Talk:Gospel of the Ebionites/Archive 2

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Content re Gospel of the Ebionites removed from Gospel of the Hebrews

Removed from Gospel of the Hebrews; not proposing it for Gospel of the Ebionites article. Cheers In ictu oculi (talk) 00:36, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Jesus began his ministry at thirty years of age

In Matthew's Gospel that the Ebionites used called the Gospel of the Hebrews, there was no story of a Virgin Birth. Jesus became one with God at his baptism. This is how the Ebionite Gospel of the Hebrews, began:

"In the days of King Herod of Judea, during the high-priesthood of Caiaphas, a certain man named John came baptizing with a baptism of repentance in the river Jordan. He was said to be of the family of Aaron the priest, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and all went out to him. This man named John came baptizing with a baptism of repentance in the Jordan River."

"And there was a certain man named Jesus, about thirty years old, who chose us. Coming to Capernaum, He entered the house of Simon, who is called Peter, and said, "As I passed by the Sea of Galilee, I chose John and James, sons of Zebedee, and Simon, and Andrew, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot; and you Matthew, sitting at the tax office, I called and you followed me. You therefore, I want to be the Twelve, to symbolize Israel."

"And it so happened that John came baptizing, and Pharisees and all Jerusalem came out to him to get baptized. And John wore clothing made of camel hair and had a leather belt about his waist. His food, consisted of wild honey that tasted like manna, like sweet cake cooked in oil."

"After the people were baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John. And as Jesus came up from the water, Heaven was opened, and he saw the Holy Spirit descend in the form of a dove and enter into Him. And a voice from Heaven said, "You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased." And again, "Today I have begotten You. My Son, in all the prophets was I waiting for You that You should come and I might rest in You. For You are My rest. You are My first begotten Son that prevails forever."  ::Immediately a great light shone around the place; and John, seeing it, said to him, "Who are you, Lord?" And again a voice from Heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." Then John, falling down before him, said, "I beseech You, Lord, baptize me!" But He forbade him saying, "Let it be so; for thus it is fitting that all things be fulfilled." Epiphanius, Panarion 30 . 13

In the Torah are different categories of sinful behavior. The sin of ignorance is a missing the mark, meaning that in order to learn from one's mistakes, one often misses the mark to the left or right hand through ignorance. When one has realized the mistake, one attempts to step back on the "way" or "path" of righteousness.

Also the Hebrew followers of Jesus believed that he was empowered by the Holy Spirit at his baptism, not at his birth. The important point in using the word "rest" above is that it refers to the Jewish belief that the Messiah's name will be called "Menachem", or "rest".

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/gospelhebrews-throck.html

GH

"And behold the mother of the Lord and his brothers said to him, "John the Baptist baptizes for the forgiveness of sins. Let us go and be baptized by him." But Jesus said to them, "In what way have I sinned that I should go and be baptized by him? Unless perhaps, what I have just said is a sin of ignorance."

This quote is from the GH. All the other quotes above are GE. Ovadyah (talk) 03:42, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Ovadyah, thankyou.

However I believe the removal Gospel of the Ebionites material from Gospel of the Hebrews has just been reverted. In ictu oculi (talk) 04:02, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Keeping Ictu Honest: Actually, I spent a lot of time fixing the duplication. Then you reverted my edits. And then complained about duplication. In the Gospel you have done some "strange" duplicating. Please do some serious clean up. You have made quite a mess. Thanks- Ret.Prof (talk) 04:07, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Dear Ret.Prof

As per other articles, I cannot clean up (which would involve deleting your duplicate content) since you are reverting. Your duplicate section should be removed from Talk:Saint Matthew Talk:Gospel of Matthew Talk:Canonical gospels Talk:Gospel and anywhere else you have cut and pasted this material.In ictu oculi (talk) 04:18, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Nonsense look at the Gospel. Thanks - Ret.Prof (talk) 04:28, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Ret.Prof, mea culpa I broke an unrelated book link while removing a different set of your duplicate material from Gospel. However the removal of your duplicate section there remains a distinct improvement.

Other editors, please look at Talk:Saint Matthew Talk:Gospel of Matthew Talk:Canonical gospels Talk:Gospel of the Hebrews and express whether the large duplicate section there needs to be on all multiple articles.In ictu oculi (talk) 04:33, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Pretty please guys, respect WP:TPG, and use this page only for discussion of ways to further improve the GE article. Cheers. Ovadyah (talk) 12:58, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

I think TPG allow making editors of GoE aware of a large deletion (by myself) of content relating to GoE on another page. I have just made an edit changing wlink under "hypothetical original Hebrew Gospel" to Hebrew Gospel hypothesis which admittedly I wrote to fill the gap of any article on these hypotheses.In ictu oculi (talk) 08:02, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for changing that link over to the new article. Btw, after peer review closes, please consider submitting this article to GAC. That will take the article to the next level, and it's also good experience working with some of the top copy editors on Wiki. Cheers. Ovadyah (talk) 14:19, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

I'd be very happy to submit to GAC, just give me the link to click on my talk page when the time is right.In ictu oculi (talk) 16:45, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

I left the instructions on your talk page. You can submit it as soon as peer review closes. Ovadyah (talk) 23:28, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

The peer review is now closed. Many thanks to everyone who participated in peer review. Ovadyah (talk) 14:22, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Forward to GAC

The next step, once peer review is closed, is to prepare the article for GAC. The article needs to "bake" for awhile to show that it is stable. This would be a good time for community involvement, "polishing the apple" so to speak, to put the finishing touches on the article's wording or stylistic improvements to get it ready for the reviewers in GAC. I would also appreciate it if someone from the Wikiprojects on the template could re-evaluate the article's quality. I doubt that the article would still be considered Start-class at this point. B-class seems more appropriate. Contact me on my talk page if there are any questions, as I am soon moving on to other projects. Cheers. Ovadyah (talk) 14:47, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

The article has been nominated for GAC. Let's use this section to discuss the implementation of suggestions made by the reviewers to improve the article. Thanks. Ovadyah (talk) 17:04, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Suggestion

It might be clearer to the reader if it were pointed out that Syriac is the same thing as Aramaic, and that the Gospel of the Hebrews refers to an early Church tradition that Matthew originally wrote a gospel in Aramaic for the Jewish public. The significance of distinct books employed by Nazoraeans, Elkasites and Ebionites is mostly a matter of conjecture without the full texts themselves. Scholarship has for more than a century now recognized that it is inappopriate to rely on the reports of the heresiologists to tell us the truth about their enemies, and all of these Jewish Christian groups were singled out and rejected as heresies in the early Church, yet the lack of textual information from the groups themselves forces us to use the heresiologists critically, reading between the lines.

Another suggestion is to point out early in the article why the Ebionite, Hebrew and Nazoraean gospels matter to mainstream Bible scholarship. Being the closest in time and culture to the actual Jesus movement, they figure in the search for the ur-gospel, the Q standing behind the logoi of the synoptic gospels.

It also bears note that there are other Christian and gnostic works from the period with the same title but different contents, so it is not impossible there were two or more different Gospels of the Hebrews. Further, since the Ebionites were clearly named as "the poor" and the alleged patriarch Ebonius was a later fictional interpolation, this tends to show they occupied a specific place in the early Jesus movement, perhaps as those "for whom there are only parables," implying the Ebionite version of the Hebrew (Aramaic) Matthew text might be radically different from the Hebrew Matthew text intended for insiders. To put that last point a different way, imagine a broad outer laity called Ebionites, an inner, initiated group of laity and/or clerics calling themselves Nazoraeans (although schismatic with pre-Jesus Nazoraeans who reject Jesus's message as a distortion of their teachings) and perhaps an innovating group with gnosticizing tendencies calling themselves Elkasites. Each group might employ a different redaction of the same Matthew text. The nativity and the "to fulfil Old Testament prophecy" material would be intended for the "little people," the the broad outer faithful flock working slowly toward initiation in the inner mysteries.

Just some thoughts for future editors, hopefully not too far off target.Hypatea (talk) 14:21, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Actually, Syriac is Eastern Aramaic, and it is usually associated with the Syriac script invented in the second or third century. Western Aramaic, also known as Palestinian Aramaic, would not be considered Syriac. There is no evidence to distinguish whether the Gospel of the Hebrews was originally written in the Eastern or Western Aramaic dialect. Ovadyah (talk) 00:15, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Good comments Ovadyah.

For readers like Hypatea "Being the closest in time and culture to the actual Jesus movement" (sic), perhaps the article should mention that the Ebionites are first mentioned by Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 1.26.2), written around 185 CE.In ictu oculi (talk) 02:35, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Another suggestion

I received a suggestion from someone who is not a Wikipedia editor, so I will re-post it here. This person is well-read but was completely unfamiliar with the Ebionites. They had a difficult time making sense of the article without more background information on the Ebionites in the Lead section or at the beginning of the main body of the article. This is the opposite reaction from Llywrch, who encouraged me to move the material on the Ebionites to the end of the article. I think this illustrates the difficulty of writing an article that will satisfy both the casual reader and the expert. Ovadyah (talk) 23:48, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

Maybe the information on the Ebionites should be split into two sections. The introductory section on the Ebionites could be restored. That section originally contained some general information about the Ebionites along with a link to the parent Ebionites article. The Ebionites section now at the end of the article could specifically cover what has been learned about the Ebionites as a result of studying the Gospel of the Ebionites. Ovadyah (talk) 00:04, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Moved from Ebionites

• The Gospel of the Ebionites might have been named after the followers of John the Baptist,

- source, student of James Tabor Jeff Poplin, Post-Biblical Traditions on John the Baptizer and Essays on John the Baptizer

(No evidence for this in website essay). In ictu oculi (talk) 00:05, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

What is the difference between the Notes, References, and Primary sources?

