Peacefulpete....don't sell yourself short. Your posts are very educational and interesting as well. And I'm really just learning as I'm going along.
About Galatians, what is your definition of "Jewish culters" and how do you find them referred to in 2:2, 4-6? Hermas certainly fits best in the mystical Jesus mold -- there is no reference to the name "Jesus," almost no reference at all to an earthly life of Jesus, only to the Son's eternity before creation, and he refers to the Son's resurrection in a purely mystical sense with respect to baptism: "For before a man bears the name of the Son of God, he is dead, but when he receives the seal, he lays aside his deadness and receives life" (Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 16:3). It is only in Similitude 5.6.5-7 where we meet the person of Jesus, and he appears only as a righteous, nameless vessel, the "flesh" that held the Spirit before it returned to heaven -- only the first of a long succession of similar faithful persons who would receive the Spirit because of their righteousness. The adoptionism of Hermas is not along the lines of a one-time incarnation of the Son of God but merely the first of many holy men who would be filled with Spirit and receive the name Son of God.
From what I've read, the Ebionites were defined not by their theology but their lifestyle. They lived in poverty and aspired to the same moral philosophy espoused in the Didache and by the Synoptic Jesus (perhaps Acts 4:34, Galatians 2:10, and James 2:5 might refer to such people). That is why not all Ebionites were described as having the same christology, though most apologists describe pretty much the same thing and the surviving works used by the Ebionites (i.e. the Gospel of the Ebionites, the Pseudo-Clementines) add much to the picture. For the most part, the Ebionites denied the divinity of Jesus and described him as of natural human descent. Their christology was adoptionist, with Jesus becoming the Son of God at his baptism (cf. the Gospel of the Ebionites), and their christology was intimately tied to their belief in justification in the Law: Jesus became the Christ because he had perfectly followed the Law (cf. Eusebius), others can become Christs as well if they followed his example (cf. Hippolytus):
"The Ebionaeans, 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 comfortably 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 Ebionaeans, that the Saviour was named the Christ of God and Jesus, 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 Ebionaeans 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." (Hippolytus, Against All Heresies 7.22)
" The ancients quite properly called these men Ebionites , because they held poor and mean opinions concerning Christ. For they considered him a plain and common man, who was justified only because of his superior virtue, and who was the fruit of the intercourse of a man with Mary. In their opinion the observance of the ceremonial law was altogether necessary, on the ground that they could not be saved by faith in Christ alone and by a corresponding life. There were others, however, besides them, that were of the same name, but avoided the strange and absurd beliefs of the former, and did not deny that the Lord was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless, inasmuch as they also refused to acknowledge that he pre-existed, being God, Word, and Wisdom, they turned aside into the impiety of the former, especially when they, like them, endeavored to observe strictly the bodily worship of the law. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.27)
So while some came to accept the virgin birth of Jesus, the Ebionites as a whole appeared to reject the illusionist view of docetism, that Jesus only appeared to be human but was really a divine being. The view given by Hippolytus and Eusebius is strikingly similar to that of Hermas stated above except that Jesus is merely named as the Christ and was not necessarily inhabited by a divine being through his baptism. The emphasis on the humanity of Jesus runs through all the literature on the Ebionites; here are some examples:
"The Ebionites, following these, assert that He was begotten by Joseph; thus destroying, as far as in them lies, such a marvellous dispensation of God, and setting aside the testimony of the prophets which proceeded from God." (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.21.1)
"Vain also are the Ebionites, who do not receive by faith into their soul the union of God and man, but who remain in the old leaven of [the natural] birth, and who do not choose to understand that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High did overshadow her: wherefore also what was generated is a holy thing, and the Son of the Most High God the Father of all, who effected the incarnation of this being." (Ibid, 5.1.3)
"[The Ebionites determine] that Jesus is a bare man, merely of the seed of David, and therefore not also the Son of God--though clearly he speaks of himself in somewhat higher terms than the prophets use concerning themselves--so as to state that an angel was in him in the same way as in Zechariah, for example: though we object that the words, And the angel that spake in me said unto me, were never used by Christ....It is not feasible for hte Son of God to be born of human seed, lest, if he were wholly the son of man, he should not also be the Son of God, and should be in no sense greater than Solomon or Jonah." (Tertullian, De carne Christi 14, 18)
"Let it be admitted, moreover, that there are some who accept Jesus, and who boast on that account of being Christians, and yet would regulate their lives, like the Jewish multitude, in accordance with the Jewish law,--and these are the twofold sect of Ebionites, who either acknowledge with us that Jesus was born of a virgin, or deny this, and maintain that He was begotten like other human beings. (Origen, Contra Celsus 5.61)
The best picture of the christological outlook of the Ebionites can be found in the Ascents of James, identified by Epiphanius as an Ebionite work (Panarion 30.16.7). The first section (Rec. 1.1-42) narrates the history of the creation and Israel, and presents Jesus as the True Prophet prophesied by Moses who completes a line of prophets from Abraham to Moses (this notion would later get picked up in Islam), and salvation was believed to be attainable through the wisdom of God mediated to the world by the True Prophet. There is here no sense of an eternal, pre-existent Christ, or mention of him as "Son of God", and what set him apart was his "perfect life" according to the Law, which guaranteed him salvation from death and eternal life:
