Arabic Nazarenes May Have Kept Original Christian Practices

COGwriter

There are scattered reports of people living in areas now predominantly populated by Arabic peoples who held to original Nazarene Christianity. But in most of the older literature, very little is mentioned about them. Some believe that the Greco-Romans intentionally reported little about them or even destroyed the records of them.

Notice the following comments:

References to early Nasarene beliefs and practices are extremely rare in western literature. The few we find in Epiphanius' unsympathetic Panarion and other such "Christian" propaganda literature, represent the "party line" against the original Essene Nasarene Way.

The Christian movement was relatively thorough, even ruthless, in destroying all original documents and indicators of its true origins. The only things we are given to know are what they wanted us to know. Farther east, in the Islam world, their influence was not so strong and perhaps not so thorough. It appears as if some original documents, traditions and legends have survived in Islamic literature, notably the Tathbit Dala'il Nubuwwat Sayyidina Mahammad, (The Establishment of Proofs for the Prophethood of Our Master Mohammed'), written in Arabic by 'Abd al-Jabbar (10th century Mu'tazilite) and recently translated by Shlomo Pines (Arabic Traditions on Christian Origins. As reported at http://www.essene.com/Bible/ArabicTraditionsOnChristianOrigins.html viewed 09/16/08).

Shlomo Pines translated the one chapter of it into English, that discussed Arabic Judeao-Christians who seemed to have practices like other Nazarene Christians (Nazarene Christianity: Were the Original Christians Nazarenes?).

A Harvard journal indicates that the source document came may have originated from the fifth, sixth, or seventh century (Howard G. The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 81, No. 1 (Jan., 1988), pp. 117-120), while others have claimed that it could have originally came from the first century.

I cannot make the age determination, other than to say that if the document is actually true, it probably partially originated in the second century for it is in the second century A.D. that a variety of compromises with the Romans occurred with those that did not practice original Christianity (though the first reference in it could be somewhat of an oral tradition from the first century).

As I do not have the entire manuscript, nor do I consider that all of it can be authentic, this article will only contain a couple of key pieces.

Nazarenes Follow Jesus and Behave as He Did

Here is some of what Shlomo Pines translated that 'Abd al-Jabbar wrote:

'He (Isha, or Yeshua) and his companions behaved constantly in this manner, until he left this world. He said to his companions: "Act as you have seen me act, instruct people in accordance with instructions I have given you, and be for them what I have been for you." His companions behaved constantly in this manner and in accordance with this. And so did those who (came) after the first generation of his companions, and (also) those who came long after (the second generation). Then they began to make changes and alterations, (to introduce) innovations into the religion (al-din), to seek dominion (ri`asa), to make friends with people by (indulging) their passions, to (try) to circumvent the Jews and to satisfy the anger (which) they (felt) against the latter, even if (in doing so) they (had) to abandon the religion. This is clear from the Gospels which are with them and to which they refer and from their book, known as the Book of Praxeis (Acts). It is (written) there: A group (qawm) of Christians left Jerusalem (bayt al-maqdis) and came to Antioch and other towns of Syria (a1-Sham). (Tathbit 70a) (Source: Tathbit Dala'il Nubuwwat Sayyidina Mahammad, (The Establishment of Proofs for the Prophethood of Our Master Mohammed'). Written in Arabic by 'Abd al-Jabbar (10th century Mu'tazilite). Translated by Shlomo Pines in Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities II, No.13; 1966; The Jewish Christians of the Early Centuries of Christianity According To A New Source cited in Arabic Traditions on Christian Origins. As reported at http://www.essene.com/Bible/ArabicTraditionsOnChristianOrigins.html viewed 09/15/08).

What the above emphasizes is that Christians were to Jesus' practices--19 times in the New Testament (NKJV) Jesus tells people "follow Me" (e.g. Mathew 4:19; 8:22; 9:9; 16:24; 19:21, etc.). Those who help to original Nazarene forms of Christianity certainly did that better than those who practice Greco-Roman forms.

And while some will complain about following Jesus' examples in observing the Ten Commandments (see also What Did Jesus Teach About the Ten Commandments?), the seventh-day Sabbath (see also The Sabbath in the Early Church and Abroad), Passover (Passover and the Early Church), and the other Biblical Holy Days (see Is There "An Annual Worship Calendar" In the Bible?), they fail to realize the ramifications of what the Apostles Paul and John wrote.

Paul wrote:

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1, NKJV throughout).