I think they should be re-labeled.--Ebiodays (talk) 20:53, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

The article is critically dependent on the References. They are not "Further Reading". Therefore, I have changed this header back to the original. I changed the original Notes header to Footnotes to make it clearer that what are being cited are the References. The Primary Sources section refers to the material referenced in the article which can be found in Wikisource. All references to primary sources are subordinated within the citations to indicate which specific reliable sources are referring to them. There are no "naked" primary sources in the article. Ovadyah (talk) 23:30, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

I added the Wikisource template to make it clearer that is the purpose of the Primary Sources section. Ovadyah (talk) 13:08, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

About the use of primary sources

We don't add content to WP:GA-quality articles supported only by primary sources. That will quickly make them former GA-quality articles. However, you can support the content with reliable secondary sources that cite the primary sources and then embed the primary sources within the footnotes. Ignocrates (talk) 15:47, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

The so called "Jesus' expounding of the Law" is a Pauline passage, and not an Ebionite passage.

The so called "Jesus' expounding of the Law" is a Pauline passage, and not an Ebionite passage. The Ebionites believed that Jesus Christ did not come to abolish or alter the Law (Torah), as it is stated in Matthew 5:17-19 (which is an Ebionite passage). When the Paulines (Catholics) translated the Gospel according to the Hebrews (also called the Gospel according to Matthew) to Greek, they added the passage called "Jesus' expounding of the Law" (Matthew 5:21-47), in order to give base to Paul's doctrine, which says that Jesus Christ abolished the Law. That passage called "Jesus' expounding of the Law" (Matthew 5:21-47) was not part of the Gospel according to the Hebrews (also called Gospel according to Matthew) written in Hebrew that was used by the Ebionites. The Ebionites did not believe that Jesus Christ had spoken anything that is contrary to what is written in the Tanakh. The Ebionites did not interpret the Torah in light of the so called Jesus' expounding of the Law. So, it is necessary to remove from the section "Inferences about the Ebionites" of the article "Gospel of the Ebionites" the phrase "which they interpreted in light of Jesus' expounding of the Law [56]". The footnote that was put in this phrase refers to a chapter of a book that comments on the so called "Jesus' expounding of the Law", but does not give base to the false affirmation that the Ebionites interpreted the Torah in light of the so called “Jesus' expounding of the Law”. Joaopaulopontes (talk) 23:30, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

First of all, your arguments above are beside the point. Your edit was reverted because 1. you deleted reliably-sourced content without discussion, and 2. you replaced it with unsourced content (primary sources do not qualify as reliable sources).

Second, your arguments above are mainly religious POV-pushing. How do you know that the contents of Mt 5:21-47 were not also present in the Gospel of the Hebrews? What little we know of that gospel is from a few quotations by hostile witnesses. How do you know that "The Ebionites did not interpret the Torah in light of the so called Jesus' expounding of the Law."? Please bring your ideas for how you would improve the sentence to the talk page, supported by reliable secondary sources along with page numbers and quotations from them. Thank you. Ignocrates (talk) 02:52, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

In the same spirit of bringing evidence to the talk page, I added an inline quote to the footnote referencing the Viljoen article, which I have reproduced here for discussion: p.141 - "For Matthew’s argument it was important to defend his conviction that Jesus gave the correct interpretation of the Torah. Jesus’ relation to the Torah forms a central motive in his Gospel. Thus Jesus is seen as the last and greatest expositor of the Law. Davies (1963, 102) writes: “Matthew has draped his Lord in the mantle of a teacher of righteousness”. Jesus’ relation to the Torah is taken up in the Sermon on the Mount—specifically in Matt 5:17-48. “The single most important passage in determining the relationship between Jesus and the Law is undoubtedly Matt 5:17-48” (Moo 1984, 17)." Ignocrates (talk) 04:04, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

The clause "which they interpreted in light of Jesus' expounding of the Law [56]" is not supported by reliable secondary sources. The sources that you quoted have not to do with Ebionites. Viljoen, in his article, is expounding the doctrine of the Pauline Christians (Catholics or Protestants), and not the doctrine of the Ebionites.

So, the clause "which they interpreted in light of Jesus' expounding of the Law [56]" must be excluded.

Therefore, the text of the first paragraph of the section named "Inferences about the Ebionites" must be the following:

The Ebionites[52][53][54] known to Irenaeus (first mentioned in Adversus Haereses 1.26.2, written around 185) and other Church Fathers prior to Epiphanius were described as a Jewish sect that regarded Jesus as the Messiah but not as divine. They insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites[55], and they used only the Jewish-Christian Gospel. The Ebionites rejected the epistles of Paul of Tarsus, who they regarded as an apostate from the Law.[57]

Joaopaulopontes (talk) 00:11, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

I am ok with your suggested change above. Ignocrates (talk) 03:48, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Improvements to reference format

The format of the footnotes and references is being improved to make them compatible with a future featured article. I have added author-links to the references where possible. Ignocrates (talk) 02:05, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Author-links for Wilhelm Pape and Hans-Joachim Schoeps still need to be linked to an English translation of German Wikipedia. If anyone knows how to do that, please rise to the occasion and improve them. Thanks. Ignocrates (talk) 02:12, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

The footnotes were separated into citations and notes. The old ref format was replaced by the sfn and refn formats for citations and notes, respectively. The notes, citations, and references should now be compatible with an improvement to a featured article. Ignocrates (talk) 17:58, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Comment by Aa77zz

I'm not enamored by the two sets of numbers with the notes and not convinced that introducing the sfn template is really an improvement - the FA criteria do not specify a particular format for the references - you just need to be consistent. As the notes nearly always start with a citation perhaps you could use one of the harv templates like this:
{{refn|group=note|name=note01|{{harvcoltxt|Finley|2009|pp=291-3}} p.291 - "Unfortunately, Epiphanius' reliability ... "}}
Note that you are not required to use templates as all but I find them useful to maintain consistency. Your Citations section will then be very short - but this doesn't matter.
I notice that the punctuation in the notes is not consistent. Sometimes you begin with a dash sometimes a hyphen sometimes nothing. The notes may also be easier to read if you use two columns. Aa77zz (talk) 16:52, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

I will try the harvcoltxt format, but I'm not convinced yet. There is a good chance that what we use here will be adopted for articles under improvement across the entire category, so I want to get input from several editors that regularly contribute to the category before we make a change like that. I hope the punctuation problems are resolved now. If you find any more issues, please detail them here and I will fix them. Thanks for all your help! Ignocrates (talk) 18:29, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Suggestions

• First sentence of lead: "Gospel of the Ebionites is the conventional name given to the description by Epiphanius of Salamis of a gospel used by the Ebionites." This seems to verge on the circular - "Gospel of the Ebionites is ... a gospel used by the Ebionites." Is there some source that gives a succinct definition? If not, something that defines the topic more informaitvely seems called for: "The Gospel of the Ebionites is a lost gospel in use during the first few centuries of the Christian era by a Jewish-Christian community (the Ebionites) on the east bank of the Jordan." (Of course, I'm not even sure this is true, just suggesting how a more informative first line might look). The 2nd sentence could then explain how its existence is known only from the fragments quoted by Epiphanius the existing 2nd sentence can do that, just expanding the reference to his name (the full Epiphanius of Salamis, and add his dates to give some context).

• 2nd para of lead: "Epiphanius mistakenly identifies it as the "Hebrew" gospel, believing it to be a truncated and modified version of the Gospel of Matthew." I feel uneasy with saying the good Epiphanius might have made a mistake. He was, however, mistaken. Try combining that sentence with the next: " Epiphanius ... identifies it as the "Hebrew" gospel, believing it to be a truncated and modified version of the Gospel of Matthew, [but] he text is in fact a gospel harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, composed in Greek, with various expansions and abridgments reflecting the theology of the writer." (Note the two added commas, too).

• 2nd para: "Distinctive features of the text include..." Stop saying "of the text", it can be taken for granted. Ditto "the practice of vegetarianism" - just "vegetarianism" is enough.

• 2nd para: "The gospel harmony is believed to have been composed sometime during the middle of the 2nd century in or around the region East of the Jordan River.[4] The gospel text was said to be used by "Ebionites" during the time of the Early Church;[note 4] however the identity of the group or groups that used the text remains a matter of conjecture.[note 5]" Presumably "the gospel harmony" is this Gospel of the Ebionites, in which case "it" will do. More importantly, you're talking here about composition (when, where, and by whom); you last talked about composition in the first two sentences (The original title of the gospel is unknown. Epiphanius mistakenly identifies it as the "Hebrew" gospel, believing it to be a truncated and modified version of the Gospel of Matthew. The text is a gospel harmony of the Synoptic Gospels composed in Greek with various expansions and abridgments reflecting the theology of the writer.)" Then you talked about contents; and now you're back to composition. Put composition together, and contents at the end of the para.

• 3rd para: I have doubts about this - confusing to the non-specialist reader?

