The Ebionites were a Jewish-Christian sect that insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites, which they interpreted in light of Jesus' expounding of the Law. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah but not as divine. The Ebionites revered James the Just as the head of the Jerusalem Church and rejected Paul of Tarsus as an apostate towards the Law. Their name suggests that they placed a special value on evangelical counsels about voluntary poverty.