Marcion and Ebion

I have already demonstrated that both 'Marcion' and 'Ebion' are invented names from Aramaic terms. Now I am beginning to suspect that they represent two related groups. I have always thought that the Gospel of Matthew is a corruption of a place name - Batanaea - which in Aramaic can be spelled with an mem rather than a bet. The Ebionites were especially numerous in that region.

In short I don't believe there ever was a 'Matthew.' There is no compelling reason to believe in his existence. Instead I think that there was a 'Gospel' popular among 'Hebrews' or in 'Hebrew' (Aramaic) letters. The text is identified as the Diatessaron by Epiphanius but interestingly he also mentions a 'Gospel of John' in Aramaic associated with this group which needs explaining. The coupling of that text with the 'Acts of the Apostles' would support one of my theories about the canon of Polycarp. Polycarp also seems to have been mistaken for a Cynic.

It is worth noting that Marcionites were also quite numerous in the province of Syria. Of course the million dollar question is - why were they identified as 'beggars.' Origen says it is because they were poor in understanding but evyonim is certainly not how they identified themselves. Yet Marcionites were described as resembling Cynic philosophers - i.e. beggars. Is this the origin of the evyonim?

I will continue to develop this understanding over the next few days.