"The Gospel of the Ebionites is one of the Jewish-Christian Gospels, along with the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Nazoraeans, which survive only as fragments in quotations of the Early Church Fathers. Because so little of the text is known, its relationship to the other Jewish-Christian Gospels and a hypothetical original Hebrew Gospel has been a subject of scholarly investigation. More recently, it has been recognized that the gospel harmony is a distinctive text from the others[note 6] and it has been identified more closely with the lost Gospel of the Twelve.[note 7] A similarity between the Gospel and a source document contained within the Clementine Recognitions (Rec. 1.27–71), conventionally referred to by scholars as the Ascents of James, has also been noted with respect to the command to abolish the Jewish sacrifices.[note 8]"

Keeping the same information, but casting into more user-friendly language:

The Gospel of the Ebionites is one of [SEVERAL] Jewish-Christian Gospels, along with the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Nazoraeans,[;] [ALL] survive only as fragments in quotations of the Early Church Fathers [ADD ROUGH PERIOD]. ITS relationship to the other Jewish-Christian Gospels[,] and a hypothetical original Hebrew Gospel[,] has been a subject of scholarly [DISPUTE?]; More recently, [MORE RECENT THAN WHAT?]it has been recognized that [EBIONITES] is [DISTINCT] from [THESE][note 6][,] and it has been identified more closely with the lost Gospel of the Twelve.[note 7] A similarity to the Ascents of James has also been noted with respect to the command to abolish the Jewish sacrifices.[note 8]

Hope this helps. I'll look in again later. PiCo (talk) 02:26, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

PiCo, thanks for all of these helpful suggestions to improve the lead. I will take them one paragraph at a time. I'm going to begin with lead paragraph 3 because that one is the easiest to rewrite. Ignocrates (talk) 15:46, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Lead paragraph 3

There are five important concepts to get across in this paragraph:

1. The Gospel of the Ebionites is one of what has been classified by scholars as three Jewish-Christian Gospels. Modern scholars are still using the same definition from 100 years ago, so we are too for this article.
2. All of the J-C gospels are fragments consisting of quotations by the early Church Fathers. Therefore, their composition and the relationship between them is uncertain.
3. Despite this, the identity of what constitutes the Gospel of the Ebionites has never seriously been questioned (the conflict is over GHeb vs. GNaz). It has long been recognized that Epiphanius is the sole source and there are seven fragments in his quotations. What I referred to as recent is Klijn's (1992) analysis showing in detail how the Ebionite gospel is different from the others. Ever since Klijn's 1992 book, no one is even asking the question anymore with respect to the other J-C gospels. The consensus is near-universal, and only the lack of a specific scholarly quote prevents me from saying it is universal.
4. Several scholars have speculated that the GEb might be the same as the Gospel of the Twelve mentioned by Origen. Other scholars have pushed back and said we can't know this with any degree of certainty. No other possibilities have been advanced, so it remains a speculation.
5. Similarities have been noted between the GEb and the Ascents of James with respect to abolishing the Jewish sacrifices.

These are the main points I'm trying to get across concisely in paragraph three of the lead. Ignocrates (talk) 16:20, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Lead paragraph 2

1. I moved the single sentence about Epiphanius to paragraph 1 of the lead. That will be reworded to fit later. Now paragraph 2 is about the who, what, when, and where of the gospel itself.
2. The remaining content was rearranged so that composition is first followed by content.
3. I made most of the other tweaks you suggested to eliminate redundancies.

I think that about covers it. Now I'm going to rewrite paragraph 1 of the lead using the Mercer dictionary as a guide. Ignocrates (talk) 13:54, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Lead paragraph 1

1. The lead for paragraph 1 was reorganized and rewritten so that all the information about Epiphanius is in one place.
2. I changed the wording to say that he "misidentified" the gospel, so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of our readers, unlike the Mercer dictionary which says he "erroneously" identified the gospel.
3. A wiki was added to link to the Jewish Christians page. That was not in the article before.

That completes my rewrite of the lead. I tried to incorporate most of your suggestions, and I think the addition of the Mercer dictionary as a citation in the lead will be helpful to a general reader. Ignocrates (talk) 17:16, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Simon (1689)

At present Simon (1689) is mentioned in Note 12 but does not have an entry in the Sources. I think it would be neater to delete the Note, add Simon to the Sources and cite using sfn. (I admit I'm swayed by the fact that Google The Internet Archive provide a scan of the original). Here is an entry for the Sources:

• Simon, Richard (1689). A critical history of the text of the New Testament: wherein is firmly established the truth of those acts on which the foundation of Christian religion is laid. R. Taylor. OCLC 228723131..

I've add an oclc number as I've seen reviewers request them, but I'm not convinced that they are useful. Aa77zz (talk) 15:52, 8 April 2013 (UTC) Swapped to linking to the copy at the Internet Archive. Aa77zz (talk) 15:58, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Good find! It's done. Ignocrates (talk) 16:39, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Quotes in Notes

There are problems with the double quote marks in Notes 13, 20, 25, 26. Also Note 39 cites Martyn 1978 and gives the title - although book is in the Sources. Aa77zz (talk) 16:31, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Fixed notes as indicated. Ignocrates (talk) 17:05, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

First para of lead

The lead should be an overview. Consider removing some of the detail in the first paragraph such as "Chapter 30", and the sentence on the numbering system in Schneemelcher's New Testament Apocrypha. These can be introduced later in the Background section. Aa77zz (talk) 21:14, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Good points. The explicit numbering system and elaborate testimonials for Vielhauer & Strecker in note 2 are both artifacts of a previous edit war that reduced this article to a smoldering stub. I will move these out of the lead before I rewrite the first paragraph. Ignocrates (talk) 23:19, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Completed. On to rewriting lead paragraph 1... Ignocrates (talk) 00:06, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Question of POV

It has been rather belabored by several people that this topic has not gotten much recent attention. In general, when that happens, one of the most common reasons for such a situation is that there is, basically, not much new to say about it. So far as I can tell, the reference source with the longest entry on the subject is the Anchor Bible Dictionary, which also happens to be one of the most highly, if not perhaps the most highly, regarded relatively recent reference book on the subject out there. That article is roughly a full page long, much longer than any others I have seen. The differences between that reference entry and this article are, honestly, nothing less than amazing to me. I believe that the source is also among the most easily accessible, and I am frankly astonished at the remarkably different content of the two pages, including the comparative disregard in this article to several of the major points in the article in that source, which I believe would be all but impossible if that highly reputable reference source had been consulted much, if at all. I also believe that there is more than sufficient cause to believe that the major editor of this article, Ovadyah/Ignocrates, who has both indicated in the first very first surving edit to his user page here indicates a clear interest to "modern Ebionite movements." It is worth noting that none of them, despite several later edits to his talk page about the topic, have ever been demonstrated to have any independent notability, although he apparently took part in an “agreement” in a mediation to create such an article despite lack of notability anyway, as is indicated below. I also believe that Ovadyah/Ignocrates' insistence on the reliability of James Tabor's book The Jesus Dynasty, which the author has admitted was not even submitted for academic review, and his refusal to remove or adjust content based on legitimate concerns about the use of that source was one of the primary reasons that article lost FA status. On the basis of all of this, particularly the remarkable variance from the content of the substantial "Anchor Bible Dictionary", particularly without any apparent reason given that I can see for such differences, I believe that there is sufficient reason to believe that POV concerns may be exhibited here. I very much request that independent editors review the related reference sources, including the Anchor Bible Dictionary, which should be rather easily available to most people, and review the matter for the unexplained and apparently undiscussed differences between them.

I also believe that it might well be extremely useful to have independent editors review all the conduct of all those involved with this topic to see if they believe that there is sufficient basis for a second arbitration hearing, or perhaps a request for administrative action, be started. I am at least temporarily withholding tagging the article for POV, which I believe it clearly deserves, and from nominating it for FAR, which I believe is probably justified, pending some sort of review from other individuals in the near future. Some statements here, for instance, which indicate that Ignocrates/Ovadyah displays an extraordinary degree of knowledge of a subject which had at the time, and still has, little if any independent sourced material, and even seems to indicate that he knows that what independent reliable sources say is wrong, is a particularly troubling matter. I believe that there are sufficient grounds for serious consideration of administrative or arbitrator review of this matter, and would be extremely grateful if any independent individual would review the discussion of the topic, particularly that of Ovadyah/Ignocrates. Regarding my own conduct, I have said from the beginning if an independent admin requested me to withdraw my adminship, and demonstrated to me good reason, I would do so myself voluntarily. I will stand by that principle here as well. John Carter (talk) 18:16, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

Fyi, for any interested editors/reviewers:

• Petersen, William L. (1992). "Ebionites, Gospel of the". In Freedman, David Noel (ed.). The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Vol. 2 (1 ed.). Doubleday. pp. 261–2. ISBN 978-0-385-42583-4.

Here is the complete citation for the Gospel of the Ebionites article in the Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992), which I thoroughly reviewed while preparing for FAC. Ignocrates (talk) 19:10, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

No reference is made, apparently, to the Justin Martyr statement, That article stresses the fact that this source is seen as a gospel harmony, in even the first few sentences, which is delegated to a truly subordinate position here. The extent of the controversy regarding the Jewish-Christian gospels, which is called near the beginning of that article not on the Jewish-Christian gospels, but the Gospel of the Ebionites, is relegated to a minor position here. I could go on. I also have researched the minimal amount of journal content since that source was published, including JSTOR, ProQuest, EBSCOHost, NewsBank, and others, and have found nothing in them which indicates that the statements in that source have been in any way changed. I have also checked the latest edition of the Zondervan Bible dictionary and other later highly regarded academic reference sources. While they do not go to the same degree of length, given their shorter nature, there is nothing in them which is contradictory. Also, I also urge everyone involved to review the contribution history of Ovadyah/Ignocrates. His truly devout support of Tabor's book in the article on the Ebionites, despite any evidence that it has ever been given any particular academic attention, let alone support, and the fact that, despite the name change, he has over his time as an editor ever edited anything which is not clearly related to the Ebionites, along with his regular support of the non-notable Ebionite Jewish Community, which has since been renamed the Ebionite Community, still with no indication of any reliable sources, or sources at all, other than the group itself, I believe cannot help but raise very serious questions regarding this individual's motivations and whether he is capable of contributing to this topic in a neutral fashion. Other of his comments over the years also raise serious questions. Again, I believe it is in the best interests of the project itself if someone who does not have this editor's rather remarkable almost overriding interest in groups which have never earned any notability in their own right, and barely any mention at all, were to review the material and see if it is neutral and balanced. This recent rather snarly, juvenile, and frankly irrational comment here from Ignocrates is an indication as to why I believe it should be someone who Ignocrates does not regularly demonize who should be doing the review. By the way, the unfounded accusation that I am a "stalker" is unfounded. I do try to check up on all religion based content, and, clearly, someone with as poor a judgment as this editor is someone whose work clearly needs being checked up on. John Carter (talk) 20:06, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

