Editing Ebionites (section)

==Views and practices==
===Judaism, Gnosticism and Essenism===
Most patristic sources{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} portray the Ebionites as Jews who zealously followed the [[Law of Moses]], revered [[Jerusalem]] as the holiest city<ref name="Irenaeus"/> and restricted [[Kashrut|table fellowship]] only to [[God-fearer|God-fearing]] Gentiles who [[Conversion to Judaism|converted to Judaism]].<ref name="Justin"/>

Some Church Fathers describe some Ebionites as departing from traditional [[Jewish principles of faith]] and [[Orthopraxis#Judaism|practice]]. For example, [[Methodius of Olympus]] stated that the Ebionites believed that the [[prophets in Judaism|prophets]] spoke only by their own power and not by the power of the [[Holy Spirit in Judaism|Holy Spirit]].<ref name="Oden2006">{{cite book|author=Thomas C. Oden|title=Ancient Christian commentary on Scripture: New Testament|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=irWI6DUtPncC&pg=PA178|access-date=14 October 2010|year=2006|publisher=InterVarsity Press|isbn=978-0-8308-1497-8|pages=178–}} Excerpt from St. Methodius of Olympus, ''Symposium on Virginity'', 8.10., "and with regard to the Spirit, such as the Ebionites, who contend that the prophets spoke only by their own power".</ref> [[Epiphanius of Salamis]] stated that the Ebionites possessed a separationist [[Christology]], which claimed that Jesus and the Christ are two different beings, and, therefore, the Christ is an [[Angel of the Lord|angel of God]] who was incarnated in Jesus when he was [[adoptionism|adopted as the son of God]] during his [[baptism of Jesus|baptism]],<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.14.5}}<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.16.4–5}}  engaged in excessive [[ritual washing in Judaism|ritual washing]],<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.19.28–30}} [[Antinomianism|denied parts of the Law]] deemed obsolete or corrupt,<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.18.7–9}} opposed [[Korban|animal sacrifice]],<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.16.4–5}}<ref name="Joseph 2017">{{Cite journal| author = Simon J. Joseph | title = 'I Have Come to Abolish Sacrifices' (Epiphanius, Pan. 30.16.5): Re-examining a Jewish Christian Text and Tradition | journal = New Testament Studies | publisher = New Testament Studies, Volume 63, Issue 1 | date = January 2017 | volume = 63 | pages = 92–110 | doi = 10.1017/S0028688516000345 | s2cid = 164739491 | doi-access = free }}</ref> practiced [[Jewish vegetarianism|vegetarianism]]<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30.22.4}} and celebrated a commemorative meal annually<ref name="Ramsey 1912">{{Cite journal| doi = 10.2307/624138| author = W.M. Ramsey| title = The Tekmoreian Guest-Friends | journal=Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=32 |pages=151–170| year = 1912| jstor = 624138| s2cid = 162190693| url = https://zenodo.org/record/1449930}}</ref> on or around [[Passover]] with [[unleavened bread]] and water only, in contrast to the daily Christian [[Eucharist]].<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30}}<ref>{{Cite book| author = Exarch Anthony J. Aneed| title = Syrian Christians, A Brief History of the Catholic Church of St. George in Milwaukee, Wis. And a Sketch of the Eastern Church| year = 1919| url = http://www.melkite.org/HolyCommunion.html| access-date = 28 April 2007| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070417161817/http://www.melkite.org/HolyCommunion.html| archive-date = 17 April 2007| df = dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="Irenaeus5">{{cite book|author=Irenaeus of Lyon|title=Adversus Haereses|at=[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103501.htm V, 1]}}</ref> The reliability of Epiphanius' account of the Ebionites is questioned by some scholars.<ref name="Klijn & Reinink 1973"/>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}}<ref name="Van Voorst 1989">{{Cite book| author = Robert E. van Voorst| author-link = Robert E. Van Voorst| title = The Ascents of James: History and Theology of a Jewish-Christian Community| publisher = Society of Biblical Literature| year = 1989| isbn = 1-55540-294-1}}</ref> Modern scholar [[Shlomo Pines]], for example, argues that the [[heterodox]] views and practices he ascribes to some Ebionites originated in [[Fathers of Christian Gnosticism|Gnostic Christianity]] rather than [[Jewish Christianity]] and are characteristics of the Jewish [[Elcesaites|Elcesaite]] sect, which Epiphanius mistakenly attributed to the Ebionites.<ref name="Pines1966"/>{{rp|p=39}}

