Introduction
I felt I had to write this article, because there are a growing number of people out there saying that, since the historical, ancient Ebionites believed this and that about Yeshua – that Yeshua was ‘the messiah’ and ‘the son of God’ – therefore, that’s what Yeshua himself taught. I don’t mean any disrespect to those among us who call themselves modern Ebionites – I genuinely value you all – but you have to understand that the ancient Ebionites were a later sect; that wasn’t what the Followers of Yeshua called themselves in the 30s-60s of the 1st century CE. The Ebionites only arose after the destruction of the Temple, and the earliest mention of the name is in the 2nd century CE.
Diminishing the Role of Yeshua
The most difficult thing for an ex-Christian to do when accommodating oneself to the mindset of Talmidaism, is to sufficiently diminish and ‘re-humanise’ Yeshua, in order to re-empower Yahveh, and thereby (ironically) to be able to follow Yeshua’s teachings more effectively.
Paullist Christianity so completely focusses on the person of ‘Jesus’, that some major sections of modern Christianity don’t even bother to follow his actual teachings (like fundamentalist Evangelicals). Paul’s teachings have so completely eclipsed his, that the teachings of Yeshua have effectively become irrelevant. Talmidaism, in contrast, is about the ethical teachings of Yeshua, rather than the person of Yeshua.
In his book, ‘The First Coming’, Thomas Sheehan says that modern Christians are so focussed on his supposed second coming, that they really don’t pay that much attention to what he said when he was here the first time round. Sheehan even goes so far as to say that, when Peter denied knowing Yeshua, his fault wasn’t that he abandoned Yeshua, but that he didn’t abandon him enough.
In the Book of the Two Trials, in The Exhortations, Yeshua (after his death) tells Peter in a dream, ‘Leave me, and follow the Way’ (S. Niss 26:12b). In order to really be able to understand Yeshua’s teaching, Yeshua’s ‘person’ has to be diminished, in order to see his teachings in their proper perspective.
In Christianity, Yahveh has been maligned (“The God of the Old Testament is an angry God, not a God of love”), de-throned (is no longer King), disempowered (unable to forgive sin without death), usurped, enfeebled and eviscerated. All Yahveh’s powers – which define everything that Yahveh is, and was always meant to be, into all eternity – have been given over wholesale to ‘Jesus Christ’. So much so, that to most Christians, subconsciously, ‘God the Father’ is now a weaker and junior god to the much more powerful ‘Jesus’.
Where Yeshua is concerned, the focus of my own ministry is to restore Yahveh to God’s rightful position and stature, BY DIMINISHING THE PERSON OF YESHUA, and by giving back Yeshua his original role as a servant and prophet of Yahveh.
Going even further back in time than the Ebionites
The historical Ebionite sect only arose after the destruction of the Temple (post-70 CE). By that time, Yeshua had already become a messiah, and son of God (with a small ‘s’). This is one of several reasons why I chose not to recreate the ancient Ebionite form of Talmidaism, or even label myself as an Ebionite. What I wanted – and felt called to concentrate on by God – was Yeshua’s original teaching, the teaching of his original community – what his first Jewish Followers believed.
Many Christians will say, ‘Hold on, we know the original way, because we have the teaching of the Apostles – Paul agreed with the Apostles!’ Well actually, no he didn’t. He was proud that he got nothing from the apostles – Paul did not consult with anyone who personally knew Yeshua, in order to verify his teachings or beliefs (Gal 1:16-17). He actually takes pride in the fact that the apostles had nothing to contribute to him (Gal 2:6), and was condescending towards those who knew Yeshua personally (2Cor 5:16), and only grudgingly acknowledged that James was the leader of the Jerusalem community (Gal 2:9-12). He himself admitted that he was not taught Yeshua`’s words or biography by any human being (1Cor 11:23-25), rather, he only proclaimed his own gospel (Rom 2:16, 16:25, 2Tim 2:8). We only have the word of Paul’s Believers, that the Gentile Christian communities took on the teaching of the Apostles, but they actually didn’t. Peter was the only apostle to convert to Paul’s teaching; Paul did not convert to Peter’s teaching.
