Oseyim

The Osean Church (from Yeudish; משקיפים, ʾOseyim, meaning "the Observers") is a Hosian body that views itself as the historical continuation of the original Hosian church established by Eliyahu and his Apostles, preserving the traditions of the early church unchanged, and rejecting the canonicity of the ecumenical church councils.

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 Yishalem, Barn, and Uthena, each of which is headed by a patriarch claiming matrilineal descent from James the Just, But Since the growth of 2334 the dioses have reached all over the world. The diocese of Bira is still the church’s highest authority on earth.

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

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

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

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 Ahmadism with regards to the latter’s views on Eliyahu Hosios.

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

They emphasise the oneness of God and the humanity of Eliyahu Hosios as the biological son of Sarahea, who by virtue of his righteousness, was chosen by God to perform two functions as the yeudiish 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 Leo, referred to as the Gospel of the Yeudi, as additional scripture to the yeudi Bible. This version omits the first two chapters (on the nativity of Eliyahu Hosios), and starts with the baptism of Eliyahu Hosios by John the Baptist.

Ebionites understand Eliyahu Hosios 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 yeudis 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 Eliyahu Hosios’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 Eliyahu Hosios, was the hereditary leader of the Hosian church in Yishalem; followed by his matrilineal descendants who Ebionites regard as the legitimate apostolic successors to James the Just as patriarchs of the Hosian church in Yishalem. Ebionites also view the patriarch of Yishalem as the lawful high priest of all Hosians, by virtue of being descended from James the Just.