tern Church
Fathers.]

[Footnote 423: See Orig. c. Cels II. 1; V. 61, 65; de princip. IV. 22;
hom. in Genes. III. 15 (Opp. II. p. 65); hom. in Jerem XVII. 12 (III. p.
254); in Matth. T. XVI. 12 (III. p. 494), T. XVII. 12 (III. p. 733); cf.
Opp. III. p. 895; hom in XVII. (III. p. 952). That a portion of the
Ebionites recognised the birth from the Virgin was according to Origen
frequently attested. That was partly reckoned to them for righteousness
and partly not, because they would not admit the pre-existence of
Christ. The name "Ebionites" is interpreted as a nickname given them by
the Church ("beggarly" in the knowledge of scripture, and particularly
of Christology).]

[Footnote 424: Eusebius knows no more than Origen (H. E. III. 27),
unless we specially credit him with the information that the Ebionites
keep along with the Sabbath also the Sunday. What he says of Symmachus,
the translator of the Bible, and an Ebionite, is derived from Origen (H.
E. VI. 17). The report is interesting, because it declares that
Symmachus _wrote_ against Catholic Christianity, especially against the
Catholic Gospel of Matthew (about the year 200). But Symmachus is to be
classed with the Gnostics, and not with the common type of Jewish
Christianity (see below). We have also to thank Eusebius (H. E. III. 5.
3) for the information that the Christians of Jerusalem fled to Pella,
in Peraea, before the destruction of that city. In the following period
the most important settlements of the Ebionites must have been in the
countries east of the Jordan, and in the heart of Syria (see Jul. Afric.
in Euseb. H. E. I. 7. 14; Euseb. de loc. hebr. in Lagarde, Onomast p.
301; Epiph., h. 29. 7; h. 30. 2). This fact explains how the bishops in
Jerusalem and the coast towns of Palestine came to see very little of
them. There was a Jewish Christian community in Beroea with which Jerome
had relations (Jerom., de Vir inl 3).]

[Footnote 425: Jerome correctly declares (Ep. ad. August. 122 c. 13,
Opp. I. p. 746), "(Ebionitae) credentes in Christo propter hoc solum a
patribus anathematizati sunt, quod legis caeremonias Christi evangelio
miscuerunt, et sic nova confessi sunt, ut vetera non omitterent."]

[Footnote 426: Ep. ad August. l. c.: "Quid dicam de Hebionitis, qui
Christianos esse se simulant? usque hodie per totas orientis synagogas
inter Judaeos(!) haeresis est, que dicitur Minaeorum et a Pharisaeis nunc
usque damnatur, quos vulgo Nazaraeos nuncupant,