The true branch...

[visionary]

Josephus also records the death of James the Just this way:

Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he [the High Priest Ananus] assembled the sanhedrin of the judges, and brought before them the brother of Y'shua, who was called Messiah, whose name was James, and some others, [or some of his companions;] and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done. (Josephus, Antiquities 20:9:1)

According to Eusebius, his version of Josephus's works contained the following in relation to the destruction of Jeusalem and the Temple in 70 C.E.:

"These things happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was brother of him that is called the Messiah, and whom the Jews had slain, not withstanding his pre-eminant justice." (Josephus quoted by Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 2:23)

 

[visionary]

The Jerusalem church was largely scattered after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Luke had written that the Jerusalem Christians had fled Jerusalem before its fall because of a prophecy of Yeshua:"And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains..." (Luke 21:20-21a). Mark 13:14 and Matt 24:16 record a similar oracle by Yeshua. Will we see a similar desolation in our time where it becomes the abomination of desolation and likewise know it is time to flee?

According to the fourth century church historian Epiphanius, the early Christians did, indeed, flee Jerusalem: "When the city was about to be conquered by the Romans all the disciples were warned by an angel to remove from the city which was shortly to be destroyed. They became refugees and settled in Pella, a town in Transjordan belonging to the Decapolis" which lies about fifty miles north of Khirbit Qumran and about seventeen miles south of the Sea of Galilee.

The earliest nonscriptural reference to the flight to Pella may be in the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions (I, 36 and 39), although the statement is not explicit enough to be certain: "Everyone who, believing in the Prophet who had been foretold by Moses, is baptized in His name, shall be kept unhurt from the destruction of war which impends over the unbelieving and the place itself."

Eusibius, in the fourth century, is the first to explicitly mention the exodus: "The people belonging to the church at Jerusalem had been ordered by an oracle revealed to approved men on the spot before the war broke out, to leave the city and dwell in a town of Peraea called Pella" (EH III:5).

 

[visionary]

The Damascus Document of the Qumran sect provides a possible link between them and the Nazarenes who fled Jerusalem, since its authors describe themselves as "those who escaped to the north" and formed a "New Covenant in the Land of Damascus" which includes the territory from the city of Damascus about 85 miles north of Pela and Pela itself. The possible identity of the Qumran sect as a branch of the Nazaraeans is intriguing but ellusive. Both fled to land in Coele-Syria, the Syrian frontier lands north of Jerusalem. Both spoke of a New Covenant.

 

[visionary]

Because of Jewish persecution of the Nazoraeans and the political turmoil that culminated in the reconquest of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., no immediate successor was appointed in the Jerusalem church. This changed after the return to Jerusalem, where a Jewish church was reestablished and continued to exist until the revolt of 135 C.E. According to Eusebius, after the death of James, the Apostles selected Simeon, a cousin of Jesus, to fill the position of Bishop over the believers in Jerusalem:

"After the martyrdom of James and the capture of Jerusalem which instantly followed, there is a firm tradition that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord who were still alive assembled from all parts together with those who, humanly speaking, were kinsmen of the Lord--for most of them were still living and they all took counsel together concerning whom they should judge worthy to succeed James and to the unanimous tested approval it was decided that Symeon son of the Clopas, mentioned in the gospel narrative, was worthy to occupy the throne [i.e., the position of Bishop] of the Jerusalem see. He was, so it is said, a cousin of the savior, for Hegesippus relates that Clopas was the brother of Joseph" (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History. 3.11.1)

 

[visionary]

The election of Simeon had not been uncontested. Another candidate, Thebouthis, was also considered, but Simeon was selected specifically because he, unlike Thebouthis, was according to Eusebius (who is quoting Hegesippus) "another cousin of the Lord" (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4:22, 4ff). Thus, leadership of the movement continued to be held by kinsmen of Yeshua. In fact, Eusebius quotes (Ecclesiastical History 4.22). This passing of leadership to other relatives is reminiscent of the same dynastic pattern that is seen later in Islam. The kinsmen of Yeshua held a special reverence in the early church. They were known as the desposyni, a Greek term meaning "beloved of the Lord."

