The Hebrews – Part Four

Further Identifications and Associations

Viewing the Landscape of the Hebrew Remnant

Bishop Epiphanius wrote his book, The Panarion,^[1]The Panarion of Epiphanius, Book I (Sects 1-46) Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, Translated by Frank Williams, Nag Hammadi & Manichaean Studies; BRILL, Leiden – Boston. some 300 years after both Jewish historians, Josephus of Jerusalem and Philo of Alexandria, and the original Gospel(s) were written. He listed and described Sects and Philosophies among Judæans and others before and after the appearance of The Master Y’Shua the Netsar and Messiah in the first century. His work is helpful and along with other records serves to give us an orientation in these matters and allows us to pinpoint the true Netsar and the Netsarim; But one should not consider Epiphanius as perfectly accurate in all matters as he has second-hand knowledge, and has an extreme bias, measuring and dissecting all others with extreme vitriol in accordance with his own sectarian late fourth century interpretations. These other groups opposed the new hybrid Constantinian Roman Catholic religion, which tried to completely annihilate them. Epiphanius, through his attempt to repudiate and annihilate other sects has actually aided us in restoring our knowledge of them.

These “Sects” or “Denominations” that he describes below are more or less his own subdivisions of the Essene-Jews described by Josephus and Philo. The name, Essene, likely originates with the Aramaic word, Assayin, meaning Healers and Therapists. In fact, he places the Essenes in the category of Dosithæans, in ways that match what Josephus and Philo described centuries earlier. Philo said that the Essenes were also called, Saints — and we note that this title was used throughout the New Testament and helps in identifying the main populace of the original followers of Y’Shúa. Stemming from the confusion of wars and exiles there were divisions over calendar issues among all “Jews” as witnessed in the Writings found in the caves of Qumran near the Dead Sea, the Books of Enoch and Jubilees also found there, and the later Mishnah-Talmuds of Rabbinical Judaism, as well as, Christian controversies also.

Bishop Eusebius of the early 4^th Century who became an apologist and “mythmaker” for Emperor Constantine, ^[2]Eus. H. E. 4.22.5, quoting Hegesippus “also counts seven [sects]: Essenes, Galilæans, Hemerobaptists, Masbothæans, Samaritans, Sadducees, Pharisees.” [Panarion, Section I, Footnote 31]. He left out the Herodians and Zealots.

Bishop Epiphanius ^[3]perhaps per the writings of Bishop Irenaneas of Lyons, and likely erroneously so? claimed that the Ebionites were named after a Jew named, Ebion, who joined the Jewish Nazoræan sect after they had fled from Judæa into the city of Pella just before the Roman Invasion of Judea, ca. 66-70 AD, but that Ebion left them and created his own sect. However, the Hebrew word, Ebion, is the word for “poor“, as in, “Blessed in spirit are the Poor; for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3   This is also one of the words used to describe a group in the Qumran-Dead Sea Scrolls, rather than using the term Essene.

Bishop Epiphanius thus describes a kind of cross-pollination of ideas in relation to the
Nazoreans, Nasareans, Ebionites, and Osseans.

[Note: Brackets are mine. His vitriol and interpretations are mostly left out below.]

Section I – Observing the Common Links

[Notice the slight difference in NaSaræan and NaZoræan, which may have been merely a different spelling of the same word but was transformed into two separate sects in order to appear as a closer association between the Nazoreans/Netsarim and his ‘superior’ Roman Catholicism.]

3,1 …[As a pre-Christian sect] There are only a handful of Nasaræans [left as such]…they have been united with the sect of the Ebionites.

Against Ebion

1,3 …For he [Ebion] has the Samaritans’ unpleasantness but the Jews’ name, the opinion of the
Ossæans, Nazoræans and Nasaræans… [Notice that these three are linked together!]

5,4 …Elxai [who joined the Ossæans and thus founded the Elchasites] is associated with the Ebionites…as well as with the Nazoræans… [More linkage] (5) And four sects have made use of him…^[4]of Elxai–after his appearance in 116 A.D., during the reign of Hadrian
Ebionites…Nazoræans…Ossæans…Nasaræans…(Nasa/Nasha means to ascend; A Nashar is an Eagle)
the Poor …  Branches  …   Doers  … Ascend like Eagles (Ex 19:4; Is 40:31)

These are various descriptions of Essene-Saints called, the Netsarim.