The Justin Martyr material is too speculative to add to the body of the article, except perhaps as a brief footnote. First of all, it is far from obvious that Justin was in possession of an actual gospel harmony, as clearly stated in the article on Justin Martyr. Second, even if Justin did possess a harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, and the Ebionites also had a harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, it doesn't mean they were related - correlation is not causality. Vielhauer & Strecker (1991) and Klijn (1992), which set the standard for scholarly work on this topic, don't even touch on this subject because it is considered a tiny minority speculation. Btw, as to the "diff" where I alluded to you, I commented that out almost immediately and archived it as a test. The only way you could possibly even be aware of it was by trolling all my edit logs, and "stalking" me. Ignocrates (talk) 20:42, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

It is included in an encyclopedia. Please inform me how it is that you have decided, apparently completely on your own, that not only do you as an individual have more authority than leading reference books, but that you as an individual are someone in a unique capacity to know when the most reliable reference source in the field, with an article probably shorter than this, is somehow "too speculative" for you personally? Are you, in effect, saying that you know more than the experts who have published in the field? Really? And I note that you only addressed a single point of those raised. Can you provide any real reasons for your own apparently unilateral decision that someone like you, by virtue of, apparently, some greater knowledge, know more than the published experts? Also, your defense of the term "stalking" is rather weak. Going over my watchlist during a time when I was editing and seeing you post such a rather silly comment while I was editing is something I think only the most prejudiced would describe as stalking. And, again, you seem to be ignoring the question of the language itself, although, admittedly, I guess that there is a bit of a history of ignoring things you don't like about these subjects? Again, requesting a full review of all the above editors recent history, including as I recall derogation of non-notable neo-Ebionite groups other than the Ebionite Jewish Community/Ebionite Community, for the purposes of determining whether there are sufficient conduct issues for arbitration or administrative review. John Carter (talk) 21:02, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

As you are well aware, the same encyclopedic article also reports on Boismard's speculation about a primitive Hebrew Gospel of Matthew underlying the text - a speculation that is universally rejected by modern scholars as fringe scholarship. The point is that some of the material in that article is outdated crap; no modern scholars take it seriously. Featured articles are supposed to comprehensively represent the consensus thinking of modern scholars, where that is possible, and majority vs. minority views in a balanced manner; however, they are not required to be exhaustive in their coverage of fringe views. Ignocrates (talk) 21:16, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

Really? Universally? Do you have a source for that, as per WP:BURDEN? So far as I can tell, there has been, as you have said repeatedly, very little recent scholarship on the subject. I myself have seen nothing which really indicates that it is "rejected" as fringe. Also, again, this reference work is only 20 or 30 years old, and in the interim there has been only rare attention given to this document at all. That being the case, the size of this "universal rejection" would seem to be only a few papers which have discussed the subject at all, and few if any dealt with that topic directly. And, please, cease from attempting to recast the statements of others in a perjorative matter. My point is, to what degree is someone who is to all practical purposes more or less a SPA account dealing with a subject which he also seems to have, based on his previous history, a possible POV concern, in a position to on his own, possibly in violation of WP:POV, determine what material is appropriate for an article regarding which he has a rather I believe clear history of POV pushing? And how is it that you are today in a position to apparently declare by personal fiat such statements of fact? I believe [{WP:BURDEN]] might apply here, particularly given the extremely small size of this "universe" to which you refer. Also, by the way, have you ever read WP:POV? One editor's personal opinions, regardless of however self-aggrandizing that editor might be, is still, basically, one editor's opinion. If you have evidence that one of the most highly regarded reference sources of recent years is as universally rejected as you say, then you can presumably provide evidence of that rejection? Also, again, please address some of the other issues as well, including the juvenile commentary, if, of course, you deign to respond to the comments of individuals whom you see fit to address with such snarling incivility. John Carter (talk) 21:30, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

As recent reviews of the field by Broadhead (2010) and Paget (2010) make clear, there has been a considerable amount of research done in this field since Klijn published the definitive work on the subject in 1992. Try reading some of it and come back when you know something about the subject. Ignocrates (talk) 21:48, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

Btw, in addition to WP:BURDEN there is also WP:PRESERVE. I don't have to prove the crap you want to add is fringe. You have to prove it isn't by demonstrating these subjects represent a consensus or a significant enough minority view among modern scholars to merit inclusion. Ignocrates (talk) 22:01, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

First, Ignocrates, I have to say that this is the first time I have ever seen anyone display the really amazing degree of absolute gall to call one of the best, most highly regarded sources of recent years "crap." Maybe, if you can, stop indulging in your gratuitous incivility and maybe, if you can, actually read the material. Let me put it bluntly. 'I believe I have met BURDEN requirements by producing an article which is possibly/probably shorter than this one, from one of the most highly regarded short articles in recent years, about a topic which you have repeatedly said has received little attention of any kind. What part of that comparatively simple statment is so clearly beyond your capacity to understand? Also, I have checked not only JSTOR, which produces little if any matches for the Gospel of the Ebionites at all, as well as the more recent reference sources since the Anchor Bible Dictionary. Honestly, I feel that I have to ask this question. Are you so blinding convinced of your own personal opinions regarding this topic that you so clearly place them before the comments in the recent reference sources on the material? And, in addition to the gratuitous use of profanity above, I once again ask anyone who sees this discussion to review the entire history of this editor Ovadyah/Ignocrates, do determine if there does exist, as I believe there does, sufficient basis to request either arbitration review of his conduct or perhaps some other form of more direct administrative action. John Carter (talk) 22:22, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

My conduct is an open book; if you think there is a sufficient basis for review then do something about it. Ignocrates (talk) 22:34, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

Noting once again failure to respond to any other points, and addressing only one which has been raised more than once now. Honestly, Ignocrates, are you so blinded by your obvious emotionalism about this topic that you can not only read through comparatively short beginning posts, but can also only apparently respond to any of multiple points on an item by item basis? Is there any chance of your addressing other matters, as well, or is pretty much as close to really addressing points raised as can be expected of you? And, just out of curiosity, do you think that there is any chance you can refrain from further basically pointless posts, like the one above, so that others who might take part don't have to read through such wastes of energy? John Carter (talk) 22:44, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

I can't waste anymore of my time arguing. If you have something you believe merits inclusion, make a detailed proposal on the talk page about what it is and how you propose to include it. Ignocrates (talk) 22:52, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

First, I urge you to maybe familiarize yourself with policies and guidelines, in this case including WP:OWN and WP:CONSENSUS. Like I basically said earlier, this article looks to me to be, basically, far far short of the standard of even a good article. Much like, unfortunately, the rather dreadful and sub-par Ebionites article was before other more experienced editors with perhaps a bit better grasp of policies and guidelines became involved. It is not so much a matter of what needs to be included. At this point, the problems seem to me to be very possibly dealing with WP:POV, and I believe that what may well be required is the involvement of other editors who may not be quite as devoted to their opinions as some other editors are. Like I also said earlier, I am willing to wait a week or so for other input before filing the FAR myself. However, I do have to say that I am more than amused by what seem to me to be a display of a rather poor, if not very poor, grasp of the existing level of academic opinion on this subject displayed by, well, you. In general, a GA or FA class article should probably at least say most if not all of the things that are said in similar articles in other reference sources, particularly if, as is true with this article, those sources are almost all much shorter. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, third edition revised, edited by F. L. Cross and E. A Livingstone, 2005, Oxford University Press, 0-19-280290-9, p. 526 has an article published in 2205 on this topic, which runs more or less as follows:

“Ebionites, Gospel of the. The name given by modern scholars to the Jewish-Christian apocryphal Gospel supposed to have been used by the Ebionites (q.v). Irenaeus says that the Ebionites use the 'Gospel according to Matthew' … though from the beliefs he ascribes to them … it seems that this cannot be identified with the canonical Mt. Eusebius … on the other hand, says that they use the 'Gospel according to the Hebrews'. The principal authority is Epiphanius... He not only states that the Ebionites 'receive the Gospel according to Matthew' and 'call it the Hebrew Gospel,' but he quotes passages from the Gospel used by the Ebionites. These show that it was written in Greek. The relationship between this Gospel and the 'Gospel of the Nazarenes' and the 'Gospel according to the Hebrews' is unclear; they are perhaps quite distinct.”

The bibliography includes 6 works, including a few early translations, Neuetestamentliche Apocryphen, Waitz' 1937 article, and, the last 2, Boismard's 1966 article and Petersen's article in the Anchor Bible Dictionary.

On the basis of that recent reference source, I would have to say that not only are the stated objections to Boismard apparently unfounded, but that individuals expressing such objections might be seen as having little, if any, real familiarity with the existing reliable sources on this topic, and that the article might benefit if they were to perhaps allow others who do not have the potential POV problems they have to edit it without threats to be taken to ANI or other harrassing conduct which has been displayed when others have questioned the work of, well, some editors here. Basically, I think like with the Ebionites article, what might be most required here is basically another total rewrite, preferably without interference by biased editors. I have already pointed out specific concerns regarding the minor emphasis this article gives to the pretty much absolute agreement of academia that this work is a gospel harmony. That should probably be stated in the very first sentence. The questions about its origins and influences as expressed in reference books probably deserve similar attention here as well.

