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Acts 24:5“For having found this man a plague, who stirs up dissension among all the Yehudim throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Natsarenes

The Nazarenes-Netzerim-Natzraya is the title that the early church gave themselves. The Talmud actually refers to them a few times. The Twelth prayer in the Amidah added by Gamiliel II was add against the Sectarians, the Sect of the Nazarenes-Netzerim-Natzraya. In the Talmud the early Messianic believers we’re called Saducee‘s, and Essene’s at times even Netzerim-Natzraya. Rashi did a job of restoring the title Netzerim-Natzraya where it had been removed.

“The Nazarenes do not differ in any essential thing from them (meaning the Orthodox Jews), since they practice the customs and doctrines prescribed by Jewish Law; except that they believe in Christ. They believe in the resurrection of the dead, and that the universe was created by God. They preach that God is One, and that Jesus Christ is His Son. They are very learned in the Hebrew language. They read the Law (meaning the Law of Moses)…. Therefore they differ…from the true Christians because they fulfill until now [such] Jewish rites as the circumcision, Sabbath and others.” Epiphanius, “Against Heresies,” Panarion 29, 7, pp 41, 402

So the Nazarenes-Netzerim-Natzraya practiced Jewish Halchah, followed Jewish Law, the preached the resurrection of the dead, that Adonai is Echad, the learned the Hebrew Language, the got circumcised, observed the Sabaath and read the Torah. The first annual torah reading cycle had been started around 63-67 BCE, the Triannual cycle wasn’t established by the Rabbi’s until the late first to mid second centuries. Much of the modern Messianic Movement looks like this. This is how my wife and I seek to follow Adonai.

“After I began studying the Scriptures in earnest, I read how the Christian Church Father Epiphanius had condemned a group he called the ‘Nazarenes.’ As a “Catholic Christian,” the reason he called the Nazarenes ‘heretics’ was that they practiced ‘Jewish’ Christianity. He said the reason he condemned them was that they still kept the original ‘Jewish’ rites of circumcision, the Sabbath, and the Laws of Moses.” Yosef ben Ruach ”Nazarene Israel”

I agree with Yosef ben Ruach that the Nazarenes-Netzerim-Natzraya we’re true Christians and that the later Byzantin Orthodox Pagan Psuedo-Christianity weren’t.

“Epiphanius lived and wrote in the early 300’s. Since he complained that the Nazarenes were keeping “until now such Jewish rites as the circumcision, Sabbath, and others”, it meant that a group called the Nazarenes was still doing those things in the fourth century CE. And, since Epiphanius was one of the main players in the formation of the Roman Catholic Church, it meant that the Catholic Christians were not the same group of people as the Nazarenes. Had they been the same, Epiphanius would not have called them ‘heretics.’ So what this said is that at least in the fourth century, the terms Christian and Nazarene were not synonymous: they did not refer to the same thing. We will talk later about why people think of them as being synonymous, but the real questions here are why the founders of the Roman Catholic Church called the Nazarenes ‘heretics’ and what that means for us today.” Yosef ben Ruach ”Nazarene Israel”

So we see that they existed until the Third and Fourth Century seperate from the Byzantine Orthodox Catholics. The Nazarenes-Netzerim-Natzraya still met in Synagogues and observed biblical traditions.

“”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.”

I would like to get a copy of this book the “Hebrew of the Nazarene Sect.” Its interesting that up to the 13th century that the Netzerim were mentioned.

“They (Nazarenes) are characterized essentially by their tenacious attachment to Jewish observances. If they became heretics in the eyes of the Mother Church, it is simply because they remained fixed on outmoded positions. They well represent, (even) though Epiphanius is energetically refusing to admit it, the very direct descendants of that primitive community, of which our author (Epiphanius) knows that it was designated by the Jews, by the same name, of ‘Nazarenes’. [First Century expert Marcel Simon, Judéo-christianisme, pp 47-48.]“

The Jews and Orthodox both recognized the Nazarenes who for all intense and purposes most likely were the true original disciples. James was the first head of the Jerusalem Council which was Yeshua’s Bet Din. In Luke we see Yeshua appoint 70 leaders to minister and prophecy much like when Moshe set up the Judges over Israel that eventually became the Sanhedrin. Yeshua set up His own Sanhedrin and it was called the Jerusalem Council. Following suit at the demise of the Temble the Pharisee’s set up the Council of Jamnia.

