Epiphanius of Salamis

Most of what is known about Ebionites and other groups of Jewish believers comes from heresiological surveys in the church fathers, beginning with Irenaeus in the late 180s CE. The stereotyped character of those sources requires caution: they arrange theological opponents more than they describe living communities with neutrality.1

Skarsaune proposes that 'Ebionites' goes back to ebionim, 'poor', a biblical honorific for the persecuted chosen by God (as in the Qumran pesher on Psalm 37, edat ha-ebionim). An honorific name is likely a self-designation, not a label invented only by the Fathers.2

Ancient Christian and Jewish sources mention 'Nazarenes' / 'Nazoraeans' (and related terms) as a designation for Jews linked to Jesus. Modern reconstruction depends on Irenaeus, Origen, Epiphanius, Jerome and others, with gaps and polemics; the disappearance of the name in the fourth century does not prove the end of all Jewish believers.3

Epiphanius gives a firsthand account of meeting, at Scythopolis (Beth Shean) around 355 CE, Joseph of Tiberias, a prominent Jew converted to Christianity, then at least seventy years old and holding the rank of 'count'. In a city dominated by the Arian bishop Patrophilus, Joseph was the only public Nicene Christian; there was also a younger Jewish believer who visited him secretly. Skarsaune stresses that Epiphanius is unsurprised by Jewish believers with 'orthodox' Christology integrated into mixed churches.4