Ebionite Church

The Ebionite Church (from Hebrew; אביונים, Ebyonim, "the Poor Ones") is a Christian body that views itself as the historical continuation of the original Christian church established by Jesus Christ and his Twelve Apostles, preserving the traditions of the early church unchanged, and rejecting the canonicity of the ecumenical church councils.

It is believed to have taken its name from several religious texts, including a verse in Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount: "Congratulations, you poor! God's domain belongs to you." Accordingly, its original adherents are said to have dispossessed themselves of all their goods and lived in religious communistic societies, a practice which has since been mostly abandoned.

Organization and leadership
Administratively, the church is divided into the dioceses of Bira, Barn, and Uthena, each of which is headed by a patriarch claiming matrilineal descent from James the Just. The diocese of Bira is the church’s highest authority on earth.

Number of Adherents
The most common estimate of the number of Ebionites is 27,672,500 (2355) living mostly in Barmenistan (Sisula and Uthena) and Beiteynu (Padrilka).

History
In 890 an unnamed Christian sect was described as observing the Law of Moses and holding it of universal obligation. 40 years later the term “Ebionites” was first used to describe a “judaizing” Christian sect stubbornly clinging to the Law of Moses.

Most early sources portray Ebionites as traditional yet ascetic Jews who, for example, restricted table fellowship only to gentiles who converted to Judaism, practiced religious vegetarianism, engaged in ritual bathing, and revered Bira as the holiest city. Some Ebionites, however, accepted unconverted gentiles in their fellowship on the basis of a version of the Noahide Laws decreed by the Council of Bira in c. 800.

By 1048 the Ebionite controversy had become significant enough that an ecumenical council of the Christian church was called, the Council of Nicaea, which condemned the doctrines particular to the Ebionites and formulated the Nicene Creed, forms of which are still recited in most Christian services. Most Ebionites refused to accept the Nicene Creed, and those who were persecuted by the Christian Church in other countries found refuge in Beiteynu under the leadership of the patriarch of Bira.

In the late 12th century Ebionites were invited to settle in Sisula and Uthena and patriarchs were appointed to them. They quickly won many converts there and are believed to have been the primary influence on Islam with regards to the latter’s views on Jesus Christ.

Today more than 60% of all Ebionites live in Barmenistan.

Views and practices
Ebionites reject many of the views central to most other Christian churches such as the trinity of God, the pre-existence and divinity of Jesus Christ, the latter’s virgin birth, and his death as an atonement for sin.

They emphasise the onesess of God and the humanity of Jesus Christ as the biological son of Mary (a descendant of the Jewish High Priest Aaron) and Joseph (a descendant of King Ishmael I of Beiteynu), who by virtue of his righteousness, was chosen by God to perform two functions as the Jewish Messiah during his ministry – those of prophet and king – after he was anointed with the holy spirit at his baptism.

Of the books of the New Testament Ebionites only accept a version of the Gospel of Matthew, referred to as the Gospel of the Hebrews, as additional scripture to the Hebrew Bible. This version omits the first two chapters (on the nativity of Jesus Christ), and starts with the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist.

Ebionites understand Jesus Christ as inviting believers to live according to an ethic of social justice that will be standard in the future kingdom of Heaven. Since Ebionites believe that this will be the ethic of the Messianic Age, they go ahead and adjust their lives to this ethic in this age. They therefore believe that all Jews and gentiles must observe the commandments of God, in order to become holy and seek communion with God; but that these commandments must be understood in light of Jesus Christ’s expounding of the Law of Moses, which he taught during his Sermon on the Mount.

James the Just
James the Just, the brother of Jesus Christ, was the hereditary leader of the Christian church in Bira; followed by his matrilineal descendants who Ebionites regard as the legitimate apostolic successors to James the Just as patriarchs of the Christian church in Bira. Ebionites also view the patriarch of Bira as the lawful high priest and king of Beiteynu, by virtue of being descended both from High Priest Aaron and King Ishmael I through James the Just.