I want to take a look at Gabriele Boccaccini, teaches Oriental studies at the University of Turin in Italy, who does an excellent job of showing the historical context. He spends a considerable about of time writing of the beginning of the history of Jewish and Christian thought as they effect each other. Boccaccini focus on what he calls Middle Judaism due to the centrality of that time period for Christians and Jews. From the Maccabean revolt, to the rise of the Essene’s, in a period between the Hebrew Scripture and the later writings of Gospels and Epistle’s and their Jewish counterparts the Talmud and Mishna. The Rabbinic and Bynzatine Orthdox are both movements birthed out of Middle Judaism as a reaction to each other with a focus on ethnic identity of identifying with the promise’s of scripture. Let’s look a Middle Judaism and what Boccaccini says about this period.

The most essential period we must look into is Middle Judaism. Middle Judaism is the period of Judaism and Christianity that we must study. Boccaccini goes to show that both Rabbinic Judaism and Byzantine Orthodox Catholicism grew as a response to the early Messianic Judaism or Netzerim. Both sought to take their respective faith and give it their national identity. The Rabbinic sought to reclaim Judaism for Jews. Byzantines Orthodoxy sought to Romanticize the religion. The Coptics sought to make it more Egyptian and Ethiopian. It had more to do with national identity than biblical identity. It would be beneficial to pick up Boccaccini’s book “Middle Judaism” to study for yourself.

Boccaccini’s book is an excellent one if you can get you hands on to understand Judaism Yeshua’s time and how Rabbinic and Catholicism were birthed as reactions to the early Netzerim. Her are some profound excerpts from Boccaccini’s book that you should read and consider. Here are some experts that stand out to me:

“IS CHRISTIANITY (STILL) A JUDAISM?”
Gabriele Boccaccini - Middle Judaism, Jewish Thought 300 BCE to 200 CE
“Speaking of Christianity as one of the Judaisms of modern times may be shocking. In the first half of this century, the question as to whether Christianity was Jewish or Hellenistic was still being asked.

Scholars now agree on the Jewishness of Jesus and his Palestinian movement.

Most scholars also consider the first generation of Christians and its messianic claims on Jesus to be Jewish, the idea and necessity of a divine mediator being a Jewish
(apocalyptic or Essene) idea.

Some scholars prefer the term “Christian Judaism” to the more frequently used “Judeo-Christianity,” thus emphasizing that this phenomenon (still) belongs to Judaism.

Significantly, the problem has shifted from the original background of Christianity to the time and modalities of its emancipation from (or its betrayal of) Judaism.”

Flusser writes, “Without a doubt, Jesus and his message belong within the framework of the Judaism of his time: it is an inseparable part of it” (Judaism and the Origins of Christianity, xv).”

“The second stratum of early Christianity embodied in the so-called kerygma of the Christian hellenistic communities was indebted to Essenism. . . . The greatest part of the motifs in Paul, John and other New Testament epistles which previously were assumed to have been derived from Greek or Gnostic thought, now have been shown to have originated in Essene circles” (ibid., xviii, xx). According to A. F. Segal, “Most scholars assume that once Paul had converted, his writings became irrelevant to Judaism. This is simply not so: Paul wrote to a
brand-new Christian community that was still largely Jewish, giving us the only witness to a world of everyday Hellenistic Judaism now vanished” (Paul the Convert: The Apostolate and Apostasy of Saul the Pharisee [New Haven and London, 1990], xiii).”

“Furthermore, those scholars, such as Segal, A. Paul, D. Flusser, and H. G.
Perelmuter, who have pointed out the fraternal relationship between
Christianity and Rabbinism, suggest that, although one brother has remained in the parents’ house, the other has gone away. The question therefore has become, When and how did Christianity cease to be a Judaism? When and how did this former Jewish movement part from Judaism?”

