I have been stuck in an “Early Christianity” rabbit hole lately and I keep running into mentions of these “Nazoraeans”. But finally I have stumbled upon a couple of good contemporary writings from antiquity.
My favorite sources are those written as close to the time of the thing I am researching as possible, now I realize that even better are sources not only written at the time, but these, that are written by the enemies of the “sect” that I am researching!
In 375 AD, Epiphanius, the bishop of Salamis, wrote Panarion (Against Heresies). One of the sects included is the Nazoraeans, Epiphanius does an in-depth sketch of them and their beliefs in his time.
In this essay, Epiphanius mentions an incident in Paul’s life that I had been looking at
in Acts 24. In about 60 AD, Paul is accused of being “a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes”, in his defense Paul says, “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect [heresy in KJV] I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”
The Nazoraeans that Epiphanius describes sound very similar to what Paul says of his own beliefs in Acts 24.
And in 404 AD, revered church father Jerome, while living in Bethlehem writes in a letter to Augustine how the Nazarenes are worshiping throughout all the synagogues of the East, and the way he describes them they sound like the same sect of believers:
“The matter in debate, therefore, or I should rather say your opinion regarding it, is summed up in this: that since the preaching of the gospel of Christ, the believing Jews do well in observing the precepts of the law, i.e. in offering sacrifices as Paul did, in circumcising their children, as Paul did in the case of Timothy, and keeping the Jewish Sabbath, as all the Jews have been accustomed to do. … In our own day there exists a sect among the Jews throughout all the synagogues of the East, which is called the sect of the Minei, and is even now condemned by the Pharisees. The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarenes; they believe in Christ the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; and they say that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again, is the same as the one in whom we believe. But while they desire to be both Jews and Christians, they are neither the one nor the other.” – https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102075.htm
Epiphanius says that he doesn’t know if they believe that Jesus is the son of God or not. But, he thinks they are a stinging insect that is small, and yet causes pain with its poison—and need to be squashed.
If they believe that Jesus is the Christ and that He and the Father are one, WHY all the hatred?
Doesn’t Jesus say “for whoever is not against us is for us.”?
I have decided that I can say at this point, just like Paul did, that “I am a Nazoraean”, and “I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets and having a hope in God”
The translation of Epiphanius below is by Frank Williams, published in 2009, his footnotes are included. Williams believes that this essay “seems to be based on Epiphanius’ personal knowledge, though the history seems conjectured from passages in scripture and Eusebius.” –
The Panarion: A Treatise Against Eighty by Epiphanius of Salamis
Against the Nazoraeans1
1:1 Next after these come the Nazoraeans, at the same time as they or even before them—either together with them or after them, in any case their contemporaries. I cannot say more precisely who succeeded whom. For, as I said, these were contemporary with each other, and had ideas similar to each other’s.
1:2 For these people did not give themselves the name of Christ2 or Jesus’ own name, but that of ‘Nazoraeans.’
1:3 But at that time all Christians alike were called Nazoraeans. They also came to be called ‘Jessaeans’3 for a short while, before the disciples began to be called Christians at Antioch.
1:4 But they were called Jessaeans because of Jesse, I suppose, since David was descended from Jesse and Mary was a lineal descendant of David. This was in fulfilment of sacred scripture, since in the Old Testament the Lord tells David, ‘Of the fruit of thy belly shall I set upon thy throne.’
2:1 I am afraid of drawing the treatment of every expression out too long and so, though the truth moves me to touch on the considerations for contemplation in every expression, I give this note in brief, not to go to great length in giving the explanation.
2:2 Since the Lord said to David, ‘Of the fruit of thy belly shall I set upon the throne,’ and, ‘The Lord sware unto David and will not repent,’4 it is plain that God’s promise is irrevocable.
2:3 In the first place, what does God have to swear by but ‘By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord?’6 —for ‘God hath no oath by a greater.’6 The divine does not swear, however, but the statement has the function of providing confirmation. For the Lord swore to David with an oath that he would set the fruit of his belly upon his throne.
2:4 And the apostles bear witness that Christ had to be born of David’s seed, as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ indeed was. I shall pass over the vast number of testimonies, in order, as I said, not to drag the discussion out to great length.