"But when the time began to draw near that what was wanting in the Mosaic institutions should be supplied, as we have said, and that the Prophet should appear, of whom he had foretold that He should warn them by the mercy of God to cease from sacrificing; lest haply they might suppose that on the cessation of sacrifice there was no remission of sins for them, He instituted baptism by water amongst them, in which they might be absolved from all their sins on the invocation of his name, and for the future, following a perfect life, might abide in immortality, being purified not by the blood of beasts, but by the purification of the Wisdom of God. Subsequently also an evident proof of this great mystery is supplied in the fact, that every one who, believing in this Prophet who had been foretold by Moses, is baptized in His name, shall be kept unhurt from the destruction of war which impends over the unbelieving nation." (Ascents of James, Rec. 1.39)
This earlier less mystical view in the Ascents of James (R.) developed in the second and third sections of work (according to Lapham, written by c. 200) into a slightly more advanced christology, which builds on these earlier notions of the True Prophet but comes short of identifying him as a heavenly being who came down to earth. There is an interesting tension in this text because the writer wants to declare Christ as "the beginning of all things," and yet designates him only as a "man over men" and synonymous with the Israelite and Judean kings of old:
"When God had made the world, as Lord of the universe, He appointed chiefs over the several creatures, over the trees even, and the mountains, and the fountains, and the rivers, and all things which He had made, as we have told you; for it were too long to mention them one by one. He set, therefore, an angel as chief over the angels, a spirit over the spirits, a star over the stars, a demon over the demons, a bird over the birds, a beast over the beasts, a serpent over the serpents, a fish over the fishes, a man over men, who is Christ Jesus. But He is called Christ by a certain excellent rite of religion; for as there are certain names common to kings, as Arsaces among the Persians, Caesar among the Romans, Pharaoh among the Egyptians, so among the Jews a king is called Christ. And the reason of this appellation is this: Although indeed He was the Son of God, and the beginning of all things, He became man; Him first God anointed with oil which was taken from the wood of the tree of life: from that anointing therefore He is called Christ." (Ascents of James, Rec. 45)
The Ebionite doctrine of adoptionism then appears next: "I do not speak of Moses, but of him who, in the waters of baptism, was called by God His Son. For it is Jesus who has put out, by the grace of baptism, that fire which the priest kindled for sins; for, from the time when He appeared, the chrism has ceased, by which the priesthood or the prophetic or the kingly office was conferred. His coming therefore was predicted by Moses who delivered the Law of God to men." (48-49). The coming of Christ is viewed less as the inhabitation of a heavenly divine being and more as the conferral of a kingly and prophetic office (i.e. as King of the Jews and as the True Prophet). The notion tho is dependent on that of Wisdom personified found in Sirach, Wisdom, and 1 Enoch: there was a twofold coming of Wisdom into the world; the first in the Torah of Moses and the second in the teaching of Jesus. Jesus' teaching thus "completes" the Law and does not undo it; it rather restores the wisdom of the Law lost to those claim to be most faithful to it (e.g. the Pharisees). This view fits perfectly with the early emphasis on the Law in the Q community, which in a pre-Matthean redaction of Q declare Jesus' role as completing the Law and not destroying it (cf. Matthew 5:17-18). Another important Jewish-Christian work, the Kerygmata Petrou similarly presents Jesus as greater than a prophet but not as a pre-existent divine being (Lapham, p. 112). This work views Christ as manifested in and through the great figures of old including Adam, Abraham, Moses, and finally Jesus, as someone who has declared the eternal Law and how to rightly and properly interpret the Torah. The view comes very close to identifying Christ with the heavenly Wisdom of Sirach 24. There is thus an evolution in conceiving of Christ as merely a Messianic office, to the Holy Spirit and wisdom Jesus received when he was anointed, to the inhabitation of a distinct divine being in Jesus' body. Irenaeus seems to attribute to the Ebionites a view closer to that of Cerinthus which views Jesus as possessed by the heavenly Christ at his baptism:
"Cerinthus ... represented Jesus as having not been born of a virgin, but as being the son of Joseph and Mary according to the ordinary course of human generation, while he nevertheless was more righteous, prudent, and wise than other men. Moreover, after his baptism, Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler, and that then he proclaimed the unknown Father, and performed miracles. But at last Christ departed from Jesus, and that then Jesus suffered and rose again, while Christ remained impassible, inasmuch as he was a spiritual being. Those who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made by God; but their opinions with respect to the Lord are similar to those of Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the law. As to the prophetical writings, they endeavour to expound them in a somewhat singular manner: they practise circumcision, persevere in the observance of those customs which are enjoined by the law, and are so Judaic in their style of life, that they even adore Jerusalem as if it were the house of God." (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.26.1-2)
The characterization by Epiphanius (c. 375) of the Ebionites is much later and while it shows it has much in common with the Ebionism of the Ascents of James, and draws to some extent from Elchasaism. He says that they "say that [Christ] was not begotten of God the Father but created as one of the archangels, that he rules over the angels and all the creatures of the Almighty" (Panarion 30.16.4-6), and who came to earth first as Adam and when appeared only as a spirit to the prophets of old, and then "after he had come thus to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the last days he came clothed in the body of the same Adam. He appeared as a man, was crucified, rose again, and returned to heaven" (30.3). Viewing the first coming of Christ as through Adam instead of as Moses' Law represents one shift from the earlier focus on the Law to a more gnostic doctrine. According to Epiphanius, the Ebionites believed that the Power that came into Jesus at his baptism then left his body at the crucifixion but through its power raised Jesus from the dead. I think all of this shows the diversity and complexity in Jewish-Christian perceptions of Jesus, but I believe at the deepest level the significance of Jesus was seen primarily in role as Law-giver (i.e. a modern-day prophet like Moses) but who increasingly came to be seen in terms of Wisdom personified and the recepticle of the Heavenly Man. Since most of the evidence on the Ebionites recognized and emphasized Jesus' human nature, I would not see much evidence of classic docetism among them, that is, of illusionist doceticism. But like Cerinthus, I think by the late first century Jewish-Christian groups were viewing Jesus' anointing as Messiah in a very mystical way as the descent of Wisdom or a pre-existent Christ into the person of Jesus.
