Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

But my difficulty still is the reconciliation between 'Jesus' the man and 'Christ' the divine being. If the original story had a mortal man at its center and his name was Jesus then I find it difficult to reconcile this with (a) a divine name and (b) the baptism of said 'Jesus' and the reception of ...

The name Iesous especially as it adds up to the "fullness" of 888. Already known to Irenaeus. Not sure this name is the name above all others. But it was significant.

It is not even worth carrying on a discussion about the worth of Epiphanius's 'additions' to the account supplied by Irenaeus. The case is closed to any reasonable mind. Nevertheless it is worth IMHO referencing Häkkinen's important point that even Irenaeus knows nothing about the Ebionites other th...

Acts 24:5 (whether it is true or not) says that the first Jewish Christians were called Nazarenes. And since the NT never calls the first Christians Ebionites (as a title), it makes sense that Epiphanius would presume that the first Christians were called Nazarenes. Well surely whether or not Acts ...

So I figure this was just another matter of Epiphanius putting two and two together (whether it is true or not). But Epiphanius so often puts two and two together and gets five (the Cerinthians and Carpocratians used Matthew) that any reasonable person would conclude the exact opposite than what yo...

And let's suppose for a minute you take the reasonable approach of admitting - Epiphanius's value is in his access to alternative sources which are no longer available to us. That's only true to a degree because (a) he doesn't tell us when he is making stuff up and when he is using sources and (b) h...

Hee hee hee.

In conclusion Epiphanius provides NO FURTHER EVIDENCE of the existence of the Ebionites over what appears in Irenaeus and in fact introduces a series of WILLFUL misunderstandings to help reconcile this alleged sect with eyewitness testimony of Jewish Christianity WHICH DOES NOT EXPLICITLY identify i...

Like for instance - listen carefully at what Epiphanius is actually saying about this gospel he cites: See how their utterly false teaching is all lame, crooked, and not right anywhere! (2) For by supposedly using their same < so-called Gospel according to Matthew > Cerinthus and Carpocrates want to...

The story about 'Josephus' that follows is not ACTUALLY about the Ebionites. Epiphanius NEVER says Josephus was a self-confessed Ebionite. IN FACT if you read the story carefully it is introduced as follows: 1. the Ebionites mixed up with the other sects so you have a jumble of 'Jewish Christian' he...