Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

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Peter Kirby
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Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

Post by Peter Kirby »

Epiphanius relates the following (Panarion 30.24):

And again, when St. John himself was preaching in Asia, it is reported that he did an extraordinary thing as an example of the truth. Although his way of life was most admirable and appropriate to his apostolic Holy Spirit who said, “Look what is at the bath!” (2) To his companions’ surprise he actually went to the bathing-room, approached the attendant who took the bathers’ clothes, and asked who was inside in the bathingroom. (3) And the attendant stationed there to watch the clothes—some people do this for a living in the gymnasia—said to St. John, “Ebion is inside.” (4) But John understood at once why the Holy Spirit’s guidance had impelled him to approach the bath, as I said—as a memorial to leave us the truth’s advice as to who Christ’s servants and apostles are, and the sons of that same truth, but what the vessels of the evil one are, and the gates of hell; though these cannot prevail against the rock, and God’s holy church which is founded on it. (5) Becoming disturbed at once and crying out John said in an aside audible to all—as a testimony in evidence of undefiled doctrine—“Let’s get out of here in a hurry, brothers, or the bath may fall and bury us along with the person who is inside in the bathingroom, Ebion, because of his impiety.” (6) And no one need be surprised to hear that Ebion met John. The blessed John had a very long life, and survived till the reign of Trajan.71 (7) But anyone can see that all the apostles distinguished Ebion’s faith (from their own), and considered it foreign to the character of their preaching.

Irenaeus tells this story instead (A.H. 3.3.4):

There are also those who heard from him [Polycarp] that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us flee, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.

It is widely acknowledged that "Ebion" is a fiction. The name derives from a need of heresiologists to trace the origin of each heresy to a named founder, thereby discrediting their doctrine by ascribing it to a deviant teacher. As late as the fourth century, Eusebius is able to describe such a group without deriving the etymology from the name of a founder:

The ancients quite properly called these men Ebionites, because they held poor and mean opinions concerning Christ.

Epiphanius also shows that he knows of their own claimed etymology and denies it (Panarion 30.16):

They themselves, if you please, boastfully claim that they are poor because they sold their possessions in the apostles’ time and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and went over to a life of poverty and renunciation; and thus, they say, they are called “poor” by everyone. But there is no truth to this claim of theirs either; he was really named Ebion. I suppose the poor wretch was named prophetically by his father and mother.

And the stories quoted also show that Ebion and Cerinthus were considered in very similar terms, as the opponent of John, said to have written the fourth gospel, so much so that the same story can find itself applied to both names. The origin of this story need nothing more than the idea that John would have opposed the view of Jesus as a "mere man." Irenaeus isn't even bold enough to claim that he had heard the story from Polycarp, only that he had heard the story in circulation and that it had come to be attributed to Polycarp. And yet that attribution itself doesn't need anything more than the idea that Polycarp was the hearer of John. The whole thing disappears into a fog of rumors.

And yet it's less often shown that Cerinthus is also a fiction, created for much the same reasons as Ebion. Recently, I think I came across the origin of the fictitious name. Recall that the "Gospel of the Ebionites" (called the Gospel according to Matthew) was used by those who, among other things, are attributed with vegetarianism and a rejection of sacrifices. And Epiphanius quotes from this text as follows (Panarion 30.12):

And, “John came baptizing, and there went out unto him Pharisees and were baptized, and all Jerusalem. And John had a garment of camel’s hair, and a girdle of skin about his loins. And his meat,” it says, “was wild honey, whose taste was the taste of manna, as a cake in oil.” This, if you please, to turn the account of the truth into falsehood, and substitute “a cake in honey” for “locusts”!

Note that it is often said that this alleged substitution of "pancakes" (egkrides) for "locusts" (akrides) shows that the text was Greek instead of Hebrew.

This story comes near the beginning of the text, with the story of John and his relationship to Jesus (also at the start of canonical Mark and John), and touches on one of the most controversial points about the people using the text, their rejection of meat in favor of a form of vegetarianism. So the text is highly visible and peculiar to those who oppose them (much like the famous opening of the Gospel used by Marcion).

And so it would be no surprise if this text gave rise to polemical use, much like it does in Epiphanius. The word "Cerinthus" in Greek means "bee-bread," a waxy substance believed to be the sustenance of bees:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/283989

So when the text talks about eating honey, as though shaped into a pancake, what could be more appropriate as a way to taunt them but to call them the followers of a certain "bee-bread" man? Such is the fictitious Cerinthus.
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Re: Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

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Peter Kirby wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 6:43 pmIt is widely acknowledged that "Ebion" is a fiction. The name derives from a need of heresiologists to trace the origin of each heresy to a named founder, thereby discrediting their doctrine by ascribing it to a deviant teacher. As late as the fourth century, Eusebius is able to describe such a group without deriving the etymology from the name of a founder:
My own crazy theory is that there was an Ebion who was either James the Just, or an immediate successor of James the Just. We have Saul/Paul (small) and Simon/Peter (stone), so maybe James/Ebion (poor)?

