Gospel of the Ebionites closely with the lost "Gospel of the Twelve". It shows no dependence on the Gospel of John and is similar in nature to the harmonized gospel sayings based on the Synoptic Gospels used by Justin Martyr, although a relationship between them, if any, is uncertain. There is a similarity between the gospel and a source document contained within the Clementine "Recognitions" (1.27–71), conventionally referred to by scholars as the "Ascents of James", with respect to the command to abolish the Jewish sacrifices. Epiphanius is believed to have come into possession of a gospel that he attributed to the Ebionites when
Gospel of the Ebionites gospel text: thereby making Jesus declare that he would not eat meat during the Passover. The immediate context suggests the possible attribution of the quotation to a Clementine source; however a linkage between the gospel fragments and the Clementine literature remains uncertain. The baptismal scene of the gospel text (13.7) is a harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, but one in which the Holy Spirit is said to descend to Jesus in the form of a dove and "enter into him". This divine election at the time of his baptism is known as an Adoptionist Christology, and it is emphasized by