Paul, of course, had Nazarene practices (Acts 24:5) and kept the Sabbath (The Sabbath in the Early Church and Abroad) and the Holy Days (Is There "An Annual Worship Calendar" In the Bible?).

John wrote:

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-- 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ... 3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 1:1-3;2:3-4).

Thus, the Bible is clear that John taught the truth of Christianity from the beginning.  And he taught it so that others could have the same fellowship with the Father and the Son.  Thus, the Bible shows that faithful would follow John in order to be true Christians. Thus the idea that original Christians would actually follow what Jesus, Paul, and John did, and live their lives as they did, is not restricted to an Arabic report, but is consistent with the teachings of the Bible.

Did Some Early Christians Flee to Arabic Lands?

Michael Germano, president of Living University, reported:

…scholars speculate that the flight of the last remaining members of the church at Jerusalem on the Feast of Pentecost in CE 69, may have been recorded by Flavius Josephus who writes:

Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple...they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking and heard a sound as of a multitude saying, ‘Let us remove hence.’ (Josephus, Wars, bk. VI, ch. v, sec. 3; Whiston 1957:825 (Germano M. Pella.  http://www.bibarch.com/ArchaeologicalSites/Pella.htm 06/20/07).

According to the fourth century Catholic historian Eusebius, during the first century,

James, the first that had obtained the episcopal seat in Jerusalem after the ascension of our Saviour...But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella (Eusebius. The History of the Church History, Book III, Chapter V, Verses 2,3.  Translated by A. Cushman McGiffert.  Digireads.com Publishing, Stilwell (KS), 2005, p. 45).

Shlomo Pines reportedly wrote the following:

The story which relates the flight of the original Christian community from Palestine has an evident counterpart in the departure of that community from Jerusalem to Pella accounted in Eusebius and in Epiphanius...It is, moreover, an interesting point that Eusebius seems to say or to imply that this appeal was the indirect cause of the action resulting in the murder committed by the Jews, of James, the brother of Jesus, who was the head of the Christian community of Jerusalem. The hypothesis can at least be envisaged that the attempts of some members of the Christian community in question to obtain help from the Romans, or arrive at an understanding with them, may on the whole have worsened the position of this community, and finally rendered it untenable, making flight necessary. Our text seems to indicate that, as a result, Jewish Christian communities were formed in the Mosul district and in the Jazira (or in Arabia) (Isma'ili, Yezidi, Sufi. http://www.antiqillum.org/texts/bg/Qadosh/qadosh039.htm viewed 9/16/08).

And while I do not believe that all the Jerusalem Christians went to Arab lands (many ended up in Asia Minor and elsewhere, and some went back to Jerusalem), I do believe that some did end up in Arab lands.

Did Non-Nazarenes Make a Deal with the Romans?

Another source of quotes Shlomo Pines' The Jewish Christians of the Early Centuries of Christianity according to a New Source as follows (written originally in Arabic by Abd al-Jabbar):

"'After him, his disciples (axhab) were with the Jews and the Children of Israel in the latter's synagogues and observed the prayers and the feasts of (the Jews) in the same place as the latter. (However) there was a disagreement between them and the Jews with regard to Christ.

"The Romans (al-Rum) reigned over them. The Christians (used to) complain to the Romans about the Jews, showed them their own weakness and appealed to their pity. And the Romans did pity them. This (used) to happen frequendy. And the Romans said to the Christians: "Between us and the Jews there is a pact which (obliges us) not to change their religious laws (adyan). But if you would abandon their laws and separate yourselves from them, praying as we do (while facing) the East, eating (the things) we eat, and regarding as permissible that which we consider as such, we should help you and make you powerful, and the Jews would find no way (to harm you). On the contrary, you would be more powerful than they."

"The Christians answered:"We will do this." (And the Romans) said:

