The Nazarenes (or Nazoreans;)[1] were an early Jewish Christian sect in first-century Judaism. The first use of the term is found in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 24, 24:5 ) of the New Testament, where Paul the Apostle is accused of being a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes ("Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: πρωτοστάτην τε τῆς τῶν Ναζωραίων αἱρέσεως") before the Roman procurator Antonius Felix at Caesarea Maritima by Tertullus.[2] At that time, the term simply designated followers of Jesus of Nazareth, as the Hebrew term (),[3] and the Arabic term نَصْرَانِي (),[4] 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 gentiles who eschewed Torah observance.[5] They are described by Epiphanius of Salamis and are mentioned later by Jerome and Augustine of Hippo.[6] [7] The writers made a distinction between the Nazarenes of their time and the "Nazarenes" mentioned in Acts 24:5.[8]
See main article: Nazarene (title). The English term Nazarene is commonly used to translate two related Greek words that appear in the New Testament: Nazōraios (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ναζωραῖος, Ναζαραῖος) ("Nazorean") and Nazarēnos ("Nazarene"). The term Nazōraios may have a religious significance instead of denoting a place of origin, while Nazarēnos (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ναζαρηνός) is an adjectival form of the phrase apo Nazaret "from Nazareth."[9]
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 (meaning "from Nazareth").[1]
In Arabic however, Nasrani (نصراني), the name given to Christians in the quran can be interpreted as coming from the root verb n-ṣ-r, meaning victory, or support. The meaning is elucidated on in Surah Al Imran, verse 52 where Jesus asks who will become his supporters (Ansar-i) for the sake of God, the Hawariyun (the Apostles\ Followers) answer that they will become the Ansar. The same root comes in reference to the Ansar, those that sheltered the prophet Muhammad in Medina.
See also: Book of Acts and Early Christianity.
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.[1] 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 (Acts 24:5), though Herod Agrippa II (Acts 26:28) uses the term "Christians" which had first been used at Antioch (Acts 11:26). The name used by Tertullus survives into Mishnaic and modern Hebrew as notzrim a standard Hebrew term for "Christian", the name also exist in the Quran and modern Arabic as Arabic: نَصَارَىٰ naṣārā (plural of Arabic: نَصْرَانِيّ naṣrānī "Christian").
Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220,) records that the Jews called Christians "Nazarenes" from Jesus being a man of Nazareth, though he also makes the connection with Nazarites in Lamentations 4:7.[10] Jerome too records that, in the synagogues, the word "Nazarenes" was used to describe Christians. Eusebius, around 311 CE, records that the name "Nazarenes" had formerly been used of Christians.[11] [12] The use relating to a specific "sect" of Christians does not occur until Epiphanius (310/20–403). According to Arnold 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 (ܕܢܨܪܝܐ) in the Syrian Aramaic Peshitta, from Nasrat (ܢܨܪܬ) for Nazareth.[13]
According to Epiphanius in his Panarion, the 4th-century Nazarenes (Ναζωραῖοι) were originally Jewish converts of the Apostles[14] who fled Jerusalem because of Jesus' prophecy of its coming siege (during the First Jewish–Roman War in 70 CE). They fled to Pella, Peraea (northeast of Jerusalem), and eventually spread outwards to Beroea (Aleppo) and Basanitis, where they permanently settled (Panarion 29.3.3).[15]
The Nazarenes were similar to the Ebionites, in that they considered themselves Jews, maintained an adherence to the Law of Moses. Unlike the Ebionites, they accepted the Virgin Birth.[16] They seemed to consider Jesus as a prophet, but other attestations from the church fathers might suggest that they also hold on the divinity of Jesus.[17]
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 (the Catholic writings of Bonacursus entitled Against the Heretics). It is believed that Gregorius of Bergamo, about 1250 CE, also wrote concerning the Nazarenes as the Pasagians.
See main article: 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.
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 saw 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.[18] 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 CE as well. Jacobus de Voragine (1230–98) described James as a "Nazarene" in The Golden Legend, vol 7. Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) quotes Augustine of Hippo, who was given an apocryphal book called Hieremias (Jeremiah in Latin) 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.
The beliefs of the Nazarene sect or sects are described through various church fathers and heresiologists.
Odon Lafontaine, from the Revisionist School of Islamic Studies, hypothesized that this sect survived into the seventh century, when they attempted to precipitate the return of Jesus, as the Messiah of the Apocalypse, by translating their scripture and lectionaries into Arabic, recruiting the local Arab Christians, capturing Jerusalem, rebuilding the Temple, and re-initiating its sacrifices. When Jesus did not return, he concluded that the situation eventually spun out of control, resulting in the development of the Quran and Islam.[19]
See also: Mandaean priest. Those few who are initiated into the secrets of the Mandaean religion are called Naṣuraiia or Nasoraeans/Nasaraeans meaning guardians or possessors of secret rites and knowledge.[20] According to the Haran Gawaita, Nasoraean Mandaeans fled Jerusalem before its fall in 70 CE due to persecution by a faction of Jews.[21] 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 (Νασαραίοι, Part 18 of the Panarion), distinguished from the "Nazoraioi" (Part 29). According to Joseph Lightfoot, Epiphanius also makes a distinction between the Ossaeans and the Nasaraeans,[22] the two main groups within the Essenes:[23]
The Nasaraeans may be the same as the Mandaeans of today. Epiphanius says (29:6) that they existed before Christ. That is questioned by some, but others accept the pre-Christian origin of this group.[24]
Van Bladel (2017) suggests that the Mandaeans and Nasoraeans were historically separate groups, with the Nasoraeans being a Judeo-Christian priestly baptismal sect from central Mesopotamia that found followers from the indigenous Mandaeans of southern Mesopotamia. According to Van Bladel's hypothesis, the original Mandaean laypeople had their Mesopotamian temples decimated due to temple pillaging during the Sasanian period and switched to the Nasoraean priests' religion in order to compensate for the loss of their former religion.[25] However, this hypothesis has been criticized by Predrag Bukovec and other scholars.[26] Bogdan Burtea (2008) has also proposed that the Nasoraeans and Mandaeans may have historically been separate groups.[27]
In the Ginza Rabba, the term Nasoraean is used to refer to righteous Mandaeans, i.e., Mandaean priests (comparable to the concept of pneumatikoi in Gnosticism).[28] [29] [30] As Nasoraeans, Mandaeans believe that they constitute the true congregation of bnai nhura meaning 'Sons of Light'.[31]
A number of modern churches use the word "Nazarene" or variants in their name or beliefs: