qui credunt in Christum
filium dei natum de Virgine Maria et eum dicunt esse, qui sub pontio
Pilato passus est et resurrexit, in quem et nos credimus; sed dum volunt
et Judaei esse et Christiani, nec Judaei sunt nec Christiani." The
approximation of the Jewish Christian conception to that of the
Catholics shews itself also in their exposition of Isaiah IX. 1. f. (see
Jerome on the passage). But we must not forget that there were such
Jewish Christians from the earliest times. It is worthy of note that the
name Nazarenes, as applied to Jewish Christians, is found in the Acts of
the Apostles XXIV. 5, in the Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus, and then
first again in Jerome.]

[Footnote 427: Zahn, l. c. p. 648 ff. 668 ff. has not convinced me of
the contrary, but I confess that Jerome's style of expression is not
everywhere clear.]

[Footnote 428: Zahn, (l. c.) makes a sharp distinction between the
Nazarenes, on the one side, who used the Gospel of the Hebrews,
acknowledged the birth from the Virgin, and in fact the higher
Christology to some extent, did not repudiate Paul, etc., and the
Ebionites on the other, whom he simply identifies with the Gnostic
Jewish Christians, if I am not mistaken. In opposition to this, I think
I must adhere to the distinction as given above in the text and in the
following: (1) Non-Gnostic, Jewish Christians (Nazarenes, Ebionites) who
appeared in various shades, according to their doctrine and attitude to
the Gentile Church, and whom, with the Church Fathers, we may
appropriately classify as strict or tolerant (exclusive or liberal). (2)
Gnostic or syncretistic Judaeo-Christians who are also termed Ebionites.]

[Footnote 429: This Gospel no doubt greatly interested the scholars of
the Catholic Church from Clement of Alexandria onwards. But they have
almost all contrived to evade the hard problem which it presented. It
may be noted, incidentally, that the Gospel of the Hebrews, to judge
from the remains preserved to us, can neither have been the model nor
the translation of our Matthew, but a work independent of this, though
drawing from the same sources, representing perhaps to some extent an
earlier stage of the tradition. Jerome also knew very well that the
Gospel of the Hebrews was not the original of the canonical Matthew, but
he took care not to correct the old prejudice. Ebionitic conceptions,
such as that of the female nature of the Holy Spirit, were of course
least likely to convince t