chapter six
heresiological discourse in thePanarion. The “heresy” of the Naza-
renes (as described by Epiphanius) never existed. Consequently,
there was no heretical “Gospel of the Nazarenes.”
. The real,historical Nazareneswere Syriac-speaking Christians with
Jewish background. There must have been influential Jewish con-
verts in this group because their literature shows the mastery of
Semitic languages and knowledge of early rabbinical traditions.
However, these Nazarenes clearly had a Christian identity and they
were openly pro-Pauline.
.The Hebrewsof theGospel of the Hebrewswere Christ believing
Jews living among Greek and Syriac-speaking diaspora communi-
ties in the Syro-Palestinian area. They were related to the Irenaean
type of Ebionites although there were differences in their Chris-
tological speculations. They are, in many respects, the opposite of
the historical Nazarenes. The Nazarenes were Jewish converts who
had adopted a clear Christian identity and belonged to a Christian
religious community but were engaged in fierce polemics with the
representatives of their ancestral religious traditions. The Hebrews
of theGospel of the Hebrewshad become Christ believers but had
not abandoned their Jewish identity or religious practice and were
therefore able to continue living within Jewish religious communi-
ties.The fact there are no manuscripts of early Jewish-Christian gospels
currently available tells more about the preferences and power policy of
the developing orthodoxy than about the relative importance of these
gospels among Christ followers during the first centuries ce As a matter
of fact, as Jörg Frey notes, there are more quotations from these gospels
and references to their contents in the writings of the fathers than from
any other apocryphal gospels.^4 The character of the references also shows
that the fathers did not simply disagree with some of the contents of these
gospels but even valued them, and hoped to find in them information
about some early Hebrew followers of Jesus.
Because of the scantiness of the evidence, discussion about Jewish-
Christian gospel traditions is bound to remain hypothetical. Although
it is impossible to draw absolutely certain conclusions, I hope I have
succeeded in pointing out some interesting variations in the traditions of
early Jewish-Christian gospels, some of their characteristic features not
(^4) Thus, Frey .