If certain editors could stop wasting their own time, and that of others, basically whining to some surrogate mother whenever someone questions their apparently biased and sometimes poorly founded opinions, as has happened repeatedly regarding this topic and others, and maybe drop a bit of the all-too-evident ego that is displayed, that would help a lot. Unfortunately, I am far from sure that there is any reasonable chance of that happening given the current situation. I will, however, give the matter a week, like I said, before taking action myself. John Carter (talk) 22:18, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

The featured article is locked until July 15th. However, you can leave a detailed list of your suggestions/concerns here on the talk page in the interim. Meanwhile, I am working on restarting the Ebionites 2 arbitration case. That will be the quickest way to get these conduct issues resolved permanently. Ignocrates (talk) 22:35, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

I will check out the article in the Oxford Dictionary (2005) for myself tomorrow. Thanks for the reference. Ignocrates (talk) 23:41, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Okay, I'm offering an opinion about this article as a hopefully disinterested party, although I admit I did offer criticism on this article as it was being worked on for Featured Article. First, the subject of the "Gospel of the Ebionites" is full of speculation, inference, & not in the least controversial. When I offered criticism of this article, that was a major concern of mine & I feel that Ignocrates/Ovadyah responded to that concern responsibly. What is stated here reflects my understanding of recent scholarly findings (based on such sources as Bart Ehrman, Lost Christianities & Fred Lapham, An Introduction to the New Testament Apocrypha). Where this article differs from hat the article in the Anchor Bible Dictionary states, I don't know; I just saw this discussion & haven't had the chance to consult a copy of that book, & it may take me some time to consult a copy due to my schedule. It would be helpful if John Carter were to lay out the specific points where this article varies from what is written in the Anchor Bible article.

I will guess to a few points John Carter objects, & offer some responses. One is that this gospel -- as stated by Irenaeus & Eusebius -- was a version of Matthew written in Hebrew (or Aramaic). However, after reading both Ehrman & Lapham's books, it's clear that scholar consensus believes the work cited by Epiphanius is a harmony of at least the synoptic gospels; the brief arguments they present are understandable by the layman. Why a close reading contradicts the testimony of Irenaeus & Eusebius, I can't say: I'm not knowledgeable enough to say, & WP:NPOV keeps me from doing so.

As for Justin Martyr's connection to this work, I'm unclear what it is. I looked through the writings of Justin at www.ccel.org, & the only thing I could find was an oblique reference to Jewish Christians in his "Dialogue with Trypho", ch. 47. I could find no reference to Justin Martyr alluding to either the Ebionites or their gospel specifically in the secondary sources.

As for using questionable sources, I believe all of the sources in this article meet Wikipedia's guidelines for reliable sources. The two authorities cited most often in this article--Luomanen & Skarsaune--are published by respectable publishers & their publications are cited by other authorities. One can read much of Paget 2010's article online at the link in the article for oneself, & see what the current ideas about this lost writing are. There are no novel or unusual ideas in this article that can't be found in the current expert literature.

Now for two other, non-content, issues here. One is that all articles about Early Christianity will be controversial for the indefinite future. For one thing, it is a subject where, as I noted above, speculation & inference greatly outweighs the existing evidence. For another, much of the scholarly &/or expert research is to some degree at variance with widely-held religious beliefs. Specifically, for at least 100 years experts have studied the Bible not as an inerrant text, but as one demonstrating human bias with subtexts of meaning. This is an approach that is guaranteed to make some people unhappy, who will not listen to reason or to pleas for harmony or tolerance. I don't think that's the problem here, but I know it will be at some future time.

The other non-content issue is this. The two individuals in this discussion--John Carter & Ignocrates--have a long history with each other, which is regrettable because both are knowledgeable about this topic, & sincere about getting the facts right. I suspect this is why John Carter mentions James Tabor above, a writer whose name appears nowhere in this article & has no place in it. I don't know what to do about this conflict, beyond suggesting that each should try to avoid the other.

I hope I have made it clear that there is no pressing need for this article to undergo a Featured Article Review, nor anyone to give up his or her Adminship, or for any other drastic actions concerning this article. I do think everyone involved should take a step back, partake of their favorite beverage (if desired), & move on to other matters. If this article does find its place on Wikipedia's Front page, that may attract new attention from knowledgeable parties who may, indeed, find problems in the article. But waiting until then is not going to harm anything.--llywrch (talk) 19:46, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

The name of Tabor was mentioned above given Ovadyah/Ignocrates' insistence on his work The Jesus Dynasty being appropriate to the article Ebionites, even though the author has admitted here on his own talk page that his book was never submitted for academic review. That can and does I believe very reasonably raise questions regarding the basic competence of the editor who supported it to adhere to, or even understand, policies and guidelines. I also have very serious questions, given Ovadyah/Ignocrates's long history of considering the non-notable Shemayah Phillips worthy of even discussion in this content as per here a very serious reason for questioning his possible, or likely, POV regarding that subject, which is so clearly linked to this one.

While I acknowledge that speculation and inference are subjects about which, in general, early Christianity is prone to more than most, because of the regular production of sensationalistic, fringe literature, I do not believe that there is necessarily any reason for our articles to give them more weight than we would in other topics, simply because of the amount of such speculation. We are supposed to be, as per the third pillar of wikipedia, an encyclopedia. Encyclopedias in general do not give more weight to modern fringe or speculative theories simply because of their prominence in popular or sensationalist literature, more or less as per our own WP:RECENT. Material on the marginal speculation can, and probably should, reasonably be included in articles on those works which source such speculation, but not necessarily in the main article on the broad topic. It is, in general regarding biblical literature-related topics, the case that articles in journals will only discuss about which the scholarly community is basically in consensus when the article's or work's author disagrees with that consensus. So, there is some reason to believe that at least a few modern scholars dispute Boismard's theories does include that there may now be serious question about it, but I cannot see that the possibility that some modern scholars question that material is sufficient grounds to remove it completely, instead of, perhaps, indicating that Boismard's theory has been "accepted" as reasonable by the academic community for some time, although there are some serious questions about it. That is however nowhere near the same as saying that it does not deserve mention in the article.

Regarding other points, like I said, I personally very much think that anything discussed at lenght in the Anchor Bible Dictionary should be included, in roughly the same order, until and unless independent reviews of that article or other works by its authors indicate that the content of that article is open to question. I have seen reviews of other reference works which criticize some specific articles in them, and would assume the same here as well, although I haven't seen any such evidence that the content of that article does not reflect standard academic consensus presented yet. Also, I cannot see any rational reason to include the speculation about the ties to the Clementine literature. That idea was I believe first proposed in Baigent and Leigh's The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, which basically used Robert Eisenman as it source. Despite Eisenman's recent reissue of the theory under his own name, those later books of his seem to have received only the "polite" response which is given to a lot of wildly speculative works of today that have little if any reasonable bases for their speculation. Having gone through a previous arbitration dealing primarily with the conduct of an editor who was a supporter of Eisenman, I have to say I have seen little if any evidence in academic sources or reference sources which give those ideas any particular regard at all.

Also, I have another serious question here. Yes, there does seem to be some basis for saying that modern opinions do not accept Boismard. I think that there would be some indication in the scholarly literature exactly why those academics question Boismard. He isn't like some of the other more recent speculative works, like Eisenman and Tabor, which have, basically, little if anything remotely resembling objective evidence to support them. To date, I have seen nothing in the academic sources which raise questions about Boismard's idea. Having said that, I also haven't read Boismard himself, so I'm personally not sure exactly what he said, but if the idea is considered significant enough for inclusion in a reference source, I find it hard, if not impossible, to believe that someone would have indicated why they now disregard it. To date, I haven't seen that. I agree that I'm not sure exactly why Justin is mentioned in that regard at all, but any statements to that effect from me would constitute OR, and I would prefer seeing some indication as to why certain rather single-purpose account editors here now believe that this idea, which has (apparently?) had some currency for some time, should now be considered too insigifnicant for inclusion based simply on that one individual's opinions. John Carter (talk) 15:11, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

WP:FAR

With regard to having this work reviewed, I welcome any and all reviews, as long as they are based on reliably-sourced facts rather than hearsay comments and innuendo. Bring your evidence to the talk page in the form of reliable sources, with page numbers and quotations from them, to back up your claims. That was the point of having two peer reviews, GAN and FAC. Ignocrates (talk) 21:07, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

So far, the following subjects have been mentioned from the Gospel of the Ebionites article in the Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992):

1. A possible gospel harmony written by Justin Martyr and its putative relationship to the Gospel of the Ebionites

2. A speculation by Boismard that a primitive Hebrew Gospel of Matthew underlies the Gospel of the Ebionites

I don't see any sources published in the last 20 years that support these speculations. Would any editors/reviewers care to comment on these subjects, and back up your comments with evidence to support inclusion? Ignocrates (talk) 21:42, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

List of sources

• Bellinzoni, Arthur J. (1967). The Sayings of Jesus in the Writings of Justin Martyr. Brill. ASIN B0007ISJW6.
• Bertrand, Daniel A. (1980). "L'Evangile Des Ebionites: Une Harmonie Evangelique Anterieure Au Diatessaron". New Testament Studies (in French). 26 (04). Cambridge University Press: 548–63. doi:10.1017/S0028688500005816. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Boismard, Marie-Émile (1966). "Évangile des Ébionites et problème synoptique". Revue biblique (in French). 73 (1–4). Lecoffre: 321–52. ISSN 0035-0907.
• Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth Anne, eds. (2005) [1997]. "Ebionites, Gospel according to the". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 526. ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3. (no contributing author cited)
• Howard, George (1988). "The Gospel of the Ebionites". Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. 2 (25.5). Walter De Gruyter: 4034–53. ISBN 978-3-11-001885-1.
• Petersen, William L. (1992). "Ebionites, Gospel of the". In Freedman, David Noel (ed.). The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Vol. 2 (1 ed.). Doubleday. pp. 261–2. ISBN 978-0-385-42583-4.

