passion traditions reinterpreted we may not be able to reach back to the historical Jesus, it may be possible
to say something about the prehistory of the Ebionite interpretation of
the Last Supper.
...Ebionites—An Offshoot of the Hellenists?It is clear that Jesus’ statement in theGospel of the Ebionites, according
to which he has come to abolish the sacrifices, finds its canonical cousin
in the story about Jesus’ cleansing of the temple.^32 Although it is unclear
just how critical an attitude towards the Temple on the part of the his-
torical Jesus this incident demonstrates, the assumption that the inci-
dent worked as a catalyst in the events leading to Jesus’ execution is well
grounded.^33 Thus, the memory of Jesus having been involved in a con-
flict with the Temple belongs to the earliest layers of Jesus traditions and
it is also likely to have received various interpretations, in particular if
(as it seems likely) Jesus’ attitude towards the law and the Temple was
not clearly articulated.^34
The critical attitude towards the temple characterizes the traditions
connected to Stephen and the so-called “Hellenists” of the earliest Je-
rusalem community. Luke’s account of Stephen’s speech in Acts :–:
certainly avoids making Stephen explicitly guilty of the “false” charges
leveled against him. Stephen does not clearly deny the validity of the
law but the reader gets the impression that he has something against
the temple although it is not easy to determine exactly what it is that he
criticizes in the Temple.^35 The speech seems to set Moses’ tent of witness
against the Temple of Jerusalem and it suggests that the peoples’ rage was
partly caused by Stephen’s words stating that God does not live in the
handmade temple in Jerusalem. From a historical point of view, it also
seems clear that Stephen must have said something against the temple
(^32) Of course, the story may also have been in theGospel of the Ebionitesbut we cannot
be sure about this.
(^33) Sanders , –.
(^34) Cf. Sanders , –.
(^35) Thus, Salo , –. Luke also reduced the significance of Jesus’ criticism of
the Temple as the reason for his execution by moving the “false accusations” from Jesus’
trial (Mark :–) to the story about Stephen in Acts. Accordingly, Luke’s version of
the cleansing of the Temple is more peaceful than Mark’s (and Matthew’s; cf. Luke :–
parr.). Overall, Luke’s lesson is that if anyone can be accused of criticizing Moses and
the Temple, it was Stephen and in his case, the accusation was based on “false witnesses.”
Nevertheless, Stephen’s speech, which focuses on Moses and the Temple, seems to be the
immediate cause of his execution.