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Christ coming upon him from above in the form of a dove. But they do not say that he was begotten of God the Father, but created as one of the archangels and even more so, and that he rules over both angels and all things made by the Almighty, and having come and taught *, as their so-called gospel contains, that "I came to abolish the sacrifices, and if you do not cease from sacrificing, the wrath will not cease from you." And these and certain things like them are their deceitful inventions. They also call other acts of the apostles, in which there are many things full of impiety, from which they have not incidentally armed themselves against the truth. And they put forward certain Ascents and teachings supposedly in the Ascents1.355 of James, as him explaining against both the temple and the sacrifices, and against the fire on the altar and many other things full of empty talk; so that here they also accuse Paul and are not ashamed with certain fictitious words made by the malice and error of their own false apostles, saying that he was from Tarsus, as he himself confesses and does not deny, but they suppose him to be from the Greeks, taking the pretext from the place because of what was truthfully said by him, "I am a man of Tarsus, a citizen of no insignificant city." Then they say that he was a Greek and the child of a Greek mother and a Greek father, and that he had gone up to Jerusalem and had remained there for a time, and had desired to take the daughter of the priest in marriage and for this reason became a proselyte and was circumcised, and having no longer taken such a girl, he was enraged and wrote against circumcision and against the Sabbath and the law. 17. But in every way this terrible serpent, poor in understanding, slanders. For Ebion has from the Hebrew into the Greek language the interpretation "poor." For truly poor in both understanding and hope and deed is he who considered Christ a mere man1.356 and so in poverty of faith possessed hope concerning him. But they supposedly pride themselves, calling themselves poor because, they say, in the times of the apostles they sold their own possessions and laid them at the apostles' feet and had turned to poverty and renunciation; and for this reason, he says, they are called by all "the poor." But this is not true among them either, but in fact by nature he was called Ebion, according to prophecy, I think, the poor and wretched one having been allotted the name from his father and his mother. But how many other terrible and falsified things, full of wickedness, are kept among them? For whenever one of them falls ill or is bitten by a reptile, he goes down into the waters and invokes the names in Elxai of the heaven and the earth, of the salt and the water, of the winds and the angels of righteousness, as they say, and of the bread and the oil, and he begins to say, "Help me and deliver me from the pain." And it has already been made clear by me above that Ebion did not know these things, but after a time those from him who joined with Elxai had the circumcision of Ebion and the Sabbath and the customs, but the fantasy of Elxai, so as to believe Christ to be a certain man-like figure, invisible to men,1.357 ninety-six miles in length, supposedly twenty-four schoeni, and the width six schoeni, twenty-four miles, and the thickness according to some other measurement. And that opposite him stands the Holy Spirit also, in the form of a female, invisibly, and it of the same measure. "And from where," he says, "did I know the measures? Because," he says, "I saw from the mountains that their heads reached them, and having learned the measure of the mountain, I knew the measures of both Christ and of the Holy Spirit." And concerning these things it has already been said by me in the heresy against the Ossaeans. But now I have done these things in a digression, so that not the things that are with each nation and heresy,