“The question seems legitimate and the answer obvious: this happened when Christians forsook the practice of the law and Christianity became mostly a gentile movement.

But the idea of “the” Judaism as a religion linked to a defined people, absolutely free from any foreign cultural influence, and rooted in the legal obedience of the law came to us from Rabbinism— it is merely the rabbinic interpretation of Judaism. Espousing the
arguments of one of the parties certainly is not the correct way to try a suit about a contested heritage. Christianity and Rabbinism each had much to gain by disinheriting the other and by cutting off as soon as possible an unpleasant relationship. But a reciprocal excommunication cannot cancel the
truth of their common origin, nor has it the authority to sanction before the tribunal of history the idea that a Judaism is no longer a Judaism. The root of the problem lies in the question, Is it possible”

Perelmuter writes, “The short-range messianic movement out of Judaism became Christianity. The long-range messianic movement became Rabbinic Judaism“ (Siblings, 17). Flusser even takes up the parent-child pattern when speaking about the relationship between Christianity and modern Judaism: “Christianity is in the peculiar position of being a religion which, because of its Jewish roots, is obliged to be occupied with Judaism, while a Jew can fully live his Jewish religious life without wrestling with the problems of Christianity. . . . Christianity inherited from her mother [the common Jewish values] she developed in her own manner” (Judaism and the Origins of Christianity, 617 – 18 ).”

According to Sigal, “The main body of Christianity ceased to Jewish, not because of Paul’s theology or his alternative halakah, but because the church became predominandy gentile, and because the rabbis at Yavneh ca. 90 – 100 C.E. ran even Christian Jews out of Judaism for political reason” (Judaism, 80). S.J.D. Cohen writes: “Early Christianity ceased to be a Jewish sect when it ceased to observe Jewish practices. It abolished circumcision and became a religious
movement overwhelmingly gentile in composition and character. This process was accompanied by the elevation of Jesus to a position far higher and more significant than that
occupied by any intermediary figure in Judaism. Its practices no longer those of the Jews, its theology no longer that of the Jews, and its composition no longer Jewish, the Christianity of the early second century C.E. was no longer a Jewish phenomenon but a separate religion” (From the Maccabees to theMishnah [Philadelphia, 1987], 168). According to H. Maccoby: “Christianity developed as a separate religion only when it adopted the doctrine that Jesus was a divine being, and that salvation depended on identification with his sacrificial death, rather than in adherence to the Jewish or Noachian covenants. . . . There can be no doubt. . . that it was through this important change of doctrine that Christianity ceased to be part of the scene of first century Judaism” (Judaism in the First Century [London, 1989],.

It is striking to note that these three authors, in spite of their different approaches to the period, repeat the same word (which I have italicized in quotations) to express the same idea: Christianity was Jewish but
“ceased to be” such.”

“At the beginning of the Common Era some varieties of Hellenistic and apocalyptic Judaism were already close to what Christianity would later become. Their existence proves that this path was open—it would remain such even in Rabbinism, as the emergence of Reform Judaism in modern times shows.”

That was a long way of say that early Christian’s we’re Jewish connected to such groups as the Essenes through Peter and John, and the Pharisee’s through Peter. The late Gentile Church and Late Pharisee’s sought to take control of their respective movements and make them more conformed to national identity than spiritual identity. Many commentators on the early church associated the followers of the Disciples as Nazarenes-Netzerim-Natzraya.

“Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the New Law, (and) that He Himself has explicitly substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now entirely abandoned. … The Church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days.” [John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies (1 936), vol. 1, P. 51.]” Yosef ben Ruach-Nazarene Israel

Its interesting how the early Bynzatine Orthodox stole elements from Shabbat the Kiddush and ha Motzi, changed the Sabbath to a Sunday, and pervert the Liturgy and Halakhah into some psuedo blend of paganism repleat with sun-worship, worship of the Zodiac, Mithraism and Platonism.

