chapter two
especially resemble the views presented inRec. .–. Epiphanius
quotes the list of the Patriarchs that the Ebionites accepted inPan.
..: “They acknowledge Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and
Aaron—and Joshua the son of Nun simply as Moses’ successor, not
as of any importance. But after these they acknowledge no more of
the prophets.. .” This corresponds to the salvation-historical storyline
depicted inRec. .–. The positive part of the history from creation
to Moses’ death is closed with a reference to Joshua who was nominated
as the commander of the people by Moses (Rec. ..). A decline follows
the death of Joshua, resulting in the building of the temple in the place of
the house of prayer (..). In this salvation-historical scheme, there is
no need for the prophets because the coming of the True Prophet was suf-
ficiently anticipated by Moses himself. The history continues by referring
to the coming of the appropriate time when the True Prophet announced
by Moses appeared (Rec. ..). Epiphanius undoubtedly found the
“from Moses to the True Prophet” scheme in his Pseudo-Clementine
sources which must have been closely related toRec. .–. Moreover,
as we saw above, Epiphanius’ Ebionites had also actively resorted to this
scheme in debates about the validity of the law and the prophets.
The Ebionites’ emphasis on the superiority of the gospel and Christ’s
revelation over Mosaic law also find parallels inRec. .– where one of
the apostles, Bartholomew,argues for the superiority of Christ as follows:
“For what Moses was, a prophet, Jesus is, too; but what Jesus is, the Christ,
Mosesisnot.Thus,whatMosesis,Jesusis,too,butwhatJesusis,Moses
was not (Rec. ..).” According to Bartholomew, there is no need of
prophetic witness for Christ either: “For it is not right for one to receive
faith in the greater and more excellent one through the witness of lesser
ones. Rather, through the witness of the greater and more excellent one,
one will know the lesser ones” (Rec. ..). The Ebionites’ comments in
the above quoted dispute (“Why do I need to read what is in the law when
the Gospel has come?” and “Christ has revealed this to me”; see above)
are in full accord with these ideas.
Nevertheless,Rec. .– also records ideas that are more conserva-
tive in regard to the prophets. In particular, James the archbishop (Jesus’
brother) points out that the prophets are in agreement with the law. Fur-
thermore, he recommends the Books of Kings and lists many proofs
which show that Jesus was Christ and that he fulfilled everything pre-
dicted about him (Rec. ..–). This view is clearly more irenic than
the Ebionite interpretation of the history of salvation which rejects the
prophets, focuses only on Moses and submits even him to Christ.