The Pharisees played an inadvertent role in creating ‘Jesus Christ’
We also have to be aware that the Pharisees inadvertently played a role in creating ‘Jesus the Messiah’. You see, they taught that there were no more prophets after Malachi, and that Jews were not to believe any prophet that came to them, because all prophets after Malachi were false. How did they know that all prophets after Malachi were false? Because they themselves decreed that such was the case. They also decreed that the only person they would listen to was ‘the Messiah’. However, they were not bothered about their rabbinic power and authority being taken away any time soon. They had deliberately built up the power and personality of ‘the Messiah’ to such an extent – making him into a perfect being, in opposition to how the Bible describes what a messiah is (an anointed king) – that there could never be such a person, because no human being is perfect (and that includes Yeshua).
The Pharisees themselves created ‘the Messiah-Saviour’, and they decreed that they would only pay heed to this ‘Messiah’ – as long as he agreed with rabbinic law. If the Pharisees had never existed, there would never have been any need to claim that Yeshua was a ‘Messiah’, because it would have been enough for his Followers to tell their fellow Jews that Yeshua was a prophet of God.
But unfortunately they did teach that Jews should only follow ‘the Messiah’. I firmly believe that, as a result of the unwillingness of mainstream Judaism to listen to Yeshua’s warnings that Jerusalem would soon be destroyed, and that the Jewish people would be exiled, the Jewish Followers of Yeshua claimed that Yeshua had become ‘Messiah’ through baptism, and by perfectly following the Torah (Ps 105:15 & 1Chr 16:22 refer to God’s prophets as ‘anointed ones’).
However, even this was severely stretching what the Hebrew Bible says; by claiming that Yeshua became the messiah and the son of God at baptism, the later Followers of Yeshua did something they should not have done, because claiming that Yeshua was ‘the Messiah’ – even reluctantly, was a big mistake, since it set Yeshua on the downward path to becoming God.
Before the Ebionites, Yeshua was neither ‘messiah’ nor ‘son of God’
If you look at the Letter of James (probably written about the year 40 CE, during the so-called ‘Gaius Crisis’), it has no eschatology or Christology. There is no discussion of Yeshua as a messiah or saviour. This is the true pre-Ebionite teaching that my own ministry focusses on. By diminishing the focus on Yeshua, and by removing what the 2nd century Ebionites had claimed for Yeshua, I hope to thereby restore and re-enthrone Yahveh – my ministry is focussed on giving Yahveh back the power, position, authority, majesty and dominion that Yahveh had, before Paul and Christianity took it away from Yahveh.
In the ancient Israelite religion, all followers of Yahveh were called, ‘the sons and daughters of Yahveh’. You described which God you followed, by saying ‘ani ben Yahveh’ [I am a son of Yahveh] or ‘ani bat Yahveh’ [I am a daughter of Yahveh], which was the ancient, biblical Hebrew way of saying, ‘I am a Yahwist’. However, the anointed king of Israel was meant to be a ‘son of God’ supreme.
The relatives and the first followers of Yeshua knew that Yeshua was not of Davidic descent (cf Jn 1:45-46), so they had to come up with a way of making him into a ‘Messiah’. The Ebionite solution was to say that Yeshua became ‘son of God’ at his baptism under John the Baptist. If Yeshua truly was a descendant of David, there would have been no theological need, in a Jewish cultural environment, to come up with this belief that he became the ‘son of God at baptism’. My personal belief is that his prophethood began at baptism – that God first called him while he was being baptised by John.
The actual purpose of the ministry of baptism practised by John, was to ritually cleanse a person of their sins. The baptism he taught was ‘a baptism of repentance’ (which is how Josephus describes it). If you are familiar with ancient Jewish custom, a person had to undergo immersion before they could offer sin-offerings in the Temple. If you offered a sin-offering without any kind of repentance, then the sin-offering did nothing – it would not cleanse you of you sin. Before any of John’s followers could be immersed by him, they had to confess their sins to God in their heart, and thereby repent. Only then would John baptise his followers. John’s followers therefore regularly came to him for immersion – it wasn’t a one-off thing like Christian baptism. As a devoted follower of John, Yeshua would have been baptised by John several times, not just once.
The post-Temple Ebionites first turned Yeshua into a ‘son of God’, and then into a messiah, purely in order to get the mainstream Jewish community – who were heavily influenced by Pharisaic belief – to accept the validity of Yeshua’s teachings. But they didn’t need to do that, because that’s not what Yeshua was.