 

[visionary]

According to Hegessipus (as recounted by Eusebius), Simeon was killed about 106 C.E. during a time of persecution under the emperor Trajan (Ecclesiastical History 3:32). One intent of this persecution, which began with an order by Domitian, was to eliminate all Jews of the Davidic line, which would have included the desposyni among the Jewish followers of Yeshua. Hegessipus recounts Domitian's initial concern about the Davidic line within the Messianic Jews:


"Now there still survived of the family of the Lord grandsons of Judas, who was said to have been his brother according to the flesh, and they were delated as being of the family of David. These the officers brought to Domitian Caesar, for like Herod, he was afraid of the coming of the Christ [= "Messiah"]. He asked them if they were of the house of David and they admitted it. Then he asked them how much property they had, or how much money they controlled, and they said that all they possessed was nine thousand denarii between them, the half belonging to each, and they said that they did not possess this in money but that it was the valuation of only thirty-nine plethra [= about a quarter of an acre] of ground on which they paid taxes and lived on it by their own work." They then showed him the hardness of their bodies, and the tough skin which had been embossed on their hands from their incessant work. They were asked concerning the Christ ["Messiah"] and his kingdom, its nature, origin, and time of appearance, and explained that it was neither of the world nor earthly, but heavenly and angelic, and it would be at the end of the world, when he would come in glory to judge the living and the dead and to reward every man according to his deeds. At this Domitian did not condemn them at all, but despised them as simple folk, released them, and decreed an end to the persecution. But when they were released they were the leaders of the churches, both for their testimony and for their relation to the Lord, and remained alive in the peace which ensued until Trajan" (Ecclesiastical History 3:19-20).

Simeon's successor was a Jewish follower named Justus who was not one of the desposyni, so this period may mark the beginning of the end of desposyni influence within the Jerusalem church. Justus himself is described by Eusebius as being "of the circumcision," suggesting that he numbered himself among those at Jerusalem who adhered to Jewish customs.

 

[visionary]

During the period after James's death the revolt of 135 C.E., nascent Christianity in Palestine clearly viewed itself as a Jewish denomination that adhered to the Law of Moses. However, this was a period of increasing tension between the followers of Yeshua and other Jews. Abandoning Jerusalem when it was threatened is likely to have caused those who remained behind to defend their city to see the Nazarenes as traitors or cowards.

The Talmud explains that in 90 CE, "Our Rabbis taught: Simeon ha-Pakuli arranged the eighteen benedictions in order before Rabban Gamaliel in Jabneh. Said Rabban Gamaliel {Rabban Gamaliel II, the Nasi', or leader of the rabbis) to the Sages: `Can any one among you frame a benediction relating to the Minim [sects]?' Samuel the Lesser arose and composed it." (b.Berakot 29a).

This benediction, the birkat ha-minnim, a was a "blessing" (a euphemism for "cursing" in this case) of all of the heretics (the minim) among the Jews. This "blessing" was added into the Eighteen Benedictions that were spoken by Jewish congregations during their worship at synagogues. It became the twelfth section of the Eighteen Benedictions (or the shemoneh esreh, which is commonly called the Amida today because they are always recited standing). It invoked divine wrath upon the "heretics". Although modern versions no longer specifically list Christian Jews as a subject of this curse, the older Cairo Genizah version reads this way:

"For the renegades let there be no hope, and may the arrogant kingdom soon be rooted out in our days, and the Nazarenes and the Minim perish as in a moment and be blotted out from the book of life and with the righteous may they not be inscribed. Blessed are you, O L-rd, who humbles the arrogant.

