Ebionites (Greek: Ἐβιωναῖοι, translit. Ebiōnaîoi, derived from Hebrew אֶבְיוֹנִים‎,[1] ʾEḇyōnīm, meaning 'the poor' or 'poor ones') as a term refers to a Jewish Christian sect, which viewed poverty as a blessing, that existed during the early centuries of the Common Era.
Beyond voluntary poverty, the Ebionites were said to practice religious vegetarianism and ritual bathing. They insisted on the necessity of following the Written Law and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount; used one, some or all of the Jewish–Christian gospels, such as the Gospel of the Ebionites, as additional scripture to the Hebrew Bible; and revered James the Just as an exemplar of righteousness and the true successor to Jesus (rather than Peter), while rejecting Paul as a false apostle and an apostate from the Law.

Beyond voluntary poverty, the Ebionites were said to practice religious vegetarianism and ritual bathing. They insisted on the necessity of following the Written Law and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount; used one, some or all of the Jewish–Christian gospels, such as the Gospel of the Ebionites, as additional scripture to the Hebrew Bible; and revered James the Just as an exemplar of righteousness and the true successor to Jesus (rather than Peter), while rejecting Paul as a false apostle and an apostate from the Law.

Heresy controversy
Since historical records by the Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and disputed, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the Church Fathers who saw certain Jewish Christians as Ebionites and confused different groups in their polemics whom they labeled heretical "Judaizers". Consequently, very little about the Ebionite sect or sects is known with certainty, and most, if not all, statements about them are speculative. The Church Fathers consider the Ebionites identical with other Jewish Christian sects, such as the Nazarenes.
Among modern scholars, Robert Eisenman suggests that the Ebionites revered James the Just, brother of Jesus and leader of the Jerusalem church, as the true successor to Jesus (rather than Peter) and an exemplar of righteousness, and therefore they followed the permanent Nazirite vow that James had taken.

On Paul the Apostle
The Ebionites rejected the Pauline Epistles,[3] and according to Origen they viewed Paul as an "apostate from the law". The Ebionites may have been spiritual and physical descendants of the "super-apostles" — talented and respected Jewish Christian ministers in favour of mandatory circumcision of converts — who sought to undermine Paul in Galatia and Corinth.
Epiphanius relates that the Ebionites opposed Paul, who they saw as responsible for the idea that Gentile Christians did not have to be circumcised or follow the Law of Moses, and named him an apostate.[20] Epiphanius further relates that some Ebionites alleged that Paul was a Greek who converted to Judaism in order to marry the daughter of a high priest of Israel, but apostatized when she rejected him

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