In opening his letter to Galatians, Paul states that he was sent not by any human force but by Jesus Christ and the God that resurrected him. Paul felt that he was given the gospel for the gentiles and the mission to carry the message to them. He was of the strong opinion that the gentiles need not follow Jewish law in order to be Christian. In fact, he recommended that they did not. Only Jesus was needed for salvation – for if salvation could be reached through law, Jesus died without reason. If one was following the law they were not recognizing the sacrifice of Christ and were not likely to be in right standing with God.

In contrast, the Ebionites rejected Paul’s writings and continued to follow Jewish law alongside Christian teachings. They also carried a rather different view of who Jesus was. They did not believe that Jesus existed before his earthly birth. They held to the belief that Jesus was born as a product of sexual intercourse, and not a product of a virgin birth. He was fully human. It was only through his perfect upholding of the Jewish law that he was chosen by God and adopted as His son. He was the most righteous man to ever exist, and so God trusted him with a very important mission – to sacrifice himself to crucifixion and death for the sake of humanity. In reward, God resurrected him and ascended him to the holy kingdom. Because this was the sacrifice that was greater than all others, no further sacrifices were believed to be necessary. The Ebionites abstained from sacrifice and the meat it produced. Because of the times, this meant they had to abstain from meat altogether as it was almost always a product of ritual.

These beliefs and practices were not entirely in line with the scripture. The Ebionites used the Gospel of Matthew, but translated it to Aramaic. During this process, they also made a few convenient changes to the text. Most obviously, they excluded the first two chapters entirely. These chapters detail the virgin birth and were not part of their particular set of beliefs. On a smaller scale, they changed the locusts consumed by John the Baptist into pancakes to keep in line with their abstaining from meat. Differences in the spoken words were in Matthew, Mark and Luke were also rectified by simply having all three versions of the narrative occur in the same scene at different moments.

Proto-orthodox writers objected to the supposedly heretical practices and beliefs of the Ebionites. Their take on Jesus was likely one of the largest contributors to the uproar. A human Jesus undermined all that proto-orthodoxy preached about the savior. If he was simply human, than anyone was capable of gaining such power. Also the refusal of the Ebionites to partake in ritual sacrifices while still following Jewish law likely outcast them somewhat from both sides of the debate. This alienation could have created an environment where verbal attacks could gain momentum quickly due to lack of interaction with other groups. The more disconnected a minority group becomes the harder it is to separate truth from falsehood. No defenders, few witnesses, little credibility.

In the Letters of Peter to James, Peter states that some have been lost to a “lawless and absurd doctrine of a man who is my enemy”. This man is of course our apostle Paul. Peter wants to make sure that the writings are released only to those that prove trustworthy. James, in response, calls together the elders of the church and makes a plan – six years before someone can be deemed trustworthy to be exact. Failure to remain trustworthy leads to eternal suffering. In the Pseudo-Celement Homilies, there is a debate between Peter and Simon. Simon appears to be but a helpful illusion in this case, more likely referencing Paul. Simon claims that only the just see true visions, but Peter asks why a just man would be in need of such a vision. They go back and forth like this for some time, despite Simon’s attempt to drop the subject – which appeared to me as a way to make his argument look weak. Peter goes on to give several examples of those who were anything but just receiving true visions. He attacks Simon for claiming that he has become an apostle in an hour and is capable of knowing more than Peter who stands as a stronghold in the church. This arguments reinforces the idea that Peter is stable and knowledgeable, while Paul’s ideas are corrupt and not to be trusted.