Findings so far;

I read the Gospel of the Ebionites article in the Oxford Dictionary, cited above. There is nothing in here that is problematic in terms of content. However, it can't be used as an encyclopedic source because the contributing author is not named (similar to the Encyclopedia Britannica). Another problem is its brevity - the article is really more like a summary digest than a full encyclopedic article. However, the article lists Boismard's journal article and the Anchor Bible Dictionary encyclopedic article as sources (citations shown above). It's not clear what specific content is being supported by these sources. Nevertheless, their presence as endnote citations indicates that both should be considered to be reliable sources. This point of argument goes to John Carter, as far as possible inclusion as sources in this article. Ignocrates (talk) 23:42, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

In all honesty, the above statement might include the lamest excuse I have ever seen. First, I am in no way certain that unsigned articles cannot be used. Also, Ignocrates, if you had bothered to look, you would see that the author, W. L. Petersen, is directly named. Is this is the level of thinking that has been used throughout the development of this artiole, it would reasonably prompt review of everything from punctuation on, given the miserably poor level of research or mis-stated attempts at disqualifying information which might not be consistent with neo-Ebionite sources which seem to be favored by the above editor. John Carter (talk) 19:53, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

Then I must need new glasses. All I see is W.L. Petersen listed as source #6 - the last source listed for the ABD (1992) article. Where do you see that he is the author of this encyclopedic article? And you are wrong about unsigned articles. They cannot be used as sources for feature articles. Ignocrates (talk) 20:45, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

The content of the Anchor Bible Dictionary article on the Gospel of the Ebionites is unproblematic and a typical summary of the subject from the beginning of the article to the material on Boismard's conjecture. There is an intervening section about the Ebionites – who they were as a group – which is also unproblematic. All of this material is already covered in the article and backed up by reliable secondary sources. Ignocrates (talk) 21:34, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

I will check the print edition, which, as I remember, listed his name as well. Also, I believe WP:COMMONSENSE applies here, although, admittedly, that might be a bit of a problem for, well, some editors. However, your assertion above is still, basically, nonsensica;. I have provided a source which meets WP:BURDEN. Your rather amusing response is that without a signature, that source cannot be used. Then use another one. Please make an effort to understand the basics of wikipedia, Ignocrates. It is our primary interest to provide the content, not to obsess about any degree of recognition. I have met the requirements, I believe, as per BURDEN. If you choose to ignore them, fine, I will formally requiest FAR of the article on the basis of what seems to me to be an attempt to dodge the issue. If an article fails to meet encyclopedic quality, on the basis of the rather ridiculous statement above, then it can't meet FA standards either. Are you capable of understanding that, Ignocrates? The source is considered among the most reliable, unless you meet BURDEN requirements and can demonstrate that it isn't. If no effort to meet that standard is made, then formal FAR is called for. I do not myself necessarily believe that the source itself must be used itself, but you have provided nothing yet which deals in a substantive way with the matter under discussion. Please address it, or, alternately, ask for input from a noticeboard or through some other means. However, dear Ignocrates, I do not think anyone would consider your comment above to be in any way useful in the developing this article, and I urge all individuals to read WP:TPG to prevent recurrence of same.

P.S. Is there any particular reason you have still refused to address the fact that the article in its current form downplays the scholarly consensus that it is a gospel harmonty, by not including that information in the lead, which something I stated I think at the beginning? Or could it be that some neo-Ebionites consider it an original work, and POV issues on certain editors parts might be functioning as an impediment in this case? John Carter (talk) 21:49, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

I suggest you take Llywrch's advice and walk away from this article before you humiliate yourself any further. Ignocrates (talk) 23:44, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

I very, very strongly suggest that you read WP:IDIDNTHEARTHAT and cease both embarrasing yourself and also comply with policies and guidelines.. First, if you could be bothered to actually check the print version of the Anchor Bible Dictionary, which is among the most readily available sources out there, you would see that the article is in fact signed in the print version, on page 262 of the 2nd volume. The sources have been provided, and you have apparently done nothing to address them. Please desist from arrogant refusal to deal with reality and actually make at least some nominal effort to comply with policies and guidelines, please. John Carter (talk) 20:55, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

P. S. I also very strongly suggest to you, Ignocrates, that you cease in the rather laughable attempt at prejudicially rephrasing the comments of others. The apparent inability to read which it indicates probably humiliates you much more than your own misreadings of the comments of others would ever humiliate anyone else. John Carter (talk) 21:01, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

John. I'll have to step in here. I find what you are repeating at great length very hard to follow. I've been reviewed Ignocrates work and find it reflective of the best scholarship and responsive to comments by other parties. Your edit summary was unfortunate (Iggy is a Christian nickname, from St Ignatius), and your tone exudes a taunting hostility that Ignocrates, whose answers have been precise, and to the point, does not merit. You and I have had a good, long-standing relationship in wiki, so I say this with a certain feeling reluctance.By the way Boisnard's views are not as depicted, highly marginal. A version of the view that behind Matthew there was an original Hebrew text was also argued by Philippe Rolland, though not if I recall regarding the Ebionites. If I have time I will look into that. Nishidani (talk) 22:08, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

I believe it would be very useful if you reviewed several of his comments as well. These include his comments regarding the Ebionites FAR where he seems to have explicitly indicated that he believes he should be able to add his own opinions to the article. I would also very strongly recommend that you review his repeated calls that (pardon me if I get the spelling wrong) Shemaiah Phillips and his non-notable Ebionite Jewish Community/Ebionite Community are reliable sources for this topic, and that their website is a reasonable external link to that article, and even his apparent collusion to produce an article on that group, even though it clearly does not meet notability requirements. All that, taken together, raise extremely serious questions regarding his capacity for anything remotely resembling neutrality and NPOV on this topic. John Carter (talk) 16:48, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Please provide specific diffs or exact quotations here on the talk page to support your claims: "he seems to have explicitly indicated that he believes he should be able to add his own opinions to the article" and "his repeated calls that (pardon me if I get the spelling wrong) Shemaiah Phillips and his non-notable Ebionite Jewish Community/Ebionite Community are reliable sources for this topic, and that their website is a reasonable external link to that article" or else retract your knowingly false statements, made with the intent to deceive other editors and defame my reputation. Ignocrates (talk) 18:02, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Still waiting for an explanation of your knowingly false statements above. Another day, another lie it seems. Ignocrates (talk) 23:55, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Nishidani, welcome to the discussion. You raise a very good point about Philippe Rolland in general. Neither the Hebrew Gospel hypothesis, Gospel of Matthew, nor Gospel of Mark include the work of either Boismard or Rolland. It was left to Delbert Burkett (2004) Rethinking the Gospel Sources: From Proto-Mark to Mark, pp. 138–40, to bring their contributions to the notice of the English-speaking general public. I suspect one of the issues is language; both scholars published almost exclusively in French. The French "school", which also includes Simon Claude Mimouni, indeed takes a putative Hebrew Matthew much more seriously than American, English, and German scholars. To the best of my knowledge, Philippe Rolland did not comment on the Ebionites, but there may be a journal article published in French out there somewhere that will prove me wrong. Ignocrates (talk) 23:02, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Well. You appear to have the ability to access such sources. If you can get copies of key articles in the original by either, email them to me, and I'll read them for you, and, though I haven't that much time, try to pass you a summary of them.Nishidani (talk) 07:13, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Is this reply directed to me? If so, I will take a look at Rolland's list of publications and see what I can find. Ignocrates (talk) 13:15, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

First, it is useful to have some outside input. The following points are the points of contention. One. The third edition of the Oxford source cites both the article in the ABD and Boisnard as sources, and the ABC explicitly refers to it. I am the first to acknowledge that any reference work will have weak articles, and this could be one. However, given the inclusion in the most highly regarded reference book of recent times, there is a very hard case to say that it does not merit inclusion as per WEIGHT, if only, perhaps, to indicate that the source is not held as particularly reliable now. Honestly, I have to say that it is almost obligatory, based on the ABD, to be included as per WEIGHT. It may be discounted - that happens. It might have been nice if certain editors had made the edits in wikipedia space, which they did not; had they done so, the problems could have been resolved earlier. I stand by the fact that a 2005 reference work, one of, I think, the last two or three published with recent updates on the subject, includes it in its short bibliography, if not text. It only had a short paragraph of text. And I'm not sure exactly what the meaning of your last sentence is. It could mean that the views are highly marginal (they might be) or that they aren't (they might be that, too - I dunno). But I believe that saying the ABD is inaccurate on this topic is rather an extraordinary claim, and such extraordinary claims require extraodinary sourcing to oppose them, and I am far from convinced that standard has been met here. Now, if there is a good review of the ABD in some sort of remotely academic source which explicitly says this content is wrongly emphasized, hopefully indicating why, that's fine - that would meet those criteria. But I haven't seen that evidence produced yet. Regarding conduct, I can't say calling me JC, apparently indicating that perhaps I think I'm Jesus Christ, is necessarily something that would be called respectful either, but I have let that slide. However, honestly, Ignocrates is a word which doesn't appear on my spell check, and Iggy, referring I guess Iggy Pop does. Go figure. John Carter (talk) 22:30, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Other editors should pay attention to claims you make about yourself on this talk page, such as "I think I'm Jesus Christ", as an important clue to what may be going on here. Ignocrates (talk) 18:55, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

