28. The Jewish Christians: the Original Followers of Jesus

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          The Jewish Christians are also known as Hebrews (in the book of Acts) and Ebionites (in the writings of the Church fathers).  Epiphanius wrote (between 374-377 CE) that the Ebionites of his time claimed their roots to the Hebrews mentioned in the book of Acts: “But they {the Ebionites} are proud to call themselves beggars {Ebionites}, they say, in the time of the apostles they would sell their possessions and lay them at the apostles’ feet ...” The Jewish Christians formed a distinct Judaic sect in Jerusalem.  Their sect was made up partially by Pharisees who had converted to Jesus’ movement  and by former Essenes. John the Baptist, who was essentially an Essene, instructed people to follow Jesus.  Probably after his execution many of his disciples joined Jesus’ movement. Jesus’ basic preaching was similar to John’s.

         Like most Jews, the Jewish Christians believed that they would earn eternal life by observing the law of Moses. Like the other Jews, they expected the king-Messiah to re-establish the kingdom of Israel (as prophesied in Isaiah, Zechariah, Daniel, and Jeremiah). However, unlike the other Jews, the Jewish Christians believed that this king-Messiah had come: it was Jesus, who had been killed, as it was prophesied in Daniel: “After the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one will be cut off {killed} and will have nothing ...” (Daniel 9:26 NRSV) But even though Daniel did not mention that this anointed one would rise, they believed that the spirit of Jesus rose and went first to Hades and subsequently to Heaven. This was a common belief, shared by several religions of that time. Peter, a leading Jewish Christian, wrote,  “For Christ ... was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit {rose as a spirit}, in which {spiritual form} also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison (i.e. Hades) ...” (1 Peter 3:18-19 NRSV) They expected Jesus to return soon from Heaven on the clouds with God’s angels to re-establish the kingdom of Israel, as it was prophesied in Daniel: “... and, behold, one like the Son of man {a human being, the Messiah of the Jews} came with the clouds of heaven ... And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom ...” (Daniel 7:13-14 KJV) They believed that the universal resurrection would take place when the Son of man would come with the clouds of heaven. Then, Jesus with his twelve disciples would reign over Israel and over all the nations of the world: “And Jesus said to them, Verily I say to you, That you who have followed me, in the regeneration {in the universal resurrection} when the Son of man {the Messiah} will sit in the throne of his glory {the throne of Israel}, you also will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:28 KJV) God would submit all the nations under Jesus and his kingdom would last forever, as it was prophesied in Daniel: “... that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom that which will not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14 KJV) They also believed that the Jews would rule over the Gentiles, including their captors (the Romans), as it was prophesied by Isaiah: “... the house of Israel will possess them {the Gentiles} as an inheritance in the land of the Lord as male servants and female servants; and they {the Jews} will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.” (Isaiah 14:2 NASB) This was the dream of all the Jews, and the Jewish Christians believed that it would be fulfilled through Jesus. They condemned the Jewish leaders for rejecting Jesus: “This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’ ” (Acts 4:11 NRSV) Peter and John accused the Jewish leaders of turning Jesus in to the Romans and thus causing his death. The Jewish leaders were offended by this accusation. They arrested Peter and John, reprimanded them, and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus: “And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.” (Acts 4:18 KJV) They wanted to put an end to Jesus’ messianic movement because it jeopardized the security of the rest of the Jews. But since other Jews approved of Peter and John, they let them go: “After threatening them again, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all of them praised God for what had happened.” (Acts 4:21 NRSV) The phrase “for all of them praised God” implies that the Jews believed in the same god as Peter and John. In their speeches to the Jews, Peter and John did not claim that Jesus was “a god.” “But Peter and John answered and said to them {to the chief priests}, Whether it be right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.” (Acts 4:19 (KJV) When they said “in the sight of God,” they did not mean Jesus. Peter, John, the priests, and the rest of the Jews believed in the same God: Yahweh (the Father of Jesus).
            Irenaeus wrote at about 180 CE. At that time the Gentile Christians rejected the Jewish Christians and considered them heretics. Irenaeus wrote, “The so-called Ebionites admit that the world was made by the true God {the Father of Jesus}, but in regard to the Lord {Jesus} they hold the same opinion as Cerinthus and Carpocrates {... that he was begotten by Joseph}. They use only the Gospel according to Matthew {written in Hebrew probably by Matthew } and reject the apostle Paul, saying that he is an apostate from the law. The prophetical writings, however, they strive to interpret in a rather curious manner {that is, not in the allegorical manner of the Gentile Christians}. They circumcise themselves and continue in the practices which are prescribed by the law and by the Judaic standard of living, so that they worship Jerusalem as the house of God.” As Irenaeus indicates, the Jewish Christians did not interpret the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah as the Christians do today. In other words, they did not believe the Messiah was a god, or God, or the savior of the world. Unlike the Gentile Christians, they believed that “the true God,” not Jesus, created the world. Jesus (especially as portrayed in the oldest gospel, the gospel of Mark) taught the law of Moses. In Mark 10:17-19, he did not tell the man “Believe in me to inherit eternal life.” He instructed him to obey the law to inherit eternal life. This is the Jesus of the Jewish Christians.
