chapter six
of their closer affinity with early Hellenistic-Samaritan traditions, it is
possible to wonder whetherthe Gospel of the Hebrewswould have been
acceptable to Irenaeus’ Ebionites. There is nothing that would clearly con-
tradict this, and there is also some theological affinity. The account of
baptism in theGospel of the Hebrews(see Appendix ) would fit with the
idea that the adoption of Jesus by his mother,the Holy Spirit, happened at
baptism. Thus, the gospel would probably have been acceptable to Ebion-
itesoftheIrenaeantypewhodidnotacceptthevirginbirth.However,
in the baptism account of theGospel of the Ebionites, the idea of adop-
tion and the announcement of sonship are even more pronounced. There
is also a minor difference in the Christology of the baptism accounts.
Although theGospel of the Hebrewsemphasizes the influence of the Spirit,
this is more like an anointing where the Spirit rests upon Jesus (see also
fragments and in the Appendix) than a clear possession as believed
by the Irenaean Ebionites (assuming they agreed with Cerinthus). In the
Gospel of the Ebionites, the Holy Spirit infiltrates Jesus which is closer to
the Christology of Irenaean Ebionites who—just like Cerinthus and the
Pseudo-Clementines—thought it was Christ who entered Jesus, an ordi-
nary man, in the process of baptism.
In the final analysis, it seems that the religious profile ofthe Gospel of
the HebrewsisnotexactlythesameastheHebrewsoftheearlyJerusalem
church or Irenaeus’ baseline Ebionites. However, there are so many
common elements that it is natural to see theGospel of the Hebrewsas the
product of one type of Ebionites, perhaps a post-synoptic manifestation
of Jewish Christianity that also lurks in the margins of canonical New
Testament writings. As far as it is possible to draw conclusions from the
surviving fragments, the closest relatives of theGospel of the Hebrews,
within the gospel tradition and in terms of central ideas and themes,
are Q and the Gospel of Matthew. Furthermore, if we follow Patrick
Hartin and John Kloppenborg, who have argued for the use of Q in the
Letter of James,^1 we may have come close to having detected the family of
early Christian writings within which theGospel of the Hebrewsfinds its
home. Notably, theGospel of the Hebrewsshares with James the critical
attitude towards the rich and an appropriation of Wisdom traditions. If
(^1) Kloppenborg , –; Hartin . Understandably, there has not been any
discussion about the relationship between theGospel of the Hebrewsand James because
of the way in which theGospel of the Hebrewswas reconstructed in the GH. If the
new reconstruction I am proposing here becomes accepted, this is one area which would
deserve closer examination.