[ad. L. ebionita, f. Heb. ebyōn poor; see -ITE. The original signification is prob. ‘one who is poor in spirit.’]
One of a body of Christians in the 1st c., who held that Jesus was a mere man, and that the Mosaic Law was binding upon Christians. In the 2nd c. they became a distinct sect. Also attrib.
1650. Gell, Serm., 11. Ebionites, who denied the Deitie of Christ.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, II. 103, note. It is astonishing to find Ebionite hatred still burning against St. Paul in the second century. Ibid. (1882), Early Chr., II. 343.
Hence Ebionitic a., pertaining to the Ebionites, or their doctrines; Ebionitism = EBIONISM.
1833. G. S. Faber, Recapitulated Apostasy, 18. The early Gnostic and Ebionitic Heresies.
1882. Schaff, Relig. Encycl., 106. It … shows traces of Ebionitic origin.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 44. The so-called Ebionitism of St. James.