I believe what they did was a mistake – one borne out of necessity, but nevertheless a big mistake. It set the person of Yeshua on the slippery slope, greased by Paul of Tarsus, to becoming a god.
James did not believe Yeshua was a god, a messiah or son of God – that is why I cannot, in all conscience, call myself an Ebionite (at least, not after the 2nd century model of Ebionism). James was the leader of the genuine Followers of the Prophet Yeshua. The Ebionites came after James. My ministry was inspired by Yeshua and James, and the earliest Followers of the Way. I prefer to follow the original teachings of Yeshua and James, not walk in the footsteps of the mistakes that later Followers made.
That means, that Yeshua was not a son of God, or a messiah. He was a prophet of God (Mt 14:5, 21:11, 21:46, Lk 4:24, 7:16, 13:33, 24:19, Jn 9:17), and came to serve, not to be served (cf Mt 20:25-27). My ministry is focussed on dethroning, disempowering, and diminishing Yeshua, so that as Followers of Yeshua, we can then follow the One whom Yeshua himself served and worshipped.
People on the internet are claiming false things about what I have said
If you don’t believe that messages and words could have changed so quickly after Yeshua’s death, you have only to look at how people are changing my words, and I am not even dead yet!!
I am humbled by the respect that certain people have for me – but I am not a person who goes looking for attention or adulation; I normally shy away from it, it makes me very uncomfortable. However, I realise that some people hold what I teach in high regard. Unfortunately, some of those people are now claiming that I said certain things, and virtually claim that they have my blessing, but I have never said anything of the kind.
Do you know what an apostle really is, in Jewish terms? An apostle (shaliach), is someone who teaches others their master’s exact words, adding nothing, and taking nothing away. Under this definition, Paul was not an apostle of Yeshua, because Yeshua never taught Paul, and Paul never quotes Yeshua’s words.
I have no objection at all with anyone teaching and expounding their own opinions. What I do object to, is someone putting forward their own opinions (opinions that vastly differ from my own), and claiming that I agree with them. That is plain dishonesty, pure and simple. Have confidence in our own opinions – you don’t need my name to give them legitimacy or credibility.
Why Massorite Talmidaism has such a clear-cut theology
Before the last Nasi (‘religious president’) of the ancient Congregation of the Way died (in 135 CE), ancient Followers were held together by their authority. Without their authority, the ancient Talmidi community fell apart, and became an endangered species.
They were pulled this way and that by all kinds of groups – Paullist Christians, Gnostic Christians, Pharisees and Rabbis. They took on the beliefs of all the groups that persecuted them, and so lost their identity and integrity.
In the absence of any Nasis to lead us today, the only other way of ensuring that unfriendly groups do not pull us this way and that, is to have a strong, defined and well-thought out theology. Massorite Talmidaism is based on the pre-Ebionite beliefs of James and Yeshua. In such a theology, Yeshua does not need to be anything more than a prophet. We don’t need to say that he became the son of God; we don’t need to say that we come to the Father through ‘Jesus’, and we do not ascribe any meaning to his death, other than he died as a Jewish martyr and prophet.
Our well-defined theology is not meant as a form of intolerance; a well-defined and well-thought-out theology means that you are no longer in danger of having others dictate to you what you should and shouldn’t believe – no one can pull you this way and that, and make you lose your hard-won identity as a Follower of the Way.
A Prophet of God is enough
Yeshua was a prophet – that’s all you need to ascribe to Yeshua. You will find that modern Ebionites, in contrast to their ancient namesakes, do not believe that Yeshua was the Messiah; they do not believe that he was ‘the son of God’, and they certainly do not believe that ‘he laid down his life for us’. Ancient Ebionites were forced by circumstances to take on these beliefs, which the very first Jewish Followers of Yeshua – the people who personally met him and knew him – did not believe. Because of this, modern Talmidi sects – Massorites and Ebionites alike – are actually closer to one another, and closer to the first Jewish Followers of Yeshua, than they are to the 2nd century Ebionites.
If we diminish Yeshua, then ironically, we are freed to follow his ethical teachings; we are free to follow the majesty of Yahveh, and acknowledge Yahveh’s great power and Glory.