2:5 But probably someone might say, ‘Since Christ was physically born of David’s seed, that is, of the Holy Virgin Mary, why is he not sitting on David’s throne? For the Gospel says, ‘They came that they might anoint him king, and when Jesus perceived this he departed … and hid himself in Ephraim, a city of the wilderness.’ ‘7
2:6 But now that I have gotten to this passage and am asked about this text and the reason why the prophecy about sitting on David’s throne has not been fulfilled physically in the Saviour’s case—for some have thought that it has not—I shall still say that it is a fact. No word of God’s holy scripture comes to nothing.
3:1 For David’s throne and kingly seat is the priesthood in the holy church. The Lord has combined this kingly and high priestly rank and conferred it on his holy church by transferring David’s throne to it, never to fail.
3:2 In time past David’s throne continued by succession until Christ himself, since the rulers from Judah did not fail until he came ‘for whom are the things prepared, and he is the expectation of the nations,’8 as scripture says.
3:3 For the rulers in succession from Judah came to an end with Christ’s arrival. Until he came the rulers were anointed priests,9 but after his birth in Bethlehem of Judea the order ended and was altered10 in the time of Alexander, a ruler of priestly and kingly stock.
3:4 This position died out with this Alexander from the time of Salina also known as Alexandra, in the time of King Herod and the Roman emperor Augustus. (Though this Alexander was crowned also, as one of the anointed priests and rulers.11
3:5 For when the two tribes, the kingly and priestly, were united—I mean the tribe of Judah with Aaron and the whole tribe of Levi—kings also became priests, for nothing hinted at in holy scripture can be wrong.)12
3:6 But then finally a gentile, King Herod, was crowned, and not David’s descendants any more.
3:7 But with the transfer of the royal throne the rank of king passed, in Christ, from the physical house of David and Israel to the church.13 The throne is established in God’s holy church forever, and has both the kingly and the high-priestly rank for two reasons.
3:8 It has the kingly rank from our Lord Jesus Christ, in two ways: because he is physically descended from King David, and because he is in fact a greater king from all eternity in virtue of his Godhead. But it has the priestly rank because Christ himself is high priest and the founder of the office14 of the high priests
3:9 since James, who was called the Lord’s brother and who was his apostle, was immediately15 made the first bishop.16 He was Joseph’s son by birth, but was ranked as the Lord’s brother because of their upbringing together.
4:1 For this James was Joseph’s son by Joseph’s first wife,17 not by Mary, as I have said in many other places18 and dealt with more clearly for you.
4:2 And moreover I find that he was of Davidic descent because of being Joseph’s son, and that he was born a Nazirite—for he was Joseph’s first-born, and (thus) consecrated.19 And I have found further that he also functioned as (high)-priest in the ancient priesthood.20
4:3 Thus he was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies once a year, as scripture says the Law directed the high priests to do. For many before me—Eusebius, Clement and others—have reported this of him.
4:4 He was allowed to wear the priestly tablet21 besides, as the trustworthy authors I mentioned have testified in those same historical writings.
4:5 Now our Lord Jesus Christ, as I said, is ‘priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,’22 and at the same time hereditary king, so that he may transfer the priesthood along with the lawgiving.
4:6 And since David’s seed, through Mary, is seated on the throne, his throne endures forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end. He should now transfer the order of the former kingship; for indeed his kingdom is not earthly, as he said to Pontius Pilate in the Gospel, ‘My Kingdom is not of this world.’23
4:7 For since Christ brings to fulfilment24 all the things (that have been said) in riddles, the preliminaries have reached a limit. For he who is always king did not come to achieve sovereignty. He granted the crown to those whom he appointed—lest it be thought that he advanced from a lower estate to a higher.
4:8 For his throne endures, of his kingdom there shall be no end, and he is seated on the throne of David and has transferred David’s kingship and granted it, together with the high priesthood, to his own servants, the high priests of the catholic church.
4:9 And there is much to say about this. But in any case, since I have come to the topic of the reason why those who had come to faith in Christ were called Jessaeans before they were called Christians, we said that Jesse was the father of David. And they had been named Jessaeans, either because of this Jesse; or from the name or our Lord Jesus since, being his disciples, they were derived from Jesus; or because of the etymology of the Lord’s name. For in Hebrew Jesus means ‘healer’ or ‘physician,’25 and ‘saviour.’
