Ebionite

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Ἐβιωναῖοι (Ebiōnaîoi), from Hebrew אביונים (Ebyonim, “the Poor Ones”), plural of Hebrew אֶבְיוֹן (ʾeḇyōn, “needy, poor”), itself likely a borrowing from Coptic ⲉⲃⲓⲏⲛ (ebiēn, “poor”).

Noun

Ebionite (plural Ebionites)

1. (historical) A member of an early Jewish Christian sect that lived in and around Judea and Palestine from the 1st to the 4th century.
   • 1798, David Simpson, An Apology for the Doctrine of the Trinity, page 504:

     And if the pious bishop and martyr, St. Irenaeus, happen to drop any thing pointed against the Doctor's progenitors, the ancient Ebionites, of heretical memory, he gently passes it over as though no such passages occurred in that learned and venerable Father's writings.

   • 1829, London Encyclopaedia:

     EBION, the author of the heresy of the Ebionites, was a disciple of Cerinthus and his successor.

   • 1896, Joseph Barber Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, page 52:

     The passage was so taken by the Jewish or Ebionite translators, Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus.

   • 2000, Keith Akers, chapter 2, in The lost religion of Jesus: simple living and nonviolence in early Christianity, New York, NY: Lantern Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 27:

     * Jesus teaches vegetarianism. Epiphanius describes the Ebionites as vegetarians, and in the Recognitions and Homilies vegetarianism is strongly connected to the rejection of animal sacrifice and is required of all the followers of Jesus. When Epiphanius questions a Jewish Christian as to why he was a vegetarian, the Jewish Christian responds simply: “Christ revealed it to me” (Panarion 30.18.9).

Derived terms

• neo-Ebionite

Related terms

• Ebionize