The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ebionite \E"bi*o*nite\, n. [Heb. ebyon[=i]m poor people.] (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect of heretics, in the first centuries of the church, whose doctrine was a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. They denied the divinity of Christ, regarding him as an inspired messenger, and rejected much of the New Testament.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-15c., sect (1c.-2c.) that held Jesus was a mere man and Christians continued bound by Mosaic Law, from Latin ebonita, from Hebrew ebyon "the poor." The reason it was so called is uncertain. Related: Ebionism; Ebionitic.
Usage examples of "ebionite".
Often the martyr was regarded as an apostate by his brethren, and the Carpocratian Christian expired beneath the sword of the Roman executioners, excommunicated by the Ebionite Christian, the which Ebionite was anathema to the Sabellian.
The grovelling Ebionite, and the fantastic Docetes, were rejected and forgotten: the recent zeal against the errors of Apollinaris reduced the Catholics to a seeming agreement with the double nature of Cerinthus.
The grovelling Ebionite, and the fantastic Docetes, were rejected and forgotten: the recent zeal against the errors of Apollinaris reduced the Catholics to a seeming agreement with the double nature of Cerinthus.
The unfortunate Ebionites, rejected from one religion as apostates, and from the other as heretics, found themselves compelled to assume a more decided character.
A laudable regard for the honor of the first proselyte has countenanced the belief, the hope, the wish, that the Ebionites, or at least the Nazarenes, were distinguished only by their obstinate perseverance in the practice of the Mosaic rites.
Barnabus, and which had been started as early as the time of Irenaeus, by some Ebionite heretics, (Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, tom.
The former by some are considered the Nazarenes the atter the Ebionites - G and M.