TheGospel of the Nazarenes (alsoNazareans,Nazaraeans,Nazoreans, orNazoraeans) is the traditional but hypothetical name given by some scholars to distinguish some of the references to, or citations of, non-canonicalJewish–Christian gospels extant inpatristic writings from other citations believed to derive from different Gospels.
Due to contradictions in the account of the baptism of Jesus, and other reasons, most scholars in the 20th century consider that theGospel of the Nazarenes is distinct from theGospel of the Hebrews andGospel of the Ebionites, even though Jerome linked the Nazarenes to theEbionites in their shared use of theGospel of the Hebrews.[1][2]
The current standard critical edition of the text is found inWilhelm Schneemelcher'sNew Testament Apocrypha, where 36 verses, GN 1 to GN 36, are collated.[3] GN 1 to GN 23 are mainly from Jerome, GN 24 to GN 36 are from medieval sources. This classification is now traditional,[4] thoughCraig A. Evans (2005) suggests that "If we have little confidence in the traditional identification of the three Jewish gospels (Nazarenes, Ebionites, and Hebrews), then perhaps we should work with the sources we have: (1) the Jewish gospel known to Origen; (2) the Jewish gospel known to Epiphanius; and (3) the Jewish gospel known to Jerome.[5]
The nameGospel of the Nazarenes was first used in Latin byPaschasius Radbertus (790–865), and around the same time byHaimo, though it is a natural progression from what Jerome writes.[6] The descriptionsevangelium Nazarenorum andablativein evangelio Nazarenorum, etc. become commonplace in later discussion.[7]
The hypothetical name refers to a possible identification with theNazarene community ofRoman period Palestine.[8] It is a hypothetical gospel, which may or may not be the same as, or derived from, theGospel of the Hebrews or the canonicalGospel of Matthew.[9][10] The titleGospel of the Nazarenes is a neologism as it was not mentioned in the Catalogues of the Early Church nor by any of the Church Fathers.[11] Today, all that remains of its original text are notations, quotations, and commentaries from variousChurch Fathers includingHegesippus,Origen,Eusebius andJerome.[9]
TheGospel of the Nazarenes has been the subject of many critical discussions and surmises throughout the course of the last century. Recent discussions in a growing body of literature have thrown considerable light upon the problems connected with this gospel. Its sole literary witnesses are brief citations found in patristic literature and quotations by the Church Fathers.[12] This bears great significance becausehigher criticism argues that the canonicalGospel of Matthew is not a literal reproduction of Matthew's originalautograph, but was rather the production of an unknown redactor, composed in Greek posthumous to Matthew.[13] This aligns with Jerome's assessment, in which he stated, "Matthew, also called Levi, apostle and aforetime publican, composed a gospel of Christ at first published in Judea in Hebrew for the sake of those of the circumcision who believed, but this was afterwards translated into Greek, though by what author is uncertain."[14] (seeTwo-source hypothesis,Four-document hypothesis, andHebrew Gospel hypothesis).
The termNazarene was applied toJesus of Nazareth (Gospel of Matthew 2:23). Mention of a "sect of the Nazarenes" (plural) occurs first withTertullus (Acts 24:5). After Tertullus the name does not appear again, apart from an unclear reference inEusebius'Onomasticon, until a similar name, "Nazoreans", is distinguished byEpiphanius in hisPanarion in the 4th century.[15]
It was the term used to identify the predominantlyJewish sect that believed Jesus was theMessiah and would later be known asChristians.[16]
Concerning its origin, Jerome relates that the Nazarenes believed that the Hebrew Gospel he received while atChalcis was written byMatthew the Evangelist. In his workOn Illustrious Men, Jerome explains that Matthew, also called Levi, composed a gospel of Christ, which was first published inJudea inHebrew script for the sake of thoseof the circumcision who believed (On Illustrious Men, 2). Meanwhile, in hisCommentary on Matthew, Jerome refers to theGospel of the Nazarenes and theGospel of the Hebrews.
