Chapter XXII.—Doctrine of the Ebionæans.
The Ebionæans,
887
however, acknowledge that the world
was made by Him Who is in reality God, but they propound legends
concerning the Christ similarly with Cerinthus and Carpocrates.
They live conformably to the customs of the Jews, alleging that they
are justified according to the law, and saying that Jesus was justified
by fulfilling the law. And therefore it was, (according to the
Ebionæans,) that (the Saviour) was named (the) Christ of God and
Jesus,
888
since not
one of the rest (of mankind) had observed completely the law. For
if even any other had fulfilled the commandments (contained) in the
law, he would have been that Christ. And the (Ebionæans
allege) that they themselves also, when in like manner they fulfil (the
law), are able to become Christs; for they assert that our Lord Himself
was a man in a like sense with all (the rest of the human
family).
887
See [vol. i. p. 352] Irenæus, i. 26; [vol. iii. p. 651]
Tertullian,
Præscript
., c. xlviii.; [vol. iv. p. 429, this
series] Origen,
Contr
.
Cels
. ii. 1; Eusebius,
Hist.
Ecclesiast
., iii. 27; Epiphanius,
Hær
., xxx.; and
Theodoret,
Hær. Fab
., ii. 2. Hippolytus is indebted
in this article partly to Irenæus, and partly to original
sources.
888
Or, “that the Christ of God was named Jesus” (Bunsen).