2nd century

Jewish-Christian groups: Nazarenes, Ebionites, Elkesaites

The first doctrinal problem, according to González, was the relation of Christianity to Judaism. The Ebionites required all Christians to keep the Law, considered Paul an apostate, and saw Jesus as a man (a prophet) chosen or adopted for his moral perfection in fulfilling the Law, who received the Spirit at his baptism; they denied the virgin birth and the divinity of Christ. The Nazarenes, as Berkhof describes them, kept the Law but did not impose it on Gentiles, recognized Paul, and believed in the divinity of Jesus and the virgin birth. The Elkesaites combined Jewish Christianity with theosophy, asceticism and magical ablutions, calling Christ a higher spirit, an angel and the incarnation of the ideal Adam. Pelikan notes that, according to Origen, there were two sects among the Ebionites – one accepting and one rejecting the virgin birth.