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Nazarene Jewish Christianity NAZARENE JEWISH CHRISTIANITY Chapter !ree - Epiphanius Chapter Four - Jerome From the End of the New Testament Period Until Chapter Five - Patristic Evidence a"er Jerome Its Disappearance in the Fourth Century Chapter Six - !e Gospel According to the Hebrews Chapter Seven - Jewish Sources Summary and Conclusions Appendixes I - Epiphanius, panarion 29 by II - Geography III - !e Historicity of the Pella Tradition Ray A. Pritz List of Abbreviations Bibliography Indices Scripture References Jewish Sources Christian Sources Modern Authors Subjects THE MAGNES PRESS, THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY, JERUSALEM PREFACE !is book arose out of a fascination with that elusive First Edition, 1988 enigma called Jewish Christianity. I first encountered it Reprinted, 1992 under other names as a modern phenomenon. Many of its adherents would claim a continuity of community over the centuries in various places and forms. While ISBN 965-223-798-1 this may prove to be a less-than-tenable position, it is clear that sca#ered across the pages of relations © between Judaism and Christianity are numerous Jews Copyright 1992 by !e Magnes Press who, for a wide spectrum of reasons, have a#ached !e Hebrew University, Jerusalem themselves to the Christian faith. !ese too range wide- ly, from the self-hating Donins and Pfefferkorns of the All rights reserved. No part of this book may be later middle ages to the Edersheims and Chwolsons of reproduced or translated in any form, by print, more recent times, men proud of their Jewish heritage photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or any other and whose scholarly contributions le" no small mark on means without wri"en permission from the publisher. the search for Christian origins. A comprehensive study of both phenomena is still desirable. !e subject of this book was suggested to me over Christmas dinner by Randall Buth. While I was sur- CONTENTS prised to find that no comprehensive monograph had been done on the Nazarenes, the present study is only a Preface small step in that direction. Introduction Chapter One - !e Name of the Sect I would like to thank Prof. David Rokeah of the Hebrew Chapter Two - Christian Sources before Epiphanius University for his faithful advice and assistance both Pritz, R. A. (1992). Nazarene Jewish Christianity: from the end of the New Testament period until its disappearance in the fourth century. Jerusalem: !e Magnes Press. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:53 PM January 12, 2016. 1 during and a"er the completion of this work. I am also that of some free-thinking individual. It has been the grateful to Dr. Wesley Brown for pu#ing at my disposal interest of the present writer for the past few years to both the equipment and a quiet place to use it while I trace whatever remains can be found of the heirs of that was preparing the final manuscripts. And finally, none first Jewish church in Jerusalem, those who “continued of the work would have been accomplished without the in the apostles’ doctrine.” One event which would seem generous financial assistance of the Memorial Founda- to provide the first link between that Jerusalem congre- tion for Jewish Studies and the Warburg Foundation. gation and the Jewish Christianity of patristic writings is the reported flight to Pella of the Decapolis.3 !is move Jerusalem, 1987 to Pella was undertaken, according to Epiphanius, by the sect known as the Nazoraioi (Nazarenes). Or, as Epiphanius would rather express it, the Nazarenes were the descendants of those Jerusalem believers who fled to 4 Introduction Pella. If this notice of the Bishop of Salamis is correct, then we have the desired link and identity of the Jewish In the course of the last century there has grown an Christian sect which we should investigate. ever-increasing interest among Church historians in Curiously enough, investigative scholarship has dealt 5 the phenomenon known as Jewish Christianity.1 !e rel- almost entirely with Ebionism, and to date no compre- ative newness of interest and complexity of the problem hensive monographic work has been dedicated to the 6 is shown by the large number of articles and chapters Nazarenes, nor even to such later “Jewish Christian” which have been wri#en just a#empting to establish a sects as the Symmachians or Elkesaites. It is the aim of definition of Jewish Christianity.2 In the end it may the present work to start filling these lacunae. prove fruitless to define it because it is so varied, but all should agree that needless argument over the differing concepts of “Jewish Christianity” can be avoided. To the student of Early Christianity one thing becomes quickly Chapter One apparent: in the early centuries