4.2 The Heresies – Judaizers and Ebionites: Denying Christ’s Divinity

Way of the Fathers

Is Jesus Christ God? Is he a man? Is he both? Spoiler alert: the mainstream Church answered with the both/and, but the factions on the fringes tended to choose one or the other. For our first heresy, we take a look at the Ebionites, and their New Testament-era predecessors, the so-called Judaizers. These concluded that Jesus Christ was a mere human. A human who became a prophet perhaps, but just a human.

Links

For more information on Ignatius of Antioch, see Mike Aquilina’s Episode 4: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-4-ignatius-antioch-to-know-jesus-christ-our-god/

To read Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Magnesians: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1629&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2351277

To listen to Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Magnesians: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-ignatius-antioch-letter-to-magnesians/

For more information on Irenaeus of Lyons, see Mike Aquilina’s Episode 10: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/irenaeus-lyon-putting-smack-down-on-heresy/

For more detail on the Ebionite heresy, see the book: The Earliest Christologies: Five Images of Christ in the Post-Apostolic Age https://www.ivpress.com/the-earliest-christologies

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Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/