"Go, fetch your companions, and bring your Book (kitab)." (The Christians) went to their companions, informed them of (what had taken place) between them and the Romans and said to them: "Bring the Gospel (al-injil), and stand up so that we should go to them." But these (companions) said to them: "You have done ill. We are not permitted (to let) the Romans pollute the Gospel. In giving a favourable answer to the Romans, you have accordingly departed from the religion. We are (therefore) no longer permitted to associate with you; on the contrary, we are obliged to declare that there is nothing in common between us and you;" and they prevented their (taking possession of) the Gospel or gaining access to it. In consequence a violent quarrel (broke out) between (the two groups). Those (mentioned in the first place) went back to the Romans and said to them: "Help us against these companions of ours before (helping us) against the Jews, and take away from them on our behalf our Book (kitab)." Thereupon (the companions of whom they had spoken) fled the country. And the Romans wrote concerning them to their governors in the districts of Mosul and in the Jazirat al-'Arab. [NOTE: In the context this geographical term might exceptionally designate the Jazira region In North-Eastern Syria, rather than the Arabian Peninsula.] Accordingly, a search was made for them; some (qawm) were caught and burned, others (qawm) were killed." (Isma'ili, Yezidi, Sufi. http://www.antiqillum.org/texts/bg/Qadosh/qadosh039.htm viewed 9/15/08).

The above is interesting for a number of reasons.

It is a fact that the Romans made a deal with those who were willing to renounce original Christianity in Jerusalem in 135 A.D. (see The Ephesus Church Era). It is possible that the above account is related to that.

It is also a fact that in the second century, Romans and Alexandrians that claimed Christ rejected the biblical date for Passover and probably because of compromise with the Romans (see Passover and the Early Church), apparently switched to regular Sunday worship (see Sunday and Christianity), and decided that eating biblically unclean meat was acceptable (see The New Testament Church and Unclean Meats). Thus, it is possible that the Arabic document demonstrates that.

Arabic Nazarenes Did not Consider that those who held to Greco-Roman Versions of Christianity As Faithful

According to one source:

Shlomo Pines, the translator of this text, sees four or five categories within the manuscript. He classifies these as:

"1. An attack on the Christians for having abandoned the commandments of the Mosaic Law and having adopted different laws and customs.

2. Polemics against the dogmas, or, more precisely, the Christology of the three dominant Christian sects, i.e., the Jacobites, the Nestorians and the Orthodox, sometimes called Rum, i.e., the Romans or the Byzantines.

3. An outline of the early history of Christianity, or at least of certain notable events which are part of this history.

4. Malicious stories about the habits of monks and priests and Christian laymen (Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities II, No.13; 1966; The Jewish Christians of the Early Centuries of Christianity According To A New Source cited in Arabic Traditions on Christian Origins. http://www.essene.com/Bible/ArabicTraditionsOnChristianOrigins.html viewed 09/15/08).

In other words, it appears that the Arabic Nazarenes did not consider that those who held to Greco-Roman versions of Christianity were faithful. Thus, they tended to be separate from them.

Of course, the Bible teaches:

Therefore

"Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you." (2 Corinthians 6:17)

Other Sources That Show Nazarene-Type Christians in Arabic Lands

In the third century, once there were some few real Christians in northern Africa, in the area of Egypt. Origen noted that there were two groups that he considered to be “Ebionites”, one who believed in the virgin birth (and that would be those who this paper suggests were also known as the Nazarenes) and those who did not:

Let it be admitted, moreover, that there are some who accept Jesus, and who boast on that account of being Christians, and yet would regulate their lives, like the Jewish multitude, in accordance with the Jewish law,—and these are the twofold sect of Ebionites, who either acknowledge with us that Jesus was born of a virgin, or deny this, and maintain that He was begotten like other human beings…(Origen.  Contra Celsus, Book V, Chapter 61).

The true Christians in those lands were not those associated with Origen (please see what happened in Alexandria), nor those that denied the virgin birth. The true Christians were those professed Jesus and had practices similar to those of the Jews.

It probably should also be mentioned that around that time, at least one African leader stood up to allegorists like Origen. The Catholic Encyclopedia reported:

An Egyptian bishop, Nepos, taught the Chiliastic error that there would be a reign of Christ upon earth for a thousand years, a period of corporal delights; he founded this doctrine upon the Apocalypse in a book entitled "Refutation of the Allegorizers" (Chapman, John. "Dionysius of Alexandria." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 14 Aug. 2008 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05011a.htm>.).

A nineteenth century anti-millennial scholar named Giovanni Battista Pagani went as far as to write the following about Nepos and those who supported the millennium:

…all those  who teach a millennium framed according to Jewish ideas, saying that during the millennium, Mosaic law will be restored…These are called Judaical Millenarians, not as being Jews, but as having invented and upheld a millennium according to Jewish taste.  The principal authors of this error were Nepos, an African Bishop, against whom St. Dionysius wrote his two books on Promises; and Apollinaris, whom St. Epiphanius confound in his work against heresies (Pagani, Giovanni Battista. Published by Charles Dolman, 1855. Original from Oxford University. Digitized Aug 15, 2006, pp. 252-253).