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ἄνωθεν εἰς αὐτὸν ἥκοντος Χριστοῦ ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς. οὐ φάσκουσι δὲ ἐκ θεοῦ πατρὸς αὐτὸν γεγεννῆσθαι, ἀλλὰ κεκτίσθαι ὡς ἕνα τῶν ἀρχαγγέλων καὶ ἔτι περισσοτέρως, αὐτὸν δὲ κυριεύειν καὶ ἀγγέλων καὶ πάντων τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ παντοκράτορος πεποιημένων, καὶ ἐλθόντα καὶ ὑφηγησάμενον *, ὡς τὸ παρ' αὐτοῖς εὐαγγέλιον καλούμενον περιέχει, ὅτι «ἦλθον καταλῦσαι τὰς θυσίας, καὶ ἐὰν μὴ παύσησθε τοῦ θύειν, οὐ παύσεται ἀφ' ὑμῶν ἡ ὀργή». καὶ ταῦτα καὶ τοιαῦτά τινά ἐστι τὰ παρ' αὐτοῖς δόλια ἐπινοήματα. Πράξεις δὲ ἄλλας καλοῦσιν ἀποστόλων, ἐν αἷς πολλὰ τῆς ἀσεβείας ἔμπλεα, ἔνθεν οὐ παρέργως κατὰ τῆς ἀληθείας ἑαυτοὺς ὥπλισαν. Ἀναβαθμοὺς δέ τινας καὶ ὑφηγήσεις δῆθεν ἐν τοῖς Ἀνα1.355 βαθμοῖς Ἰακώβου ὑποτίθενται, ὡς ἐξηγουμένου κατά τε τοῦ ναοῦ καὶ τῶν θυσιῶν, κατά τε τοῦ πυρὸς τοῦ ἐν τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ κενοφωνίας ἔμπλεα· ὡς καὶ τοῦ Παύλου ἐνταῦθα κατηγοροῦντες οὐκ αἰσχύνονται ἐπιπλάστοις τισὶ τῆς τῶν ψευδαποστόλων αὐτῶν κακουργίας καὶ πλάνης λόγοις πεποιημένοις, Ταρσέα μὲν αὐτόν, ὡς αὐτὸς ὁμολογεῖ καὶ οὐκ ἀρνεῖται, λέγοντες, ἐξ Ἑλλήνων δὲ αὐτὸν ὑποτίθενται, λαβόντες τὴν πρόφασιν ἐκ τοῦ τόπου διὰ τὸ φιλαλήθως ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ῥηθὲν ὅτι «Ταρσεύς εἰμι, οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως πολίτης». εἶτα φάσκουσιν αὐτὸν εἶναι Ἕλληνα καὶ Ἑλληνίδος μητρὸς καὶ Ἕλληνοςπατρὸς παῖδα, ἀναβεβηκέναι δὲ εἰς τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ χρόνον ἐκεῖ μεμενηκέναι, ἐπιτεθυμηκέναι δὲ θυγατέρα τοῦ ἱερέως πρὸς γάμον ἀγαγέσθαι καὶ τούτου ἕνεκα προσήλυτον γενέσθαι καὶ περιτμηθῆναι, καὶ μηκέτι λαβόντα τὴν τοιαύτην κόρην ὠργίσθαι καὶ κατὰ περιτομῆς γεγραφέναι καὶ κατὰ σαββάτου καὶ νομοθεσίας. 17. Ἀλλὰ κατὰ πάντα τρόπον συκοφαντεῖ ὁ δεινὸς οὗτος ὄφις καὶ πτωχὸς τῇ διανοίᾳ. Ἐβίων γὰρ ἔχει ἀπὸ Ἑβραϊκῆς εἰς Ἑλλάδαφωνὴν τὴν ἑρμηνείαν πτωχός. πτωχὸς γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς καὶ τῇ διανοίᾳ καὶ τῇ ἐλπίδι καὶ τῷ ἔργῳ ὁ Χριστὸν ἄνθρωπον ψιλὸν νο1.356 μίσας καὶ οὕτως ἐν πτωχείᾳ πίστεως τὴν ἐλπίδα περὶ αὐτοῦ κεκτημένος. αὐτοὶ δὲ δῆθεν σεμνύνονται ἑαυτοὺς φάσκοντες πτωχοὺς διὰ τό, φασίν, ἐν χρόνοις τῶν ἀποστόλων πωλεῖν τὰ αὐτῶν ὑπάρχοντα καὶ τιθέναι παρὰ τοὺς πόδας τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ εἰς πτωχείαν καὶ ἀποταξίαν μετεληλυθέναι· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καλεῖσθαι ὑπὸ πάντων, φησί, πτωχοί. οὐδὲ τοῦτο δὲ ἀληθὲς παρ' αὐτοῖς, ἀλλὰ φύσει τῷ ὄντι Ἐβίων ἐκαλεῖτο, κατὰ προφητείαν οἶμαι ὁ πτωχὸς καὶ τάλας τὸ ὄνομα ἐκ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ μητρὸς αὐτοῦ κεκληρωμένος. πόσα δὲ ἄλλα δεινὰ καὶ παραπεποιημένα καὶ μοχθηρίας γέμοντα παρ' αὐτοῖς φυλάττεται; ὅταν γάρ τις ἐξ αὐτῶν ἢ νόσῳ περιπέσοι ἢ ὑπὸ ἑρπετοῦ δηχθείη, κάτεισιν εἰς τὰ ὕδατα καὶ ἐπικαλεῖται τὰς ἐπωνυμίας τὰς ἐν τῷ Ἠλξαῒ τοῦ τε οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῆς γῆς, τοῦ τε ἁλὸς καὶ τοῦ ὕδατος, τῶν τε ἀνέμων καὶ ἀγγέλων τῆς δικαιοσύνης, ὥς φασι, καὶ τοῦ ἄρτου καὶ τοῦ ἐλαίου, καὶ ἄρχεται λέγειν «βοηθεῖτέ μοι καὶ ἀπαλλάξατε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ τὸ ἄλγημα». ἤδη δέ μοι καὶ ἀνωτέρω προδεδήλωται ὡς ταῦτα μὲν Ἐβίων οὐκ ᾔδει, μετὰ καιρὸν δὲ οἱ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ συναφθέντες τῷ Ἠλξαῒ ἐσχήκασι μὲν τοῦ Ἐβίωνος τὴν περιτομὴν καὶ τὸ σάββατον καὶ τὰ ἔθη, τοῦ δὲ Ἠλξαῒ τὴν φαντασίαν, ὥστε νομίζειν μὲν τὸν Χριστὸν εἶναί τι ἀνδροείκελον ἐκτύπωμα ἀόρατον ἀνθρώ1.357 ποις, μιλίων ἐνενήκοντα ἓξ τὸ μῆκος, δῆθεν σχοίνων εἴκοσι τεσσάρων, τὸ δὲ πλάτος σχοίνων ἕξ, μιλίων εἴκοσι τεσσάρων, τὸ πάχος δὲ κατὰ μέτρησιν ἄλλην τινά. ἀντικρὺ δὲ αὐτοῦ ἑστάναι καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα ἐν εἴδει θηλείας ἀοράτως, καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ μέτρου. «καὶ πόθεν, φησίν, ἔγνων τὰ μέτρα; ἐπειδή, φησίν, εἶδον ἀπὸ τῶν ὀρέων ὅτι αἱ κεφαλαὶ ἔφθανον αὐτῶν, καὶ τὸ μέτρον τοῦ ὄρους καταμαθὼν ἔγνων Χριστοῦ τε καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος τὰ μέτρα.» ἤδη δέ μοι περὶ τούτων εἴρηται ἐν τῇ κατὰ Ὀσσαίων αἱρέσει. ἐν παρεξόδῳ δὲ ταῦτα πεποίημαι νῦν, ἵνα μὴ τὰ παρ' ἑκάστῳ ἔθνει τε καὶ αἱρέσει ὄντα,