2. They rejected the writings of Paul, and indeed all other New Testament scriptures, except the Gospel according to the Hebrews. 3. They refused to eat meat, like the Essenes. 4. Like the Essenes also they rejected wine, even in the Sacramentum. "Therefore do these men reject the co-mixture of the heavenly wine, and wish it to be the water of the world only, not receiving God so as to have union with him," says Irenæus (Hœr. v. 3) speaking of them. 5. Like the Essenes they also insisted on the rite of circumcision. Here is another passage from Irenæus, "They use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the law. As to the prophetical writings, they endeavour to expound them in a somewhat singular manner. They practice circumcision, persevere in the observance of those customs which are enjoined by the law, and are so Judaic in their style of life that they even adore Jerusalem as if it were the House of God." (Hœr. iii. 1.) Irenæus says also that their opinions were similar to those of Cerinthus, who held that Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary, and that at his baptism the Holy Spirit came to him. These are the main peculiarities of the Ebionites, and they seem on the surface to show that if Christ was an Essene, and James was an Essene, and their Church after 150 years were still orthodox Essenes, the "heresy" should be sought elsewhere. But at present we will consider the Gospel according to the Apostles. Epiphanius writes thus:-- "And they have the Gospel according to Matthew very full in Hebrew. For assuredly this is still kept amongst them as it was at outset written in Hebrew letters. But I do not know whether at the same time they have taken away the genealogies from Abraham to Christ." (Hœr. xxix. 9.) This lets in a flood of light. The main "heresy" of the Gospel according to the Hebrews is that it contains no genealogies. But the same must be said of Mark and John. And there is a version of Luke that was used by the Marcionites that was also without the genealogies. And critics affect to show that our Luke was plainly once without them also:-- "And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon him; and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness." This is a consecutive sentence, and yet the genealogies have been clumsily pitchforked into the middle of it. (Luke iii. 23.) And with regard to Matthew, it can, at least, be proved that Justin Martyr knew nothing of his genealogies. "He was the Son of Man, either because of his birth by the Virgin, who was, as I said, of the family of David, and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham." Plainly Justin thought that it was the Virgin and not Joseph that had descended from Abraham.