And you should certainly make sopme effort to actually read the comments of others. If you had bothered to do so, you would have noticed that I was speaking about others who refer to me as that, like, well, you. To make it clear for the apparently hard-of-thinking, at no point have I ever indicated anything remotely like believing myself to be Jesus. Unlike some others, I am not driven by ego in my work on wiki. This seems to be perhaps yet another of a fairly regular series of completely irrelevant and off-topic snarky comments by one editor here, and I believe it would be extremely useful if Ignocrates might actually both read and make some effort to understand talk page guidelines as per [{WP:TPG]]. John Carter (talk) 20:51, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

As far as I'm concerned, "JC" is nothing but an abbreviation for John Carter; shorthand so that I don't have to spell it out in full. All the rest of this tripe is coming from you alone. Ignocrates (talk) 23:51, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

That's great to know John, except that we were discussing the The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. That is the encyclopedic article which is unsigned. So, who is embarrassed now? Hot tip: learn to use spell-check. Ignocrates (talk) 21:07, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Ignocrates, honestly, you seem to once again be indulging in some irrational attempt to avoid dealing with the reality of the subject and in behavior which rather clearly violates the guideline I linked to above. However, it may well be that your cognitive faculties aren't all that I may have to date perhaps unfoundedly assumed them to have been. Let me restate my comments, then. The Anchor is cited as one of the six sources in that recent reference work. There have been, FWIW, two more since then which deal with this topic, the very conservative Zondervan encyclopedia, which gives the article only a short paragraph and, given its bias, not the best anyway, and the Coogan Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible, which only mentions the Gospel of the Ebionites twice in two articles on other subjects. I, however, was saying that the Anchor Bible Dictionary is among the most reliable sources out there, and that its content be used. I produced a source which includes it in its short bibliography;. Apparently, you are perhaps engaging in a completely off-topic and rather, well, irrational, argument that because that second source is not signed, then the first one cannot be used. There is I believe a rather transparent flaw in what might be called, charitably, the reasoning in that argument. At no point did I say that the Oxford was to be used as a source, and I cannot see how any rational person would have made that mistake. It is hard not to see the above comment as a continuation of the behavior which might be considered dubious as per WP:IDIDNTHEARTHAT. Honestly, I am at this point very, very close to placing what I believe to be reasonably placed quality tags on this article if the above editor continues in making comments which in no way relate to the comments to which he is responding. Most any rational adult would be able to do so. If you aren't able to do so, Ignocrates, that would be very interesting evidence not only for the featured article review people, but also for any arbitrators or administrators who might be called in regarding problematic behavior. John Carter (talk) 21:40, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Hebrew Gospel of Matthew

Next, I'm going to cover Boismard's speculation about a Hebrew Gospel of Matthew as an underlying source of the Gospel of the Ebionites. I was the one that raised this issue above as fringe scholarship. The Anchor Bible article compares Boismard's conjecture as a dissenting opinion to the modern consensus view of Vielhaur in Schneemelcher's New Testament Apocrypha first edition (1963). I quote the text as follows (with text separated to avoid of copyright violations):

A dissenting position, however, is that of Boismard, who detects two traditions in Epiphanius' quotations from the gospel used by the Ebionites. One is a later, more developed tradition, which is probably a Greek language original;

the second is a much more primitive tradition and has a strong imprint of a Semitic language. It is this latter tradition which Boismard equates with the Hebrew (i.e. pre-Greek) recension of Matthew - the document described by Epiphanius.

— Petersen, W.L., The Anchor Bible Dictionary Vol.2, p.262

I'm going to stipulate that this is an accurate summary of Boismard's original article in French. Ignocrates (talk) 00:00, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Having reread the Anchor Bible article, I am retracting my statement that this conjecture is universally regarded as fringe scholarship. It is a minority view surely, probably a tiny minority view, but it is not fringe. The Wikipedia article on the Gospel of the Ebionites already mentions a putative linkage between the GEbi and a hypothetical Hebrew Gospel in the lead and the body, so this information should be easy to incorporate. I propose to cite the Anchor Bible Dictionary reference in the lead and add a citation of Boismard's journal article to the body along with a note containing a paraphrase of the above second quotation. Ignocrates (talk) 00:18, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

To provide a counter-point to this perspective, I'm going to cite Gregory (2008), which is already a source, with a quotation in a note as follows:

The reasons for believing that Matthew was composed in Greek are so compelling that the quest for a Hebrew original is best regarded as a dead end, no matter how romantic its pursuit might seem.

— Gregory, The Non-canonical Gospels, p.55

I think these additions will adequately support the content on the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew in the article. Ignocrates (talk) 13:20, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

I have implemented the suggested changes to the article. Ignocrates (talk) 18:31, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

Justin Martyr's gospel harmony

The content about Justin Martyr follows the discussion about Boismard's conjecture. Rather than comment on it at this point, I'm going to show it as a series of quotations:

1. Investigations into the gospel text of Justin shows that he used a harmony which incorporated the Synoptics but not John (Bellinzoni, 1967, p.140)

2. The date of Justin's gospel text, its harmonized form, and its failure to incorporate John are all reminiscent of the Ebionite gospel. The relationship between Justin's gospel and the Ebionite gospel, if any, is unclear at present.

3. It is plain, however, that the genre was known, and Bertrand has argued that the harmonized Gospel of the Ebionites antedates the Diatessaron of Tatian, which was composed about 170 CE.

— Petersen, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, p.262

The rest of the Anchor Bible Dictionary article to the end is unproblematic and already covered in this Wikipedia article, supported by reliable secondary sources. Ignocrates (talk) 21:56, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

The content of the third quotation above is unproblematic and covered in the article. I could, and probably should, add Bertrand as a source to back up the content that is already there. Frankly, I missed this reference because Bertrand published in French. Bringing this article up to FA quality has made me keenly aware of my deficiencies in reading publications in French and German; deficiencies I plan to remedy, but it will take time. Ignocrates (talk) 22:04, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

The meaning of the first two quotations probably seems straightforward to a reader who is unfamiliar with the peer-reviewed literature. Bellinzoni is cited as a source for the statement in quotation 1 "Investigations into the gospel text of Justin shows that he used a harmony which incorporated the Synoptics but not John (Bellinzoni, 1967, p.140) (underlines are mine). The plain meaning of this statement is that Justin used a gospel harmony somehow associated with him (whether, written by him or merely used by him is not made clear). The problem is that Bellinzoni is not discussing a gospel harmony here (p.140); he is summarizing conclusions about a primitive Christian catechism. Bellinzoni concludes that Justin's principle sources for his harmonistic materials were a Christian catechism and a reference manual (vade mecum) against heresies. With respect to Justin's composition of a gospel harmony, Bellinzoni further states on p.141, and I quote here:

It must, however, be emphasized that there is absolutely no evidence that Justin ever composed a complete harmony of the Synoptic Gospels; his harmonies were of linited scope and were apparently composed for didactic purposes.

— Bellinzoni, The Sayings of Jesus in the Writings of Justin Martyr, p.141

Therefore, one has to interpret the meaning of quotation1 narrowly as "harmonistic materials containing gospel sayings used by Justin" for this statement to be factually accurate. I'm not sure a non-expert reader would do that. I flagged this discrepancy immediately, which is one reason I elected to not use the ABD as a source. Ignocrates (talk) 17:00, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

Bellinzoni continues by comparing the harmonistic materials used by Justin to the harmonistic materials used in the homily known as 2 Clement. He points out that 2 Clement was probably written before Justin composed his first Apology and his Dialogue, pointing out that:

2 Clement merely indicates that there were in use before Justin's period written gospel harmonies, which served as models for the harmonies used and perhaps composed by Justin. Justin's similarities to 2 Clement are no more than would be expected when two different harmonies of the Synoptic Gospels are composed.

— Bellinzoni, The Sayings of Jesus in the Writings of Justin Martyr, p.142

Bellinzoni does not make a comparison between the harmonistic materials Justin used and the Gospel of the Ebionites. Ignocrates (talk) 17:36, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

All of the above analysis with respect to Justin leads me to believe that the statements in quotation2 – the assumption that Justin used a gospel harmony and the comparison of that harmony to the Gospel of the Ebionites – are the result of Petersen's own original research rather than based on any reliable secondary sources. I don't think a tertiary source like an encyclopedic dictionary should be creating original research. Therefore, it is my opinion that if this ABD article is going to be used, it should be supported by reliable secondary sources as backup. That is the subject I will address in the next segment. Ignocrates (talk) 17:48, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

Secondary sources

Scholar Richard Bauckham, who is already listed as a source (Bauckham, 2003) in this article, notes the following about the Gospel of the Ebionites:

George Howard has also shown that in many specific respects its text is typical of the harmonizing tendencies of the second century, both in transmission of the gospel texts themselves and in the use of the texts by writers such as Justin.