            In the above quotation, Irenaeus indicated that the Jewish Christians agreed with Cerinthus (he flourished ca. 100 CE) and Carpocrates (he flourished in the 2nd century CE) on the nature of Jesus. Epiphanius confirmed Irenaeus’ statement. He wrote that the Gospel of Matthew, the one Cerinthus and Carpocrates used, was the gospel of the Ebionites. Their gospel did not contain the genealogies that appear in today’s Matthew. That gospel depicted Jesus as the natural son of Joseph and Mary. Epiphanius wrote, “Now Cerinthus and Carpocrates use the same gospel which these {the Ebionites} have, [called According to Matthew]. From the beginning of the Gospel according to Matthew, by means of genealogy, they wish to present Christ as being from the seed of Joseph and Mary. But these people have other ideas. Removing the genealogies in Matthew, they begin as we said, with the words: ‘It happened in the days of Herod, King of Judea ... that there came someone named John baptizing with a baptism of repentance in the Jordan River {which is, the beginning of Matthew’s 3rd chapter} ...’ ”  Epiphanius accused them of removing the first two chapters of Matthew. Textual evidence indicates that these chapters were added to the early Matthew by one or more copyists-editors.
            Eusebius wrote, “... the bishops in Jerusalem ... I have gathered from various documents this much: that up to the siege of the Jews by Hadrian {during the Bar Kokhba revolt ca. 132-135 CE} the successions of the bishops were fifteen in number. It is said that they were all Hebrews by birth who had nobly accepted the knowledge of Christ ...”   These “fifteen Jewish bishops” of Jerusalem were Jewish Christians. They were the leaders of Jesus’ original sect. They believed that Jesus was merely human. Less than two decades after Hadrian’s siege, Justin Martyr wrote (he wrote at about 150 CE), “... there are some of our race {Christians}, who acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, but claim that He has a merely human origin.”  He referred to the Jewish Christians.
            Hippolytus (ca. 170 to ca. 235), a leader of the Christian church in Rome, wrote “They {the Jewish Christians} live conformably to the customs of the Jews, alleging they are justified according to the law, and saying that Jesus was justified fulfilling the law.  And therefore it was, [according to the Ebionaeans,] that [the Savior] was named [the] Christ of God {that is, the Chosen one of God, or the anointed one of God}and Jesus, since not one of the rest [of mankind] had observed completely the law. For if even any other had fulfilled {perfectly} the commandments [contained] in the law, he would have been that Christ. And [the Ebionaeans allege] that they themselves also, when in like manner they fulfill [the law], are able to become Christs; for they assert that our Lord Himself was a man in a like sense with all [the rest of the human family].”  Hippolytus described the Jewish Christians, who during his time (in the beginning of the 3rd century CE) were considered heretics. They carried on the beliefs of the original followers of Jesus. They believed that Jesus, the Messiah of the Jews, was a mere man and that he became the Messiah of the Jews by perfectly fulfilling the law. They, too, tried to fulfill the law, to imitate their master.
