The Gospel of the Ebionites is a text sharing an affinity with the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Nazarenes. Unfortunately, Jerome erroneously names it as being the same as the Gospel of the Hebrews, leading to much later confusion. Like the other two, it survives only as fragments in quotations, and so it is difficult to tell how much it is an independant text, and whether it is in fact simply a slight variation on the others. The Gospel of the Hebrews (see About titles below), is a lost gospel that is only preserved in a few quotations in the Panarion of Epiphanius, a church writer who lived at the end of the 4th century C.E.. The work was earlier than that, however: Irenaeus attested to... This article needs copyediting (checking for proper English spelling, grammar, usage, etc. ... , by Albrecht Dürer Jerome (about 340 - September 30, 420), (full name Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus) is best known as the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. ...
The text appears, as far as can be determined, to be an attempt to merge the synoptic gospels into a single story. However, it has minor changes suited to Ebionite theology, specifically making Jesus a vegetarian, and rendering him in the adoptionist form. Much of these changes are accomplished by clever and subtle changes of greek words, such as a meal of akris (locusts) into one of egkris (cake). The Ebionites (from Hebrew; Ebionim, the poor ones) were a sect of Judean followers of John the Baptizer and later Jesus (Yeshua in Aramaic) which existed in Judea and Palestine during the early centuries of the Common Era. ... Adoptionism is a view held by some early medieval Christians, that Jesus was born a human only, and was not divine until his baptism, at which point he was adopted as the Son by God the Father. ...
These differences were considered heretical by the more orthodox church, leading to charges that the text was forged and mutilated. Ultimately, it suffered the same fate as the Ebionites, whatever that was.
Whereas the Gospel of the Ebionites is indeed closely related to Matthew, examination of the extant fragments reveals that much of the text is a harmony, composed in Greek, of the Gospels Matthew and Luke (and, probably, the Gospel of Mark as well).
The Gospel of the Ebionites omits the infancy narratives.
The Gospel according to the Twelve, or 'of the Twelve', mentioned by Origen (Ambrose and Jerome) is identified by Zahn with the EbioniteGospel.
The Ebionites (from Hebrew; ËEbyonim, "the poor ones") were a sect of Judean followers of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth who existed in the Iudaea Province of the Roman Empire during the early centuries of the Common Era.
Since the early Ebionites clearly did believe in the ability of Jesus to perform powerful miracles, it may be possible that the charges of their denying his divinity, etc. were merely propaganda on the part of the patristic sources, eager to paint them as heretics.
There are several modern Ebionite movements which, like the ancient Ebionites, deny the divinity of Jesus, the doctrine of the Trinity, the Virgin Birth and the death of Jesus as an atonement for the Original Sin, whilst accepting Jesus either as a prophet, Messiah or both.
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