epiphanius; Panarion 29)

EBIONITES:

“But the Ebionites use only… Matthew…”
(Irenaeus; Aganist Heresies 1:16:2)

“they used only the so-called Gospel according to the Hebrews and made small account of the rest.”
(Eusebius; Ecclesiastical History 3.27)

THEIR MATTHEW

NAZARENES:

“They [the Nazarenes] have the Gospel according to Matthew quite complete in Hebrew, for this Gospel is certainly still preserved among them as it was first written, in Hebrew letters.”
(Epiphanius; Panarion 29:9:4)

EBIONITES:

“In the Gospel that is in general use among them which is called ‘according to Matthew’, which however is not wholely complete but falsified and mutilated.”
(Epiphanius; Panarion 30:13:2)

SACRIFICES AND DOCTRINAL VEGETARIANISM

“In the Gospel that is in general use among them…reports: ‘I am come to do away with sacrifices, and if you cease not sacrificing, the wrath of God will not cease from you.’ “
(Epiphanius, Panarion 30:16:4-5)

Bart D. Ehrman writes:

The antisacrificial views of the Ebionites also come through in some of the [other] fragments which Epiphanius quotes [From the Ebionite version of the Gospel according to the Hebrews]. In one of them the disciples ask Jesus where he wants to eat the Passover lamb with them (cf. Mark 14:12). and he replies, “I have no desire to eat the flesh of this Passover lamb with you.” In another place he says “I have come to abolish the sacrifices; if you do not cease from sacrificing, the wrath of God will not cease from weighing upon you.”… Where there is no sacrifice, there is no meat… in the Gospel of the Ebionites description of John the Baptist… In this Gospel… the diet of John the Baptist was said to have consisted not of locusts [meat!] and wild honey (cf. Mark 1:6) but of pancakes and wild honey.
(Lost Christianities by Bart D. Ehrman; pp. 102-103)

However nothing we know about the Nazarenes would indicate that they opposed sacrifices. In fact Paul a “ringleader of the Nazarenes” (Acts 24:5, 14) performed animal sacrifices at the Temple (Acts 21:17-26; 24:17-18). Moreover, in the Nazarene version of the Gospel according to the Hebrews (The original, unabridged version of of Matthew), which was not “falsified and mutilated”, but was “whole” and “complete as it was first written” , Yochanan ate locusts and Yeshua ate the Passover lamb with his Talmidim.

ORIGIN OF EBIONITES WHO SPLIT FROM THE NAZARENES

“Next comes Ebion, the founder of the Ebionites. He held doctrines like those of the Nazarenes…being from their sect, although what he taught and proclaimed differed from what they did…”
(Epiphanius; Panarion 30:1:1)

“Their sect began after the capture of Jerusalem. For when all those who believed in Messiah settled at that time for the most part in Peraea, in a city called Pella … that provided an opportunity for Ebion. … They (Nazarenes and Ebionites) do in fact differ from each other…”
(Epiphanius; Panarion 30:2:7)

As we continue the restoration of the ancient Sect of the Nazarenes, it is very important that we understand that the Nazarenes were not Ebionites. (For example one group has published a document generally regarded as Ebionite (not Nazarene) in origin (The Clemintine Recognitions) as a “Nazarene Acts”, when in fact, Acts is Nazarene Acts.)

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