in church-history, heretics of the first century, so called from their leader Ebion.

They held the same errors with the Nazarenes, united the ceremony of the Mosaic institution with the precepts of the gospel, observed both the Jewish Sabbath and Christian Sunday, and, in celebrating the eucharist made use of unleavened bread. They abstained from the flesh of animals, and even from milk. In relation to Jesus Christ, some of them held, that he was born like other men, of Joseph and Mary, and acquired sanctification only by his good works. Others of them allowed, that he was born of a virgin, but denied that he was the Word of God, or had any existence before his human generation. They said, he was indeed the only true Prophet; but yet a mere man, who, by his virtue, had arrived at being called Christ, and the Son of God. They also supposed, that Christ and the devil were two principles, which God had opposed to each other. Of the New Testament they only received the gospel of St Matthew, which they called the gospel according to the Hebrews.