Nazarenes (religion)

Nazarenes or Nazaraeans is a New Testament synonym and often used epithet Jesus of Nazareth and the name of religious, mostly Christian groups.

There is no distinction between the two forms of the word in the many translations of the Christian Bible and in many cases also in Christian literature and common usage, with "Nazarenes" being the most common form in Western European languages.

Etymology of terms

The etymological derivation of the terms Nazarenes and Nazoraeans is justified in different ways in the literature and has not yet been fully clarified. Two basic Hebrew terms are used as a starting point: The Hebrew verb nāṣar (Heb. נצר) and the noun næṣær (Heb.נֵצֶר), which is identical to the verb in terms of consonants.

The Hebrew verb nāṣar means "to observe", "to guard, to guard". This corresponds to the Hebrew name nōṣrī (Heb.נצרי) (“Guardian”, “guardian, keeper”) and with the same meaning the Aramaic natsaraya .

The Hebrew expression næṣær means "shoot, shoot, sapling" and is occasionally used as a messianic term (as in Isa 11.1 EU ; 4QIs 3.15 ff.). Much more frequently, the synonym is encountered in this usageצֶמַח ṣæmaḥ . According to some interpreters, the name næṣær and its reference to the messianic prophecy in Isa 11.1 also explain the name of the city of Nazareth, which was (re) founded in the 2nd century BC by members of the Davidic family.

It is also noticeable that the designations of place or origin Nazareth , Nazara , Nazorae and Nazarenes can all be traced back to the root of the Hebrew terms nāṣar and næṣær . This similarity of the terms enables word games (such as in Mt 2.23 ELB ), which are also widely known from the biblical and rabbinical-Jewish tradition.

Some authors also have a connection to the term Nazarite (Heb.נָזִיר, nāzīr ) has been considered. A Nazarite is a devotee who obeys strict rules ( Judges 13,5-7 ELB ). Abstinence is part of it. Etymologically, as Ri 13.16 shows, this derivation causes few problems. First, Ναζωραῖος has the typical adjective ending (αῖος), which Ri 13,5LXXA and 13,7LXXA (ναζιραῖος) also prove for their rendering of נזיר. Secondly, Ναζωραῖος with the consonants Ν-ζ-ρ offers the same stock as Ri 13,5LXXB (ναζιρ) and can be understood from here as a transcription of נזיר. With Klaus Berger it can also be stated that “in the transcription of Hebrew proper names, a rendering of the iodine written in plene by the Greek omega is relatively often documented”. In this way, the etymological origin of Ναζωραῖος as the Greek equivalent of Hebrew נָזִיר (nāzīr) could be well represented.

Terms: Nazarenes, Nazoraeans, Nazara, Nazareth

Especially in the English-speaking world is often the term used by Bible Translators Nazarene (Engl. Nazarene ,) is used, whether in the Greek texts Nazarene (Greek. Ναζωραῖος or) Nazarene (Greek. Ναζαρηνός ) is written. This translation practice affects both biblical and church history texts. Literal translations, on the other hand, differentiate between the two forms of the name.

Occurrence of the terms in the Bible

According to the established text of the Novum Testamentum Graece , the term Nazarenes occurs six times and Nazarene thirteen times in the entire New Testament - seven of them in the Acts of the Apostles. With the only exception of Acts 24,5 EU , where the Nazoreans are the followers of Jesus, the word is always used as an attribute for Jesus. In the Gospels of Matthew and John only the term Nazora is used. The name Nazarene is exclusively in the St. Mark and Luke used ( Mk 1.24 EU par .: Lk 4,34 EU ; Mk 10,47 EU ; Mk 14,62 EU ; Mk 14,62 EU . Cf. Lk 24,19 EU ). On the other hand, the term Nazora is never used in the Gospel of Mark. Mark probably consciously emphasizes the origin of Jesus from the house of David (the offspring of Jesse ) according to Isa 11 : 1-10 ELB . Jesus is often addressed as the son of David ( Mk 10.47 ELB f; Mk 11.10 ELB ; Mk 12.35 ELB ).

The name of the city in which Jesus grew up is given twice in the New Testament - in Mt 4,13 EU and in the parallel passage Lk 4,16 EU - as Nazara ( Ναζαρά ). In both places this is the name of the place which is mentioned first in the reports of the ministry of Jesus. Even Origen used the name in reference to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke Nazara . In all other places the name of the place is given as Nazareth ( Ναζαρέτ or Ναζαρέθ ). It is generally assumed here that Naz (a) rā with the main Hebrew form of the nameנַצְרַת( naṣrat ) and that the name of the city has several subsidiary forms - among othersנָצֶרֶת( nāṣæræt ) - had.

