Early Jewish-Christian sect (second to fifth centuries) that retained substantial Mosaic-law observance and denied the deity of Christ and the virgin birth, treating Jesus as a righteous human Messiah but not as the eternal Son of God incarnate. The name Ebionim (from Hebrew ebyonim, poor ones) was the sect's self-designation, possibly originating in their voluntary poverty or in their reading of Matthew 5:3 (blessed are the poor in spirit) and similar passages. The Ebionites are described by early Christian writers (Irenaeus, Against Heresies I.26; Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ; Origen; Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History III.27); the principal distinctives reported include: (1) full retention of the Mosaic law including circumcision, Sabbath, kosher laws, and Jewish-festival observance for Christian believers; (2) denial of the deity of Christ; treating Jesus as a righteous man born naturally to Joseph and Mary who was anointed as Messiah at His baptism; (3) denial of the virgin birth; (4) rejection of Paul's apostolic authority and writings (the Ebionites regarded Paul as an apostate from the Mosaic law); (5) use of a Hebrew or Aramaic gospel (often called the Gospel of the Ebionites) that closely resembled Matthew but lacked the infancy narratives. The orthodox Christian response: the Ebionite position is an early form of adoptionism (Christ as adopted at baptism rather than eternally Son), Judaizing (requiring Mosaic-law observance contrary to the apostolic gospel of justification by faith apart from works of the law, Galatians; Acts 15), and substantively heretical. The patriarchal-Reformed reader engages Ebionism as a historic example of the Jewish-Christian boundary that the Pauline gospel decisively resolved.