Sunday, November 21, 2021

Epiphanius on Ebionites and their High View of Adam/"Adam Kadmon"

In Panarion 30.3.3-6, we read the following description of Ebionite theology from Epiphanius:

 

3,3 For some of them even say that Adam is Christ—the man who was formed first and infused with God’s breath. (4) But others among them say that he is from above; created before all things, a spirit, both higher than the angels and Lord of all; and that he is called Christ, the heir of the world there. But he comes here when he chooses, as he came in Adam and appeared to the patriarchs clothed with Adam’s body. And in the last days the same Christ who had come to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, came and donned Adam’s body, and appeared to men, was crucified, rose and ascended. (6) But again, when they choose to, they say, “No! The Spirit—that is, the Christ—came to him and put on the man called Jesus.” And they get all giddy from making different suppositions about him at different times (The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book 1 (Sects 1-46) [trans. Frank Williams; Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 63; Leiden: Brill, 2009], 133)