            Origen (ca. 185-254 CE) wrote at about 248 CE, “ Jewish believers in Jesus {the Jewish Christians} have not left the law of their fathers. For they live according to it ... The Jews call a poor man Ebion, and those Jews who have accepted Jesus as the Christ {as “the chosen one” or as “the anointed one”: the Messiah of the Jews} are called Ebionites.”  He also wrote, “For there are some sects who do not accept the epistles of the apostle Paul, such as the two kinds {denominations} of Ebionites ...”  By the time of Origen, there were, as he wrote, “two kinds of Ebionites.” (Religious beliefs evolve and consequently new denominations appear. Obviously, the religious beliefs of the Jewish Christian evolved and consequently they split into two denominations: “two kinds of Ebionites.”) Origen also wrote, “There are some who accept Jesus, and who boast on that account of being Christians, and yet would regulate their lives, like the Jewish multitude, in accordance to the Jewish Law, -and these are the twofold sect of Ebionites, who either acknowledge with us that Jesus was born of a virgin, or deny this, and maintain that he was begotten like other human beings ...”  The original Jewish Christians believed that Jesus was begotten by Joseph. Then, several decades after Jesus’ death, when Jesus’ legend was embellished with the virgin birth, some of them were swayed (perhaps by Gentile Christians) to change their beliefs and adopt the virgin birth of Jesus. In the following quotation the Church historian Eusebius (he wrote ca. 312-324 CE) mentions the Jewish Christians, who “escaped the absurd folly” (that is, Jesus was a mere man) of the original Jewish Christians: “They {the Jewish Christians} regarded Him as plain and ordinary, a man esteemed as righteous through growth of character and nothing more, the child of a normal union between a man and Mary; and they held that they must observe every detail of the Law. By faith in Christ alone, and a life built upon that faith, they would never win salvation {this doctrine appears in the Epistle of James, who was the first leader of the Jewish Christians}. But there were others besides them who have the same name {Ebionites}. These escaped the absurd folly of the first mentioned, and did not deny that the Lord was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit, but nevertheless agreed with them {with the original Jewish Christians} in not confessing his pre-existence as a god, as being the Logos and the Wisdom. Thus they shared in the impiety of the former ones, especially in that they were equally zealous to insist on the literal observance of the Law. ... They used only the Gospel called according to the Hebrews  and gave little value to the rest {of the gospels}. They used to observe the Sabbath and the rest of the Jewish ritual, but on Sundays celebrated rites like ours in commemoration of the Savior’s resurrection.”  Thus, the sect that evolved out of the original Jewish Christians Ebionites adopted the belief that Jesus was born by a virgin. Unlike the Gentile Christians who insisted on the spiritual (or allegorical) observance of the law, both sects of Jewish Christians insisted on the “literal observance of the Law.” In this, they followed Jesus, their founder, who observed the law literally.
            As Eusebius mentions in the above quotation, both Jewish Christian sects did not believe that Jesus pre-existed or that he was the Logos (the Word) and the Wisdom of God. They believed he was created at the time he was conceived by Mary and that he performed miracles, not because he was a god but because he used the power of God (just as Moses used the power of God). They believed that Jesus’ spirit rose three days after his death and went to Hades and Heaven. On this point they agreed with Paul, who wrote (as we will examine below) that Jesus rose as a spirit.
            The Jewish Christian gospel appears by different names in the writings of the Church fathers: The Gospel of the Ebionites or The Gospel of Hebrews, also know as The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew.   Irenaeus wrote, “Now Matthew published among the Hebrews a written gospel also in their own tongue ...”  Epiphanius wrote, “The Gospel which is called with them {The Gospel of the Ebionites} according to Matthew which is not complete but falsified and distorted; they call it the Hebrew Gospel ...”  Epiphanius indicated that the first two chapters (the virgin birth and the genealogies) are missing: “Removing the genealogies in Matthew, they begin as we said with the words: It happened in the days of Herod, king of Judea ...”  Epiphanius explains, “They call it the Gospel according to the Hebrews, to tell the truth, because Matthew is the only one in the New Testament who issued the gospel and the proclamation in Hebrew and with Hebrew letters.” 
    Saint Jerome wrote, “Matthew ... composed a gospel of Christ at first published in Judea in Hebrew for the sake of those of the circumcision who believed {in Jesus: the Jewish Christians}, but this was afterwards translated into Greek through by what author is uncertain. The Hebrew itself has been preserved until the present day in the library at Caesarea ... it is to be noted that wherever the Evangelist {Matthew} ... quotes of the Old Testament he does not follow the authority of the translators of the Septuagint but the Hebrew.”  In contrast, today’s Gospel of Matthew follows the authority of the Septuagint text. Saint Jerome believed that some unknown “author” translated the Hebrew Gospel into Greek. Perhaps when he translated the gospel he augmented it and altered it to fit the beliefs of the Gentile Christians.
            Papias,  the early 2nd century Church father, concurs that Matthew collected the story of Jesus in Hebrew. Eusebius wrote that Papias wrote that, “Matthew collected the oracles in the Hebrew language ...”  Eusebius also wrote that Papias “had also set forth another story about a woman who was accused of many sins before the Lord, which the Gospel according to the Hebrews contains.”  This story does not appear in today’s Gospel of Matthew. It was inserted to the Gospel of John. (The story of the woman who was caught in adultery: John 7:53-8:11) So, the Gospel of the Ebionites, was probably the oldest gospel, as Epiphanius put it, “in Hebrew writing, just as it was originally written.” The Hebrew Gospel disappeared, probably when the Gentile Christians persecuted the Jewish Christians and destroyed their books. (The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew must not be confused with the Greek Gospel of Matthew we use today.) Papias wrote, “I inquired into the words of the presbyters, what Andrew or Peter or Philip ... or Matthew or any of the Lord’s disciples had said ... For I did not think that information from books {i.e. today’s four gospels} would help me as much as the word of a living and surviving voice.”  Papias “inquired into the words of Matthew.” This implies that Papias did not believe that the Greek Gospel of Matthew, which exited in his time, contained the correct words of Matthew, the disciple of Jesus.
