not expect any favourable, or indeed any impartial accounts concerning them. If, however, we may depend upon the earliest accounts that we have of them, and thofe given by perfons who were the best qualified to give us good information, they were all unitarians, and were distinguished from the Gentile chriftians by the name of Ebionites, or Nazarenés. But as it has been pretended by thofe who, being trinitarians themselves, were willing to believe that there must have been a body of ancient Jewish chriftians who thought as they do, and that the Ebionites or Nazarenes must have been fects who broke off from their communion; and as fome of these persons have even faid that thefe Ebionites, or Nazarenes, were fubfequent to the deftruction of Jerufalem by Titus; and others have fixed their origin fo late as the defolation of Judea by Adrian, it may not be improper to fhew that perfons diftinguifhed by the name of Ebionites and Nazarenes were fuppofed to have exifted in the time of the apoftles. Irenæus, Irenæus, who gives no other name to any Jewish chriftians befides that of Ebionites, whom he always fpeaks of as both denying the pre-existence and divinity of Chrift, and likewife the miraculous conception, objects to the Gnoftics, that they were of late date, but he says nothing of the Ebionites in that respect *. Eufebius fays, that "the first heralds, of our Saviour" (by whom he must have meant the apostles) "called thofe Ebionites, which in the He"brew language fignifies poor; who, not denying the body of Chrift, fhewed their folly in denying his divinity." 66 * Reliqui vero qui vocantur Gnoftici, a Menandro Simonis difcipulo, quemadmodum oftendimus, accipientes initia, unufquifque eorum, cujus participatus eft fententiæ, ejus et pater, et antiftes apparuit. Omnes autem hi multo pofterius, mediantibus jam ecclefiæ temporibus, infurrexerunt in fuam apoftafiam. Lib. 3. cap. 4. p. 206. + Και αυτό δέ τε σωτηρος ημών, οι πρωτοκήρυκες Εβιωναίες ονομάζον Εβραικη φωνή, πλωχες, την δε αιοίαν αποκαλονΊες, τις ενα μεν θεον λεγοντας ειδέναι, καὶ τε σωληρος τω σωμα μη aprepevos, anv de to vis Jednja un sifonas. Ec. Theol, lib. 1. cap. 14. P. 75. Epiphanius makes both Ebion (for in his time it was imagined, that the Ebionites were fo called from fome particular perfon of that name) and Cerinthus, cotemporary with the apostle John; and he could not tell which of them was the older *. He like. wife makes the Ebionites cotemporary with the Nazarenes, at the fame time that he fays they held that Chrift was the son of Jofepht. Alfo, in the paffage before quoted from him, as well as in that from Jerom, we find the names of both the Ebionites and the Nazarenes among those who gave fo much alarm to the apoftle John. It must * Ναζωραίοι καθεξης τέλοις επόλει, αμα τε αύτοις οντες, Η και προ αύλων, η συν αυτοις, η μελ αυτός όμως συγχρονοι . * γαρ ακριβέσερον δύναμαι εξειπειν τινες τινας διεδεξαντο. Hær. 30. Opera, vol. 1. p. 149. H. 29. p. 116. + Ουτος γαρ ο Εβίων συγχρονα μεν τέτων υπήρχε, απ αυτών δε συν αυτοις ορμάται. Τα πρώτα δε εκ παρατριβής και σπερματα ανδρος, τότεςιν το Ιωσήφ, τον χρισον γεγε νησθαι, ελέγει, ως και ηδε ημιν προείρηται, οτι τα 162 τοις άλλοις εν απασι φρονων, εν τέτω μόνω διαφέρετο, εν τω τω νόμω το Ι«δαισμο προσανέχειν, κατα σαβατίσμον, καὶ κατα την περιτομήνι, και κατα τα αλλα παντα οταπερ παρά τις Ιεδ αιος ομοίως τοις Σαμαρείταις διαπράττεται. Hær. 30, P. 125, 126. be be owned, however, that, in no perfect consistence with this account, Epiphanius places the origin of the Nazarenes after the deftruction of Jerufalem. After mentioning the places where they refided, viz. Peræa, Cole-Syria, Pella, and Cocabe, he fays, "there was their origin, after the deftruc"tion of Jerufalem, when all the difciples "lived at Pella; Chrift having warned. "them to leave Jerufalem, and retire at the approach of the fiege; and on this account they lived, as I faid, in Peræa. Thence "the fect of the Nazarenes had its origin *." Sophronius, quoted by Theophylact, fays, that "John, befides having a view to Ce"renthus, and other heretics, wrote more 66 66 efpecially againft the herefy of the Ebio"nites, which was then very prevalent, "who faid that Chrift had no being before Εκείθεν μεν η αρχή γέγονε μετά την από των Ιεροσολύμων μετας ασιν, παντων των μαθητών των εν Πελλη ωκηκοτων, χρις» φήσαντος καταλειψαι τα Ιεροσυλυμα, κι αναχώρησαν επειδή ημελλε πάσχειν πολιορκίαν. και εκ της τοια της υποθέσεως την Περαίαν ωκησαντες, εκείσε ως την δια τρίβον. εντευθεν η κατα τις Ναζωραίος αίρεσις είχε την 7. Hær. 29. Opera, vol. 1. p. 123. "he was born of Mary; fo that he was "under a neceffity of declaring his divine origin *." 86 66 Caffian calls Hebion "the first heretic, laying too much ftrefs on the humanity "of Christ, and stripping him of his divinity +." 66 There can be no doubt, therefore, but that both Ebionites and Nazarenes were existing in the time of the apostles; and that there was no real difference between these two fects. And that both of them were equally believers in the fimple humanity of Chrift, is no lefs evident. The teftimony of Origen is clear and decifive to this purpose. He says, that "the word Ebion, in the Jewish language, fignifies poor, and those of the Jews who "believe Jefus to be the Chrift are called * Και μάλιτα τηνικαύτα τα των Εβιωνιτων δογματος ανακύψανίες, των φασκονίων τον Χρισον προ Μαριας μη γεγενησθαι . οθε ηναγκα σθη την θειαν γέννησιν αύλε ειπειν. In John, vol. 1. p. 548. + Quorum primus Hebion, dum incarnationem dominicam nimis afferit, divinitatis eam conjunctione nudavit. De Incarnatione, lib. 1. cap. 2. p. 962. "Ebionites." |