Nazarene (sect)

:Not to be confused with Nasoraeans
The Nazarene sect (ἡ τῶν Ναζωραίων αἵρεσις), used in the Book of Acts,. "According to Ac 24:5 the Christians were so called" (Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker, University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed., 1979) clearly referred to both Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus' Apostles. The same word, "Ναζωραῖοι", that is used in its genitive case in the phrase "ἡ τῶν Ναζωραίων αἵρεσις" is used of an early Jewish Christian sect similar to the Ebionites, in that they maintained their adherence to the Torah, but unlike the Ebionites, they accepted the virgin birth of Jesus.
==Name==
According to the standard reference for Koine Greek, the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: / Nazoraios (plural: Nazoraioi) is translated into English as:
"Nazoraean, Nazarene, quite predominantly a designation of Jesus, in Mt, J, Ac and Lk 18:37, while Mk has ("coming from Nazareth"). Of the two places where the later form occurs in Lk, the one, Lk 4:34, apparently comes from Mk (1:24), the other, 24:19, perhaps from a special source. Where the author of Lk-Ac writes without influence from another source he uses . Mt says expressly 2:23 that Jesus was so called because he grew up in Nazareth. In addition, the other NT writers who call Jesus know Nazareth as his home. But linguistically the transition from (Nazareth) to is difficult ... and it is to be borne in mind that meant something different before it was connected with Nazareth ... According to Ac 24:5 the Christians were so called;" Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker, University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed., 1979:
In the New American Standard Bible translation, Jesus is called the Nazarene in ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; . According to , Paul of Tarsus was apprehended and accused by the attorney of the Jerusalem High Priest Ananias and Pharisaic Jews of being "a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes".
===Etymology===
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. 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 /Nazoraios).
*The word nazur means separate in Aramaic. The word is related to Nazir. There are a number of references to Nazirites/Nazarites in the Old Testament and New Testament. A Nazarite (נְזִיר) was an Israelite who had taken special vows of dedication to Yahweh 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 done "to fulfil all righteousness" at the ending of a nazirite vow. However, following his baptism, the gospels give no reason to suppose Jesus took another Nazirite vow until The Last Supper, (see ). describes John the Baptist as a Nazarite from birth. James the Just was described as a Nazarite in Epiphanius of Salamis' Panarion 29.4.1. In Paul of Tarsus is advised to accompany four men having "a vow on them" (a Nazarite vow) to Herod's Temple and to purify himself in order that it might appear that "that you yourself also walk orderly". This event was the reason why in Paul was accused of being a "ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes" (and further verifies that the term Nazarene was connected to the term Nazarite). However, Epiphanius specifically rejects the connection between the terms Nazarene and Nazarite.Panarion 29.5.7
*The word nazara, "truth", another gnostic concept popularized 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)
Alongside the three traditional explanations above, two more recent explanations have been suggested:
*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. However, the Greek letter ζ (zeta) is always used in Koine transliterations of ז (zayin) but never צ (tsade) which is always represented by a σ (sigma) instead.
*The Greek transliteration Ναζαρηνος (Nazareinos, from which the English "Nazarene" derived) of Neitzër (נצר), which is the Hebrew term meaning "offshoot(s)", especially from the branches of an olive tree (instead referring to a wicker in Modern Hebrew). which appears in Isaiah chapters 11.1 and 60.21. This derivation is popular among some of the late 20th century's Messianic Jewish groups. But again, the same problem arises with the Greek letter ζ (zeta) being the Koine transliteration of ז (zayin) but never צ (tsade) (always represented by a σ (sigma) instead).
==History==
The Nazarenes were originally Jewish converts of the ApostlesPanarion 29.5.6 who fled Jerusalem because of Jesus' warning of its coming siege. They fled to Pella, Peraea (which is northeast of Jerusalem), and eventually spread outwards to Beroea and Bashanitis, where they permanently settled.Panarion 29.3.3
There, they and the other disciples took the name "Jessaeans" and began distinguishing themselves from them. They took this name either because of Jesse, the father of David, to fulfill Psalm 132:11,Panarion 29.1.2 or from the name of Jesus himself.Panarion 29.4.9
Once the term Christian was applied to the followers of Jesus at Antioch, the Nazoreans dropped the name Jessaean and Christian, and retook the name Nazarene.Panarion 29.5.4
Even though they had distinguished themselves from the Christians, and had kept their Jewish practices,Panarion 29.7.2 they were persecuted by the Jews because of their belief in Jesus. Epiphanius of Salamis writes: “Yet these are very much the Jews’ enemies. Not only do Jewish people have a hatred of them; they even stand up at dawn, at midday, and toward evening, three times a day when they recite their prayers in the synagogues, and curse and anathematize them. Three times a day they say, 'God curse the Nazoraeans.' For they harbor an extra grudge against them, if you please, because despite their Jewishness, they preach that Jesus is the Christ – the opposite of those who are still Jews, for they have not accepted Jesus.”Panarion 29.9.1
Jerome and Epiphanius both wrote how the Nazarene sect existed in their day,Lives of Illustrius Men Ch.3Panarion 29.7.7 the late fourth century. However, little is known how their sect disappeared.
