Gospel of the Ebionites closely with the lost "Gospel of the Twelve". It shows no dependence on the Gospel of John and is similar in nature to the harmonized gospel sayings based on the Synoptic Gospels used by Justin Martyr, although a relationship between them, if any, is uncertain. There is a similarity between the gospel and a source document contained within the Clementine "Recognitions" (1.27–71), conventionally referred to by scholars as the "Ascents of James", with respect to the command to abolish the Jewish sacrifices. Epiphanius is believed to have come into possession of a gospel that he attributed to the Ebionites when
Synoptic Gospels eighteenth century, when Johann Jakob Griesbach published in 1776 a "synopsis" of the synoptic gospels. Instead of harmonizing them, he displayed their texts side by side, making both similarities and divergences apparent. Griesbach, noticing the special place of Mark in the synopsis, hypothesized Marcan posteriority and advanced (as Henry Owen had a few years earlier) the two-gospel hypothesis (Matthew–Luke). In the nineteenth century, researchers applied the tools of literary criticism to the synoptic problem in earnest, especially in German scholarship. Early work revolved around a hypothetical proto-gospel ("Ur-Gospel"), possibly in Aramaic, underlying the synoptics. From this line of inquiry, however,