• Even after Zahn'a (Gesch. des Kanons, ii. 731 f.) argrument that Epiphaniu8'9 statement is correct, and that since Origen the Ebionitic Christians had begun to appropriate for their own Gospel the honorific title of the Church's HO.
t The religious vegetarianism of the Ebionite Christians (Epiph. xxx. 15) made them change 'locusts' (axpiSe^, Mt 3^) into honey-cake (ey^pi?). The verse echoes LXX of Nu 11** (»cai iji/ r; ifSour) auToO (io-el yeCua cyicpis e'f fKatov). Note James was an ascetic but not a vegetarian. "The words of Hegcsippiis, which Eusebius quotes (Z/JS ii. 23. 5), ovSe ifxi^vxov e4>ay(v, mean that he was careful to eat only ' kosher ' meat (in the sense of Ac 15'-s* and Jos. Ant. i. 102, x"p"'s alVaro?).
t This is almost the only touch in the extant fragments which recalls the Fourth Gospel (6-'), and even this need not be a
and James, sons of Zebedseus, and Simon and Andrew and Thaddaeus and Simon the zealot and Judas Iscariot ; and I called thee, Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, and thou didst follow me. You then I desire to be twelve apostles for a testi- mony to Israel"' (xxx. 13). The narrative of the Baptism (4) diverges in order and in some details from the Synoptic tradition. ' When the people had been baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John. And when he came up from the water, the heavens opened and he saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending and entering into him. And a voice came from heaven saying, " Thou art my Beloved, in thee I am well- pleased" — and again — "to-day have I begotten thee. " And immediately a great light * shone round the place. Seeing this (says the Gospel), John says to him, "Who art thou, Lord?" And again a voice from heaven addressed him [or, said of him], " This is my son, the Beloved, in whom I am well- pleased." And then (says the Gospel) John fell down before him and said, " I pray thee. Lord, do thou baptize me." But he forbade him, saying, " Come, this is how it is fitting that all should be accomplished"' (xxx. 13). The divergence of EG from NG at this point is clear : the one has a dove, the other has not (cf. above, p. 493) ; and EG conflates the voices from heaven.
The Gospel must have included the middle part of the life of Jesus.t for two sayings are quoted, one (5) a curious protest against sacrifices (' I came to abolish sacrifices, and if you do not cease sacri- ficing, the Wrath will not cease from you,' xxx. 16), and the other (6) a version of Mt 12^»-5«=Mk S^'-^ = Lk 8^^"^^ ('They deny he is a man, on the ground, forsooth, of the word which the Saviour spoke when he Avas informed, "Behold, thy mother and thy brothers are standing outside." " Who is my mother and my brothers ? " And stretching his hand out to his disciples he said, "These are my sisters and mother and brother, who do the will of my Father," ' xxx, 14). If (5) was substituted J for Mt 5'^ (as in the case of (7)), and if the plural 6e\qfw.Ta in (6) means the various injunctions of the Law as God's will, ■\ve have two indications of the Jewish Christian syncretistic and anti-sacrificial § tendency which dominated the Gospel.
The sole saying (7) which has been preserved from the Passion narrative illustrates the vegeta- rian tendency which we have already seen in the description of John the Baptist's food. The Lucan saying, ' With desire have I desired to eat this passover with you,' became : ' I have not desired to eat this passover of fle.sh with you' (xxx. 22). II The Ebionites were vegetarians, probably because they objected to sexual relations as im- moral, and consequently to animal food as the product of such relations even among the lower creatures.
The accuracy of Epiphanius is seldom beyond question, and it has been surmised that these quotations in whole or part came from other sources (so, e.g., Credner, Lijjsius, Westcott, Schmidtke). Thus (5) may have come from the Clementine Re- cognitions (i. 39, 54) and (6) from Origen's comment on Jn 2'^ But it does not follow that they were current only in these quarters. And as Epiphanius does show some close acquaintance with the tenets
reminiscence. On the other hand, the Coptic fragments which some pro]iose to connect with this Gospel (cf. 506) show marked Joliannine colouring.
* See Justin's Dial. 88.
t Origen (rfc Prineip. iv. 22) also quotes the Ebionites' inter- pretation of Mt 152^.
{ Nicholson (p. 77) suggests that it was part of a paragraph answering to Lk 131-3.
§ This led them (Epiph. xviii. 2, xxx. 8, 18) to criticize parts of the Law and even of the prophets, in spite of their admiration of the OT.
il Or, ' Have I desired . . . you?'
GOSPELS (UNCANOXICAL)
GOSPELS (UXCAXOXICAL) 495
and practices of the Ebionites, it is fair to assume that his citations from their Gospel are not invari- ably inaccurate or imaginary. As the quotation (2) shows, by the substitution of iyKpls for the Synoptic cLKpides, the original text was Greek, not Semitic.