            Eusebius wrote that Symmachus (who translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek) was a Jewish Christian. [28] He opposed the Greek Gospel of Matthew. Eusebius wrote, “... memoirs of Symmachus are still existing, in which, by his opposition to the {Greek} Gospel of Matthew, he seems to hold to the above-mentioned heresy {the “heresy” of the Jewish Christians}.”  Symmachus, a famous biblical scholar of his time, opposed the Greek Gospel of Matthew probably because he could tell that it was not written by Matthew or that it did not contain the correct words of Matthew. It was different from the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, which contained the story of the woman who was caught in adultery.
            The Hebrew Gospel reads, “{God said:} You {Jesus} are my beloved son ... today I have begotten {i.e. adopted} you.”  The Jewish Christians believed that God said this to Jesus during his baptism. They believed that God adopted Jesus as his son (the above verse says, “today I have begotten you”), in the same way he adopted Solomon as his son: “... He {God} said to me {Solomon}, ‘You are my son; today I have begotten {adopted} you.” (Psalms 2:7 NRSV) Epiphanius wrote, “... Jesus was born of a man’s seed and chosen, so they {the Jewish Christians} say, and thus by election {or by adoption} called God’s Son from the Christ {from the divine Spirit} who came into him from above {during his baptism} in the form of a dove.”  He also wrote, “They present him as being only a prophet, human being, Son of God, Messiah, and mere human being, as we said, who through the virtue of his life {by living a life of perfection according to the law} arrived at being called God’s son.”  In other words, they believed that God’s power entered Jesus when he was baptized (and thus, was inaugurated to the position of the Messiah of the Jews). The Holy Spirit came into him. (They believed in the Holy Spirit in the way the Jews believed and still believe: the Holy Spirit is not a person, not part of the Trinity, but an extension, an emanation of God: the power of God.) Peter, a leader of the Jewish Christians, said, “... God anointed Jesus of Nazareth {i.e. during his baptism} with the Holy Spirit and with power ...” (Acts 10:38 NRSV) They believed that with the anointing of the Holy Spirit Jesus became the son of God, the Messiah of the Jews. John wrote, “No one born of God commits sin; for God's nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.” (1 John 3:9 RSV) Likewise, the Jewish Christians believed that after Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit entered him he did not sin anymore. He achieved perfect righteousness.
They believed that Jesus performed miracles through the power of God (the Holy Spirit):

Jesus said it plainly, “ ... I with the finger {i.e. the power, the Spirit} of God cast out devils ...” (Luke 11:20 KJV)

            The Jewish Christians worshipped frequently at the temple: “{They} were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.” (Luke 24:53 KJV) “... continuing daily with one accord in the temple ...” (Acts 2:46 KJV) They were highly regarded by the Jews: “All the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Collonade.  No one else dared to join them even though they were highly regarded by the people.” (Acts 5:12 NIV) They were highly regarded by the Jews because they obeyed the law. But their fellow Jews did not “dare to join them” in proclaiming Jesus the Messiah of the Jews, because they feared that they would be persecuted by Herod Antipas. For a while, Antipas persecuted the Jewish Christians because he wanted to break up the remainder of Jesus’ messianic (revolutionary) movement. In contrast, the Jews did not “highly regard” Paul and the Hellenist Christians (the Hellenist Jews who joined the Jewish Christians during the Pentecost). They persecuted Paul and the Hellenist Christians, because, as we will examine, they preached different beliefs from those of the Jewish Christians. Paul wrote that the Jews drove him and the Hellenist Christians out of Judea: “... the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and ... drove us {Hellenist Christians} out {of Judea}.” (1 Thessalonians 2: 15 NASB) The Jews did not drive Peter, James, and John out of Judea. Like the rest of the Jews of Jerusalem, the Jewish Christians rejected the writings of Paul. Origen wrote, “For there are some sects who do not accept the epistles of the apostle Paul, such as the two kinds of Ebionites ...”
            The beliefs of the Jewish Christians did not clash with the beliefs of the rest of the Jews, except that the Jewish Christians believed that Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews.  For example, Ananias was a Jewish Christian. His beliefs concerning the law did not clash with the beliefs of the rest of the Jews: “And there was a certain disciple {of Jesus, a Jewish Christian} at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord {Jesus} in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.” (Acts 9:9 KJV) Ananias was on good terms with all the Jews because he was “a devout man according to the law”: “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews ...” (Acts 22:12 KJV)

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