Was There a Historical Jesus of Nazareth?: The Use of Midrash to Create a Biographical Detail in the Gospel Story by S Acharya & D.M. Murdock

Author:S, Acharya & D.M., Murdock [S, Acharya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stellar House Publishing
Published: 2014-08-07T16:00:00+00:00

Nazara as ‘the Truth’

The concept of “the Nazoraios” as a religious title, rather than serving as a demonym of a historical individual, is exemplified also in the non-canonical Gospel of Philip:

The apostles who were before us had these names for him: “Jesus, the Nazorean, Messiah,” that is, “Jesus, the Nazorean, the Christ.” The last name is “Christ,” the first is “Jesus,” that in the middle is “the Nazarene.” “Messiah” has two meanings, both “the Christ” and “the measured.” Jesus” in Hebrew is “the redemption.” “Nazara” is “the truth.” “The Nazarene,” then, is “the truth.” “Christ” has been measured. “The Nazarene” and “Jesus” are they who have been measured. 16

Here we see that “the Nazorean/Nazarene” is a title comparable to “the Messiah” and “the Christ.” It is meant to designate not a place called “Nazareth” but that Jesus is allegorically “the truth.”

We receive a further indication of these facts from Church father Epiphanius. As Price remarks:

Epiphanius, an early Christian cataloguer of “heresies,” mentions a pre-Christian sect called “the Nazoreans,” their name meaning “the Keepers of the Torah,” or possibly of the secrets (see Mark 4:11...). These Nazoreans were the heirs, supposedly, of the neoprimitivist sect of the Rechabites descending from the times of Jeremiah (Jer. 35:1- 10). They were rather like Gypsies, itinerant carpenters. 17

Of this heresy-cataloguer we also read:

Epiphanius uses the spelling nasaraioi (Νασαραίοι), which he attempts to distinguish from the spelling nazoraios in parts of the New Testament, as a Jewish-Christian sect. According to the testimony of Epiphanius against the 4th century Nazarenes, he reports them as having pre-Christian origins. He writes: “(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 Nazoraeans,” (Adversus Haereses , 29.6). 18

A tortuous effort is made by Epiphanius to differentiate these various groups, but it is clear that the reason for Christ being called a Nazarene is according to a “prophecy” that could only have revolved around a religious sect, the same order in the OT, which was pre-Christian. 19

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