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  • From: "Chris Cutler" <Chrisc AT powercall.co.uk>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Paul vs James
  • Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 22:49:01 +0100



Mike Grondin has given me permission to cross post this message from the
GThomas list:

Under the title "Fear Not", I gave an answer to Steve Allison, who asked:

>Mike, somewhere I came across a verse from the Gospel of the Ebionites
>which was similar to a verse in the Gospel of Thomas. How much of this
>[Gospel of the Ebionites] survives?

Now I'm no expert in this area, but having since received a private message
from Chris Cutler relative to the so-called "Gospel of the Hebrews", I did
a little more research, and now think that GHeb is where Steve found a
verse similar to GThom. According to Clement of Alexandria (in Stromateis),
"...it stands written in the Gospel of the Hebrews: 'He that marvels shall
reign, and he that has reigned shall rest.'"

Like GEbi, all that we know of the content of GHeb comes from short quotes
in early Xian writings. The difference lies in the number of witnesses.
Epiphanius is the only witness to GEbi, and what he quotes from it sounds
pretty canonical, except that certain passages were evidently changed by
the Ebionites to support their vegetarian life-style.

GHeb, in contrast, is stated to be the source of some short passages quoted
in five texts by four writers: Cyril of Jerusalem, Clement of Alexandria,
Origen, and Jerome (in two separate texts). Or so they say. In fact, the
stuff they quote seems so different in nature from one to the other, that
it's hard to believe they're all quoting from the same text. The saying
quoted by Clement of Alexandria (as noted above) sounds exactly like GThom
- the others don't. Maybe Clement was just mixed up.

Now Chris Cutler's question had to do with whether an exalted position was
given to Jacob (AKA 'James') the Just in GHeb. This is to be found in one
of the Jerome texts, prefaced by the interesting comment, "The Gospel
called 'according to the Hebrews,' which was recently translated by me into
Greek and Latin, which Origen frequently uses, records ... [a
post-resurrection appearance to Jacob]".

I think I've answered Steve and Chris, but again, I'm no expert in this
area. If anyone else has relevant comments on GEbi or GHeb (or corrections
to mine), I'd sure like to hear them.

Mike
------------------------------------
The Coptic GThomas, saying-by-saying
http://www.geocities.com/athens/9068/sayings.htm

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  • Paul vs James, Chris Cutler, 04/07/1999

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