Christians converted from Judaism, whose chief error consisted in defending the necessity or expediency of the works of the law, and who obstinately adhered to the practice of the Jewish ceremonies. The name of Nazarenes, at first, had nothing odious in it, and it was often given to the first Christians. The fathers frequently mention the Gospel of the Nazarenes, which differs nothing from that of St. Matthew, which was either in Hebrew or Syriac, for the use of the first converts, but was afterwards corrupted by the Ebionites. These Nazarenes preserved their first Gospel in its primitive purity. Some of them were still in being in the time of St. Jerome, who does not reproach them with any errors. They were very zealous observers of the law of Moses, but held the traditions of the Pharisees in very great contempt. The word Nazarene was given to Jesus Christ and his disciples; and is commonly taken in a sense of derision and contempt in such authors as have written against Christianity.
Some of the early Christians, in contempt, were branded with this name; hence Paul is called a ringleader of the sect, every where spoken against. (Acts 28. 22.)
or NAZARAEANS, a name originally given to Christians in general, on account of Jesus Christ’s being of the city of Nazareth; but was, in the second century, restrained to certain judaizing Christians, who blended Christianity and Judaism together. They held that Christ was born of a virgin, and was also in a certain manner united to the divine nature. They refused to abandon the ceremonies prescribed by the law of Moses; but were far from attempting to impose the observance of these ceremonies upon Gentile Christians. They rejected those additions that were made to the Mosaic institutions by the Pharisees and doctors of the law, and admitted the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament. The fathers frequently mention the Gospel of the Nazarenes, which differs nothing from that of St. Matthew, but was afterward corrupted by the Ebionites. These Nazarenes preserved this first Gospel in its primitive purity. Some of them were still in being in the time of St. Jerome, who does not reproach them with any errors.
By: Executive Committee of the Editorial Board., Samuel Krauss
Sect of primitive Christianity; it appears to have embraced all those Christians who had been born Jews and who neither would nor could give up their Jewish mode of life. They were probably the descendants of the Judæo-Christians who had fled to Pella before Titus destroyed Jerusalem; afterward most of them, like the Essenes in former times, with whom they had some characteristics in common, lived in the waste lands around the Dead Sea, and hence remained out of touch with the rest of Christendom.
For a long time they were regarded as irreproachable Christians, Epiphanius ("Hæres." xxix.), who did not know much about them, being the first to class them among heretics. Why they are so classed is not clear, for they are reproached on the whole with nothing more than with Judaizing. As there were many Judaizing Christians at that time, the Nazarenes can not be clearly distinguished from the other sects. The well-known Bible translator Symmachus, for example, is described variously as a Judaizing Christian and as an Ebionite; while his followers, the Symmachians, are called also "Nazarenes" (Ambrosian, "Proem in Ep. ad Gal.," quoted in Hilgenfeld, "Ketzergesch." p. 441). It is especially difficult to distinguish the Nazarenes from the Ebionites. Jerome obtained the Gospel according to the Hebrews (which, at one time regarded as canonical, was later classed among the Apocrypha) directly from the Nazarenes, yet he ascribed it not only to them but also to the Ebionites ("Comm. in Matt." xii. 13). This gospel was written in Aramaic, not in Hebrew, but it was read exclusively by those born as Jews. Jerome quotes also fragments from the Nazarenic exposition of the Prophets (e.g., of Isa. viii. 23 [in the LXX. ix. 1]). These are the only literary remains of the Nazarenes; the remnants of the Gospel according to the Hebrews have recently been collated by Preuschen in "Antilegomena" (pp. 3-8, Giessen, 1901).
Jerome gives some definite information concerning the views of the Nazarenes ("Ep. lxxxix. ad Augustinum").
Jerome's Account.
"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 'Nazarenes'; 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."
The Nazarenes, then, recognized Jesus, though it appears from occasional references to them that they considered the Mosaic law binding only for those born within Judaism, while the Ebionites considered this law binding for all men (Hippolytus, "Comm. in Jes." i. 12). The Nazarenes therefore rejected Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. Some accordingly declared even that the Nazarenes were Jews, as, for instance, Theodoret ("Hær. Fab." ii. 2:
The term "Minæans," which Jerome applies to the Nazarenes, recalls the word "min," frequently used in rabbinical literature to designate heretics, chiefly the Christians still following Jewish customs; the Rabbis knew only Judæo-Christians, who were either Ebionites or Nazarenes. Hence they applied the name "Noẓri" to all Christians, this term remaining in Jewish literature down to the present time the designation for Christians. The ChurchFathers, Tertullian, for instance ("Adversus Marcion." iv. 8), knew this very well; and Epiphanius and Jerome say of a certain prayer alleged to be directed against the Christians that although the Jews say "Nazarenes" they mean "Christians" ("J. Q. R." v. 131). In the Koran also the Christians are called "Al-Naṣara." The name may be traced back to Nazareth, Jesus' birthplace. The Mandæans still designate themselves as "Nasoraya"; and they were formerly incorrectly regarded as the remnant of the Nazarenes (W. Brandt, "Die Mandäische Religion," p. 140, Leipsic, 1889).
Bibliography:
Fabricius, Cod. Apocryph. N. Test. i. 355;
Mosheim, Hist. Eccl. i. 153, Yverdon, 1776;
Jones, The New and Full Method of Settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament, i. 385;
Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergesch. des Urchristenthums, pp. 441-445, Leipsic, 1884;
idem, Judenthum und Judenchristenthum, pp. 32, 74, Leipsic, 1886;
Kaulen, in Wetzer-Welte's Kirchenlexicon;
Krauss, Das Leben Jesu nach Jüdischen Quellen, pp. 254 et seq., Berlin, 1902;
Rubin, in Ha-Eshkol, 1902, iv. 46;
G. R. S. Mead, Fragments of Faith Forgotten, p. 104, Berlin, 1902.