James Tabor offers common beliefs and an opposing belief in the video below beginning at 23:50.
The following is from the transcript of that portion of the video. Common beliefs between the Ebionites and Paul:
- Paul is writing for Gentiles and telling them to just keep the so-called laws of Noah and not putting on them the entire Torah because they’re not Jews, that’s fine with the Ebionites.
- If Paul thinks Jesus has a human father and he didn’t pre-exist and he’s of the seed of David, literally, had a male father of the seed of David, the Ebionites would love that.
- If [Jesus] then was anointed with the Spirit through which he cries Abba Father, making him a son, but also you are anointed with the Spirit, he’s extending what Jesus had to all the people who follow.
The kicker would be, does he tell Jews that they don’t have to obey the Torah? But remember, what do you mean by obey the Torah? Because Jesus, for example, says you can help an animal out of a pit on the Sabbath, and the Essenes would say, well, that’s hard work. You can’t do that on the Sabbath.
Tabor’s concluding comments – Let me end with this. Was Paul a Christian or a Nazarene? Was he not a poor one who emphasized the same kind of virtues? Here’s Paul’s quote, “have this mind in you that was also in Christ, that he humbled himself and took on the form of a slave.” Act like that. That’s Ebionite behavior. So that’s my view of the Ebionite.
My thoughts on this hypothesis: As Paul initially “persecuted” Christians who would have been Jews that believed in Jesus, i.e. many being Ebionites, their beliefs are what he knew and opposed. When he “converted” he accepted those views and in time modified some of them.
