A movement of early Jewish Christians that migrated from Roman Palestine to Jordan & eventually spread as far as Rome, Asia Minor & Egypt. They called themselves simply "the poor" (Hebrew: ebionim). In distinction from Hellenistic Christians, they insisted on:

• personal poverty (lack of private possessions)
• purity (ritual washings)
• vegetarianism (opposition to all animal sacrifices)
• authority of the Torah of Moses (except for passages that they held to be scribal corruptions)
• the centrality of Jerusalem (but not the temple).

Their origin is uncertain. But historical links to the primitive Jerusalem church described in Acts or to Jewish Essenes are possible. By the middle of the 2nd c. CE they were distinct from Greek Christians, who regarded them as a rival sect. They did not recognize the authority of Paul or the gospel of John. They continued as a separate movement until the 4th c. CE. According to Irenaeus, the first Greek writer to describe them, they regarded Jesus as the Messiah but insisted that he was neither divine nor born of a virgin.

The only scripture they accepted beyond the Hebrew Bible was a gospel that Greek writers regarded as an expurgated version of "Matthew," but which --- evidently --- was an early gospel harmony. It was not identical with the canonical text of Matthew since it did not have any genealogy or birth story. Like the gospel of Mark it began with the story of Jesus' baptism. All that remains of it are seven excerpts that were quoted by Epiphanius of Salamis including the pronouncement story about Jesus' true kin.

[For text and analysis of the Ebionite gospel see The Complete Gospels (2nd ed.) R. J. Miller, editor (Sonoma CA: Polebridge Press, 1994), pp. 435-40].

Other On-line Resources

• Against Heresies 1.26.2 - Irenaeus' brief description of the Ebionites. Irenaeus provides other indirect glimpses of their doctrines in his arguments for the authority of Paul, the virgin birth of Jesus, & divinity of Jesus (posted by New Advent).

• Gospel of the Ebionites - Geoff Trowbridge characterizes the evidence (The Whole Bible).

• Gospel of the Ebionites - close analysis of the 5 fragments cited by Epiphanius & review of their historical significance (Wikipedia).