towards the history of early jewish christianity Wisdom traditions in theGospel of the Hebrews, might make it more
understandable why traditions about James were embraced in so many
early Christian circles.
The analysis of the Last Supper in theGospel of the Ebionitesrevealed
notable literary and theological connections to Pseudo-Clementine
sources, especially to one of the oldest sections inRec. .–, and also
to Luke’s account of the Last Supper in the manuscript D. When these
observations are combined with the line of development of the Ebionite
movement as sketched in Chapter , it is possible to see a cluster of reli-
gious ideas and practices shared by the Hellenists of the early Jerusalem
community, theGospel of the Ebionites(andPseudo-Clementines)and
Epiphanius’ Ebionites in Cyprus. One of the constitutive collective mem-
ories of this branch of Jewish Christianity is Jesus’ and Stephen’s criticism
of the Temple and its sacrificial cult. The Ebionites’ poverty, their non-
sacrificial interpretation of Jesus’ death and their understanding of Jesus
as (the True) prophet also resonates with Q.
However, the comparison between theGospel of the Hebrews(as it is
reconstructed in this volume) and Q revealed even more points of contact
in their traditions (Chapter ..). The evidence available does not betray
any criticism of the Temple or sacrifices in theGospel of the Hebrews
and there is strong emphasis on Wisdom tradition and spirit possession
which shows a closer relationship between theGospel of the Hebrewsand
the genre and central themes of Q than there is between theGospel of the
Ebionitesand Q.
If theGospel of the Ebionitesis to be connected with the Hellenistic-
Samaritan branch of the successors of the earliest Jewish-Christians in
Jerusalem, could theGospel of the Hebrewsrepresent the Hebrew branch
of the Jerusalem community?
Althoughthe lack of Temple criticism makes it easier to link theGospel
of the Hebrewswith the Hebrews of the early Jerusalem community, there
is still the problem of language. Boththe Gospel of the Ebionitesand the
Gospel of the Hebrewswere originally composed in Greek. There is also
some time lag between the early Jerusalem community and theGospel
of the Hebrewswhich was composed after the synoptic gospels (which is
true of theGospel of the Ebionitesaswell).Thus,ifthereisaconnection
between theGospel of the Hebrewsand the early Jerusalem community,
it is clear that theGospel of the Hebrewsis not exactly the “Gospel of the
Hebrews of the early Jerusalem community.”
Nevertheless, if we take Irenaeus’ Ebionites as an example of a sort of
baseline Ebionism from which the Epiphanian Ebionites differed because