— Bauckham, The Image of the Judeo-Christians in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature, p.172

It may take me a few more days to track down Howard's scholarly publication to get a more complete description from the original source; however, even Bauckham's brief note in passing about Justin's use of harmonized materials, based on a reliable secondary source, should have priority over Petersen's unsourced statement in the 1992 ABD, which appears to be a summary of Howard's 1988 work without attribution. Ignocrates (talk) 23:46, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

I was able to locate Howard's (1988) article at the university. It is a substantial piece of work; it's going to take me at least a day to go through it. I will copy the citation to Further Reading for now while I figure out how to incorporate it into the reference sources. Ignocrates (talk) 18:48, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

Howard simply states that Justin also used harmonized gospel materials and refers to Bellinzoni (1967) as a reference. He makes no attempt to compare between the GEbi and Justin, other than Justin's mention of fire on the water during Jesus' baptism in Dial. 88 in contrast to a great light on the water in Gebi and the Diatessaron. Howard makes the important point that the creation of harmonies based on the gospels was a typical method of composition in the 2nd century. I may add a sentence in "Relationship to other texts" about the nature of GEbi as a harmony and a comparison to other pre-Diatesseronic harmonies (2 Clement, GThom) as well as Justin. Ignocrates (talk) 12:40, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Ok, I believe that addresses the content issues with Justin Martyr. Ignocrates (talk) 23:48, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Fwiw, this is a nice bio by SBL of William L. Petersen (harmonist) who tragically passed away in 2006, the same year as his mentor Gilles Quispel. Maybe someone reading this can find the time to acknowledge his contributions in a biographic article on his life and works. He was an expert in the Diatessaron and gospel harmonies in general, which explains his interest in the Ebionite gospel. Ignocrates (talk) 01:20, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

Thoughts from Keilana

Hi, so here is my unbiased 3rd opinion about the sourcing in this article. I'm sorry it took me so long - I hope this helps. If anything I've said is unclear, please don't hesitate to ask for clarification. I've listed the sources that I have some issue with in order. If I haven't listed a source, it means I took a look and think it's reliable and worth including.

• I'm not sure how great of a source Finley 2009 is, I try not to cite Ph. D theses myself, especially when the author is not now an academic. I could only find Finley's thesis, he doesn't seem to have published since, nor does he seem to have a faculty position. However, I'm not a theologian so I can't really comment on the veracity of his claims. (On the topic of PhD theses, I think Koch is acceptable because he is now a publishing academic authority.)
• I would prefer to see a more updated version of the Jewish Encyclopedia (Kohler) cited - scholarly opinion on these sorts of matters can change a lot in a century. If you want to include Kohler's scholarship, it could be appropriate in the context of historical opinions about the Ebionites. I don't take the same issue with Meyer and Meyer as the information sourced is also found in other, more contemporary sources.
• I would look critically at the reliability of Lapham, he's not a professor anywhere or in any position of academic authority that I can find.
• I don't speak German so was not really able to see about Pape beyond a shoddy automated translation - my general concern about having current sources applies, I assume. As it does with Pick.
• I can't find Frank Williams' credentials anywhere.
• I think you need to treat Skarsaune very carefully given his involvement with the Messianic Jews - that's not to say he can't be included, just...carefully. They are not mainstream and WP:UNDUE does apply here.

That's about all I have re: veracity of sources. Good luck with this article. Best, Keilana|^{Parlez ici} 21:30, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for the independent review! Ignocrates (talk) 23:43, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Oskar Skarsaune

FWIW, I would be very, very interested in some sort of elaboration of the linkage between Skarsaune and the MJs, for two reasons. One, I don't remember having encountered such evidence before, and (2) the main article on the MJ's itself has been for some time problematic. If you could provide some information about where you see the evidence of such a linkage, which I don't think I've ever seen in any of the databank articles on the MJs, that would be very, very welcome. John Carter (talk) 21:53, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Oskar Skarsaune. There is no merit to the query however, unless one can show that his peers in historical biblical criticism consider his views as minoritarian. I don't see evidence of this.If Skarsaune’s links with Messianic Judaism make his work problematical, then all Christian scholars on this affiliated with any Church are equally problematical. Peer-review trumps partisanship.Nishidani (talk) 21:59, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

I was actually thinking more of trying to find some sources on the MJ, rather than this article. All the books I've seen to date are basically self-published or written by clearly and expressedly sympathetic sources, and there aren't even that many of them. The Messianic Judaism article has been lacking for independent sources for some time, and even if he isn't really independent, he might be one of the better sources anyway. John Carter (talk) 22:11, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Correct. He is notable as a major scholar in this field of study. Frankly, this was a pejorative thing to bring up. Ignocrates (talk) 22:13, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

And the comment above, with its vague accusation against some unspecified party, is probably even more perjorative. I once again, for the second time today, urge the above editor to make some sort of effort to read and perhaps adhere to WP:TPG. I think they have been here for about as long as that editor has, and there is no good reason for that editor to not be familiar with them by now. Regarding Skarsaune himself, it would be worth checking the sources in Northern European languages, I suppose, to see if they have any criticism of him, but I am not myself familiar with most of them, and cannot do so on my own. John Carter (talk) 22:30, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

I think you know what I meant. It was wrong to bring this up without some kind of evidence from the published literature that his group affiliations (I didn't even know about this MJ connection) bias his work. Ignocrates (talk) 22:38, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I do. It seems that you were insulting Keilana, who mentioned it in the first place, who only came to this page at your request. You know, it truly is the worst of manners to accuse someone who you asked to take part in this discussion of acting improperly. But, then, there always has been a bit of a delusional self-aggrandizing monomania on the part of one editor around here. John Carter (talk) 01:17, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

Ongoing issues with you aside, I didn't mean to insult him her, and I apologize to him her if it was taken that way. Ignocrates (talk) 01:28, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

Reviews of Jewish Believers in Jesus (2007): link to PDF, link to PDF

Here are links to two very comprehensive academic reviews. Ignocrates (talk) 18:07, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

Apparently, you make very weak efforts to know anything about the other editors with whom you deal. Otherwise, you would probably know that Keilana is rather obviously a female name, and that Keilana's picture on her user page is obviously that of a female. Such really weak efforts to verify statements about people you have personally sought out for comment does not in any way speak well for you. John Carter (talk) 19:08, 16 July 2013 (UTC)

I am completely gender-neutral as far as it matters to my editing here. However, I apologize for that mistake and I will correct it. Feel better now? Ignocrates (talk) 19:19, 16 July 2013 (UTC)

Gregory C. Finley

I agree that Greg Finley's C.V. is thin as a newly-minted scholar; however, there's nothing shabby about publishing his dissertation at the Catholic University either. The claim this reference supports is not controversial (that Epiphanius' polemic against the Ebionites is possibly targeted, indirectly, at the Arians of his time), so I don't think it's a big deal to keep it. Second opinions? Ignocrates (talk) 23:40, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Here is Susan Wessel's bio. She was Greg Finley's major professor for his dissertation. I'm going to contact her and ask for a more complete bio on Finley. Ignocrates (talk) 00:17, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

Kaufmann Kohler

This is a non-issue as far as supporting article content. F. Stanley Jones, in Eerdmann's Dictionary (2000), says much the same thing, and that is the next encyclopedic reference in the article. I don't have a problem dropping Kohler; however, there is no reason to do it either. Ignocrates (talk) 22:32, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

I replaced Kohler (1906) with Goranson (1992). Problem solved. Ignocrates (talk) 02:30, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

Fred Lapham

Also published by Fred Lapham: Peter: The Myth, the Man and the Writings and brief bio. Ignocrates (talk) 23:07, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

He is listed as an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wales here. I assume that is a British term for an Adjunct Lecturer. I asked Llywrch if he can take a deeper look into Lapham's bio, since he recommended Lapham for inclusion as a source during FAC. Ignocrates (talk) 23:18, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Is there sufficient concern here to request an independent review of Lapham's notability? Second opinions please. Ignocrates (talk) 01:24, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

Some reviews of Lapham's An Introduction to the New Testament Apocrypha are as follows:

Excerpt of a review by Daniel M. Gurtner:

“…demonstrates careful awareness of patristic sources regarding sources of these texts and provides a helpful categorization of types of documents with respect to familiar New Testament documents. He also provides a helpful discussion of the origin and particular emphases of Gnosticism.” –Daniel M. Gurtner, Society of Biblical Literature, September 2004 link

The full review by Daniel M. Gurtner: link to PDF

A brief review in Early Christian Apocrypha: A Bibliographic Essay by William H. Shepherd:

"Slightly less authoritative (than Ehrman), but still a useful orientation for beginners, is Fred Lapham, An Introduction to the New Testament Apocrypha (New York: T&T Clark International, 2003), which reflects recent scholarly trends by taking a geographical approach." link

Here is Shepard's full review: link.

My take-away from these reviews is that the book is a good introductory text for beginners, better than most with respect to taking a geographical approach, but not complete enough to be a useful tool for scholars for reasons Gurtner describes in detail. Ignocrates (talk) 16:44, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

Here are links to numerous scholarly publications that establish Lapham's notability: link; link; link; link; including the Blackwell Companion to Jesus link and the Zondervan Encyclopedia link Ignocrates (talk) 17:35, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Wilhelm Pape

Wilhelm Pape was added intentionally as a historical source by In ictu oculi to show one of the first scholars to make this connection. Ignocrates (talk) 22:55, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

I have replaced Pape (1880) with Klauck (2003). Ignocrates (talk) 00:33, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Bernhard Pick

Bernhard Pick's translation was republished in 2009. He is noteworthy as the scholar who initially came up with the list of seven sayings that is the consensus among modern scholars. So, why not acknowledge that? Ignocrates (talk) 22:44, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Frank Williams

Biographical info can be found here and a wiki link to his work as a translator is here Panarion#Translations. Ignocrates (talk) 22:08, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

About the author (1994):

Frank Williams, Ph.D. (1961) Oxford University; Religious Studies Faculty, the University of Texas at El Paso; recent publications: "The Apocryphon of James" and "The Concept of Our Great Power" in "Reader's Guide to the Nag Hammadi Library," (Polebridge Press); "The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book I," (Brill, 1987). link

More biography about Frank Williams Ph.D. as translator of the Panarion. Ignocrates (talk) 22:20, 11 July 2013 (UTC)