there were many off- !e Name of the Sect shoot sects having some connection both to New Testa- ment and to Jewish thought. !e earliest documentary reference to “Nazarene” as Even in the writings of some of the Church Fathers applied to a person is in the New Testament, and refers from the third and fourth centuries and later, this pro- to Jesus.1 We do not find it in Paul’s writings, which are liferation of “Jewish Christian” sects led to confusion commonly acknowledged to be the earliest of the New and to the confounding of different sects under the Testament canon, just as we do not find there the name name “Ebionite.” So convenient (and subtle) was this “Christian,” (which is found only in Acts 11:26, 26:28, and that it has caused not a few modern scholars to make the 1 Pet. 4:16). Likewise, the earliest reference to a sect of mistake of thinking that if we can box in the phe- Nazarenes occurs in Acts 24:5, when it is used by Tertul- nomenon known as Ebionism we will have defined lus, Paul’s “prosecutor.” While it can be argued that the Jewish Christianity. But Ebionism was not the direct heir lawyer Tertullus invented the name for the occasion,2 of the Jewish apostolic church; it was at best only third there is a tradition as early as Tertullian3 that an early generation, and to reconcile its doctrines with those of name for Christians was Nazarenes, and his claim is the New Testament requires no small amount of mental borne out by the earliest name in the various semitic gymnastics. languages. Obviously the name of the sect came from the All of the first Christians were Jews, either by birth or title NAZORAIOS/-NAZARENOS, evidently applied to by conversion, and yet within a hundred years of the Jesus from the beginning of his public ministry. report that tens of thousands “from the circumcision” had believed in Jesus as Messiah, there remained only Ma!hew 2:23 small, despised pockets of Jewish Christians, and of the- se a large percentage seem to have been adherents to var- While it is not central to the theme of this study, it will ious late-blooming hybrids of Christian teaching with prove worthwhile to take a look at the origins of this name. !e key verse is Ma#hew 2:23, in which it is stat- Pritz, R. A. (1992). Nazarene Jewish Christianity: from the end of the New Testament period until its disappearance in the fourth century. Jerusalem: !e Magnes Press. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:53 PM January 12, 2016. 2 ed that Joseph brought Jesus to live in Nazareth that it first—without any explanation—that the name came might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets “He from Jesse, the father of David. !en he wavers, and con- shall be called a Nazarene.” !e difficulty is, of course, cedes that it might have come from the name of Jesus, that no particular prophet says any such thing. It is a giving the impression that he has only the fact of the ear- commonplace of scriptural criticism that Ma#hew ly name before him without anything but his own con- quotes “the prophets,”4 which may mean the general jectures to explain it.11 Now if it is true that Nazarenes is sense of prophecy rather than one particular reference. an earlier name than Christians, as we are told by sever- While this may be true, the general sense itself is based al Church fathers,12 we must assume that the two on specific prophetic statements. What passage or pas- pre-“Christian” names were in use simultaneously, if sages of the Old Testament are both messianic in con- Epiphanius is correct. !e Greek name, Christian, was tent and somehow connected to the name of Nazareth? first applied in Antioch, probably the earliest mission to !e solutions which have been proffered are legion, non-Jews, and it is well known that “Christian” was orig- and it is happily not necessary to go through them all inally used by non-Christians to designate believers here,5 since this has been done recently by R.H. Gundry6 among the Gentiles, while “Nazarenes” was already used who deals with the various solutions in their natural in Palestine to describe Jewish adherents to the new groupings. A%er treating several minor suggestions and messianic sect. noting their failings, he considers two major theories. Few passages in the Old Testament are more mes- First, the references in Judges 13:5, 7, and 16:17 to the sianic—even in their early interpretation by Jewish naziriteship of Samson; and secondly, the recent idea exegetes13—than Isa. 11:1–10. !e phrase in question .ויצא חטר מגזע ישי ונצר משרשיו יפרה that the name came from an earlier Mandaean name reads perhaps through John the Baptist. !e first possibility One immediately notices the juxtaposition of the words was already noted and rejected by Epiphanius (pan.
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