Nazarene (sect)

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The Nazarenes (Hebrew: נצרים) were a group of followers of Jesus of Nazareth who like the Ebionites were noteworthy for refusing to follow Christianity in its complete break with Judaism.

1 Derivation of Nazarene
2 Patristic references to "Nazarenes"
3 Modern movements
4 Notes
5 See also
6 External links
- 6.1 General
- 6.2 Modern movements

[edit] Derivation of Nazarene

According to the standard reference for Koine Greek, the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker, University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed., 1979: Ναζωραῖος/Nazoraios (plural: Nazoraioi) is translated into English as "Nazarene". It is predominately a title of Jesus and found in Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of John, Acts of the Apostles and Gospel of Luke. In contrast, the Gospel of Mark uses Ναζαρηνός/Nazarenos, which means "coming from Nazareth", as does Luke 4:34 (parallel of Mark 1:24) and Luke 24:19. Matthew 2:23 says that Jesus was called the Nazarene because he grew up in Nazareth. However, according to references cited by the BAGD Lexicon, "linguistically the transition from Ναζαρέτ/Nazaret to Ναζωραῖος/Nazoraios is difficult." BAGD suggests that Nazarene meant something else before it was connected with Nazareth; however it is no longer clear what that other meaning was.

In the NASB translation, Jesus is called the Nazarene in Matthew 2:23; Mark 10:47; 14:67; 16:6; Luke 24:19; John 18:5; 18:7; 19:19; Acts 2:22; 3:6; 4:10; 6:14; 22:8. According to Acts 24:1-9, Paul of Tarsus was accused by the attorney of the Jerusalem High Priest Ananias and "the Jews" of being "a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes".

In all, the following derivations have been suggested:

The place-name Nazara (which later became Nazareth), as in the Greek form Iesous Nazarenos. This is the traditional interpretation within mainstream Christianity, and it still seems the obvious interpretation to many modern Christians. Matthew 2:23 reads that "and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene"" (NIV) (Greek is Ναζωραῖος/Nazoraios). Although identification of the prophecy concerned either in the canonical books of the Old Testament or in the midrash traditions has been the matter of recent debate, the phrasing again strongly suggests that the author of Matthew meant Nazarene to refer in some way to Nazara. However, among evidence against this interpretation is that although Origen knew of the gospel story of Nazareth, he had only the vaguest idea where it was, despite living only 30 miles away in Caesarea.[1]

The word neitzer meaning "branch" or "off-shoot" (as in Isaiah 11:1 נֵצֶר)and the following 3 verses tell of the seven qualities of Messiah which makes up the Branch. These seven qualities are sybolized in the seven branched menorah which represents the Malchut Elohim (Kingdom of God) or the Tree of Life. This also in turn refer to the claim that Jesus was a "descendant of David", or to the view that Jesus (or rather the teachings he or his followers advocated) were an offshoot from Judaism. Until the 20th century "neitzer" was the undisputed etymology behind Nazareth.

The word nazur, meaning separate in Aramaic. The word is related to Nazir. There are a number of references to Nazirites in the Old Testament and New Testament. A Nazirite (נְזִיר) was a Jew who had taken special vows of dedication to the Lord whereby he abstained for a specified period of time from using alcohol and grape products, cutting his hair, and approaching corpses. At the end of the period he was required to immerse himself in water. Thus the baptism of Jesus by his relative John the Baptist could have been one "to fulfill all righteousness" at the end of a nazirite vow. Luke 1:15 describes John the Baptist as a Nazirite. James the Just was described as a Nazirite in Epiphanius' Panarion 29.4 . In Acts 21 Paul of Tarsus takes four Nazirite pledges to Herod's Temple. However, following his baptism, the gospels give no reason to suppose Jesus took another Nazirite vow until The Last Supper, see also Mark 14:25.

The word nosri which means "one who keeps (guard over)" or "one who observes" the same name used by spiritual leaders (see for example Yeshu Ha-Notzri) of a pre-Christian gnostic sect which evolved into the Mandaean religion (as in Jeremiah 31:5-6 נֹצְרִים). This explanation had become popular among Protestants towards the end of the 20th century.