Since Jews who accepted Yahshua as the Messiah were numbered among those viewed by the rabbis as "heretics" (and quite possibly even held to be the prime example of the heretical groups), the inclusion of the birkat ha-minnim in worship at the synagogues had the effect of causing Jewish "Christians" to no longer attend synagogue worship where they would be required to pronounce this curse upon themselves.

 

[visionary]

The hostility of the rabbis towards Jewish Christianity during this period is also exemplified by two other events that likely occurred around 109 CE. The first is recounted in the Tosephta:

"The case of R. El'azar ben Damah, whom a serpent bit. There came in Jacob, a man of Chephar Sama, to cure him in the name of Yeshua' ben Pandira [a rabbinic euphemism for Jesus], but R[abbi]. Ishmael did not allow it. He said, 'Thou art not permitted, Ben Damah.' He [Rabbi Ben Damah] said, 'I will bring thee a proof that he may heal me.' But he had not finished bringing a proof when he died. R. Ishmael said, 'Happy art though, Ben Damah, for thou hast departed in peace, and hast not broken through the ordinances of the wise; for upon every one who breaks through the fence of the wise, punishment comes at last, as it is written [Eccles. 10:8]: "Whoso breaketh a fence a serpent shall bite him"" (t. Hul. 2.22,23).

 

[visionary]

Shortly after this event in which Ben Damah was forbidden to accept healing at the hands of Jewish Christians, probably during a general effort by the Romans to arrest Christians during the reign of Trajan, a rabbi named R. Eliezar was arrested on suspicion of being a Christian:

"The case of R. Eliezer, who was arrested for Minuth [i.e., heresy], and they brought him to the tribunal for judgment. The governor said to him, 'Doth an old man like thee occupy himself with such things?' He said to him, 'Faithful is the judge concerning me.' The governor supposed that he only said this of him, but he was not thinking of any but his Father who is in Heaven. He [the governor] said to him, 'Since I am trusted concerning thyself, thus also I will be. I said, perhaps these societies err concerning these things. Dimissus, Behold thou art released.' And when he had been released from the tribunal, he was troubled because he had been arrested for Minuth. His disciples came in to console him, but he would not take comfort. R. Aqiba came in and said to him, 'Rabbi, shall I say to thee why thou art perhaps grieving?' He said to him, 'Say on'. He said to him, 'Perhaps one of the minim has said to thee a word of Minuth and it has pleased thee.' He said, 'By Heaven, thou has reminded me! Once I was walking along the street of Sepphoris, and I met Jacob of Chephar Sichnin, and he said to me a word of Minuth in the name of Jeshu ben Pantiri, and it pleased me. And I was arrested for words of Minuth because I transgressed the words of Torah [Prov. 5:8], "Keep thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house, [7:26] for she hat cast down many wounded"" (t. Hul. 2.24).

 

[visionary]

What Samuel the Lesser composed was a prayer that effectively excluded the Nazarenes from worship within the synagogues. This is clearest in an early copy of his Birkat haMinim found at the Cairo Genizah reads: "For the renegades let there be no hope, and may the arrogant kingdom soon be rooted out in our days, and the Nazarenes and the Minim perish as in a moment and be blotted out from the book of life and with the righteous may they not be inscribed. Blessed are you, O L-rd, who humbles the arrogant."

The Nazaraeans continued to be stigmatized by other Jews into the fourth century, when Epiphanius reported about 370 CE that, "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 anathemize them. Three times a day they say, "G-d curse the Nazarenes." For they harbor an extra grudge against them, if you please, because despite their Jewishness, they proclaim that Y'shua is Messiah. . ." (Panarion, 29).