Nazarenes / Nazorae as a designation of Jesus

According to the traditional view, which has been followed many times in recent research, “Nazarenes” and “Nazareans” are appositions that refer to the origin of Jesus and thus the expression “from or from Nazareth” ( Mt 21.11 EU ; Joh 1.45 EU ; Acts 10.38 EU ) are to be equated. For the form “Nazarener” the derivation from the place name Nazaret is considered certain, while for “Nazarene” the derivation from a subsidiary form na Nebenōr of the same place name has been suggested. A direct reference to this meaning of Nazarenes / Nazoraeans is explicitly made in the Gospel of Matthew (2.23 EU ):

Joseph “settled in a city called Nazareth. For what was said by the prophets was to come true: He will be called a Nazora. "

Many interpreters see in this passage an allusion to Isa 11,1 EU , where the Messiah is called “scion” ( nēṣer ) of David. However, it cannot be ruled out that there could be a reference to several prophecies, whereby other passages of the books Isaiah ( Isa 42.6 EU ; 49.6 EU ; among others) and Jeremias ( Jer 31.6f EU ) have been used.

Matthias Berghorn points out that "Nazorae" as a derivation from the Hebrew נזיר can originally mean an outstanding figure, mostly an ascetic person (cf. Simson in Ri 13), but also a ruler (cf. Joseph in Gen 49,26LXX). Since the term Ναζωραῖος can be found in some places in the New Testament in the context of the designation of Jesus as ruler (e.g. John 19; Acts 2), Ναζωραῖος can originally mean a ruler title for Jesus. This can be exemplified in Mt 2, in which the flight, return and arrival of Jesus in Galilee are paralleled with the fate of Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom (cf. 1 Kings 11.26-12.25). Here Jesus becomes king in Galilee, so that it is fulfilled that he is called Ναζωραῖος (Mt 2,23). Perhaps this meaning was soon no longer understood and then associated with the city of Nazareth.

According to a view taken by many commentators, it is possible that the Gospels tried to reinterpret a disparaging foreign designation of Jesus as “Nazoraios” (e.g. in Mt 26.71 EU ; Joh 19.19 EU ). Joh 1,46 EU suggests that this epithet had a reference to Nazareth in the evangelist circle :

“Then Natanaël said to him: 'From Nazareth? Can something good come from there? '"

Mark Lidzbarski proposed a similar approach at the beginning of the 20th century . According to Lidzbarski, the Aramaic name is wiseנאצוראיא( naṣōraijē ) a form that was otherwise mainly used in the designations for representatives of certain teaching activities - such as Amorae and Saborae for Talmud teachers. Only the evangelists would have consciously or erroneously referred him to Nazareth in order to explain the expression "Nazoraios".

Nazarene as a denotation of religious affiliation

In the first century

In the New Testament the followers of Jesus of Nazareth are called Christianoi (" Christians ") three times , according to Acts 11.26 EU first in Antioch . The word Nazoraioi (" Nazorae ") is used only once. In Acts 24,5 ELB the New Testament author reports that Jewish leadership circles from Jerusalem sued the Hellenistic Jewish Christian Paulus of Tarsus. The Roman plaintiff Tertullus insults Paul as a leader of the Nazorae who caused unrest among the Jews:

"For we have found this man to be a plague and as one who is causing an uproar among all Jews who are in the world, and as a leader of the 'sect of the Nazorae' ( Acts 24,5 ELB )".

Nazarenes in Jewish use

The Antioch-pagan designation, and later Christian self-designation, Christianoi was problematic for Jews who did not want to name Jesus as ho Christos . Tertullian speaks of a constant habit of the Jews to refer to Christians as "Nazarenes". This is confirmed by Eusebius. In Hebrew the term wasנצרים nōṣrīm is the term used to this day for Christians and Jesus himself. In the Hebrew New Testament by Franz Delitzsch, however, Christianoi Acts 11.26 ELB means that the disciples in Antioch were first called "Messianic" (משיחיים meschijkhijjim ).

Nazarenes in patristic use

With patristic is Christian theology and philosophy characterized that relate to the effective time of the Church Fathers refers, in time from the demarcated from the 1st century to the 7th or early 8th century. Chr. So some Church Fathers referred to the out of focus defined connotation "Nazarenes". So around the year 395 the church father Jerome . He quoted from the Nazarene Gospel of the "Nazarenes" from Berea in Syria.

Even Epiphanius of Salamis attempted a definition of "Nazarene" in the non- heretical looked nasaraioi them from the angeshenen as heretical nazoraioi, or Ebionites to distinguish groupings. The only mention of a religious sect that is said to have carried this name (as Νασαραῖοι Nasaraioi ) in pre-Christian times was in Epiphanius ( Haereses XVIII): It was a Jewish group from which the Mandaeans later emerged. Around 404 AD Hieronymus wrote in one of his letters to Augustine that the Nazorae believed in Jesus Christ, his birth through Mary, and the crucifixion and resurrection, but at the same time followed Jewish rules.