It should be of interest to note that neither Nepos nor Apollinaris were Jews, but were condemned for having a religion that had “Jewish” beliefs.  And since Apollinaris is a Catholic saint (see article Apollinaris of Hierapolis), it should be clear that the respected and non-Jewish Christian leaders in the early third century clearly did hold to ideas that were condemned by the allegorists.

The following from Dionysius clearly shows that Nepos was still respected after he died (Nepos died prior to Dionysius’ mid-third century writing of the following) and really did not refute him from a biblical perspective:

But as they produce a certain composition by Nepos, on which they insist very strongly, as if it demonstrated incontestably that there will be a (temporal) reign of Christ upon the earth, I have to say, that in many other respects I accept the opinion of Nepos, and love him at once for his faith, and his laboriousness, and his patient study in the Scriptures, as also for his great efforts in psalmody, by which even now many of the brethren are delighted. I hold the man, too, in deep respect still more, inasmuch as he has gone to his rest before us. Nevertheless the truth is to be prized and reverenced above all things else. And while it is indeed proper to praise and approve ungrudgingly anything that is said aright, it is no less proper to examine and correct anything which may appear to have been written unsoundly. If he had been present then himself, and had been stating his opinions orally, it would have been sufficient to discuss the question together without the use of writing, and to endeavour to convince the opponents, and carry them along by interrogation and reply. But the work is published, and is, as it seems to some, of a very persuasive character; and there are unquestionably some teachers, who hold that the law and the prophets are of no importance, and who decline to follow the Gospels, and who depreciate the epistles of the apostles, and who have also made large promises  regarding the doctrine of this composition, as though it were some great and hidden mystery, and who, at the same time, do not allow that our simpler brethren have any sublime and elevated conceptions either of our Lord's appearing in His glory and His true divinity, or of our own resurrection from the dead, and of our being gathered together to Him, and assimilated to Him, but, on the contrary, endeavour to lead them to hope  for things which are trivial and corruptible, and only such as what we find at present in the kingdom of God. And since this is the case, it becomes necessary for us to discuss this subject with our brother Nepos just as if he were present (Dionysius of Alexandria. From the Two Books on the Promises. Copyright © 2008 by Kevin Knight. Viewed 8/14/08).

In other words, Nepos knew his Bible, but did not hold to the same position that allegorists like Dionysius of Alexandria held.  But those who held to Judaeo-Christian beliefs, while slightly chastised, simply were almost never condemned by the early allegorists. Mainly, because the early allegorists knew that the original Christians held to beliefs and practices that the allegorists considered to be Jewish--and at this stage, the allegorists simply did not have the ability to condemn the literalists because most who professed Christ at the time knew that the literalists had ties to the original apostolic church.

How Long Were There Nazarene Arabic Christians?

Were the Nazarenes in Arabic lands only there a relatively few years? Or were they around for many centuries?

Even though the following says that original Nazarene Christianity ceased to exist, it admits to faithful Christians from the late second existed at least into the seventh century on the outskirts of Arabic lands, they were "law-observant" and considered to be a faction of Christianity in the Middle East:

On the other hand, the other faction which left Antioch to preserve its distinctive Christian perspective eventually faded from history. Its disappearance from the stage of history can possibly be attributed to the success of Islam which swept through the region in the seventh century (Sim, David C. The Gospel of Matthew and Christian Judaism: The History and Social Setting of the Matthean Community Published by Continuum International Publishing Group, 1998, p. 297).

So, there were some who professed Christ for centuries in the Middle East that apparently kept original practices, and did so for many centuries.

Summary Comments on Nazarene Arabs

While it is hard to know how much a late document may have been changed, it is interesting that several of the comments attributed to these "Nazarene" Arabs are certainly consistent with the Bible.

Whether or not they held to all Nazarene Christian beliefs is unclear, but it seems that perhaps that they did (more on the Nazarenes can be found in the article Nazarene Christianity: Were the Original Christians Nazarenes?). I have seen other sources that suggest that there were Nazarene Christians in the Arabic lands that lasted until at least the time of Islam.

I have also personally met persons of Arabic heritage (in the United States) who keep Nazarene practices within the Living Church of God.

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Thiel B. Arabic Nazarenes May Have Kept Original Christian Practices. www.cogwriter.com/arabic-nazarenes.htm (c) 2008