TedM

According to the historian Hegesippus, James was a Nazarite, which was a group that stressed ultra-Jewish purity. There is little doubt that James was the first leader of the earliest known Christian group. Paul's writings (esp in Galations) and the book of Acts, as well as others corroberate this general picture of a highly Jewish group led by James. Acts flat out says that one of the names used for the early Christians was "Nazarenes" (24:5).

IF Jesus was influenced by or connected in some way to the Nazarites (maybe he WAS James' brother) it would help explain the following portraits of Jesus in the earliest documents:

1. The fact that the synoptics and "Q" are full of sayings found in the book of James. (The book of James doesn't indicate that those sayings were original to Jesus. This leaves open the possibility that the gospel Jesus was repeating sayings he knew from an earlier Nazarite tradition).

2. The idea that Jesus was called a Nazarene in the gospels.

3. The picture in Paul of Jesus as both Jewish and sinless.

4. The fact that Paul doesn't refer to Jesus as "Jesus of Nazareth".

5. The fact that Paul's teachings are very similar to many found in the gospels, and even some in the book of James.

6. The fact that Paul didn't talk much about Jesus' relationship to the Jewish law, since it could be used to hurt his own message of freedom from the law.

7. The fact that Paul's message of freedom from the law for Gentile believers was met with opposition by early Jewish Nazarites (believers associated with James).

8. The fact that Paul DID defer to the authority of James despite opposition by some of those associated with James.

Comments? Other issues explained by such a connection?

ted

gnosis92

the ebionites may have been an outgrowth

TedM

One conclusion that might be reached from the Jesus-Nazarite hypothesis, is that it goes a long ways toward tying together the diverse portraits of Jesus and Christianity found in the early documents. Where Doherty finds silences and concludes they are best explained by a grass roots philosophy of a mythical, cosmic Jesus which grows over time, it appears to me that the diversity might be more fully explained by a Nazarite Jesus whose life/death was interpreted by various groups in different ways, Paul being chiefly influential among the Gentiles and writings for the Gentiles.

ted

jjramsey

Why, though is there no reference to him being a nazirite? No long hair, and not only do we not have a record of Jesus avoiding wine and strong drink, but he was purportedly accused of being a winebibber.

TedM

I think there is a reference--the fact that he is called a Nazorene throughout the gospels--including the earliest, Mark. As for long hair, should we have expected a reference? As for the avoidance of wine and strong drink, that would go against the Nazarite way, I think. Perhaps that is why his brother James--the Nazarite, and the first leader of the Christian church as far as we know, reacted unfavorably to him during his earthly ministry.. Perhaps Jesus was a bit of a rebellious Nazarite--he accepted and taught some of its ways and ideas but not others.. or Perhaps later writers modified the stories about him to make him more of a 'God for all men'..

I don't see how we can dismiss the idea of a strong Nazorite influence in the earliest of records in Christianity--in Paul's epistles to some degree, to Q and the gospel teachings, to Acts, to Recognitions, and perhaps a number of others, all attested to later in much more detail by Hegesippus.

ted

aa5874

Jesus Christ was not a Nazarite, he was said to be from Nazareth or a Nazarene.

Now, oddly enough, Jesus Christ may have been said to be a 'Nazarene' because of a mis-interpretation of the word 'Nazarite'.

Samson, in the book of Judges ch13, is the only 'Nazarite' mentioned in the OT, and Samson was not a 'Nazarene' or from Nazareth. Judges 13:5, 'For lo,thou shall conceive and bare a son; and no razor shall come upon his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines'.

Misteriously, in Matthew 2:23, we have these words, 'And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, He shall be called a Nazarene

The prophecy of Matthew is false, yet he still manages to make Jesus Christ fulfill it completely.

jjramsey

Sure. Of Samson, it was said in Judges 13:5, "No razor is to come on his head," and of Samuel, it was written in 1 Samuel 1.11 that "no razor shall touch his head." I would expect similar boilerplate with regard to Jesus.

Just the opposite. Numbers 6:2-5:

TedM

So, how do you account for the similarity of the word Nazarene with the idea that the first known leader of the Christian movement was James, his "brother" according to the gospels, who was called a Nazarite by Hegesippus?

ted

TedM

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was agreeing that Jesus' drinking of wine would go against the Nazarite way, and suggested that he was influenced by Nazarites but not necessarily that he followed all of their customs. This can explain why the gospels include teachings found in James, whose author is traditionally considered to have been James, the Nazarite, who was the first Christian leader. It also can explain why according to the synoptics James rejected Jesus' ministry originally. Might it be that James was originally a Nazarite who rejected Jesus' ways, but still influenced Jesus nonetheless, and that after Jesus' death, James was converted and took over the church--yet kept his Nazarite ways?

How might you explain what we know about James and the early Christians and how they relate to what we see in the gospels?

ted

jjramsey

I could suppose that someone in the second century got the idea of James being a Nazirite from him being a Nazarene, but I'm not sure that supposition is even needed. If there had been a tradition of James being particularly devout, the idea of him being a Nazirite could have come from that, even if the town he came from was called Fred instead of Nazareth. I think you are leaning way too much on a superficial similarity between words, and one that barely gets past the first syllable.