In the 4th century , Epiphanios of Salamis wrote about a Jewish group called the Nazorae (Greek Ναζωραιοι) that existed in Syria, Decapolis (Pella) and Batanea (Kochabe). This group saw itself as a direct successor to Jews who fled Jerusalem shortly before the temple was destroyed in 70 . Their messianic (Christian) teachings, however, did not conflict with their Jewish religion, which they continued to follow.

The traces of the Nazorae can be traced back to the fifth century AD.

In the Arab world

To this day, Naṣārā is the name used by Christians in the Koran and in the Arab world in general (نصرانى, DMG naṣrānī , pl .:نصارى / naṣārā , e.g. B. Sura 2 : 110, Sura 3 : 67). The plural Naṣārā is understood as a Syrian-Aramaic derivative of Nazareth . In 2014, members of the Islamic State Organization marked Christian homes with a Nūn (ن), the Arabic character for N and the first letter of naṣrānī .

Among the Syrian and Arab Christians is also the self-designation مسيحي / masīḥī used.

In the Haran Gawaitha , the Nazorae was also passed down as a name for the Mandaeans .

Since the 18th century, from free churches

The name Nazarenes has recently been used by evangelical free churches.

literature

Matthias Berghorn, The Genesis of Jesus Christ was so ... The origin of Jesus according to the Matthean prologue (Mt 1,1-4,16), Göttingen 2019.
The New Testament: Greek-German interlinear translation; Greek text after the edition by Nestle-Aland; translated by Ernst Dietzfelbinger. 5th corrected edition, 1994. Hänssler-Verlag, Neuhausen-Stuttgart. ISBN 3-7751-0998-6 .
Rainer Riesner : Nazarener, in M. Görg, B. Lang (eds.): New Bible Lexicon, Vol. 2, Benziger, Zurich 1995, Col. 908-912.
Wolfgang Wiefel : The Gospel according to Matthew (theological commentary on the New Testament; 1), EVA: Leipzig, 1998

Weblinks (English)

Individual evidence

↑ So in Isa 4,2 EU : “Scion Yahweh”; Jer 23.5 EU , 33.15 EU : "Scion of David"; Sach 3,8 EU , Sach 6,12 EU : "Scion" as the actual name of the Messiah; "Patriarch's blessing " ( 4QPatr. ); 15. Blessing of the " 18 Prayer "

^ B. Pixner, Ways of the Messiah , Gießen: 1994 (quoted in: Rainer Riesner : Nazaret, NBL , 910).

↑ Klaus Berger, Jesus als Nasoräer / Nasiräer, in: NT 38.4 (1996) 323-335, 324

↑ Papyrus P70 also offers the reading Nazara in Mt 2.23 EU .

↑ John's Commentary, Book X (an English translation of the text can be found at: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/101510.htm ).

↑ For most of the occurrences of this place name in the New Testament, both readings - in the Codex Alexandrinus also Nazarat ( Ναζαρατ / θ ) - can be found in different textual witnesses .

↑ See: Rainer Riesner : Nazaret, in: NBL , 910.

↑ See: Rainer Riesner : Nazarener, in: NBL , 908; Quoted there: Hans Peter Rüger, in: ZNW , 72, 1981, p. 262.

↑ See: Rainer Riesner : Nazarener, in: NBL , 909.

↑ Matthias Berghorn, Genesis Jesu Christi, pp. 105–126

^ W. Wiefel: The Gospel according to Matthew , p. 49.

↑ M. Lidzbarski: Ginza. The Treasure or The Great Book of the Mandaeans ; Göttingen, Leipzig: 1925; P. IX with note 2

^ Günter-Manfred Pracher: Every Christian has ethical responsibility. The confrontation. (2009), p. 129: "The term 'being a Christian' is not an invention of our time, but it comes originally from Antioch, but spread very quickly."

↑ The Neronian Persecution of Christians: A Critical Inquiry, Carl Franklin Arnold, 1888: “Tertullian speaks of a constant habit of the Jews when he says (adv. Marc. IV. 8) 'Nazaraeus vocari debebat, secundum prophetiam Christ creatoris; unde et ipso nomine nos Judaei Nazaraeos appellant per eum. '"

↑ Birkat haMinim: Jews and Christians in conflict in the ancient world - Page 52 Yaakov Y. Teppler, Susan Weingarten - 2007 - "This presumption is Strengthened by the statement of Tertullian: The Christ of the Creator had to be called a Nazarene .. Unde et ipso nomine nos ludaei Nazarenos appellant per eum. Nam et sumus iie auibus scriptum est: Nazaraei ... "

↑ Udo Schnelle Antidocetic Christology in the Gospel of John p41 1987 "usquehodiein synagogis suis sub nomine Nazarenorum blasphemant populum christianum ... 191; In Esaiam 5,18-19: ... in blasphemiis et ter per singulos this in omnibus synagogis sub nomine Nazarenorum anathematizent uocabematizent Christianum.