“‘But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we (the Church) never sanctify.” [James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers, 88th ed., pp. 89.]” Yosef ben Ruach-Nazarene Israel

The early Bynzatine Orthodox had no spiritual or scriptural support for the changes they made. This is tragic and sinister. Its another reason that Catholic Orders like the Knights Templar, Knights of Christ, Knighst of Columbus, Rosicrucians and other sinister Cabals came out Cath-ohlism.

“Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept? “Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.” [Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed., p. 174.]” Yosef ben Ruach-Nazarene Israel

Other than being usurpers Adonai’s authority, sitting in the throne of Adonai’s and calling themselves Elohim they do not have the power yet the Pople claims to be Elohim on earth and his words are exalted to the level of Elohim.

Here are excerpts on Nazerene’s by Epiphanius, directly translated from his writing “Against Heresies:”

“Between the years 374-376 c.e. the Roman Catholic Bishop of Constantia Cyprus, wrote a book called “Panarion” (Medicine Box), concerning 80 various sects he considered to be heretical. In chapter 29 he wrote a critical description of the Natzraya interspersed with his own apologetics.” – Yeremyah Beard
“The author takes much opportunity to express the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church (e.g. the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary) while challenging Natzraya belief and practice – which appears to puzzle him.” – Yeremyah Beard
1:1 After these come Natzraya, who originated at the same time or even before, or in conjunction with them or after them. In any case they were their contemporaries. I cannot say more precisely who succeeded whom. For, as I said, these were contemporary with each other, and had similar notions.
1:2 For this group did not name themselves after Christ or with Jesus’ own name, but “Natzraya.”
1:3 However, at that time all Christians were called Natzraya in the same way. They also came to be called “Jessaeans” 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, but Mary from David’s line. This was in fulfillment of sacred scripture, for in the Old Testament the LORD tells David, ”Of the fruit of thy belly shall I set upon thy throne. ”
4:9 And there is much to say about this. However, since I have come to the reason why those who came to faith in Christ were called Jessaeans before they were called Christians, I have 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, as 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,” and “savior.”
4:10 In any case, they had acquired this additional 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 assembly of God began to be called Christians.
5:1 If you enjoy study and have read about them in Philo’s historical writings, in his book entitled ”Jessaeans,” you may discover that, in his account of their way of life and hymns, and his description of their monasteries in the vicinity of the Marean marsh, Philo described none other than Christians.
5:2 For he was edified by his visit to the area-the place is called Mareotis and his entertainment at their monasteries in the region.
5:3 He arrived during Passover and observed their customs, and how some of them kept the holy week of Passover (only) after a postponement of it, but others by eating every other day though others, indeed, ate each evening. But Philo wrote all this of the faith and regimen of the Christians.
5:4 So in that brief period when they were called Jessaeans after the Savior’s ascension, and after Mark had preached in Egypt certain other persons seceded,” though they were followers of the apostles if you please. I mean the Natzraya, whom I am presenting here. They were Jewish, were attached to the Law, and had circumcision.
5:6 For by hearing just the name of Jesus, and seeing the miracles the apostles performed, they came to faith in Jesus themselves. But they found that he had been conceived at Natzrat and brought up in Joseph’s home, and for this reason is called “Yeshua Natzraya’‘ In the Gospel as the apostles say, “Yeshua Natzraya, a man approved by signs and wonders” and so on. Hence they adopted this name, so as to be called Natzraya.
5:7 Not ”nazirites”-that means “consecrated persons.” Anciently this rank belonged to firstborn sons and men dedicated to God. Samson was one, and others after him, and many before. Moreover, Yohanan the Baptist too was one of these persons consecrated to God, for “He drank neither wine nor strong drink.” (This regimen, befitting their rank, was prescribed for persons of that sort.)
6:1 They did not call themselves Nasaraeans either; the Nasaraean sect was before Christ, and did not know Christ.
6:2 But besides, as I indicated, everyone called the Christians “Natzraya”, as they say in accusing the apostle Paul, “We have found this man a pestilent fellow and a perverter of the people, a ring-leader of the sect of the Natzraya.”
