Ebionism and Ebionites. The name Ebionite first occurs in Irenaeus
(c. 180-190). It was repeated, probably from him, by Hippolytus (c. 225-235) and Origen († 254), who first introduced an explanation of the name. Others offered different explanations (e.g. Eus. † c. 340); while other writers fabricated a leader, "Ebion," after whom the sect was called (cf. Philastrius, Pseudo-Tertullian, Pseudo-Jerome, Isidore of Spain, etc.).
These explanations owe their origin to the tendency to carry back Ebionism, or
the date of its founder, as far as possible. Thus the "Ebionite" was (according
to his own statement) the "poor" man (אֶבְיוֹן), he who voluntarily strove to practise the Master's precept (Matt. x. 9) in Apostolic times (Acts iv. 34-37; cf. Epiphanius, Haer. xxx. c. 17); and the correctness of the etymology is not shaken by the Patristic scorn which derived the name from "poverty of intellect," or from "low and mean opinions of Christ " (see Eus. H. E. iii. 27; Origen, de Princ., and contr. Cel. ii. c. 4; Ignat., Ep. ad Philadelph. c. 6, longer recension). "Ebion," first personified by Tertullian, was said to have been a pupil of Cerinthus, and the Gospel of St. John to have been directed against them both. St. Paul and St. Luke were asserted to have spoken and written against Ebionites. The "Apostolical
Constitutions" (vi. c. 6) traced them back to Apostolic
times; Theodoret (Haer. Fab. ii. c. 2) assigned them to the reign of Domitian
( 81-96). The existence of an "Ebion" is, however, now surrendered. Ebionism, like Gnosticism, had no special founder; but that its birthplace was the Holy Land, and its existence contemporary with the beginning of the Christian Church, is, with certain reservations, probably correct. A tendency to Ebionism existed from the first; gradually it assumed shape, and as gradually developed into the two special forms presently to be noticed.
The records of the church of Jerusalem contained in Acts prove how strong was
the zeal for the Law of Moses among the Jewish converts to Christianity. After the fall of Jerusalem ( 70), the church was formed at Pella under Symeon, and the Jewish Christians were brought face to face with two leading facts: firstly, that the temple being destroyed, and the observance of the Law and its ordinances possible only in part, there was valid reason for doubting the necessity of retaining the rest; secondly, that if they adopted this view, they must expect to find in the Jews their most uncompromising enemies. As Christians they had expected a judgment predicted by Christ, and, following His advice, had fled from the city. Both prediction and act were resented by the Jews, as is shewn not only by the contemptuous term (Minim) they applied to the Jewish Christians (Grätz, Gesch. d. Juden. iv. p. 89, etc.), but by the share they took in the death of the aged bp. Symeon ( 106). The breach was further widened by the refusal of the Jewish Christians to take part in the national struggles—notably that of Bar-Cocheba ( 132)—against the Romans, by the tortures they suffered for their refusal, and lastly, by the erection of Aelia Capitolina ( 138) on the ruins of Jerusalem. The Jews were forbidden to enter it, while the Jewish and Gentile Christians who crowded there read in Hadrian's imperial decree the abolition of the most distinctively Jewish rites, and practically signified their assent by electing as their bishop a Gentile and uncircumcised man—Mark (Eus. H. E. iv. 6). Changes hitherto working gradually now rapidly developed. Jewish Christians, with predilections for Gentile Christianity and its comparative freedom, found the way made clear to them; others, attempting to be both Jews and Christians, ended in being neither, and exposed themselves to the contempt of Rabbin as well as Christian (Grätz, p. 433); others receded farther from Christianity, and approximated more and more closely to pure Judaism. The Ebionites are to be ranked among the last. By the time of Trajan (96-117) political events had given them a definite organization, and their position as a sect opposed to Gentile Christianity became fixed by the acts which culminated in the erection of Aelia Capitolina.