4:10 In any case, they had got this name before they were called Christians. But at Antioch, as I have mentioned before and as is the essence of the truth, the disciples and the whole church of God began to be called Christians.
5:126 If you enjoy study and have read the passage about them in Philo’s historical writings, in his book entitled ‘Jessaeans,’ you can find that, in giving his account of their way of life and their hymns and describing their monasteries in the vicinity of the Marean marsh, Philo described none other than Christians.27
5:2 For when he visited the area—the place is called Mareotis—and was entertained by them at their monasteries in the region, he was edified.
5:3 He arrived there during Passover and observed their customs, and how some of them put off (eating) throughout the holy week of Passover, though others ate every other day and others, indeed, each evening.28 But all this has been written by Philo on the subject of the Christians’ faith and regimen.
5:4 So when they were called Jessaeans then shortly after the Saviour’s ascension and after Mark had preached in Egypt,29 in those times certain other persons, supposed followers of the apostles, seceded in their turn. I mean the Nazoraeans, whom I am discussing here. They were Jewish, were attached to the Law, and had circumcision.
5:5 But it was as though people had seen fire under a misapprehension. Not understanding why, or for what use, the persons who had kindled this fire were doing it—either to cook their rations with the fire, or burn some dead trees and brush, which are usually destroyed by fire—they kindled fire too, in imitation, and set themselves ablaze.
5:6 For by hearing just Jesus’ name, and seeing the miracles performed by the hands of the apostles, they came to faith in Jesus themselves. And since they found that he had been conceived at Nazareth and brought up in Joseph’s home, and for this reason is called ‘Jesus the Nazoraean’ in the Gospel—as the apostles say, ‘Jesus the Nazoraean, a man approved by signs and wonders,’30 and so on—they adopted this name, so as to be called Nazoreans.
5:7 Not ‘Nazirites’—that means ‘consecrated persons.’ Anciently this rank belonged to firstborn sons and men who had been dedicated to God. Samson was one, and others after him, and many before him. Moreover, John the Baptist too was one of these same persons who were consecrated to God, for ‘He drank neither wine nor strong drink.’31 (This regimen, an appropriate one for their rank, was prescribed for such persons.)
6:1 They did not call themselves Nasaraeans either; the sect of Nasaraeans was before Christ and did not know Christ.
6:2 But besides, as I have indicated, everyone called the Christians Nazoraeans, as they say in accusing Paul the apostle, ‘We have found this man a pestilent fellow and a perverter of the people, a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazoraeans.’32
6:3 And the holy apostle did not disclaim the name—not to profess these people’s heresy, but he was glad to own the name his adversaries’ malice had applied to him for Christ’s sake.
6:4 For he says in court, ‘They neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, nor have I done any of those things whereof they accuse me. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I, believing all things in the Law and the prophets.’33
6:5 And no wonder the apostle admitted to being a Nazoraean! In those days everyone called Christians this because of the city of Nazareth—there was no other usage of the name at the time. And so people gave the name of ‘Nazoraeans’ to believers in Christ, of whom it is written, ‘because he shall be called a Nazoraean.’34
6:6 Even today in fact, people call all the sects, I mean Manichaeans, Marcionites, Gnostics and others, by the common name of ‘Christians,’ though they are not Christians. However, although each sect has another name, it still allows this one with pleasure, since the name is an ornament to it. For they think they can preen themselves on Christ’s name—certainly not on Christ’s faith and works!
6:7 Thus Christ’s holy disciples too called themselves ‘disciples of Jesus’ then, as indeed they were. But when others called them Nazoraeans they did not reject it, being aware of the intent of those who were calling them that. They were calling them Nazoraeans because of Christ, since our Lord Jesus was called ‘the Nazoraean’ himself—as the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles say—
6:8 because of his upbringing in the city of Nazareth (now a village) in Joseph’s home, after having been born in the flesh at Bethlehem, of the ever-virgin Mary, Joseph’s betrothed. For Joseph had settled in Nazareth after leaving Bethlehem and taking up residence in Galilee.
7:1 But these same sectarians whom I am discussing here disregarded the name of Jesus, and neither called themselves Jessaeans, kept the name of Jews, nor termed themselves Christians—but ‘Nazoraeans’ supposedly from the name of the place ‘Nazareth.’ But they are Jews in every way and nothing else.
