Ebionism
A Jesus honored as prophet but not confessed as God, with the Torah still binding
Ebionism names a Jewish-Christian movement that regarded Jesus as a mere human prophet and held that observance of the Torah remained obligatory. What is known comes largely from hostile heresiological reports by writers such as Irenaeus and Epiphanius, so its actual beliefs must be reconstructed with caution. It stands among early movements the wider Church rejected for denying Christ's full divinity.
How it traveled
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · c. 339 CEexplains
- Letters of St. AugustinHippo Regius · c. 430 CEchallenges
- The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of TheodoretCyrrhus · c. 458 CEchallenges
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter XXVII.—The Heresy of the Ebionites. The Ebionites were not originally heretics. Their characteristic was the more or less strict insistence upon the observance of the Jewish law; a matter of
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Against Heresies: Book I · Irenaeus of Lyons
1. Cerinthus, again, a man who was educated 2. Those who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made by God; but their opinions with respect to the Lord are similar to those of Cerinthus and C
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Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter and Longer Versions · Ignatius of Antioch
But if any one preach the Jewish lawFlee therefore the wicked devices and snares of the prince If any one preaches the one God of the law and the prophets, but denies Christ to be the Son of God, he
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
13. The matter in debate, therefore, or I should rather say your opinion regarding it, is summed up in this: that since the preaching of the gospel of Christ, the believing Jews do well in observing t
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
The word Ebionite comes from the Hebrew אֶבְיֹון, which signifies “poor.” Different explanations more or less fanciful have been given of the reason for the use of the word in this connection. It occu
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius is the first to tell us that the Ebionites used the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Irenæus (Adv. Hær. I. 26. 2, III. 11. 7) says that they used the Gospel of Matthew, and the fact that he m
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Since the writing of this note, Handmann’s work on the Gospel according to the Hebrews (Das Hebräer-Evangelium, von Rudolf Handmann. Von Gebhardt and Harnack’s Texte und Untersuchungen, Bd. V. Heft 3)
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Against Heresies: Book IV · Irenaeus of Lyons
1. A spiritual disciple of this sort truly receiving the Spirit of God, who was from the beginning, in all the dispensations of God, present with mankind, and announced things future, revealed things
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter XXVIII.—Cerinthus the Heresiarch. 1. We have understood that at this time Cerinthus, The earliest account which we have of Cerinthus is that of Irenæus (Adv. Hær. I. 26. 1; cf. III. 3. 4, qu
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter XXXVIII.—The Heresy of the Elkesites. Another error also arose at this time, called the heresy of the Elkesites, The Elkesites (῾Ελκεσαιταί) were not a distinct sect, but “a school scattered
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The Dialogue Against the Luciferians · Jerome
The Ophites, whose name is derived from ὄφις, a serpent, were a sect which lasted from the second century to the sixth. Some of them believed that the serpent of Gen. iii. was either the Divine Wisdom
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The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret · Theodoret of Cyrus
As to who this Paulinus was, and when this confession was sent to him, there has been some confusion. Theodoret has been supposed to write “bishop of Thessalonica,” and then has been found fault with
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A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed · Rufinus of Aquileia
39. We come next in the order of belief to the Holy Church. We have mentioned above why the Creed does not say here, as in the preceding article, “In the Holy Church.” They, therefore, who were taught
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
31. Let us remember these things, brethren: let us use these weapons in our defence. Let us not endure those heretics who teach Christ’s coming as a phantom. Let us abhor those also who say that the S
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Book VI · Constitutions of the Holy Apostles
IV. If therefore God inflicted punishment immediately on those that made a schism on account of their ambition, how much rather will He do it upon those who are the leaders of impious heresies! Will n
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Epistle to the Magnesians: Shorter and Longer Versions · Ignatius of Antioch
Let us not, therefore, be insensible to His kindness. For were He to reward us according to our works, we should cease to be. Therefore, having become His disciples, let us learn to live according to
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Against Heresies: Book V · Irenaeus of Lyons
1. For in no other way could we have learned the things of God, unless our Master, existing as the Word, had become man. For no other being had the power of revealing to us the things of the Father, e
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
15. I maintain, therefore, that circumcision, and other things of this kind, were, by means of what is called the Old Testament, given to the Jews with divine authority, as signs of future things whic
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The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius · John Cassian
The SEVEN BOOKS OF JOHN CASSIAN ON THE INCARNATION OF THE LORD, AGAINST NESTORIUS. Book I. The heresy compared to the hydra of the poets. Petschenig’s text gives no titles to the chapters in this
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Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59) · Thomas Aquinas
We now have to consider the virginity of the Mother of God; concerning which there are four points of inquiry: (1) Whether she was a virgin in conceiving? (2) Whether she was a virgin in His Birth?
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