==Views and practices==
===Called themselves Nazoraeans===
===Belief in Jesus as Messiah===
===Belief in Jesus as the Son of God===
(It is interesting to note what beliefs Epiphanius contrasts between the Jews and Nazarenes, for the Jews as a whole, excluding the Sadducees, confirm the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things. It is quite possible that the distinction between them was their belief that Jesus will be the one to raise the dead (see John 6:40,44,54) and created all things (see Colossians 1:15-16), thus calling him divine yet the Son of God)
===Belief in the Virgin Birth===
===Torah Observant===
===Use of Old Testament and New Testament===
===Use of Hebrew and Aramaic New Testament source texts===
===Frequency of the Passover===
==Patristic references to "Nazarenes"==
The "Canons of the Church of Alexandria" (2nd-3rd century AD) uses the term "Nazarene" to refer to non-Jewish believers.
From Epiphanius' description, given in the Fourth Century AD when Nazarenes had already existed for several hundred years, it can be determined that the Nazarenes were very dependent upon the Jewish world and its traditions.
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 79, to Augustine, he said:
:"What shall I say of the Ebionites who pretend to be Christians? To-day there still exists among the Jews in all the synagogues of the East a heresy which is called that of the Minæans, and which is still condemned by the Pharisees; [its followers] are ordinarily called 'Nasarenes'; they believe that Christ, the son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary, and they hold him to be the one who suffered under Pontius Pilate and ascended to heaven, and in whom we also believe. But while they pretend to be both Jews and Christians, they are neither." 
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. His criticism of the Nazarenes is noticeably more direct and critical than that of Epiphanius.
The following creed is that of a church at Constantinople at the same period:
:"I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms, unleavened breads & sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews, and all other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications, sanctifications and propitiations and fasts, and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns and chants and observances and Synagogues, and the food and drink of the Hebrews; in one word, I renounce everything Jewish, every law, rite and custom and if afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with the Jews, or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion instead of openly confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let the trembling of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge myself liable. And may I be anathema in the world to come, and may my soul be set down with Satan and the devils." Parks, James The Conflict Of The Church And The Synagogue Atheneum, New York, 1974, pp. 397 - 398.
"Nazarenes" are referenced past the fourth century AD as well. Jacobus de Voragine (1230-1298) described James as a "Nazarene" in The Golden Legend, vol 7. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) 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.
==Modern movements==
Starting in the nineteenth century, a number of modern movements have revived the term "Nazarene" among English speaking communities, usually for the following reasons:
*To reject modern Christianity, as having been led astray from "normative" Judaism by Paul of Tarsus.
*To lay claim to an authentically Torah-based and Jewish structure of belief—in which sometimes some Mosaic book sections are rejected and some are more emphasized in a "non-normative" way.
*Because of a belief that the term was used to describe both Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus in earliest times, even though they believe they are in unity with the modern Christian faith.
An exception to this is the Church of the Nazarene, which emphasizes Christian activism in the Arminian tradition of John Wesley, and which is accepted as a mainstream Christian (Protestant) denomination that was born out of the Holiness Movement of the early 20th Century. The Church of the Nazarene took their name in order to associate itself with the humbleness of Christ's town of origin, as they seek to reach the "humble" in society. Various branches of the Apostolic Christian Church also use the term "Nazarene" or "Nazarean" in their name.
==Modern Hebrew usage==
In contemporary Israeli Hebrew, the term "Notzri" (נוצרי) - likely to be derived from or related to "Nazarene" - is the general word for "Christian".
==In Arabic Language==
In all Arab countries Christians are called "Nasara" "نصارى"(Plural of Nasrani نصراني). The term "Nasara" is used many times in the Qur'an when referring to Christians, which may be a corruption of the word Nazarene. For example, Surat AL-BAQARA (Verse No. 113) says:
It may also be mentioned that the Quran clearly alludes to the fact that the word Nasaara has its origin in the Arabic word Nasr which means to bring victory. This is made clear in Surat Al Saff (the 61st chapter of the Quran) when Jesus is quoted as saying, "Who are my ansaar (victors) to Allah. The disciples said we are the ansaar (victors) of Allah." And so they called themselves Nasaara because of that. This would suggest that the origin of the word does not relate to the place of Nazareth but to the concept of giving victory to God.
==See also==
* Christian Torah-submission
* Ebionites
* Judaism
* Judeo-Christian
* Messianic Judaism
* Syrian Malabar Nasrani and Knanaya
==References==
==External links==
*Catena Aurea - Gospel of Matthew Ch. 27
*Catholic Encyclopedia: Nazarene
*Epiphanius of Salamis' Panarion
*Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History 4.22
*Jerome's Lives of Illustrius Men Ch. 3
*Jewish Encyclopedia: Nazarenes
*Letter 75 Jerome to Augustine
*NetzariPedia: The Term Nazarene Pt1
*The Golden Legend, Volume 7
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