chapter four
good in sacrifice. They found proofs for this view even in the history of
God’s people. People always prospered when they obeyed the law without
sacrificing but when they started sacrificing, they immediately faced
disasters. (Rec. ..) Finally, their temple will be destroyed because they
did not stop sacrificing (Rec. ..–).
The above considerations are also supported by what we otherwise
know about the Ebionites’ Eucharistic practices. In the part where Epiph-
anius describes the doctrines of the Ebionites, before he actually starts to
refute them, he says that “they celebrate mysteries year after year, if you
please, in imitation of the sacred mysteries of the church, using unleav-
ened bread—and the other part of the mystery with water only” (Pan.
..). Before Epiphanius, Irenaeus had also mentioned the Ebion-
ites’ practice of using only water in their Eucharistic meals. Irenaeus dis-
cusses the Ebionites’ Christology but the metaphor he uses suggests that,
behind it, there has to be the Ebionites’ true practice of using only water
insteadofthemixtureofwineandwater(Irenaeus,Haer. ..).^18 Thus,
the Ebionites were known for using water and unleavened bread in their
Eucharistic ceremony. Because Irenaeus’ information was recorded at the
end of the second century, it suggests that the Ebionites must already by
then have had some texts that they used to support their own Eucharistic
practices.
Against this background, it seems clear that the Ebionites’ gospel
cannot have included a passage where Jesus instituted the Eucharistic cup
of blood. The idea that Jesus would have given his body for atonement or
for ransom would have been equally strange to the Ebionites.
To summarize the conclusions of the reconstruction: Epiphanius’ quo-
tation from theGospel of the Ebionitesindicates that there was a descrip-
tion of preparations for the Last Supper where Jesus says that he does
not want to eat meat. Because another quotation from theGospel of the
Ebionitesreveals that the Ebionites opposed sacrifices, it is unlikely that
they would have granted a sacrificial value to Jesus’ blood. Thus, it is also
unlikely that theGospel of the Ebioniteswould have included the institu-
tion of the Eucharistic cup of blood. Epiphanius’ remark a bit earlier in
Panarion about the Ebionites’ practice of celebrating Passover year after
(^18) Origen, for his part, referred to the Ebionites’ practice of using unleavened bread
in the Passover meals that they celebrated in the manner of the Jews (Comm.ser.Matt.
). Origen possibly refers here to the Quartodecimanians, a group of Asian Christian
communities that wanted to continue celebrating Passover on the th of Nisan instead
of postponing the celebration to the following Day of the Lord, as was the custom in other
communities (Eusebius,Hist. eccl. .–).