Anyway, I hadn't thought about Cerinthus in those terms though. But if there were "Cerinthians" but no Cerinthus, then any thoughts about where the sect name came from?
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Re: Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

Post by Giuseppe »

Reading that "Cerinthus" in Greek means "bee-bread," my first thought has gone not to John the Baptist's diet, but to the Cerinthian belief in the coming eschatological banquet, when the earth would be prodigal of natural gifts for the chosen (the bee-bread being notoriously a symbol of earthly gratuitous prosperity).
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Re: Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

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GakuseiDon wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 10:40 pm Anyway, I hadn't thought about Cerinthus in those terms though. But if there were "Cerinthians" but no Cerinthus, then any thoughts about where the sect name came from?
We need to exercise great caution about assuming that there were such schools who thought of themselves as separate. The notices about Cerinthus do not usually even talk much about Cerinthians (making this easy), but we have to be cautious even when we hear about -ians in general. Very often what we may be seeing is someone who would not accept the label (or any separate group label) being given it.

There were 'the poor' in the fourth century because Epiphanius says he argues with their derivation of their name. It's less clear that they existed in the second century because the idea of Ebionites could be an anti-heretical fiction of the heresy hunters like Irenaeus, who frequently created (non-existent sociological) groups out of differences of theological opinion. On the other hand, it's also possible that there was a second century group who saw themselves in the references to the Jerusalem group who were called 'the poor' in the letters of Paul. Some kind of continuity with a historical James is possible but not certain.

M. D. Goulder argues that possessionist/adoptionist "Ebionites" are behind the opponents in the letters of Ignatius, explaining how the letters almost always combine "Jesus Christ" or "Christ Jesus," how they emphasize the three points of birth / death / fleshly resurrection for Christ that were controverted by possessionists, how the letters speak of the baptism of Jesus Christ, how the opponents prefer the ancients (scriptures) as an authority, how the opponents follow (parts of) Jewish law, etc. These texts do not name an opponent who led them or name them as a heretical school.

The ideas attributed by Irenaeus to "Ebionites" and "Cerinthus" were likely common at the time of the letters of Ignatius. It's quite possible that (maybe minor) edits were made to the gospel text used by people with these beliefs in order to bring it more in line with their teaching. This kind of rewriting of the gospel text was common at this time, seeing how no particular text or set of them had yet been recognized as authoritative. So now you have a widespread set of beliefs, combined with a text read by those with the beliefs that in parts reflected those beliefs.

In order to discredit those beliefs, the strategy is consistently to represent people with those beliefs as a group or "sect." The strategy gains power by naming a sect and a founder of it. We should be cautious about taking this anti-heretical strategy at face value. One of the greatest errors that we can make is to carry around some kind of notion of normative Christians, without deviations, and project that into the past. In so doing, we recapitulate and reify the anti-heretical project.
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Re: Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

Post by StephenGoranson »

Some of the factors in considering whether the name Ebionites was a self-designation or an outsider name or both are mentioned in my "Ebionites" in Anchor Bible Dictionary.
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Re: Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

Post by Kunigunde Kreuzerin »

Peter Kirby wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 6:43 pm Irenaeus tells this story instead (A.H. 3.3.4):

There are also those who heard from him [Polycarp] that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us flee, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.

Irenaeus used βαλανεῖον for bath house, i.e. the typical public bath for Greeks and Romans.

I find it somewhat surprising that this anecdote shows John not in a Jewish setting but so naturally in a public place of the pagan world and as part of it.
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Re: Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

Post by StephenGoranson »

fwiw and iirc, some ancient Jews went to public bathhouses, at least according to rabbinic literature.
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Re: Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

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Judah the Prince.
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Re: Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

Post by Kunigunde Kreuzerin »

StephenGoranson wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 4:20 am fwiw and iirc, some ancient Jews went to public bathhouses, at least according to rabbinic literature.
Yeah. However, a bath house in Ephesus may be different from a bath house in Tiberias. It's not only about impurity in the Jewish sense and about moral questionability due to nudity and certain "immoral" customs there, but also about statues and images of pagan gods etc. It seems to me that Epiphanius was also very well aware of this problematic stay. Hence all the laborious explanations in his story ...
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Re: Bathtime Stories: Ebion and Cerinthus

Post by Secret Alias »

A lot of time separated Epiphanius from Irenaeus.
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