While mainstream [[biblical scholarship|biblical scholars]] do suppose some [[Essene]] influence on the nascent Jewish Christian church in some organizational, administrative and cultic respects, some scholars go beyond that assumption. Regarding the Ebionites specifically, a number of scholars have different theories on how the Ebionites may have developed from an Essene [[Jewish messianism|Jewish messianic]] sect. [[Hans-Joachim Schoeps]] argues that the conversion of some Essenes to Jewish Christianity after the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70)|Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE]] may be the source of some Ebionites adopting Essene views and practices,<ref name="Schoeps 1969"/>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}} while some conclude that the Essenes did not become Jewish Christians, but still had an influence on the Ebionites.<ref name="Stendahl 1991">{{Cite book| author = Kriste Stendahl | title = The Scrolls and the New Testament | publisher = Herder & Herder | year = 1991 | isbn = 0-8245-1136-0}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}}

===On John the Baptist===
In the ''[[Gospel of the Ebionites]]'', as quoted by Epiphanius, [[John the Baptist]] and Jesus are portrayed as [[Jewish vegetarianism|vegetarians]].<ref name="Verheyden">{{cite book|author=J Verheyden|chapter=Epiphanius on the Ebionites|title=The image of the Judaeo-Christians in ancient Jewish and Christian literature|year=2003 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |editor1=Peter J. Tomson|editor2=Doris Lambers-Petry|isbn=3-16-148094-5|quote-page=188|quote=The vegetarianism of John the Baptist and of Jesus is an important issue too in the Ebionite interpretation of the Christian life.}}</ref><ref name="Ehrman 2005 on Gospel of the Ebionites">{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/lostchristianiti00ehrm|title=Lost Christianities : the battle for Scripture and the faiths we never knew|first=Bart D.|last=Ehrman|date=February 7, 2003|publisher=New York : Oxford University Press|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name="Ehrman 2003-ls">{{Cite book |first=Bart D. |last=Ehrman |author-link=Bart D. Ehrman |title=Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament|page=[https://archive.org/details/lostscripturesbo00ehrm/page/13 13]|publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2003 |isbn=0-19-514182-2|url=https://archive.org/details/lostscripturesbo00ehrm/page/13}} Referring to Epiphanius' quotation from the ''Gospel of the Ebionites'' in ''Panarion'' 30.13, "And his food, it says, was wild honey whose taste was of ''manna'', as cake in oil".</ref> Epiphanius states that the Ebionites had amended "locusts" ({{langx|grc|ἀκρίδες|akrídes}}) to "honey cakes" ({{langx|grc|ἐγκρίδες|enkrídes}}). This emendation is not found in any other New Testament manuscript or translation,<ref>{{cite book|title=Textual Apparatus of the UBS Greek New Testament|publisher=United Bible Societies|year=1993|postscript=none}} - with Peshitta, Old Latin etc.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=James A. Kelhoffer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzTcB8yMnrcC&q=The+diet+of+John+the+Baptist:+%22Locusts+and+wild+honey%22+in+synoptic+and+patristic+interpretation|title=The Diet of John the Baptist| year=2005 |isbn=978-3-16-148460-5|pages=19–21| publisher=Mohr Siebeck }}</ref> though a different vegetarian reading is found in a late [[Slavonic Josephus|Slavonic version]] of [[Josephus]]' ''[[War of the Jews]]''.<ref name="Mead 2007">{{cite book| author=G.R.S. Mead| title=Gnostic John the Baptizer: Selections from the Mandæan John-Book| quote-page=104| publisher=Forgotten Books| year=2007| isbn=978-1-60506-210-5| url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/gno/gjb/gjb-3.htm|quote=And when he had been brought to Archelaus and the doctors of the Law had assembled, they asked him who he is and where he has been until then. And to this he made answer and spake: ''I am pure; [for] the Spirit of God hath led me on, and [I live on] cane and roots and tree-food.''}}</ref> Pines and other modern scholars propose that the Ebionites were projecting their own vegetarianism onto John the Baptist.<ref name=Pines1966/>{{rp|p=39}}