The word nazara, "truth", another gnostic concept popularised through the Gospel of Philip: "The apostles that came before us called him Jesus Nazarene the Christ ..."Nazara" is the "Truth". Therefore 'Nazarenos' is "The One of the Truth" ..." (Gospel of Philip, 47)

[edit] Patristic references to "Nazarenes"

After the word "Christian" had become established as the standard term for the followers of Jesus in Hellenistic and Roman cultural circles (the Book of Acts cites Antioch as the place where followers of Jesus were called Christians for the first time), there appear to have been one or more groups who continued or reverted to calling themselves by various names almost always rendered "Nazarene" in English. Some of the Church fathers refer to groups with such titles, but there is little further evidence of these groups' existence, beliefs or activities, after the onset of Islam.

Epiphanius (published 370), mentioned two conflicting sects of similar names in his Panarion (xxix. 7) as existing in Syria, Decapolis (Pella, and Basanitis (Cocabe). According to Epiphanius the Nazuraioi dated their settlement in Pella from the time of the flight of the Jews from Jerusalem, immediately before its destruction in year 135. He calls the Nazuraioi "complete Jews" and characterizes them as neither more nor less than Jews pure and simple before adding that they considered themselves to be living in Jeremiah's "new covenant" (Jer.31:31-34) as well as the original. They believed in the resurrection, and in The One God, The Father and his son the Messiah. He cannot say whether their christological views were identical with those of Cerinthus and his followers, or whether they differed at all from his own but is evident that they can not have accepted the "High" christology adopted by the church and were closer to having a "Low" christology.

In the 4th century Jerome also refers to Nazuraioi as those "...who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old Law." In his Epistle 79, to Augustine, he said that though they believed in Christ the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, and rose again, "desiring to be both Jews and Christians, they are neither the one nor the other". He said they used the Aramaic Gospel of the Hebrews, but, while adhering as far as possible to the Mosaic economy as regarded circumcision, sabbaths, foods and the like, they did not refuse to recognize the apostolicity of Paul or the rights of Gentile Christians (See Jerome's Commentary on Isaiah, ix. I). These facts agree with Epiphanius' distinction of them from the Ebionites who did refuse to recognise the apostolicity of Paul (Epiphanius, Panarion 30), though Jerome himself confuses them with Filaster's Nazorei in Galaatides.

Regarding their scriptures, Theodoret (died 457) says: 'The Nazuraioi are Jews who honour Christ as a righteous man, and use the Gospel According to Peter" (Haer. Fab. ii. c. 2). On the other hand Jerome (Of illustrious men 3) writes that the Nazuraioi of Beroea (modern Aleppo) in Syria gave him the opportunity to copy their Hebrew "Gospel of Matthew". He also writes (Commentary on Matthew 12:13) "There is a Gospel, which the Nazuraioi and Ebionites use, which I lately translated from the Hebrew tongue into Greek and which is called by many the authentic Gospel of Matthew".

[edit] Modern movements

Starting in the nineteenth century, a number of modern movements have revived the term "Nazarene", usually for one of two reasons:

Since they suppose the word was used of very early followers of Jesus, adopting it lays claim to, or stresses the importance of, a more primitive and therefore more authentic type of Christianity.
Since the word was apparently used of Christians at a time when they were a predominantly Jewish group and before there had been a decisive schism between Christianity and Judaism, adopting it lays claim to, or stresses the importance of, some kind reconciliation of Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices, and typically rejecting modern Christianity as having been led astray from "normative" Judaism by Paul of Tarsus, or among those who accept Paul and his writings, by Ignatius and the Hellenized Greek and Romanized Latin speaking Church Fathers.

The best known of these is the Church of the Nazarene, which emphasizes Christian activism in the Arminian tradition of John Wesley, and which is accepted as normative by other mainstream Christian denominations. Various branches of the Apostolic Christian Church also use the term "Nazarene" or "Nazarean" in their name.