Nazarene (sect)


The Nazarenes were an early Christian sect in first-century Judaism. The first use of the term is found in the Acts of the Apostles of the New Testament, where Paul the Apostle is accused of being a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes before the Roman procurator Antonius Felix at Caesarea Maritima by Tertullus. At that time, the term simply designated followers of Jesus of Nazareth, as the Hebrew term , and the arabic term نصارى still do.
As time passed, the term came to refer to a sect of Jewish Christians who continued to observe the Torah, in contrast to Gentile Christians who eschewed Torah observance. They are described by Epiphanius of Salamis and are mentioned later by Jerome and Augustine of Hippo. The writers made a distinction between the Nazarenes of their time and the "Nazarenes" mentioned in Acts 24:5.

Nazarene (title)

The English term "Nazarene" is commonly used to translate two related Greek words that appear in the New Testament: Nazarēnos and Nazōraios. The Greek term Nazōraios may have a religious significance instead of denoting a place of origin, while the Greek Nazarēnos is an adjectival form of the phrase apo Nazaret "from Nazareth."
Because of this, the phrases traditionally rendered as "Jesus of Nazareth" can also be translated as "Jesus the Nazarene" or "Jesus the Nazorean." In the New Testament, the form Nazōraios or Nazaraios is more common than Nazarēnos.

The Sect of the Nazarenes (1st century)

The Greek epithet Nazōraios is applied to Jesus 14 times in the New Testament, and is used once in Acts to refer to the sect of Christians of which Paul was a leader. It is traditionally translated as "a man from Nazareth"; the plural Nazōraioi would mean "men from Nazareth". The title is first applied to the Christians by Tertullus, though Herod Agrippa II uses the term "Christians" which had first been used at Antioch. The name used by Tertullus survives into Mishnaic and modern Hebrew as notzrim a standard Hebrew term for "Christian", and also into the Quran and modern Arabic as نَصَارَىٰ naṣārā.
Tertullian records that the Jews called Christians "Nazarenes" from Jesus being a man of Nazareth, though he also makes the connection with Nazarites in. Jerome too records that "Nazarenes" was employed of Christians in the synagogues. Eusebius, around 311 AD, records that the name "Nazarenes" had formerly been used of Christians. The use relating to a specific "sect" of Christians does not occur until Epiphanius. According to Ehrhardt, just as Antioch coined the term Christians, so Jerusalem coined the term Nazarenes, from Jesus of Nazareth.
The terms "sect of the Nazarenes" and "Jesus of Nazareth" both employ the adjective nasraya in the Syrian Aramaic Peshitta, from Nasrat for Nazareth.

The Nazarenes (4th century)

According to Epiphanius in his Panarion, the 4th-century Nazarenes were originally Jewish converts of the Apostles who fled Jerusalem because of Jesus' prophecy of its coming siege. They fled to Pella, Peraea, and eventually spread outwards to Beroea and Basanitis, where they permanently settled.
The Nazarenes were similar to the Ebionites, in that they considered themselves Jews, maintained an adherence to the Law of Moses, and used only the Aramaic Gospel of the Hebrews, rejecting all the Canonical gospels and the concept of Jesus being the Son of God which they deemed of Hellenist origin. However, unlike half of the Ebionites, they accepted the Virgin Birth.
As late as the eleventh century, Cardinal Humbert of Mourmoutiers still referred to the Nazarene sect as a Sabbath-keeping Christian body existing at that time. Modern scholars believe it is the Pasagini or Pasagians who are referenced by Cardinal Humbert, suggesting the Nazarene sect existed well into the eleventh century and beyond. It is believed that Gregorius of Bergamo, about 1250 CE, also wrote concerning the Nazarenes as the Pasagians.

Gospel of the Nazarenes

The Gospel of the Nazarenes is the title given to fragments of one of the lost Jewish-Christian Gospels of Matthew partially reconstructed from the writings of Jerome.

Patristic references to "Nazarenes"

In the 4th century, Jerome also refers to Nazarenes as those "who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old Law." In his Epistle 75, to Augustine, he said:
Jerome viewed a distinction between Nazarenes and Ebionites, a different Jewish sect, but does not comment on whether Nazarene Jews considered themselves to be "Christian" or not or how they viewed themselves as fitting into the descriptions he uses. He clearly equates them with Filaster's Nazarei. His criticism of the Nazarenes is noticeably more direct and critical than that of Epiphanius.
The following creed is from a church at Constantinople at the same period, and condemns practices of the Nazarenes:
"Nazarenes" are referenced past the fourth century AD as well. Jacobus de Voragine described James as a "Nazarene" in The Golden Legend, vol 7. Thomas Aquinas quotes Augustine of Hippo, who was given an apocryphal book called Hieremias by a "Hebrew of the Nazarene Sect", in Catena Aurea — Gospel of Matthew, chapter 27. So this terminology seems to have remained at least through the 13th century in European discussions.

Nazarene beliefs

The beliefs of the Nazarene sect or sects are described through various church fathers and heresiologists.
Those few who are initiated into the secrets of the Mandaean religion are called Naṣuraiia or Nasoraeans. The Mandaeans claim to have fled Jerusalem before its fall in 70 CE due to persecution by Jews. The word Naṣuraiia may come from the root n-ṣ-r meaning "to keep" since although they reject the Mosaic Law they consider themselves to be keepers of Gnosis. Epiphanius mentions a group called Nasaraeans, distinguished from the "Nazoraioi". According to Joseph Lightfoot, Epiphanius also makes a distinction between the Ossaeans and the Nasaraeans, the two main groups within the Essenes:
The Nasaraeans may be the same as the Mandaeans of today. Epiphanius says that they existed before Christ. That is questioned by some, but others accept the pre-Christian origin of this group.

Modern "Nazarene" churches

A number of modern churches use the word "Nazarene" or variants in their name or beliefs: