Ebionite Bible Texts

Clement

CLEMENT 1
Thirteenth Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 FROM THE LETTERS OF THE MOST HOLY CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, AUTHOR OF THE MISCELLANIES, TO THEODORE:

2 YOU DID WELL IN SILENCING THE UNSPEAKABLE TEACHINGS OF THE CARPOCRATIANS, FOR THESE ARE THE "WANDERING STARS" REFERRED TO IN THE PROPHECY, WHO WANDER FROM THE NARROW ROAD OF THE COMMANDMENTS INTO A BOUNDLESS ABYSS OF THE CARNAL AND BODILY SINS.

3 FOR, PRIDING THEMSELVES IN KNOWLEDGE, AS THEY SAY, "OF THE DEEP OF SATAN," THEY DO NOT KNOW THAT THEY ARE CASTING THEMSELVES AWAY INTO "THE NETHER WORLD OF THE DARKNESS" OF FALSITY, AND, BOASTING THAT THEY ARE FREE, THEY HAVE BECOME SLAVES OF SERVILE DESIRES.

4 SUCH ARE TO BE OPPOSED IN ALL WAYS AND ALTOGETHER; FOR, EVEN IF THEY SHOULD SAY SOMETHING TRUE, ONE WHO LOVES THE TRUTH SHOULD NOT, EVEN SO, AGREE WITH THEM.

5 FOR NOT ALL TRUTH IS THE TRUTH, NOR SHOULD THAT TRUTH WHICH SEEMS TRUE ACCORDING TO HUMAN OPINIONS BE PREFERRED TO THE TRUE TRUTH, THAT ACCORDING TO THE FAITH.

CLEMENT 2
Fourteenth Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 NOW OF THAT WHICH THEY KEEP SAYING ABOUT THE DIVINELY INSPIRED GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK, SOME ARE ALTOGETHER FALSIFICATIONS, AND OTHERS, EVEN IF THEY DO CONTAIN SOME TRUTH, NEVERTHELESS ARE NOT REPORTED TRULY.

2 FOR THE TRUTH, BEING MIXED WITH INVENTIONS, ARE FALSIFIED, SO THAT, AS THE SAYING, EVEN THE SALT LOSES ITS SAVOR.

3 MARK, THEN, DURING PETER'S STAY IN ROME WROTE THE LORD'S DOINGS, NOT, HOWEVER, DECLARING ALL, NOR YET HINTING AT THE SECRET, BUT SELECTING THOSE HE THOUGHT MOST USEFUL FOR INCREASING THE FAITH OF THOSE WHO WERE BEING INSTRUCTED.

CLEMENT 3
Fifteenth Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 BUT WHEN PETER DIED AS A MARTYR, MARK CAME OVER TO ALEXANDRIA, BRINGING BOTH HIS OWN NOTES AND THOSE OF PETER, FROM WHICH HE TRANSFERRED TO HIS FORMER BOOK THE THINGS SUITABLE TO WHATEVER MAKES FOR PROGRESS TOWARD GNOSIS.

2 HE COMPOSED A MORE SPIRITUAL GOSPEL FOR THE USE OF THOSE WHO WERE BEING PERFECTED.

3 NEVERTHELESS, HE YET DID NOT DIVULGE THE THINGS NOT TO BE UTTERED, NOR DID HE WRITE DOWN THE HIEROPHANTIC TEACHING OF THE LORD, BUT TO THE STORIES ALREADY WRITTEN HE ADDED YET OTHERS.

CLEMENT 4
Sixteenth Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 AND, MOREOVER, BROUGHT IN CERTAIN SAYINGS OF WHICH HE KNEW THE INTERPRETATION WOULD, AS A MYSTAGOGUE, LEAD THE HEARERS INTO THE INNERMOST SANCTUARY OF THAT TRUTH HIDDEN BY SEVEN.

2 THUS, IN SUM, HE PREARRANGED MATTERS, NEITHER GRUDGINGLY NOR INCAUTIOUSLY, IN MY OPINION, AND, DYING, HE LEFT HIS COMPOSITION TO THE CHURCH IN ALEXANDRIA, WHERE IT EVEN YET IS MOST CAREFULLY GUARDED, BEING READ ONLY TO THOSE WHO ARE BEING INITIATED INTO THE GREAT MYSTERIES.

3 BUT SINCE THE FOUL DEMONS ARE ALWAYS DEVISING DESTRUCTION FOR THE RACE OF HUMANS, CARPOCRATES, INSTRUCTED BY THEM AND USING DECEITFUL ARTS, SO ENSLAVED A CERTAIN PRESBYTER OF THE CHURCH IN ALEXANDRIA THAT HE GOT FROM HIM A COPY OF THE SECRET GOSPEL, WHICH HE BOTH INTERPRETED ACCORDING TO HIS BLASPHEMOUS AND CARNAL DOCTRINE AND, MOREOVER, POLLUTED, MIXING WITH THE SPOTLESS AND HOLY WORDS UTTERLY SHAMELESS LIES.

