the ki.i
the Gospel of the Ebionites is found in
vary only very sli,i,'li!;; ;r - istic of the teaching of tl
after lii- n, i^[i' r . f !:n Fourth Gospel, Jesus is introduced the midst of the narrative dealing with the Baptist. ' There was a certain 7nan named Je$us {and He was about thirty years old), tcho chose us.' An account of the calling of the Apostles follows, special emphasis being laid on the call of Matthew. Then the broken thread of the narrative is again taken up. ■ And John was baptizituj, and Pharisees came out to him and were baptized, and alt Jerusalem. . . . His food was tcild honey, the taste of Schick was the taste of manna, like a honey-cake in oil.' In the narrative of Christ's baptism which follows, three voices come from heaven ; the first, ' Thou art Mu beloved Son, in Thee I am w II I > - :_ rp.ated for the benefit of the Baptist, 'This /-■ M ' . : the second is addressed
to Christ, •! hin Thee: Another fragment
describes the iiii . i : ; i . .Mt 12i"-5'> in words which
. inonical version. Character- spel are the two remaining frag- destroy sacrifices, and except ye cease from sacrificing, ivrath will not cease from you ' ; and ' Surely I have in no tvise desired to eat flesh at this passover with you.'
The tendency of the Gospel is characteristically Ebionitic. All that is reported of Jesus is in harmony with the views of the Gnostic Ebionit«s (Elkesaites), who combined the old Jewish-Christian belief in Jesus as a mere man, anointed to be Messiah tlirough the descent of the Spirit at baptism, with the doctrine of a heavenly Clirist, ' who wanders over the common earth among men, like a strange guest from heaven, in order that He may lead into His eternal kingdom all that is spiritual and pure in this impure material world ' (Hennecke, 25), The matter-of-fact way in whicli Jesus is introduced in the Gospel ('tliere was a certain man named Jesus') points to the view that of Himself Jesus was nothing to the members of this sect, but only became significant as the object of faith through the descent of the heavenly Christ, The ascetic (vegetarian) views of the Ebionites and their hatred of sacrifices of blood are manifest in the fragments. In accordance with his vegetarian
sympathies, the author removes locusts {oKpidas) from the Baptist's diet, and by way of compensa- tion states that the honey which he ate tasted like honey-cake {iyicpis) in oil. The play on the words dKpls and eyKpis shows that oui' Greek Gospels, and not a Hebrew original, lay before the writer.
Tlie author in the composition of his work made use of the canonical Gospels in a free and clumsy manner. The narrative of the Baptism, in par- ticular, is extremelj' awkward and badly told. No scruples deterred the writer from clianging the words of Christ to the directly opposite sense by the simple insertion of a negative ('I have in no ici^e desired to eat this passover-flesh with you ' ; cf, Lk 22'').
The date of the Gospel is late in the 2nd cent, ; Zahn puts it at 170 ; Harnack not earlier than 180, and perhaps as late as the beginning of the 3rd cent,
LiTERATORE,— Credner, Beitruae, i, 332 ff, ; Hilgenfeld, ST extra can. iv. 33 ff, ; Zahn, ST Kan. ii, 724 ff, ; Harnack, Gesch. d. allchr. Litt. i. 205 fl,, Chron. 1 625 fit,; llever in Hennecke, ST Apokr. 24 fl., Uandb. 42 ff.
B. 3. Gospel of Thomas, — A single citation from a Gnostic Gospel of Thomas is given by Hippoly- tus (Philos. V, 7), who states that he found it in a writing in use among the Naassenes : ' He mho seeks me shall find me in children from seven years old ; for there concealed in tlie fourteenth won I shall be made manifest.' Origen (Horn, in Luc. i. 1) speaks of a Gospel of Thomas ; and a Gospel bearing that name is placed by Eusebius (HE iii, 2.5, 6) among heretical writings, Cyril of Jeru- salem (Cat. iv. 36), referring to 'spurious and noxious Gospels,' mentions a Gospel according to Thomas written by the Manichjeans ; and in another (Cat. vi, 31) he warns all against reading it is written not by an Apostle, but by 'one of the three evil disciples of Manes.' The Decretum Gelasii condemns a Gospel of Tlwmas which was used by the Manichaeans. In what relation (if any) the Manichjean Gospel stood to the Gnostic Gospel, referred to by Hippolytus, is indiscoverable, as no fragment of the former is known. That the Gnostic Gospel bears some relation to the Childhood Gospel of Thomas is practically certain from what we know of the latter, and from the character of the passage cited by Hippolytus, There are indications in the Childhood Gospel which point to a Gnostic origin ; and this being the case, if the two Gospels were entirely independent, it would be nothing less than marvellous that, while tlie one is composed of narratives of Christ's cliildhood, the only frag- ment preserved of the other should contain a cryptic utterance of Christ about children, (See below, C, (n) 2, where also literature will be found).