passion traditions reinterpreted following, I intend to show that—given there was some coherence in the
passion narrative and the ideology of the Ebionites—the wording of their
gospel must have been, at some points, quite close to what we can now
see in manuscript D in Luke.
Epiphanius’ quotations from theGospel of the Ebionitesgive the im-
pression that Jesus has expressed his unwillingness to eat meat with
his disciples as an answer to the disciples’ question where Jesus wants
them to prepare the Passover meal. This suggests that theGospel of the
Ebionitesdid not include Jesus’ instructions to the disciples on how to
find a location for the Passover meal. This is natural enough: if Jesus
was not willing to eat the Paschal Lamb with his disciples, there was
no need for him to give special instructions on how to arrange such a
meal.
How did the story continue after Jesus’ “touched-up” answer quoted
by Epiphanius? Could there have been similar words of institution as we
can find in the synoptic gospels? A bit earlier, Epiphanius has quoted
another passage of the gospel which may shed some light on this. In
Panarion.., he writes: “As the writing that they call a gospel has:
‘I have come to abolish the sacrifices and if you do not stop sacrificing
the wrath will not cease from you.’” Could a gospel that explicitly denies
sacrifices have included a description of the institution of the Eucharist
where Jesus’ blood would have been interpreted as blood shed for the
disciples (Mark :; Luke :) or for the forgiveness of sins (Matt
:)?
At this juncture, it is worth noting that, in the Ebionites’ theology,
Jesus was really understood as having come to abolish sacrifices, not to
replace them. The Ebionites did not believe that the sacrifices could be
abolished by replacing them with Jesus’ own once-and-for-all sacrifice.
In this regard, the Ebionites’ theology clearly differed from the theology
expressed in the Letter to the Hebrews. The Ebionites and Hebrews
agree that the OT sacrificial cult was only a temporary arrangement
(Heb :–;Rec. ..). However, while according to Hebrews, the old
sacrificial cult anticipated Christ’s perfect sacrifice (Heb :–; :–
; :–; :–), the Ebionites thought that Christ came to finish
the abolition that was already started by Moses. Because the passion for
sacrificing was so ingrained in people, Moses knew that he could not
make them give up sacrificing all at once. He was only able to set up
regulations for the sacrifices and announce that, after him, will come a
true prophet who will finish the task (Rec. ..–.). For the Ebionites,
Jesus was this prophet. Thus, in the Ebionites’ view, there was nothing