7:2 They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do. For they do not repudiate the legislation, the prophets, and the books which are called Writings by the Jews and by themselves. They have no different views but confess everything in full accord with the doctrine of the Law and like the Jews, except that they are supposedly believers in Christ.
7:3 For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and that all things have been created by God,35 and they declare that God is one, and that his Son is Jesus Christ.
7:4 They are perfectly versed in the Hebrew language, for the entire Law, the prophets, and the so-called Writings—I mean the poetic books, Kings, Chronicles, Esther and all the rest—are read in Hebrew among them, as of course they are among the Jews.
7:5 They are different from Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following ways. They disagree with Jews because of their belief in Christ; but they are not in accord with Christians because they are still fettered by the Law—circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest.36
7:6 As to Christ, I cannot say whether they too are misled by the wickedness of Cerinthus and Merinthus, and regard him as a mere man—or whether, as the truth is, they affirm that he was born of Mary by the Holy Spirit.
7:7 This sect of Nazoraeans is to be found in Beroea37 near Coelesyria, in the Decapolis near Pella, and in Bashanitis at the place called Cocabe38—Khokhabe in Hebrew.
7:8 For that was its place of origin, since all the disciples had settled in Pella after their remove from Jerusalem—Christ having told them to abandon Jerusalem and withdraw from it39 because of the siege it was about to undergo. And they settled in Peraea for this reason and, as I said, lived their lives there. It was from this that the Nazoraean sect had its origin.
8:1 But they too are wrong to boast of circumcision, and persons like themselves are still ‘under a curse,’40 since they cannot fulfil the Law. For how will they be able to fulfil the Law’s provision, ‘Thrice a year thou shalt appear before the Lord thy God, at the feasts of Unleavened Bread, Tabernacles and Pentecost,’41 on the site of Jerusalem?
8:2 For since the site is closed off,42 and the Law’s provisions cannot be fulfilled, it must be plain to anyone with sense that Christ came to be the fulfiller of the Law—not to destroy the Law but to fulfil the Law—and to lift the curse that had been pronounced on transgression of the Law.
8:3 For after Moses had given every commandment he came to the end of the book and ‘included the whole in a curse’43 by saying, ‘Cursed is he that continueth not in all the words that are written in this book to do them.’44
8:4 Hence Christ came to free what had been fettered with the bonds of the curse by granting us, in place of the lesser commandments which cannot be fulfilled, ones which are greater and which are not inconsistent with the completion of the task as the former ones were.
8:5 For often in every Sect, when I reached the point, I have explained in connection with the Sabbath, circumcision and the rest, how the Lord has granted us something more perfect.
8:6 But how can people like these be defensible since they have not obeyed the Holy Spirit who said through the apostles to gentile converts, ‘Assume no burden save the necessary things, that ye abstain from blood, and from things strangled, and fornication, and from meats offered to idols?’45
8:7 And how can they fail to lose the grace of God, when the holy apostle Paul says, ‘If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing …. whosoever of you do glory in the Law are fallen from grace?’46
9:1 In this Sect too, my brief discussion will be sufficient. People of their kind are refutable at once and easy to detect and, rather (than being heretical Christians), are Jews and nothing else.
9:2 Yet to the Jews they are very much enemies. Not only do Jewish people bear hatred against 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—saying three times a day, ‘God curse the Nazoraeans.’47
9:3 For they harbour a further grudge against them, if you please, because despite their Jewish origin, they preach that Jesus is the Christ—something that is the opposite of those who are still Jews and have not accepted Jesus.
9:4 They have the Gospel according to Matthew in its entirety in Hebrew.48 For it is clear that they still preserve this as it was originally written, in the Hebrew alphabet. But I do not know whether they have also excised the genealogies from Abraham till Christ.
9:5 But now that we have also detected this sect—like a stinging insect that is small, and yet causes pain with its poison—and have squashed it with the words of the truth, let us go on to the next, beloved, praying for help from God.
1 – See p. 47 n. 27. This Sect seems to be based on Epiph’s personal knowledge, though he has conjectured its history from passages in scripture and Eusebius.
2 – Eusebius, at H. E. 2.17.4 says that the first Christians were not everywhere known as such.
3 – Epiphanius bases this on his memory of the term Ἐσσαῖοι which Philo uses at Vita Contemplativa 1 for the group Eusebius calls Therapeutae. On the subject see Pourkier p. 113.
