Hi Bart! We just watched one of your lectures on YouTube and really enjoy listening to you. Just have a question.

There is a new documentary called Christpiracy which examines the Gospel of the Ebionites with possible early writings that say that John the Baptist and James followed a vegetarian diet. I imagine that you haven’t had a chance to watch it, since it hasn’t been released in streaming yet. I think it may eventually be on YouTube. It was just in the theaters, but is gone now.

I have read somewhere that James, the brother of Jesus refused to wear wool as well. There are some quotes from the gospel of the Ebionites that say that Jesus had no desire to eat the Passover lamb with them. There are other writings that suggest Jesus cared for animals. There are even fixed mistranslations that suggest that the cleansing of the temple was primarily anger at the violence and slaughter of animals, not greed .

So my primary question is: Why exactly were the Ebionites vegetarian?

Did they know something we don’t that was lost to history or destroyed? Or was it due to the destruction of the temple?

Thank you,
Deb Sahd
Lancaster, PA