^ Langenscheidt concise dictionary Hebrew-German Langenscheidt 2004

^ ^A ^b cf .: Rainer Riesner : Nazarener, in: NBL , 909.

↑ Jerome. Epistula LXXV, 4 (13).

↑ Epiphanius of Salamis. Panarion XXIX, 7.

↑ http://german.irib.ir/radioislam/der-islam/item/145060-teil-164-al-maidah-81-83

↑ Islam connects and separates the message of peace and violence: A look at theology and history ( Memento from November 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Rudolf Fischer: Religious diversity in the Middle East: an overview of the religious communities in the Middle East . 3. Edition. Fischer Rudolf, 1989, ISBN 3-906090-20-5 , p. 58 (111 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).

↑ Syria / Iraq: Are IS fighters challenging the Strike of the West?

[1] So in Isa 4,2 EU : “Scion Yahweh”; Jer 23.5 EU , 33.15 EU : "Scion of David"; Sach 3,8 EU , Sach 6,12 EU : "Scion" as the actual name of the Messiah; "Patriarch's blessing " ( 4QPatr. ); 15. Blessing of the " 18 Prayer "

[2] B. Pixner, Ways of the Messiah , Gießen: 1994 (quoted in: Rainer Riesner : Nazaret, NBL , 910).

[3] Klaus Berger, Jesus als Nasoräer / Nasiräer, in: NT 38.4 (1996) 323-335, 324

[4] Papyrus P70 also offers the reading Nazara in Mt 2.23 EU .

[5] John's Commentary, Book X (an English translation of the text can be found at: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/101510.htm ).

[6] For most of the occurrences of this place name in the New Testament, both readings - in the Codex Alexandrinus also Nazarat ( Ναζαρατ / θ ) - can be found in different textual witnesses .

[7] See: Rainer Riesner : Nazaret, in: NBL , 910.

[8] See: Rainer Riesner : Nazarener, in: NBL , 908; Quoted there: Hans Peter Rüger, in: ZNW , 72, 1981, p. 262.

[9] See: Rainer Riesner : Nazarener, in: NBL , 909.

[10] Matthias Berghorn, Genesis Jesu Christi, pp. 105–126

[11] W. Wiefel: The Gospel according to Matthew , p. 49.

[12] M. Lidzbarski: Ginza. The Treasure or The Great Book of the Mandaeans ; Göttingen, Leipzig: 1925; P. IX with note 2

[13] Günter-Manfred Pracher: Every Christian has ethical responsibility. The confrontation. (2009), p. 129: "The term 'being a Christian' is not an invention of our time, but it comes originally from Antioch, but spread very quickly."

[14] The Neronian Persecution of Christians: A Critical Inquiry, Carl Franklin Arnold, 1888: “Tertullian speaks of a constant habit of the Jews when he says (adv. Marc. IV. 8) 'Nazaraeus vocari debebat, secundum prophetiam Christ creatoris; unde et ipso nomine nos Judaei Nazaraeos appellant per eum. '"

[15] Birkat haMinim: Jews and Christians in conflict in the ancient world - Page 52 Yaakov Y. Teppler, Susan Weingarten - 2007 - "This presumption is Strengthened by the statement of Tertullian: The Christ of the Creator had to be called a Nazarene .. Unde et ipso nomine nos ludaei Nazarenos appellant per eum. Nam et sumus iie auibus scriptum est: Nazaraei ... "

[16] Udo Schnelle Antidocetic Christology in the Gospel of John p41 1987 "usquehodiein synagogis suis sub nomine Nazarenorum blasphemant populum christianum ... 191; In Esaiam 5,18-19: ... in blasphemiis et ter per singulos this in omnibus synagogis sub nomine Nazarenorum anathematizent uocabematizent Christianum.

[17] Langenscheidt concise dictionary Hebrew-German Langenscheidt 2004

[nbl-18] A ^b cf .: Rainer Riesner : Nazarener, in: NBL , 909.

[19] Jerome. Epistula LXXV, 4 (13).

[20] Epiphanius of Salamis. Panarion XXIX, 7.

[21] ttp://german.irib.ir/radioislam/der-islam/item/145060-teil-164-al-maidah-81-83

[22] Islam connects and separates the message of peace and violence: A look at theology and history ( Memento from November 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

[23] Rudolf Fischer: Religious diversity in the Middle East: an overview of the religious communities in the Middle East . 3. Edition. Fischer Rudolf, 1989, ISBN 3-906090-20-5 , p. 58 (111 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).

[24] Syria / Iraq: Are IS fighters challenging the Strike of the West?