The strict vegetarianism of the Ebionites may have been a reaction to the cessation of [[korban|animal sacrifices]] after the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE]] and a safeguard against the consumption of [[kosher|unclean meat]] in a [[pagan]] environment.<ref name="Klauck2003">{{cite book|author=[[Hans-Josef Klauck]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WoqXMHPY5EgC&pg=PA52|title=The Apocryphal Gospels: An Introduction|publisher=A&C Black|year=2003|isbn=978-0-567-08390-6|page=52–}}</ref> [[James Tabor]], however, argues that Ebionite disdain for eating meat and the Temple sacrifice of animals is due to their preference for the ideal [[Antediluvian|pre-Flood]] diet and what they took to be the original form of worship. In this view, the Ebionites had an interest in reviving the traditions inspired by pre-[[Mount Sinai (bible)|Sinai]] revelation, especially the time from [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|Enoch]] to [[Noah]].<ref name="Tabor 2006"/>

===On Jesus the Nazarene===
The Church Fathers agree that most or all of the Ebionites rejected many of the precepts central to [[proto-orthodox Christianity]], such as Jesus' [[Christology|divinity]], [[Pre-existence of Christ|pre-existence]], and [[Virgin birth of Jesus|virgin birth]].<ref name="Klijn & Reinink 1973"/>{{Page needed|date=February 2014}} The Ebionites are described as emphasizing the [[Psilanthropism|humanity of Jesus]] as the biological son of [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]] and [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary]], who, by virtue of his [[righteousness]] in perfectly following the [[Letter and spirit of the law|letter and spirit]] of the [[Law of Moses]], was [[adoptionism|adopted as the son of God]] to fulfill the Hebrew scriptures.<ref name="Ehrman2005-lc">{{cite book |first=Bart D. |last=Ehrman |author-link=Bart D. Ehrman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHDNe8KmMAIC&pg=PA100 |title=Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew|publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2005 |orig-date=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-975668-1 |pages=100–103}}</ref>

Origen (''[[Contra Celsum]]'' 5.61)<ref>{{cite book|last=Schaff|title=A select library of Nicene and post-Nicene fathers of the Christian church|year=1904|quote-page=footnote 828|quote=That there were two different views among the Ebionites as to the birth of Christ is stated frequently by Origen (cf. e.g. Contra Celsum V. 61), but there was unanimity in the denial of his pre-existence and essential divinity, and this constituted the essence of the heresy in the eyes of the Fathers from Irenæus on.}}</ref> and Eusebius (''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Historia Ecclesiastica]]'' 3.27.3) recognize some variation in the Christology of Ebionite sects; for example, that while all Ebionites denied Jesus' pre-existence, there was a sub-sect which did not [[Denial of the virgin birth of Jesus|deny the virgin birth]].<ref>{{cite book|title=International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J|page=9|author=Geoffrey W. Bromiley|year=1982|chapter=Ebionites|postscript=none}} citing E.H.3.27.3 "There were others, however, besides them, that were of the same name, that avoided the strange and absurd beliefs of the former, and did not deny that the Lord was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless, inasmuch as they also refused to acknowledge that he pre-existed, being God, Word, and Wisdom, they turned aside into the impiety of the former, especially when they, like them, endeavored to observe strictly the bodily worship of the law." Also source text [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.viii.xxvii.html online] at CCEL.org.</ref> [[Theodoret]], while dependent on earlier writers,<ref>{{cite book|author=Albertus Frederik Johannes Klijn, G. J. Reinink|title=Patristic evidence for Jewish-Christian sects|year=1973|quote-page=42|quote=Irenaeus wrote that these Ebionites used the Gospel of Matthew, which explains Theodoret's remark. Unlike Eusebius, he did not link Irenaeus' reference to Matthew with Origen's remarks about the 'Gospel of the Hebrews<span style="padding-right:.15em;">'</span>}}</ref> draws the conclusion that the two sub-sects would have used different gospels.<ref>{{cite book|author=Edwin K. Broadhead|title=Jewish Ways of Following Jesus: Redrawing the Religious Map of Antiquity|year=2010|quote-page=209|quote=Theodoret describes two groups of Ebionites on the basis of their view of the virgin birth. Those who deny the virgin birth use the Gospel of the Hebrews; those who accept it use the Gospel of Matthew.}}</ref> The Ebionites may have used only some or all of the [[Jewish–Christian gospels]] as additional [[scripture]] to the [[Hebrew Bible]]. However, Irenaeus reports that they only used a version of the ''[[Gospel of Matthew]]'', which omitted the first two chapters (on the [[nativity of Jesus]]) and started with the [[baptism of Jesus]] by [[John the Baptist]].<ref name="Irenaeus"/>

