Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 14, 2013

Gospel of the Ebionites is the conventional name given to an apocryphal gospel believed to have been used by a Jewish Christian sect known as the Ebionites. All that is known of the gospel consists of seven brief quotations found in a heresiology known as the Panarion, written by Epiphanius of Salamis (pictured); he believed it to be a truncated and modified version of the Gospel of Matthew. The quotations were used as part of a polemic to point out inconsistencies in the beliefs and practices of the Ebionites relative to Nicene orthodoxy. The text is a gospel harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, composed in Greek with various changes reflecting the writer's theology. It is believed to have been composed some time during the middle of the 2nd century. Distinctive features include the absence of the virgin birth and genealogy of Jesus, an Adoptionist Christology in which Jesus is chosen to be God's Son at the time of his Baptism, Jesus' appointed task of abolishing the Jewish sacrifices, and an advocacy of vegetarianism. Although the gospel was said to be used by "Ebionites" during the time of the early church, the identity of the group or groups that used it remains a matter of conjecture. (Full article...)

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