ancient heretics, who rose in the church in the first ages, and formed themselves into a sect in the second century, denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. Ebionites. Origen takes them to have been so called from the Hebrew word ebion, which in that language signifies poor; because, says he, they were poor in sense, and wanted understanding. Eusebius, with a view to the same etymology, is of opinion they were thus called, as having poor thoughts of Jesus Christ, taking him for no more than a mere man.
It is more probable the Jews gave this appellation to the Christians in general out of contempt; because in the first times there were few but poor people that embraced the Christian religion. This opinion Origen himself seems to give into, in his book against Celsus, where he says that they called Ebionites, such among the Jews as believed that Jesus was truly the expected Messiah.
It might even be urged, with some probability, that the primitive Christians assumed the name themselves, in conformity to their profession. It is certain, Epiphanius observes, they valued themselves on being poor, in imitation of the apostles. The same Epiphanius, however, is of opinion, that there had been a man of the name of EBION, the chief and founder of the sect of Ebionites, contemporary with the Nazarenes and Cerinthians. He gives a long and exact account of the origin of the Ebionites, making them to have risen after the destruction of Jerusalem, when the first Christians, called Nazarenes, went out of the same to live at Pella.
The Ebionites were little else than a branch of Nazarenes: only that they altered and corrupted in many things the purity of the faith held among those first adherents to Christianity. For this reason Origen distinguishes two kinds of Ebionites, in his answer to Celsus; the one believed that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin; and the other, that he was born after the manner of other men.
The first were orthodox in every thing, except that to the Christian doctrine they joined the ceremonies of the Jewish law, with the Jews, Samaritans, and Nazarenes; together with the traditions of the Pharisees. They differed from the Nazarenes, however, in several things, chiefly as to what regards the authority of the sacred writings; for the Nazarenes received all for Scripture contained in the Jewish canon; whereas the Ebionites rejected all the prophets, and held the very names of David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, in abhorrence. They also rejected all St Paul's epistles, whom they treated with the utmost disrespect.
They received nothing of the Old Testament but the Pentateuch; which should intimate them to have defended rather from the Samaritans than from the Jews. They agreed with the Nazarenes in using the Hebrew gospel of St Matthew, otherwise called the Gospel of the Twelve Apostles; but they had corrupted their copy in abundance of places; and particularly, had left out the genealogy of our Saviour, which was preserved entire in that of the Nazarenes, and even in those used by the Cerinthians.
Some, however, have made this gospel canonical, and of greater value than our present Greek gospel of St Matthew: See NAZARENES. These last, whose sentiments, as to the birth of our Saviour, were the same with those of the Ebionites, built their error on this very genealogy.
Besides the Hebrew gospel of St Matthew, the Ebionites had adopted several other books, under the names of St James, John, and the other apostles: they also made use of the Travels of St Peter, which are supposed to have been written by St Clement; but had altered them so, that there was scarce any thing of truth left in them. They even made that faint tell a number of falsehoods, the better to authorise their own practices. See St Epiphanius, who is very diffusive on the ancient heresy of the Ebionites, Her. 30. But his account deserves little credit, as, by his own confession, he has confounded the other sects with the Ebionites, and has charged them with errors to which the first adherents of this sect were utter strangers.
EBONY of Crete. See EBENUS, BOTANY Index.
EBONY Wood is brought from the Indies, exceedingly hard and heavy, susceptible of a very fine polish, and on that account used in mosaic and inlaid works, toys, &c. There are divers kinds of ebony; the most usual among us are black, red, and green, all of them the product of the island of Madagascar, where the natives call them differently hazon mainiti, q. d. black wood. The island of St Maurice, belonging to the Dutch, likewise furnishes part of the ebonies used in Europe.
Authors and travellers give very different accounts of the tree that yields the black ebony. By some of their descriptions, it should be a sort of palm tree; by others a cytius, &c. The most authentic of them is that of M. Falcourt, who resided many years in Madagascar as governor thereof; he assures us, that it grows very high and big, its bark being black, and its leaves resembling those of our myrtle, of a deep dusky green colour.
Tavernier assures us, that the islanders always take care to bury their trees when cut down, to make them the blacker, and to prevent their splitting when wrought. F. Plumier mentions another black ebony tree, discovered by him at St Domingo, which he calls Spartium portulace foliis aculeatum ebeni materiae. Candia also bears a little shrub, known to the botanists under the name of EBENUS Cretica, above described.
Pliny and Dioscorides say the best ebony comes from Ethiopia, and the worst from India; but Theophrastus prefers that of India. Black ebony is much preferred to that of other colours. The best is a jet black, free of veins and rind, very massive, astringent, and of an acid pungent taste. Its rind, infused in water, is said to purge putrida, and cure venereal disorders; whence Matthiolus took guaiacum for a sort of ebony. It yields an agreeable perfume when laid on burning coals; when green, it readily takes fire from the abundance of its fat. If rubbed against a stone, it becomes brown. The Indians make statues of their gods, and sceptres for their princes, of this wood. It was first brought to Rome by Pompey, after he subdued Mithridates. It is now much less used among us than anciently, since the discovery of so many ways of giving other hard woods a black colour.
As to the green ebony, besides Madagascar and St Maurice, it likewise grows in the Antilles, and especially in the isle of Tobago. The tree that yields it is very bushy; its leaves are smooth, and of a fine green colour. Beneath its bark is a white blea, about two inches thick; all beneath which, to the very heart, is a deep green, approaching towards a black, though sometimes streaked with yellow veins. Its use is not confined confined to mosaic work: it is likewise good in dyeing, as yielding a fine green tincture. As to red ebony, called also grenadilla, we know little of it more than the name.
The cabinet-makers, inlayers, &c. make pear tree and other woods pass for ebony, by giving them the black colour thereof. This some do by a few washes of a hot decoction of galls; and when dry, adding writing ink thereon, and polishing it with a stiff brush, and a little hot wax; and others heat or burn their wood black.