The Ebionites viewed Jesus as a [[Messiah in Judaism|Messiah]] in the mold of a new "prophet like Moses" foretold in [[Deuteronomy]] 18:15-19. They believed Jesus came to call all descendants of the [[Twelve Tribes of Israel]] who had strayed from the [[covenant (biblical)|covenant with God]], as well as potential converts from all Gentile nations, to repent and follow both the Law of Moses and Jesus' own [[Sermon on the Mount|expounding of the Law]] in order to become righteous and merit entry into the coming [[Kingdom of God (Christianity)|kingdom of God]] on Earth.<ref name="Bauckham 2003">{{cite book| author=Richard Bauckham | title=The Image of the Judeo-Christians in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature | contribution = The Origin of the Ebionites | pages=162–181 | publisher=Brill, Peter J. Tomson and Doris Lambers-Petry eds.| year=2003 | isbn=3-16-148094-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9bbWbMGekWoC&q=Richard+Bauckham+origin&pg=PA162 }}</ref><ref name="Viljoen 2006">{{Cite journal| first = Francois | last = Viljoen | title = Jesus' Teaching on the Torah in the Sermon on the Mount | journal = Neotestamentica | publisher = Neotestamenica / New Testament Society of Southern Africa | year = 2006 | volume = 40 | issue = 1 | pages = 135–155 | jstor = 43049229 }}</ref>  

According to Epiphanius alone, the Ebionites believed Jesus' mission as prophet and reformer included proclaiming the abolishment of [[Korban|animal sacrifices]],<ref name="Epiphanius"/>{{rp|at=30, 16, 4–5}}<ref name="Joseph 2017"/> rather than [[substitutionary atonement|substituting]] himself for them through intentional [[Self-sacrifice in Jewish law|self-sacrifice]]. Consequently, they did not believe Jesus suffered and died for the [[Atonement in Judaism|atonement]] of the sins of Israelites or mankind. The Ebionites appear to have revered Jesus not as a [[Redeemer (Christianity)|savior]], but as a [[Martyrdom in Judaism|martyr]], who was arrested and sentenced to death by [[crucifixion of Jesus|crucifixion]], both for his [[List of Jewish messiah claimants|messianic claim]] and his failed attempt at ending the Temple sacrificial system, in order to establish a more [[Simple living|simple form of worship]] based on authentic [[repentance in Judaism|repentance]] and [[works of mercy]].<ref name="Bauckham 2003"/><ref name="Viljoen 2006"/> Rejecting the belief in a [[universal resurrection|physical resurrection of the dead]], while embracing a belief in immortal human [[soul]]s, some Ebionites may have believed [[resurrection of Jesus|Jesus was resurrected]] in a [[spiritual body]], rather than a physical one.{{Sfn|Akers|2000|p=195–197}}{{Sfn|Atkins|2019|p=261}}

===On James the Just===
Some of the Church Fathers argue that the Ebionites revered [[James, brother of Jesus|James the Just, brother of Jesus]] and leader of the [[Early centers of Christianity#Jerusalem|Jerusalem church]], as the true successor to Jesus (rather than [[Saint Peter|Peter]]) and an exemplar of [[righteousness]].<ref name="Eisenman 1998">{{Cite book|author=Robert Eisenman| author-link=Robert Eisenman|title=James the brother of Jesus: the key to unlocking the secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls|pages=36–7, 156, 224, 432, 495, 566, 674, 744, 781, 941|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1998|isbn=0-14-025773-X}}</ref> One of the popular primary connections of the Ebionites to James is that the ''[[Ascents of James]]'' in the [[Pseudo-Clementine]] literature are related to the Ebionites.<ref name="Van Voorst 1989"/> The other popularly proposed connection is that mentioned by [[William Whiston]] in his 1794 edition of [[Josephus]], where he notes that we learn from fragments of [[Hegesippus (chronicler)|Hegesippus]] that the Ebionites interpreted a prophecy of [[Isaiah]] as foretelling the [[James, brother of Jesus#Death|murder of James]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Whiston|first=W.|title=Antiquities|edition=2008|page=594}}</ref>

