NAZARENE Najapnv6s, Nazarrnos, tunic frequently Nailepaios. Nortint jos, from Nakapci, Nazara, Nas'ap0, awreth, Nazareth). A term applied to Jesus to indicate that He came front the somewhat obscure Galilean town Naza reth (q.v.). which was not connected with any Messianic prophecies or expectations (ef, John i. 46 and vii. 41). 'Jesus the Nazarene' (i.e. `Jesus of Nazareth') became a popular term used by friend and enemy alike (quite frequently in the Gospels and Acts). When the Gospel of Matthew was written the term was considered a fulfill ment of lsa. xi. 1. (Matt. ii. 23). It was thus an easy transition for the Jews to speak of the early Christians as the sect of Nazarenes (Acts xxiv. .5). Throughout the obscure and checkered development of Jewish Christianity the name was preserved, until in the fourth century 'Nazarenes' meant those Jewish Christians who, unlike the Ebionites (q.v.), were quite loyal to Jesus' teachings and not strongly anti-Gentile in their sentiments. Their general traditions and usages were, however, more Jewish than Christian. They had a Gospel of their own, made no use of Paul's Epistles. and were looked upon unfavorably by many orthodox Christians.
While the Eldonites, however, grew ever more hitter toward Catholic. Christianitys these seem to have gradually become lost in the greater Gentile Church. Their Gospel, known to its through Jerome, was probably the saute as that called by other writers the Gospel of the Hebrews, and was in existence as early as 150. All the evidence indicates that it was a form of Matthew, with eertain addi tions and variations. The work was by no means heretical in its tendencies. Later writers, from the fourth century onward, were inclined to class it as apocryphal, probably on account of the differences between it and the canonical Matthew. and also because there was no place for a fifth Gospel. The Gospel used by the more bigoted Jewish-Christian sect of Ebionites was not identical with the Nazarene. Gospel, but a secondary form of the Greek Matthew. Consult: Zahn, Ueschichte des neutcstamcntlichen Kanons, ii. 2 (Leipzig, 1892) ; Nicholson, Gasp./ of the Hebrews ( London, 1879) ; Ileselr, ,r1 graph(' (Leip zig_ 1889) : Kruger. History of Early Christian Literature (New York, 1897).