The Ebionites were an early Jewish-Christian sect, concentrated especially in Transjordan, Syria and Egypt. The name is a Graecized form of the Hebrew haʾ ebyonim, ‘the poor’, a title used by the Qumran community (1QM 11.9.13; 13.13f.; 1QH 5.22; 1QpHab 12.3. 6.10) and by some of the Jerusalem believers in apostolic times (Gal. 2:10). The Ebionites were legalistic ascetics who espoused poverty and practised vegetarianism, equating economic frailty with spiritual blessing (cf. Lk. 6:20).
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