But others the evil demon, being unable to shake them from their disposition toward the Christ of God, found vulnerable on another side and made his own. The first men fittingly called these the Ebionites, since they held poor and lowly opinions concerning Christ.
For they regarded him as plain and common, a mere man justified only by his progress in character, and born from the union of a man with Mary; and they held that they must by all means observe the worship of the Law, as though they could not be saved by faith in Christ alone and by a life in accordance with it.
But others besides these, bearing the same name, escaped the outlandish absurdity of the views just mentioned, not denying that the Lord came into being from a virgin and the Holy Spirit; yet since they likewise did not confess that he pre-existed, being God the Logos and Wisdom, they were turned aside into the impiety of the former group, especially when they were zealous to observe, like them, the bodily worship of the Law.
And these held that all the epistles of the apostle must be rejected, calling him an apostate from the Law; and using only the Gospel called according to the Hebrews, they made little account of the rest.
And they observed the sabbath and the rest of the Jewish manner of life like the former group; yet, on the other hand, on the Lord's days they performed observances similar to ours in memory of the Lord's resurrection.
Hence, in consequence of such practice, they have acquired this very name, that of the Ebionites, which hints at the poverty of their understanding; for by this name the poor man is designated among the Hebrews.