Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 6. Theological Alterations
Adoptionism and the Ebionites: an early Christology the Church erased
Handle with care. Do not say the Ebionites were Muslims or that Islam descends from them. They are a parallel worth noting, reconstructed largely from their opponents' writings.
In short
- 1.Adoptionists held Jesus (PBUH) to be fully and only human, adopted by God as his Son.
- 2.The Ebionites kept the Torah, circumcision and Sabbath, and rejected Paul as an apostate from the Law.
- 3.They used a version of Matthew and denied the virgin birth in the form the later Church taught it.
- 4.None of their writings survive — we know them only through opponents who quote to refute.
The claim being examined
Christians usually assume that belief in Jesus's (PBUH) divinity was universal from the beginning and that alternatives were late heresies.
The Islamic position
The Ebionites — Law-observant Jewish followers of Jesus (PBUH) who held him to be a human prophet and messiah — stand remarkably close to the Qur'anic portrait.
Analysis
Ehrman spends chapter 6 showing that early orthodox copyists changed wording to shut down adoptionist readings — the view that Jesus (PBUH) was a man God chose. That only makes sense if Christians holding that view were reading those texts and finding support in them. The loss of the Ebionite writings is part of the argument: what survives is the record the winning side kept. For dawah this is a real parallel, but state it carefully — the Ebionites were not Muslims, and what we know of them is reconstructed from the writings of their opponents.
From the Qur'an
إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا عَبْدٌ أَنْعَمْنَا عَلَيْهِ
in huwa illā ʿabdun anʿamnā ʿalayhi
He was not but a servant upon whom We bestowed favour.
From the Bible
Greek: andra apodedeigmenon apo tou theou
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power…
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