The Natsarene (“Nazarene”) Religion – Pt. 5
What’s in a name? In the preceding post I suggested that a number of “core” sayings found in the Christian scriptures were already extensively redacted by the time the evangelist penned his gospel. These core saying are not the ipsissima verba of the ‘lost’ prophet whom I propose existed in history (who certainly was not Jesus of Nazareth). Rather, those sayings are often themselves the product of a fairly complex and sophisticated religious tradition. For convenience I may sometimes call that tradition “Nazoreanism” and the movement to which it refers the “Nazarene” movement. This terminology is somewhat incorrect, however, for the movement that these posts describe was never Hellenist but existed purely in the Semitic realm. Hence, it should not … Continue reading