St. Epiphanius (367-404) in his Panarion admits that the earliest followers of Jesus were called Jessaens, that is Essenes, and Nazarenes, both of which groups were vegetarians, though he scornfully treats the contents of the  Ebionite Gospel, which portray Jesus and his followers as vegetarians who denounce the animal sacrifices, and who say that the scriptures sanctioning animal sacrifices in the Pentateuch are false scriptures.  Epiphanius contradicts himself even further by allying the Essenes and Nazarenes with the vegetarian Therapeutae of Alexandria.

    Nonetheless, in spite of Epiphanius' attempting the impossible goal of trying to ignore the fact that the Essenes and Nazarenes were vegetarians, still we are indebted to him, because it is in his Panarion that we have the most elaborate description of the Ebionites prior to the 1870 publication of the Gospel of the Nazirenes, which qualifies as being a copy of the Ebionite Gospel since it contains those passages quoted by early Church fathers who viewed the Gospel.

   The unbiased reader of the New Testament can see that vegetarianism underlies Jesus' cleansing of the temple, that his mission in "Epistle to the Hebrews," even as we have it, is clearly to abolish the animal sacrifices. Moreover, had Jesus really taught  "all foods are clean," it would have been nonsensical for him consistently to quote vegetarian Jews such as Ezekiel, Isaias, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Joel, Amos, and Habaccuc.  It would be the equivalent of Burger King or MacDonalds quoting Peta, Michael Klapper, Keith Akers, or John Robbins in order to justify eating flesh.

    In the Panarion the Ebionite Jesus and his hand-picked apostles and disciples are all described as not regarding the Pentateuch as sacred.  And Epiphanius describes a work, the "Ascents of James," by James, the brother of Jesus. In that work James sees Paul as an enemy of the truth, an apostate.  To the objective reader, it is not really strange at all to see Paul as an Apostate, for Paul, the pillar of Christian orthodoxy, affirms the validity of slavery, elitist societies of rich and poor, male chauvinism, bigotry towards homosexuals, and carnivorism.

   The values, or lack of them, really, in the Pauline epistles, were used by the bishops chosen by Constantine to turn away from the original teachings of Jesus. Whereas Jesus taught vegetarianism, the abolition of the animal sacrifices, and egalitarianism, "love your neighbor as your self," and "I have come to free the captive," Paul and the bishops of Constantine condoned slavery and elitist resentment-breeding societies of rich and poor.  The Essenes, Ebionites, and a number of writings by early church fathers such as Justin Martyr blatantly denounced the carnivorism that is sanctioned in the perverted version of Jesus' teachings that exists in Paul's epistles. So too, though Tertullian and Origen seem to honor Paul's work, nonetheless they both clearly see the animal sacrifices as demonic.

   Most readers are aware that the Essenes were vegetarians, but there is some confusion among many current readers as to whether the Nazarenes were. However, we have more than adequate documentation for the vegetarianism of the Nazarenes as well. For example, appended to the Clementine Recognitions is a profession of faith to Pauline Christianity which refers to the Nazarenes as  unequivocally vegetarian as well.

"I anathematize the Nazareans, the stubborn ones, who deny that the law of sacrifices was given by Moses, who abstain from eating living things, and who never offer sacrifice. I anathematize the Osseans, the blindest of all men who use other scriptures than the Law."

 From p. 54, The Essene Odyssey by Hugh Schonfield, Element Books, Ltd. Longmead, Shaftesbury, Dorset, 1984. P. 87.    Quoted from page 398, The Conflict of the Church and Synagogue, by James Parkes, London: The Soncino Press, Five Gower Street, 1934.
 

"When these things come to pass in Israel according to all the appointed times for the Institution of the Spirit of holiness founded in accordance with eternal Truth, they shall expiate guilty rebellion and sinful infidelity and procure Loving-kindness upon earth without the flesh of burnt offering and the fat of sacrifice, but the offering of the lips in accordance with the law shall be as an agreeable odour of righteousness, and perfection of way shall be as the voluntary gift of a delectable oblation."  "Prologue, Scroll of the Rule."  Essene Writings from Qumran, A. Dupont-Sommer, Meridian Books, World Publishing Company, 1962.

    It could hardly be more clear: both the Essenes and Nazarenes were vegetarians, but since the orthodox Jews and the Romans derived great profit from sacrificing animals and selling their flesh to eat, it was necessary to change the truth in order to continue making profits. So the scriptures were rewritten in order to make it appear that Jesus taught that "all foods are clean."
But there's plenty of evidences, historical as well as scriptural, that demonstrate the real beliefs of the original vegetarian and communal Christians.
 

     All those Christian scholars in denial who naively say that this is
"reading into the material" need only to read thoroughly Epiphanius' Panarion
themselves, which not only describes a vegetarian Jesus in the Ebionite
Gospel, but also describes a number of supposedly heretical Christian groups who are obviously converts to the practices of Hinduism or Buddhism (Buddhism is a reformed version of Hinduism), some of whom used yogic mudras and ate a lacto-vegetarian diet, which is the typical diet of Hindus and many Buddhists, and a diet also extolled in Isaiah 7.  Epiphanius even uses the term "yoke-fellow" in his work.  Yoga, of course, means yoke.  And Jesus himself uses the term: "my yoke is light."  Epiphanius describes the Ebionites in the Gospel of the same name as not accepting the Pentateuch as valid.  Most of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the OT) is of course involved with asserting that God desired animal sacrifices.  The late prophets of Judaism express the same disgust towards those scriptures as the Ebionites, and both groups refer to them as lies of scribes and false prophets.

    Epiphanius says of the "Ascents of Jacob" (James), a work in which the
brother of Jesus argues on the Temple steps against the Jewish hierarchy
defending animal sacrifices: "For they set forth certain Ascents and
Instructions forsooth in the "Ascents of Jacob," representing him as holding forth against both Temple and sacrifices, and against the fire on the altar...so that they are not ashamed in them even to denounce Paul..." Panarion, xxx. 16.

    The vegetarian Hindu-Buddhist connection is made even more obvious in
Epiphanius' criticism of the lacto-vegetarian Artorians: "they set forth
bread and cheese in their mysteries and in this way celebrate their
mysteries."  Essenes exercised to the sun in the East, an act which cannot
help but remind one of Hindu hatha yoga exercises--the "salutation to the
sun" exercise is commonly known even to yoga novices.  So too Epiphanius
describes Phrygian Christians using a Hindu pranayama mudra, i.e. gesture,
putting a finger on one's nostril while praying seemingly without
understanding its origin or Hindu connection.  However, his use of the term
"yoke-fellow" to describe other heretics in the same section can hardly be
coincidental.  What is more probable is that Epiphanius was attempting to
demean yoga practices (common among Hindus and Buddhists both) without giving them the benefit of official recognition.  The Hindus and Buddhists in India and the East after all had a populous vegetarian culture most of whose practices were compassionate compared to the brutal ways of orthodox
Christians.

   Once again the Hindu-Buddhist origins of Jesus' teachings were
suppressed by a Christian father, in fact by a saint of the Catholic Church, which shows the world quite clearly what sanctity means among the orthodox: it means that one is unswervingly loyal to one's church and government, as taught by Paul, and not to God and truth, as taught by the Essenes and Jesus and James and the other original pre-Pauline apostles and disciples.

    Epiphanius also describes heretics using acupuncture, putting needles
into a child, and criticizes the act instead as a part of a sacrifice.
Acupuncture had been in use by oriental Hindus and Buddhists for some
time.