 

[visionary]

The Nazaraeans "gathered" especially to Syria, where they endured for some time with their own distinctive style that differed from that of Gentile Christianity elsewhere. Remember that in those days, the church was not unified the way we expect it to be in these days of mass communication and rapid travel around the globe. Rather each community of believers was isolated, a religious assembly of its own. So with the death of the Apostles something interesting happened: the Christian communities in the dominant centers of Roman culture were the ones that played the dominant roles in eventually forming the Church that was unified under the encouragement of Constantine that the Church be united. The Nazaraeans, still predominantly located in the backwaters of Syria, with their more "Jewish" style came to be labelled "heritics" by the Catholic church. They eventually became extinct, but we can read about them in the writings of some of the Apostolic Fathers. In the fourth century, the Church Father Jerome described these Nazaraeans as those "...who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old Law" (Jerome; On. Is. 8:14).

 

[visionary]

In the same century, Epiphanius describes them in more detail this way:

But these sectarians... did not call themselves Christians--but "Nazarenes," . . .

However they are simply complete Jews. They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do. . . They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in the Jewish fashion-- except for their belief in Messiah, if you please! 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 Y'shua the Messiah. They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew. For among them the entire Law, the Prophets, and the... Writings... are read in Hebrew, as they surely are by the Jews. They are different from the Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following. They disagree with Jews because they have come to faith in Messiah; but since they are still fettered by the Law--circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest--they are not in accord with Christians.... they are nothing but Jews.... They have the Goodnews 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. (Panarion 29)

 

[visionary]

Rejection of the Nazaraeans by their fellow Jews was exacerbated by the revolt of the Jews against Rome in 135 CE. This revolt was led by Simon Ben Cosiba, who changed his name to Simon Bar Kochba ("Son of the Star') and declared himself the promised Messiah who would lead the Jews to independence from Roman domination. His status as the Messiah was supported by Rabbi Akiba, whose great prestige led to general support for the cause of the revolt. Nazarenes, who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, were unwilling to participate, so once again they were seen as traitors to their own Judaism.

On the other hand, their loyalty to their own Jewish roots continued to set themselves off from nonPalestinian Christianity, where they were viewed as heretics for not abandoning the Law of Moses. As Jews, the growing anti-Semitism of second century Christianity also attached to them. This marginal position with respect to Christianity continued to exist down to the time of the Council of Nicea, in which Christianity formalized its doctrine of the Trinity. As heretics, the Nazarenes were not allowed to participate in that council, so they remained uninfluential in affecting the course of future Christianity. By 450 CE they disappear from history.

 

[visionary]

Although Simeon's immediate successor was not a relative, the influence of the desposyni did not disappear immediately as is attested by Hegessipus's statement that the grandsons of Judas were still "leaders of the churches" during the reign of Domitian. Nevertheless, with the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the empire and its eventual appointment by Constantine as the official religion of the empire, Palestinian Christianity found itself to be a backwater both of the empire and of the entire Christian movement.

By the beginning of the fourth century, neither the Bishop of Jerusalem nor the desposyni in general played any important role in the political developments that led Constantine to recognize Sylvester, the nondesposyni Bishop of Rome, as holding the position of leadership among the bishops of the Christian religion. It is interesting to note that in 318 C.E. a delegation of Palestinian desposyni who presided over branches of the church met with the new Pope in Rome at the Lateran Palace and urged him to recognize the preeminance of Jerusalem, return to the custom of the payment of tithes to the church at Jerusalem, and to replace Greek bishops with ones selected from the desposyni.

Sylvester, having the support of the Roman government to back his status as the primary bishop, was not disposed to subordinate himself to the Jewish Christians and declined their requests. Thereafter, Jewish believers plays no influential role in the history of the Roman church.

 

[visionary]

This thread is about the other story, the one path less travelled. Just because the big bully has silences the others. Just because the big bully tried to destroy all traces of any others does not make them the only ones. Just because the big bully expouses ad nausium does not make it any more true.

All I can say about the flood of trash that has been fed to the masses over the centuries is look in the flames for the remains of the truth and the believers who were destroyed. If one does research the early writtings of even those they think highly of, there is mention of what was really going on.

