patristic testimonies reconsidered Ebionites found Christ the expected prophet like Moses and therefore
he even had the authority to modify the Mosaic law. As compared with
the earlier tradition about the Ebionites, this kind of attitude results in a
significantly different Jewish-Christian profile, but it accords so well with
Epiphanius’ overall view of the contemporary Ebionites that we have no
reason to doubt its historicity.
Clearly Ebionite Information II: The Gospel of the Ebionites
Epiphanius presents quotations from theGospel of the Ebionitesthat are
not known from other sources, mostly in order to illustrate ideas that
he considered typically Ebionite. They are therefore just as important
as the contemporary reports as a source of ideas typical of Epiphanius’
Ebionites. The translations of the surviving passages are in Appendix .
According to Epiphanius, the Ebionites dropped the genealogies at the
beginning of Matthew’s gospel because they did not accept the virgin
birth. He quotes the beginning of the gospel, which indicates that it
opened with the description of Jesus’ baptism by John (Pan. ..,
..). In Epiphanius’ view, the Ebionites thought that Christ came into
Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism. This, indeed, accords with the
wording of their gospel, which states that the “Holy Spirit in the form of
a dove descending andentering intohim.” (Pan. .., ..).
On the other hand, Epiphanius claims that the Ebionites denied Jesus’
being man on the basis of his saying: “These are my brothers and my
mother and my sisters who do the will of my Father” (Pan. ..). The
passage harmonizes the wordings of corresponding canonical passages
(cf. Matt :– and pars.) but, in practice, its contents do not differ
from them.^19 Thus, the key question is how the Ebionites themselves
interpreted the passage. To my mind, the Ebionites probably did not find
any contradiction between this passage and their own ideas about Jesus’
natural birth. Rather, it was Epiphanius, who had found the passage in
theGospel of the Ebionitesand saw his opportunity to turn the tables on
the Ebionites by pointing out that even their own gospel indicates that
Jesus did not have human brothers or sisters.
Epiphanius also finds examples of the Ebionites’ abstinence from meat
in their gospel. They have changed John the Baptist’s diet fromlocusts
tohoney cakes(Pan. ..–) and they have made Jesus say that he
does “notearnestly desire to eat meat” with the disciples at Passover
(^19) For a detailed analysis of this passage, see Chapter .. and Luomanen .