CLEMENT 5
Seventeenth Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 FROM THIS MIXTURE IS DRAWN OFF THE TEACHING OF THE CARPOCRATIANS.

2 TO THEM, THEREFORE, AS I SAID ABOVE, ONE MUST NEVER GIVE WAY, NOR, WHEN THEY PUT FORWARD THEIR FALSIFICATIONS, SHOULD ONE CONCEDE THAT THE SECRET GOSPEL IS BY MARK, BUT SHOULD EVEN DENY IT ON OATH.

3 FOR, "NOT ALL TRUTH IS TO BE SAID TO ALL HUMANS."

CLEMENT 6
Eighteenth Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 FOR THIS THE WISDOM OF AHMAN, THROUGH SOLOMON, ADVISES, "ANSWER THE FOOL FROM HIS FOLLY," TEACHING THAT THE LIGHT OF THE TRUTH SHOULD BE HIDDEN FROM THOSE WHO ARE MENTALLY BLIND.

2 AGAIN IT SAYS, "FROM ONE WHO HAS NOT SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY," AND, "LET THE FOOL WALK IN DARKNESS."

3 BUT WE ARE "CHILDREN OF LIGHT," HAVING BEEN ILLUMINATED BY "THE DAYSPRING" OF THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD "FROM ON HIGH," AND "WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS," IT SAYS, "THERE IS LIBERTY," FOR "ALL THINGS ARE PURE TO THE PURE."

CLEMENT 7
Nineteenth Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 TO YOU, THEREFORE, I SHALL NOT HESITATE TO ANSWER WHAT YOU HAVE ASKED, REFUTING THE FALSIFICATIONS BY THE VERY WORDS OF THE GOSPEL.

2 FOR EXAMPLE, AFTER "AND THEY WERE IN THE ROAD GOING UP TO JERUSALEM," AND WHAT FOLLOWS, UNTIL "AFTER THREE DAYS THEY SHALL ARISE," BRINGS THE FOLLOWING WORD FOR WORD:

3 "AND THEY COME INTO BETHANY, AND A CERTAIN WOMAN, WHOSE BROTHER HAD DIED, WAS THERE."

CLEMENT 8
Twentieth Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 "AND, COMING, SHE PROSTRATED HERSELF BEFORE YESHU AND SAYS TO HIM, `SON OF DAVID, HAVE MERCY ON ME.'"

2 "BUT THE DISCIPLES REBUKED HER."

3 "AND YESHU, BEING ANGERED, WENT OFF WITH HER INTO THE GARDEN WHERE THE TOMB WAS, AND STRAIGHTWAY A GREAT CRY WAS HEARD FROM THE TOMB."

CLEMENT 9
Twenty-first Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 "AND GOING NEAR YESHU ROLLED AWAY THE STONE FROM THE DOOR OF THE TOMB."

2 "AND STRAIGHTWAY, GOING IN WHERE THE YOUTH WAS, HE STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND AND RAISED HIM, SEIZING HIS HAND."

3 "BUT THE YOUTH, LOOKING UPON HIM, LOVED HIM AND BEGAN TO BESEECH HIM THAT HE MIGHT BE WITH HIM."

CLEMENT 10
Twenty-second Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 "AND GOING OUT OF THE TOMB THEY CAME INTO THE HOUSE OF THE YOUTH, FOR HE WAS RICH."

2 "AND AFTER SIX DAYS YESHU TOLD THEM WHAT TO DO AND IN THE EVENING THE YOUTH COMES TO THEM, WEARING A LINEN CLOTH OVER NAKEDNESS."

3 "AND HE REMAINED WITH THEM THAT NIGHT, FOR YESHU TAUGHT HIM THE MYSTERY OF THE KINGDOM OF AHMAN."

CLEMENT 11
Twenty-third Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 "AND THENCE, ARISING, THEY RETURNED TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE JORDAN."

2 AFTER THESE FOLLOWS THE TEXT, "AND JAMES AND JOHN COME TO HIM," AND ALL THAT SECTION.

3 BUT "NAKED WITH NAKED" AND THE OTHER THINGS ABOUT WHICH YOU WROTE ARE NOT FOUND.

CLEMENT 12
Twenty-fourth Week - Geburian "Morning Mass" Text

1 AND AFTER, "AND HE COMES INTO JERICO," ADDS ONLY, "AND THE SISTER OF THE YOUTH WHOM YESHU LOVED AND HIS MOTHER AND SALOME WERE THERE, AND YESHU DID NOT RECEIVE THEM."

2 BUT THE MANY OTHER WHICH YOU WROTE BOTH SEEM TO BE, AND ARE, FALSIFICATIONS.

3 NOW THE TRUE EXPLANATION AND THAT WHICH ACCORDS WITH THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY....