Decided to start a new thread regarding Nazareth and Nazerites. This thread I hope will include searches for an ancient city, town, village or school with that name and followers and names of Nazarenes, Nazerites or anything that sounds like or is related to the word. This includes possible locations, passages from books, people, followers, etc.
Regarding Samson
Judges 13:5 New International Version (NIV)
5 You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.".
Regarding John The Baptist, (At Birth)
Luke 1:13-15 New International Version (NIV)
But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.
Regarding Paul
Acts 24:5 English Standard Version (ESV)
5 For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
Regarding Moses
Numbers 6:1-8 New International Version (NIV) The Nazirite
6 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazirite, 3 they must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink. They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. 4 As long as they remain under their Nazirite vow, they must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins.
5 “‘During the entire period of their Nazirite vow, no razor may be used on their head. They must be holy until the period of their dedication to the Lord is over; they must let their hair grow long.
6 “‘Throughout the period of their dedication to the Lord, the Nazirite must not go near a dead body. 7 Even if their own father or mother or brother or sister dies, they must not make themselves ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of their dedication to God is on their head. 8 Throughout the period of their dedication, they are consecrated to the Lord.
I found this yesterday, and I feel it explains why these Nazarenes were considered Zealots at the time. I’ve questioned if Jesus was a zealot. Going by what was thought of the Nazarenes at the time, he more than likely would have been considered a Zealot by the ruling Sadducee and Pharisee.
The Nazarenes were a liberal, Jewish sect opposed to the strict Hebrew regime of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Nazarene culture and language were heavily influenced by the philosophers of ancient Greece, and their community supported the concept of equal opportunity for men and women. Documents of the time referred not to Nazareth but to the Nazarene society. Priestesses existed in equal opportunity with priests, but this was so different from what the male-dominated Hebrew society wanted and what the later, male-dominated Roman Church required.It has to be remembered that Jesus was not a Christian: he was a Nazarene - a radical, westernized Jew. The Christian movement was founded by others in the wake of his own mission. The word “Christian” was first recorded and used in AD 44 in Antioch, Syria.
In the Arab world, the word used today, as then, to describe Jesus and his followers is Nazara. This is confirmed in the Muslim Koran: Jesus is Nazara; his followers are Nazara. The word means “Keepers” or “Guardians”. The full definition is Nazrie ha-Brit, “Keepers of the Covenant”. In fact, the Brit aspect of that is the very root of the country name of Britain. Brit-ain means “Covenant-land”.
In the time of Jesus the Nazarenes lived in Galilee, and in that mystical place which the Bible calls “the Wilderness”. The Wilderness was actually a very defined place. It was essentially the land around the main settlement at Qumran which spread out to Mird and other places. It was where the Dead Sea Scrolls were produced-discovered at Qumran in 1948.
Somewhere after the Crucifixion, Peter and his friend Paul went off to Antioch, then on to Rome, and they began the movement that became Christianity. But as recorded in the other annals, Jesus, his brother James and the majority of the other apostles continued the Nazarene movement and progressed it into Europe. It became the Celtic Church. The Nazarene movement as a Church is documented within the Celtic Church records as being formally implemented as the Church of Jesus in AD 37, four years after the Crucifixion. The Roman Church was formed 300 years later, after Paul and Peter’s Christians had been persecuted for three centuries.
Through many centuries the Nazarene-based Celtic Church movement was directly opposed therefore to the Church of Rome. The difference was a simple one: the Nazarene faith was based on the teachings of Jesus himself. The guts of the religion, the moral codes, the behavioral patterns, the social practices, the laws and justices related to Old Testament teaching but with a liberal message of equality in mind - this was the religion of Jesus. Roman Christianity is “Churchianity”. It was not the message of Jesus that was important: this Church turned Jesus into the religion. In short, the Nazarene Church was the true social Church. The Roman Church was the Church of the Emperors and the Popes; this was the Imperial hybrid movement.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biblianazar/esp_biblianazar_2.htm
Fascinating!
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