Scholars, including [[Robert Eisenman]],<ref name="Eisenman 1997 James as successor">{{Cite book|author=Robert Eisenman|author-link=Robert Eisenman|title=James, Brother of Jesus: The key to unlocking the secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls|publisher=Viking|year=1997}} E.g. {{p.|154}}: "As presented by Paul, James is the Leader of the early Church ''par excellence''. Terms like 'Bishop of the Jerusalem Church' or 'Leader of the Jerusalem Community' are of little actual moment at this point, because from the 40s to the 60s CE, when James held sway in Jerusalem, there really were no other centres of any importance." {{p.|156}}: "there can be little doubt that 'the Poor' was the name for James' Community in Jerusalem or that Community descended from it in the East in the next two-three centuries, ''the Ebionites.''"</ref><ref name="Eisenman 2006">{{cite book| author=Robert Eisenman| title=The New Testament Code| pages=[https://archive.org/details/newtestamentcode00robe/page/34 34,145,273]| publisher=Watkins Publishing| year=2006| isbn=978-1-84293-186-8| url=https://archive.org/details/newtestamentcode00robe/page/34|quote-page=34|quote=These {{'}}''Ebionites''{{'}} are also the followers of James ''par excellence'', himself considered (even in early Christian accounts) to be the leader of {{'}}''the Poor''{{'}} or these selfsame {{'}}''Ebionites''<span style="padding-right:.15em;">'</span>}}; {{p.|145}}: "For James 2:5, of course, it is {{'}}{{em|the Poor of this world ({{'}}the Ebionim{{'}} or {{'}}Ebionites{{'}}) whom God chose as Heirs to the Kingdom He promised to those that love Him}}<span style="padding-right:.15em;">'</span>"; {{p.|273}}: "...{{'}}''the Righteous Teacher''{{'}} and those of his followers (called {{'}}''the Poor''{{'}} or {{'}}''Ebionim''{{'}} - in our view, James and his Community, pointedly referred to in the early Church literature, as will by now have become crystal clear, as {{'}}''the Ebionites''{{'}} or {{'}}''the Poor''{{'}})."</ref> {{ill|Pierre-Antoine Bernheim|fr|}},<ref>{{cite book|author=Pierre-Antoine Bernheim|title=James, Brother of Jesus|year=1997 |publisher=SCM Press |isbn=978-0-334-02695-2|url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifeandtimes/stories/2009/2538660.htm|quote=The fact that he became the head of the Jerusalem church is something which is generally accepted.}} From an ABC interview with author.</ref> [[Will Durant]], [[Michael Goulder]],<ref name="Goulder 1995">{{cite book| author=Michael Goulder| title=St. Paul versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions| pages=107–113, 134| publisher=John Knox Press| year=1995| isbn=0-664-25561-2|quote-page=134|quote=So the 'Ebionite' Christology, which we found first described in Irenaeus about 180 is not the invention of the late second century. It was the creed of the Jerusalem Church from early times.}}</ref> [[Gerd Ludemann]],<ref name="Luedemann 1996">{{cite book |first=Gerd |last=Ludemann | author-link=Gerd Ludemann |title=Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity| pages=52–56| publisher=John Knox Press| year=1996| isbn=0-664-22085-1| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHB9gYY_hdsC&q=heretics:+the+other+side+of+early+Christianity+Part+II:+The+Jewish+Christians+of+Jerusalem+after+the+Jewish+War&pg=PA52| access-date=27 March 2011|quote-pages=52–53|quote=Since there is a good century between the end of the Jerusalem community and the writing down of the report quoted above (by Irenaeus), of course reasons must be given why the group of Ebionites should be seen as an offshoot of the Jerusalem community. The following considerations tell in favor of the historical plausibility of this: 1. The name 'Ebionites' might be the term this group used to denote themselves. 2. Hostility to Paul in the Christian sphere before 70 is attested above all in groups which come from Jerusalem. 3. The same is true of observance of the law culminating in circumcision. 4. The direction of prayer towards Jerusalem makes the derivation of the Ebionites from there probable.}} {{p.|56}}: "therefore, it seems that we should conclude that Justin's Jewish Christians are a historical connecting link between the Jewish Christianity of Jerusalem before the year 70 and the Jewish Christian communities summed up in Irenaeus' account of the heretics."</ref> [[John Painter (theologian)|John Painter]]<ref name="Painter 1999 Peter and James as Opponents of Paul">{{cite book| author=John Painter| title=Just James - The Brother of Jesus in History and Tradition| pages=83–102, 229| publisher=Fortress Press| year=1999| isbn=0-8006-3169-2|quote-page=229|quote=A connection between early Jerusalem Christianity (the Hebrews) and the later Ebionites is probable.}}</ref> and [[James Tabor]],<ref name="Tabor 2006"/> argue for some form of continuity of the Jerusalem church into the second and third centuries and that the Ebionites regarded James as their [[Apostolic succession#Apostolic founders|apostolic founder]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Blessing of Africa: The Bible and African Christianity|author=Keith Augustus Burton|publisher=Intervarsity Press|year=2007|pages=116–117|isbn=978-0-8308-2762-6}}</ref><ref name="Dunn 1977">{{Cite book | author = James D. G. Dunn | author-link = James Dunn (theologian) | title = Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: an inquiry into the character of earliest Christianity | publisher = S.C.M. Press | year = 1997 | isbn = 9780334024040}}</ref>