13,1,1 Now Dosithæans … acknowledge the resurrection and have ascetic disciplines. They abstain from flesh; Moreover, some abstain from matrimony < after having lived in that state >, while others are even virgins. [Josephus, 300 years before this, described the same two kinds of Essenes.]
^[5](2) They likewise have the customs of Circumcision, the Sabbath, and not touching one person or another out of loathing for all humanity. It is said that they keep fasts and have a rigorous … Continue reading ^[6]Bishop Epiphanius has such vitriol for “Jews” and their practices, he uses as a catchphrase of “Circumcision, the Sabbath, and the like” as an aspersion of his vitriol upon any who have some … Continue reading

18 Against Nasaraeans,²⁷ Sect five from Judaism but eighteen of the series

^[7]The Editors’ Footnote 27:  “This Group [the Nasaræans] has some traits in common with the Mandaeans, whose usual name for themselves is “Nazoraeans”, and who reject the … Continue reading

3,1 …[As a pre-Christian sect] There are only a handful of Nasaræans [left as such]…
they have been united with the sect of the Ebionites.

1,1 …Nasaræans. They are Jews by nationality, from Gileaditis, Bashanitis and the Transjordan as I have been told, but descendants of Israel himself. This sect practices Judaism in all respects and have scarcely any beliefs beyond the ones that I have mentioned. (2) It too had been given circumcision [?], and it kept the same Sabbath and observed the same festivals, and certainly did not inculcate fate or astrology.

19,1 19. Nasaræans…who forbid the eating of any flesh and do not partake of living things at all [not even Fish as other Vege-Fruitarians probably did]. They have the holy names of patriarchs which are in the Pentateuch, up through Moses and Joshua the son of Nun, and they believe in them—(2) I mean Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the earliest ones, and Moses himself, and Aaron, and Joshua. But they hold that the scriptures of the Pentateuch are not Moses’ scriptures and maintain that they have others besides these.

1,3 It also recognized as fathers the persons in the Pentateuch from Adam to Moses who were illustrious for the excellence of their piety—I mean Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi and Aaron, Moses and Joshua the son of Nun. However, it would not accept the Pentateuch itself. It acknowledged Moses and believed that he had received legislation—not this legislation though, they said, but some other. (4) And so, though they were Jews who kept all the Jewish observances, they would not offer sacrifice or eat flesh; in their eyes it was unlawful to eat flesh or make sacrifices with it. They claimed that these books are forgeries and that none of these customs were instituted by the fathers. (5) This was the difference between the Nasaræans and the others…

19. Against Ossæans [Keepers or Doers of the Law]

5,1 This, then, is the sect of those Ossæans, which lives the Jewish life in Sabbath observance, circumcision, and the keeping of the whole Law. Only by renouncing the books < of Moses > does it cause a schism—as the Nasaræans do—since it differs from the other six of these seven sects…

18,1 18. Ossæans…They were observers of the Law’s provisions [keepers-doers; cf. James 1:22] but also made use of other scriptures after the Law, though they rejected most of the later prophets. ^[8]This characteristic is a similar to the Samaritans and Mandæans. Possibly, they rejected the edited versions of historical narratives of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, which the Rabbis claimed … Continue reading

[One must ask the question: If the Ossæans are keepers-doers “of the whole law” but renounce the books of Moses that the Rabbinic Jews and the Catholic Christians possess, what is their source for the “whole Law”? Was it the same as the Nasaræans? Did they maintain an authentic version of the “whole Law” that is now lost to us? Therefore, when King David and the prophets spoke of “The Law”, they were speaking of this other version. Psalm 19:7-9 “The Law of Yahwéh is perfect…” Isaiah 8:20 “To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Thus, it would seem that between the time of King David and after the Prophet Isaiah that the Aharonic revisionists substituted a ‘revised edition’ of the original Law and Testimony during the Babylonian Exile. The original apparently was maintained by “the remnant”.]

29. AGAINST NAZORÆANS [Netsarim – Acts 24:5]

1,1 – 9,5 [Abbreviated] This sect of Nazoræans…also were called Jesseans, I suppose because of Jesse … since David was descended from Jesse [of the tribe of Judah] … these sectarians… did not call themselves Christianos – but [by the Hebrew word] ‘Nazoræans’ [Netsârím or Netzârím or Notzrim]…      

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch (netser) from his roots shall bear fruit.”