In his discussion of Isaiah 9:1-4, Jerome says,

"The Nazarenes, . . . try to explain this passage in the following way: When Christ came and his preaching shone out, the land of Zebulon and Naphtali first of all were freed from the errors of the Scribes and Pharisees, and he shook off their shoulders the very heavy yoke of the Jewish traditions. Later, however, the preaching became more dominant, that means the preaching was multiplied, through the Gospel of the apostle Paul who was the last of all the apostles. And the Gospel of Christ shone to the most distant tribes and the way of the whole sea. Finally the whole world, which earlier walked or sat in darkness and was imprisoned in the bonds of idolatry and death, has seen the clear light of the Gospel" (Jerome, On Isaiah 9:1-4).

 

[visionary]

The Nazarenes, it seems, rejected both the Saducceean and Pharisaic visions of Judaism and accepted Paul's ministry as part of the spread Jesus' message of liberation, first to the Jews and then to the Gentile nations, and held that the preaching of Jewish Messiah to the Gentiles had been prophesied by Isaiah.

As Ray Pritz (1988) puts it, "We see here that the Nazarene view of Paul's mission corresponded very closely to that of Paul himself. In none of the remains of Nazarene doctrine can one find a clear rejection of Paul or his mission or his message" Pritz, Ray A. 1988 Nazarene Jewish Christianity: From the End of the New Testament Period Until Its Disappearance in the Fourth Century. Jerusalem-Leiden: The Magnes Press, the Hebrew University, E.J. Brill. (p. 64).

 

[visionary]

"The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the Apostles themselves, as appears by several scriptures to the purpose." "Dialogues on the Lord's Day," p. 189. London: 1701, By Dr. T.H. Morer (A Church of England divine).

 

[visionary]

"The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews;...therefore the Christians, for a long time together, did keep their conventions upon the Sabbath, in which some portions of the law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council." "The Whole Works" of Jeremy Taylor, Vol. IX,p. 416 (R. Heber's Edition, Vol XII, p. 416).

 

[psalms 91]

This thread is about the other story, the one path less travelled. Just because the big bully has silences the others. Just because the big bully tried to destroy all traces of any others does not make them the only ones. Just because the big bully expouses ad nausium does not make it any more true.

All I can say about the flood of trash that has been fed to the masses over the centuries is look in the flames for the remains of the truth and the believers who were destroyed. If one does research the early writtings of even those they think highly of, there is mention of what was really going on.

In his discussion of Isaiah 9:1-4, Jerome says,

"The Nazarenes, . . . try to explain this passage in the following way: When Christ came and his preaching shone out, the land of Zebulon and Naphtali first of all were freed from the errors of the Scribes and Pharisees, and he shook off their shoulders the very heavy yoke of the Jewish traditions. Later, however, the preaching became more dominant, that means the preaching was multiplied, through the Gospel of the apostle Paul who was the last of all the apostles. And the Gospel of Christ shone to the most distant tribes and the way of the whole sea. Finally the whole world, which earlier walked or sat in darkness and was imprisoned in the bonds of idolatry and death, has seen the clear light of the Gospel" (Jerome, On Isaiah 9:1-4).

Truth

 

[visionary]

When I looked I found them scattered throughout the world and throughout history and just the first two centuries which I have posted so far.

In Lombardy, which was the principle residence of the Italian heretics, there sprung up a singular sect, known, for what reason I cannot tell, by the denomination Passaginians. ... Like the other sects already mentioned, they had the utmost aversion to the discipline and dominion of the Church of Rome; but they were at the same time distinguished by two religious tenets which were peculiar to themselves.

The first was a notion that the observance of the Law of Moses, in everything except the offering of sacrifices, was obligatory upon Christians; in consequence of which they ... Abstained from those meats, the use of which was prohibited under the Mosaic economy, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath. The second tenet that distinguished this sect was advanced in opposition to the doctrine of three persons in the divine nature (Eccl. Hist., Cent 12, Part 2, Ch. 5, Sec. 14, p. 127: as quoted by Dugger and Dodd, emphasis retained).