6:3 And the holy apostle did not disclaim the name not to profess the Natzraya sect, 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 .”
6:5 And no wonder the apostle admitted to being a Natzar! In those days everyone called Christians this because of the city of Natzrat there was no other usage of the name then. People thus gave the name of Natzraya to believers in Christ, of whom it is written, “He shall be called a Natzar.”
6:7 Thus Christ’s holy disciples called themselves “disciples of Jesus” then, as indeed they were. But they were not rude when others called them Natzraya, since they saw the intent of those who called them this. They did it because of Christ, since our Lord Jesus was called Natzraya himself so say the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles-
6:8 because of his upbringing in Joseph’s home in the city Of Natzrat, which is now a village. Though he was born in the flesh at Beth Lehem, of the ever-virgin Mary, Joseph’s betrothed. Joseph had settled in Natzrat after leaving Beth Lehem and taking up residence in Galilee.
7:1 But these sectarians whom I am now sketching disregarded the name of Jesus, and did not call themselves Jessaeans, keep the name of Jews, or term themselves Christians but [rather] Natzraya‘ from the place-name, Natzrat, if you please! However they are simply completed Jews.
7:2 They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well,: as the Jews do. For unlike the previous sectarians, they do not repudiate the legislation, the prophets, and the books Jews call ”Writings.” They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in the Jewish fashion, except for their belief in Christ, if you please!
7:3 For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that God is one, and that his Son is Jesus Christ.
7:4 They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew. For among them 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, as they surely are by Jews.
7:5 They are different from Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following. They disagree with Jews because they have come to faith in Christ; but since they are still fettered by the Law, circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest, they are not in accord with Christians.
7:6 As to Christ, I cannot say whether they too are captives of the wickedness of Cerinthus and Merinthus, and regard him as a mere man or whether, as the truth is, they affirm his birth of Mary by the Holy Spirit.
7:7 Today this sect of the Natzraya is found in Beroea near Coelesyria, in the Decapolis near Pella, and in Bashanitis at the place called Cocabe-Khokhabe in Hebrew.
7:8 For that was its place of origin, since all the disciples had settled in Pella after they left Jerusalem, Christ told them to abandon Jerusalem and withdraw from it because of its coming siege. And they settled in Peraea for this reason and, as I said, spent their lives there. That was where the Natzari sect began.
8:1 But they too are wrong to boast of circumcision, and persons like themselves are still ”under a curse, ” since they cannot fulfill the Law.  For how can they fulfil the Law’s provision, “Thrice a year you shall appear before the LORD your God, at the feasts of Unleavened Bread, Tabernacles and Pentecost,” on the site of Jerusalem?
8:5 For I have discussed this many times before, in every sect, in connection with the Sabbath, circumcision and the rest how the Lord has granted something more perfect to us.
8:6 But how can people like these defend their disobedience of the Holy Spirit, who has told gentile converts, through the apostles, “Assume no burden except the necessary things, that you abstain from blood, and from things strangled, and fornication, and from meats offered to idols?”"‘
9:1 In this Sect too, my brief discussion will be enough. People like these are refutable at once and easy to cure or rather, they are nothing but Jews themselves.
9:2 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 Natzraya.”
9:3 For they harbor an extra grudge against them, if you please, because despite their Jewishness, they preach that Jesus is Christ, the opposite of those who are still Jews, for they have not accepted Jesus.
9:4 They have the Gospel according to Matthew in its entirety in Hebrew . For it is clear that they still preserve this, in the Hebrew alphabet, as it was originally written. But I do not know whether they have removed just the genealogies from Abraham to Christ.

Wow that’s a lot to say. I felt the need to present some academic source and information regarding the historical and academic resource regarding the early Messianic Jewish movement. I hope this helps. Not Epiphanius does call the Natzari sect a heresy but as he had assimilated to the Christo-pagan Byzantine Orthodox “whore of Babylon” I would say he was apart of a heresy. Anyways I hope you find this article informative and the information useful.

Shalom and Blessings,

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