Islam vs. the Ebionites

Could Islam be considered a descendant from Ebionite Christianity? I am no expert on either the Ebionites or Islam, but it seems that Muhammad was influenced by non-Pauline Christianity, although as far as I understand, Muslims believe in the virgin birth, which I believe the Ebionites did not.
 

fi11222

Banned
Could Islam be considered a descendant from Ebionite Christianity? I am no expert on either the Ebionites or Islam, but it seems that Muhammad was influenced by non-Pauline Christianity, although as far as I understand, Muslims believe in the virgin birth, which I believe the Ebionites did not.
There is a theory that Islam was originally a "Judeo-Nazarene" semi-Jewish/semi-Christian sect and that it only progressively took its distances from these early roots. Unfortunately, most published works on this theory are in French, including the Wikipedia article linked to above.

The word "Ebionite" is a bit tricky to use in this context. It seems that there indeed were Jewish/judeo-Chistian sects who called themselves by that name in the Ist-IInd century AD. After that (IIIrd century onwards), the term became a blanket designation used by church fathers to designate (and denigrate) a wide variety of Judeo-Chistian groups who were then no longer calling themselves "Ebionites". In some cases, this label seems to have taken on an extremely broad sense in orthodox christian circles, so much so that it became almost synonymous with "heretic" in general. From the IIIrd century onwards, the self designation prefered by most Jewish-Christian groups seems to have been "Nazarene".

The so-called "Judeao-Nazarene" groups refered to above differ from those usually called "Judeo-Christians" in that they are heavily focused on an eschatological narrative centered on the return of a warlike messiah who will conquer the world for the righteous. By contrast, most Judeo-Christians shared the christian view of an end-times in the form of a judgement, rather than a war of conquest, followed by the establishment of paradise (rather than a righteous empire). The "Judeo-Nazarene" theory is made especially attractive in the view of recent events in the muslim world. The eschatological focus of extreme muslim movements like ISIS or the Taliban is eerily reminiscent of the beliefs of late-antique messianic movemements. Some of the Dead Sea scrolls, like the "War scroll" for example, sound like they were taken straight out of an ISIS propaganda video.

Regarding the virgin birth, it seems that most Jewish-Christian and "Judeo-Nazarene" groups believed in it. The idea that they did not apparently comes from an error made by Irenaeus, who thought that since Ebionites (who still used that self-designation in his time) denied the divinity of Christ, they must also have denied the virgin birth, which was apparently not the case.
 
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Could Islam be considered a descendant from Ebionite Christianity? I am no expert on either the Ebionites or Islam, but it seems that Muhammad was influenced by non-Pauline Christianity, although as far as I understand, Muslims believe in the virgin birth, which I believe the Ebionites did not.
You`d have to use a broad definition of "descendant". If descendant implies mono-influentiality, i.e. only Judeo-Christian / Ebionite / ... groups shaped early Islam, then that`s maybe not the case.
But if you mean that such an influence was an important element in a diverse mixture, of which trends of thought within polytheistic Arabian cults played a major part, and if you acknowledge a certain degree of originality to the Muslim movement, then I think you`re right.
Muslims usually acknowledge that, too, what with Muhammad`s close acquaintance with Waraqa ibn Nawfal.
 
Basically what was said above, although I'd nuance it a bit : Judeo-Nazoreism was probably an important influence, but Nestorianism, non-canonic Orthodoxy, etc. probably gave a hand as well.

This influence isn't just something "from the origins" but influenced early Islam including during the first conquests, while Islam itself structurated and became more and more distinct.

To say that Islam, today, is a descendent of non-Nicean Christianism would be a bit wrong : it long distinguished. To say early Islam was issued from a cluster of small different Christianism, on which JN played an important role? I'd agree with.
 

fi11222

Banned
But the Nestorians accept the divinity of Christ, don´t they?
Yes, of course. They are Nicenes (trinitarians) though not Chalcedonians (they deem both the human and divine natures of Christ to be separate and air-tight).
 
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