Conservative Christian scholars, such as [[Richard Bauckham]], hold that James and his circle in the early Jerusalem church held a "[[Christology#Development of "low Christology" and "high Christology"|high Christology]]" (i.e. Jesus was a [[angel of the Lord|pre-existent angelic or divine being]]) while the Ebionites held a "[[Christology#Development of "low Christology" and "high Christology"|low Christology]]" (i.e. Jesus was a mere man [[adoptionism|adopted by God]]).<ref>{{cite book|quote=We may now assert quite confidently that the self-consciously low christology of the later Jewish sect known as the Ebionites does not, as has sometimes been asserted, go back to James and his circle in the early Jerusalem church.|contributor=Richard Bauckham|contribution=James and Jesus|author1=Bruce Chilton|author2=Jacob Neusner|title=The brother of Jesus: James the Just and his mission|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|year=2001|pages=100–137, 135}}</ref> As an alternative to the traditional view of [[Eusebius]] that the Jewish Jerusalem church gradually adopted the [[proto-orthodox Christianity|proto-orthodox Christian]] theology of the [[Church of Antioch|Gentile church]], Bauckham and others suggest immediate successors to the Jerusalem church under James and the other relatives of Jesus were the [[Nazarene (sect)|Nazarenes]] who accepted [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] as an "apostle to the Gentiles", while the Ebionites were a later [[schism|schismatic sect]] of the early second century that rejected Paul.<ref name="Bauckham 1996">{{cite journal| author=Richard Bauckham| title=The Relatives of Jesus| pages=18–21| journal=[[Themelios]]|volume=21|issue=2| date=January 1996| url=http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_relatives_bauckham.html| access-date=11 February 2011}} Reproduced in part by permission of the author.</ref><ref name="Bauckham 2003"/>

===On Paul the Apostle===
The Ebionites rejected the [[Pauline epistles|Pauline Epistles]],<ref name="CrossCross2005"/> and, according to Origen, they viewed Paul as an "[[Antinomianism#Supporting Pauline passages|apostate from the Law]]".<ref name="BirdDodson2011">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRkk20VIZS8C&pg=PA164|title=Paul and the Second Century|publisher=A&C Black|year=2011|isbn=978-0-567-15827-7|page=164–}}</ref> The Ebionites may have been spiritual and physical descendants of the "super-[[Apostles in the New Testament|apostle]]s" — talented and respected Jewish Christian [[Minister (Christianity)|ministers]] in favour of [[Circumcision controversy in early Christianity|mandatory circumcision of converts]] — who sought to undermine Paul in [[Galatia]] and [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]].<ref name="Ehrman 2014">{{Cite book|first= Bart D. |last=Ehrman | author-link= Bart D. Ehrman |title= How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee|publisher= HarperOne|year= 2014|isbn= 978-0-06-177818-6}}</ref>

Epiphanius relates that the Ebionites opposed Paul, who they saw as responsible for the idea that [[Gentile Christians]] did not have to be [[Circumcision|circumcised]] or follow the [[Law of Moses]], and named him an [[apostasy in Judaism|apostate from Judaism]].<ref name="Irenaeus"/> Epiphanius further relates that some Ebionites alleged that Paul was a Greek who [[Conversion to Judaism|converted to Judaism]] in order to marry the daughter of a [[High Priest of Israel]], but apostatized when she rejected him.<ref>"[The Ebionites] declare that he was a Greek [...] He went up to Jerusalem, they say, and when he had spent some time there, he was seized with a passion to marry the daughter of the priest. For this reason he became a proselyte and was circumcised. Then, when he failed to get the girl, he flew into a rage and wrote against circumcision and against the sabbath and the Law." Epiphanius of Salamis, ''Panarion'' 30.16.6–9</ref><ref name="Luomanen 2007"/>{{rp|p=88}}