THE
EARLY FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST AND 1.1 The Word “Christians” Were Unknown To Jesus 1.2 Diversity In the Early Followers of Jesus 1.3 The Nazarenes Versus the Pauline Christianity 1.4 St. James, the Head of the Nazarenes 1.6 The Origin of the Word Nazarene 1.8 The Early Church, The Church of the Circumcision 1.9 Salvation Is Through Faith & By Obeying God’s Law 1.10 Obey the Scribes or Teachers of the Law 1.11 Jesus Instruct His Followers to Offer “the Gift that Moses Commanded” 1.13 Jesus: Those Who Do Not Follow The Law Are Hypocrites 1.14 St. James: Faith Without Good Works Is Useless And Cannot Save Anyone 1.16 Paul, The Real Founder of Christianity 1.18 Paul and His Pauline Churches Changed Jesus Into God 1.19 Paul’s Life: Examining His Contradictory Testimonies
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1.6 The Origin of the Word Nazarene
The followers of Jesus represented a small but growing community in Jerusalem. His twelve disciples represented the leadership Council of the community headed by St. James the righteous. The community was called “The Nazarene Community” because Jesus according to the learned men of Christendom was known as “The Nazarene”.[1] The gospel according to Mark has: “but the angel said, Do not be so surprised. You are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene …”(16:6, NLT) The gospel according to Matthew has: “This fulfilled what was spoken by the prophets concerning the Messiah: He will be called a Nazarene” (2:23, NLT)
[1] The Christians image of Jesus as ‘a poor carpenter’ from Nazareth can be challenged at length. Jesus was almost certainly not of ‘Nazareth’. An overwhelming body of evidence indicates that ‘Nazareth’ did not exist in Biblical times. The town is unlikely to have appeared before the third century. Jesus of Nazareth, as most Biblical Scholars would now readily concur, is a mistranslation of the original Greek phrase “Jesus the Nazarene”. This does not denote any locality. Rather, it refers to Jesus membership in a specific group or sect with a specific religious/or political orientation-the “Nazarene Party”, as certain modern experts call it. (The New Testament in Question, 20-21) |
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