Recovering Jewish-Christian Sects and Gospels

Petri Luomanen, Th.D. (1996), University of Helsinki, is a University Lecturer at the University of Helsinki. He has published widely on the Gospel of Matthew, early Jewish Christianity and social-scientific studies of Early Christianity, including A Companion to Second-Century Christian “Heretics” (Brill, 2005; co-edited with Marjanen) and Explaining Christian Origins and Early Judaism (Brill, 2007; co-edited with Pyysiäinen and Uro).

"This book offers many important methodological and theoretical insights concerning Jewish-Christian gospels. It also advocates a new hypothesis concerning their number, inter-relationships, and handling of Matthean gospels. This book will be of particular interest to specialsts workin on Jewish-Christian gospels, and more generally those interested in better understanding the complex relationship, and at times overlap, between Christianity and Judaism in the first five centuries of the common era." – Paul Foster, in: The Expository Times 124/3 (December 2012)

• 1. INTRODUCTION1.1 Early Jewish Christians and their gospels1.2 The contents of the volume1.3 How to define Jewish Christianity: Indicators of Jewish-Christian profiles1.4 Gospel harmonies and harmonizing gospels2. PATRISTIC TESTIMONIES RECONSIDERED2.1 The profiles of the Ebionites2.1.1 Irenaeus’ Ebionites2.1.2 Origen’s Ebionites2.1.3 Eusebius’ Ebionites2.1.4 Epiphanius’ Ebionites2.1.5 From Irenaeus’ Ebionites to Epiphanius’ Ebionites?2.2 The Nazarenes2.2.1 Introduction2.2.2 Who were called Nazarenes?2.2.3 The profile of Epiphanius’ Nazarenes2.2.4 The profile of Jerome’s Nazarenes2.2.5 Conclusion: Who were the Nazarenes?3. JEWISH-CHRISTIAN GOSPELS RECOVERED3.1 Farewell to the Three Gospel Hypothesis (the 3GH)3.2 Jerome’s life and quotations from Jewish-Christian gospels3.2.1 The setting of the quotations in Jerome’s biography3.2.2 An illustrious translator3.2.3 A Greek translation?3.2.4 Jerome and the Nazarenes’ gospel traditions3.3 A new reconstruction of the gospel used by the Nazarenes3.4 Reconstructing the Gospel of the Hebrews3.4.1 Eusebius’ testimony: The Gospel of the Hebrews on the fringes of canon3.4.2 A reconstruction of the Gospel of the Hebrews3.4.3 The Gospel of the Hebrews in relation to Q and thesynoptic Gospels4. PASSION TRADITIONS REINTERPRETED4.1 The Last Supper in the Gospel of the Ebionites and Luke (Codex Bezae)4.1.1 Introduction4.1.2 Arguments for and against the shorter reading4.1.3 Reconstructing the passion narrative in the Gospel of the Ebionies4.1.4 The Gospel of the Ebionites and Luke (D, Old Latin and Old Syriac)4.1.5 The timing of the shorter reading and the Gospel of the Ebionites4.1.6 Eucharistic tradition preceding Luke?4.1.7 Ebionites—an offshoot of the Hellenists?4.2 Passion fragments in Jerome’s Commentary on Matthew4.3 Jesus’ appearance to James the Just4.4 Conclusion: Passion traditions in Jewish-Christian gospels5. JEWISH-CHRISTIAN GOSPELS AND SYRIAC GOSPEL TRADITIONS5.1 Three rich men in the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Diatessaron5.1.1 Introduction5.1.2 The Rich Man in Origen’s Commentary on Matthew5.1.3 Comparison with parallel passages5.1.4 Comparison with variant readings and Diatessaronic witnesses5.1.5 The influence of the Diatessaronic context5.1.6 Summary and conclusions of the text- and source critical analysis5.1.7 Mapping Jewish Christian profiles5.1.8 The Jewish-Christian profile of Origen’s story5.1.9 Conclusion: Where did the men come from?5.2 The Gospel of Thomas and Jewish-Christian gospel fragments5.2.1 Introduction: Thomas and Jewish Christians5.2.2 The provenance of the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Gospel of Thomas5.2.3 Let him who seeks continue seeking5.2.4 Your brothers and mother are standing outside5.2.5 Wise as Serpents5.2.6 “O Man” and “he turned to”5.2.7 Jewish-Christian gospel fragments and the Gospel of Thomas: A summary of literary relationships5.2.8 Jesus as Wisdom incarnate and the Spirit as Jesus’s mother5.2.9 Conclusion: Common roots in harmonized synoptic tradition6. CONCLUSION: TOWARDS THE HISTORY OF EARLY JEWISH-CHRISTIANITY 6.1 The Ebionites and the Nazarenes6.2 Jewish-Christian gospels6.3 Summary and conclusions