Isaiah 11:1

“…they are not in accord with Christians [as defined under gentile councils] …they are nothing but Jews… [in ways] different from the Jews and [in ways] different from Christians. They have the Gospel according to Matthew in its entirety in Hebrew [see Acts 26:14]. For it is clear that they still preserve this, in the Hebrew alphabet, as it was originally written…they are still fettered by the Law [Torah] – Circumcision, the Sabbath [on Saturday], and the rest…as to Christ [Messiah; Mashíach], I cannot say whether…they regard him as a mere man [born of both Joseph and Mary, or, was born only by ‘the ever-virgin’ by the holy spirit]…” They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do…They have no different ideas but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in [similarity to] the Jewish fashion. For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that God is one, and that his son is Jesus the Christ. They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew. For among them the entire Law, the Prophets, and the… Writings… are read in Hebrew, as they surely are by the Jews…” “This sect of Nazoræans is to be found in Beroea near Coelesyria, [Lebanon-Syria] in the Decapolis near Pella [Northern Jordan South of the Galilee], and in Bashanitis [west of the Sea of Galilee] at the place called…Khokhabe in Hebrew.” ….

30. AGAINST EBIONITES

^[9]Footnote 1 reads: Epiphanius draws on Hipp. Synt. which is his source for the name, “Ebion,” probably on Irenaeus, and certainly on some version of the Clementina [Clementine Homilies & … Continue reading

1,1 …Ebion, the founder of the Ebionites, arose in the world in his turn as a monstrosity with many forms, and practically represented in himself the snake-like form of the mythical many-headed hydra. He was of the Nazoræans’ school but preached and taught other things than they.

1,2 …Ebion…took any and every doctrine…from every sect and patterned himself after them all.

(3) For he has the Samaritans’ unpleasantness but the Jews’ name, the opinion of the Ossæans, Nazoræans and Nasaræans, the form of the Cerinthians, and the perversity of the Carpocratians. And he wants to have just the Christians’ title—most certainly not their behavior, opinion and knowledge, and the [Nicene Catholic] consensus as to faith of the Gospels and Apostles! 1,4 But since he is midway between all the sects…

2,1 For this Ebion was contemporary with the Jews, and < since he was > with them, he was derived from them. (2) In the first place, he said that Christ was conceived by sexual intercourse and the seed of a man, Joseph—I have already said that he agreed with the others in everything, with this one difference, his adherence to Judaism’s Law of the Sabbath, circumcision, and all the other Jewish and Samaritan observances. (3) But like the Samaritans [Essenes?] he goes still further than the Jews. He added the rule about taking care not to touch a gentile; (4) and that every day, if a man has been with a woman and has left her, he must immerse himself in water—any water he can find, the sea or any other. (5) Moreover, if he should meet anyone while returning from his immersion and bath in the water, he runs back again for another immersion, often even with his clothes on!

2,6 This sect now forbids celibacy and continence altogether, as do the other sects which are like it. For at one time they prided themselves on virginity, presumably because of James the Lord’s brother,< and so > address their treatises to “elders and virgins.”

2,7 Their origin came after the fall of Jerusalem. For since practically all who had come to faith in Christ had settled in Peraea then, in Pella, a town in the “Decapolis” the Gospel mentions, which is near Batanaea and Bashanitis—as they had moved there then and were living there, this provided an opportunity for Ebion…(8) …There he began his evil teaching—the place…where the Nazoræans I have spoken of came from. (9) For since Ebion was connected with them and they with him, each party shared its own wickedness with the other. 3,7 They too accept the Gospel according to Matthew. Like the Cerinthians and Merinthians, they too use it alone. They call it, “According to the Hebrews,” and it is true to say that only Matthew expounded and preached the Gospel in the Hebrew language and alphabet in the New Testament. 15,1 But they use certain other books as well—supposedly the so-called Travels of Peter written by Clement [Clementine Homilies & Recognitions]…

15,3 [which say concerning Peter] that he was baptized daily for purification…

And they say he abstained from flesh and dressed flesh, as they do, and any other dish made from flesh—since both Ebion himself, and Ebionites, entirely abstain from these.

18,7 Nor do they accept Moses’ Pentateuch in its entirety; they reject certain sayings.

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The Panarion of Epiphanius, Book I (Sects 1-46) Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, Translated by Frank Williams, Nag Hammadi & Manichaean Studies; BRILL, Leiden – Boston.