4 – Ps 109:4
5 – Gen 22:16
6 – Cf. Heb 6:13.
7 – Cf. John 6:15; 11:54.
8 – Gen 49:10
9 – Cf. Jer. Chron. 160,16-17 (Helm).
10 – Cf. Eus. Chron. 61,12-14 (Karst); Jer. Chron. 148,6-8 (Helm). Eusebius’ Chronicle might be the source of Epiphanius’ explanation.
11 – Another version of this is found at Jer. Chron. 148,11-14 (Helm).
12 – This might have come from Orig. Hom. in Sam. Frgt. 4 (Klostermann, SC 3, p. 296) καταγνοὺς οῦν τοῦ Σαοὺλ καὶ βουλόμενος τῷ Δαυὶδ τὰ τῆς ἀρχῆς καὶ τῷ σπέρματι αὐτοῦ φυλᾶξαι τὴν βασιλείαν διὰ τὸν ἐξ αὐτοῦ τεχθησόμενον κατὰ σάρκα βασιλέα τῆς κτίσεως ἁπάσης
13 – The substance of this argument appears at a Justin Apol. 32.1-3; Dial. 11.4; 52.2-4; 120.3-5; 126.1; Iren. 4.10.2; Eus. H. E. 1.6.1-2; 4; 8; Demonstratio 7.
14 – πρύτανις
15 – Eus. H. E. 2.1-2
16 – I.e., thus confirming the fact that Christ was πρύτανις of high priests
17 – Cf. Jer. Vir. Ill. 2. Jerome believes he was the son of “Mary, the sister of the Lord’s mother” (Richardson p. 7).
18 – For example at Ancoratus 60,1 ff
19 – Eus. H. E. 2.23.5
20 – Eus. H. E. 2.23
21 – This is said of John at Eus. H. E. 3.31.3.
22 – Heb 5:6
23 – John 18:36
24 – I.e., Heb 3:5
25 – ‘Healer’ or ‘physician’ might be what Epiph, with his knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic, makes of θεραπευταί. See below and cf. Eus. H. E. 2.17.3 ἤτoι παρὰ τὸ τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν πρoσιόντων αὐτoῖς τῶν ἀπὸ κακίας παθῶν ἰατρῶv δίκηv … θεραπεύειv.
26 – 5,1-2 is based on Eus. H. E. 2.17.1-24.
27 – Epiph here conflates Eus. H. E. 2.17.16-17 with 2.17.21-22.
28 – Eus. H. E. 2.17.8
29 – See Eus. H. E. 16.1-17.1.
30 – Acts 2:22
31 – Luke 1:15
32 – Acts 24:5
33 – Acts 24:12-14
34 – Matt 2:23
35 – This is said of the Ebionites at Iren. 1.26.2. Cf. Hipp. Refut. 7.34.1; PsT 3.
36 – Cf. Iren. 1.26.2 (of the Ebionites); Eus. H. E. 3,27.3.
37 – Cf. Jer. Vir. Ill.3 (Richardson p. 9).
38 – Cf. Eus. H. E. 17.14.
39 – Cf. Eus. H. E. 3.5.3.
40 – Gal 3:10
41 – Cf. Gal 3:22.
42 – Cf. Justin Apol. I 47.5-6.
43 – Cf. Gal 3:22.
44 – Gal 3:10 and Deut 27:26
45 – Acts 15:28-29
46 – Gal 5:2-4
47 – Some variation of the prayer, ‘For the apostates let there be no hope, and let the rule of wickedness be uprooted swiftly, in our days, and let the notsrim ( נצרים , Christians) and sectarians (מינים) perish in an instant,’ etc. is found in the great majority of the liturgical MSS of the Cairo Genizah See Pourkier, and especially Ehrlich and Langer, ‘Earliest Texts,’ pp. 63-112. For Christian references to the prayer, see Justin Dial. 16; 47; Jer. In Isa 5:18-19 (Adriaen, CC 73 p. 76); Orig. Cels. 2.29.
48 – Cf. Eus. H. E. 3.24.6; 39.16; 5.10.3; Theophania 4.12; Jer. Vir. Ill. 3; C. Pelag. 3.2. The Ebionites are said to use the Gospel according to Matthew and none other at Iren. 1.26.2; Eus. H. E. 3.27.4.
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