Ebionites

Ebionites (Ancient Greek: Ἐβιωναῖοι, romanized: Ebiōnaîoi, derived from the Hebrew word אֶבְיוֹנִים, ʾEḇyōnīm, meaning 'the poor' or 'poor ones') were an adoptionist Mosaic Law-observant Jewish-Christian movement that existed in and around Transjordan during the early centuries of the Common Era. Since original writings by Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and contested, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the polemical reports by their proto-orthodox and later orthodox Christian opponents, the Church Fathers (Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, and Epiphanius of Salamis), who generally portrayed Ebionites as a "heretical" sect doctrinally distinct from other so-called "judaizing" Jewish-Christian sects, such as the Nazarenes.

Most Church Fathers characterize Ebionites as holding a functional adoptionist Christology that rejects the claim that Jesus was a divine being (God the Son) at any stage of his earthly life, whether before (pre-existence), during (incarnation), or after it (exaltation), and instead presents him as a righteous human being who, through faithful observance of the Law of Moses, was adopted by God at his baptism to fulfill the role of prophet and Jewish Messiah. Condemning Paul as a false apostle and an apostate from the Law, Ebionites are said to have used an abridged Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew, or one of the Jewish-Christian gospels, as their only additional scripture alongside the Hebrew Bible, and to have maintained faithful observance of the commandments of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants as binding on all followers of Jesus, with an emphasis on his authoritative teachings on the Law.

Some patristic heresiologists recognize variations in Christology among Ebionites: a majority did not believe Jesus was born of a virgin, affirming he was the natural son of Joseph and Mary, while a minority believed in the virgin birth, with both groups rejecting belief in the divinity of Jesus. Epiphanius is the only Church Father who claims Ebionites held a separationist "angelic possession" Christology, opposed animal sacrifice and embraced vegetarianism. Some modern commentators regard many of Epiphanius’ additional details as unreliable, so the theological diversity among Ebionites he describes cannot be taken at face value.

Critical scholars judge that the Church Fathers' condemnation of Ebionites as "heretics" reflects the inherently biased perspective of Christian heresiographies. Some scholars argue that core Ebionite beliefs rooted in late Second Temple Judaism, particularly the emphasis on covenant faithfulness and the expectation of a fully human Messiah in the mold of a "prophet like Moses", may reflect traditions inherited directly from the early Jerusalem church, led by James the Just, brother of Jesus, and possibly from the historical Jesus himself.