Epiphanius is of the same opinion; he states in hisPanarion that Matthew alone expounded and declared the gospel in Hebrew among theNew Testament writers: "For in truth, Matthew alone of the New Testament writers expounded and declared the Gospel in Hebrew using Hebrew script."[18]
Origen adds to this by stating that, among the four gospels, Matthew, the one-timetax collector who later became anapostle of Jesus Christ, first composed the gospel for the converts fromJudaism, published in the Hebrew language.[19]
Philipp Vielhauer writes of the Greek/Latin fragments collected as the Gospel of the Nazarenes that "Its literary character shows the GN secondary as compared with the canonical Mt; again, from the point of view of form-criticism and the history of tradition, as well as from that of language, it presents no proto-Matthew but a development of the Greek Gospel of Matthew (against Waitz). 'It is scarcely to be assumed that in it we are dealing with an independent development of older Aramaic traditions; this assumption is already prohibited by the close relationship with Mt.[20] Likewise, as regards theSyriac fragments, Vielhauer writes "the Aramaic (Syriac) GN cannot be explained as a retroversion of the Greek Mt; the novelistic expansions, new formations, abbreviations and corrections forbid that. In literary terms the GN may best be characterised as a targum-like rendering of the canonical Matthew."[21] From this view the GN fragments are linked to the canonical version of Matthew, with minor differences. For example, GN replaces "daily bread" with "bread for tomorrow" in theLord's Prayer (GN 5), states that the man whose hand was withered (GN 10, compareMatthew 12:10–13) was astonemason, and narrates there having been two rich men addressed by Jesus inMatthew 19:16–22 instead of one (GN 16).
Canonical Matthew is dependent on or a translation of the Gospel of Nazarenes
James R. Edwards (2009) argues that the canonical Matthew is based on a Hebrew original, and that the citations of the Gospel of the Nazarenes are part of that original.[22]
"We find that there existed among the Nazarenes and Ebionites a Gospel commonly called theGospel according to the Hebrews, written in Aramaic, but with Hebrew characters. Its authorship was attributed by some to the Apostles in general, but by very many or most—including clearly the Nazarenes and Ebionites themselves—to Matthew."[23]
"The Fathers of the Church, while theGospel according to the Hebrews was yet extant in its entirety, referred to it always with respect, often with reverence: some of them unhesitatingly accepted it as being what tradition affirmed it to be—the work of Matthew—and even those who have not put on record their expression of this opinion have not questioned it. Is such an attitude consistent with the supposition that theGospel according to the Hebrews was a work of heretical tendencies? This applies with tenfold force to Jerome. After copying it, would he, if he had seen heresy in it, have translated it for public dissemination into both Greek and Latin, and have continued to favor the tradition of its Matthaean authorship? And Jerome, be it observed, not only quotes all three of these passages without disapprobation; he actually quotes two of them (Fr. 6 and Fr. 8) with approval."[24]
Nicholson's position thatThe Gospel of the Hebrews was the trueGospel of Matthew is still the subject of heated debate.
TheTalmudic evidence for early Christian gospels,[citation needed] combined with Papias' reference to the Hebrew "logia" (Eusebius,Church History III . 39 . 16)[25] and Jerome's discovery of theGospel of the Hebrews inAramaic (Jerome,Against Pelagius 3.2) have led scholars such asC. C. Torrey (1951) to consider anoriginal Aramaic or Hebrew gospel, meaning theGospel of the Hebrews which the Nazarenes used.[26]
TheGospel of the Nazarenes (Nazoraeans) emphasized the Jewishness of Jesus.[27][28] According to multiple early sources, including Jerome (Against Pelagius 3) and Epiphanius (Panarion 29-30) theGospel of the Nazarenes was synonymous with theGospel of the Hebrews and theGospel of the Ebionites.[citation needed] Ron Cameron considers this a dubious link.[29]
The time and place of authorship are disputed, but sinceClement of Alexandria used the book in the last quarter of thesecond century, it consequently predates 200 AD.[citation needed] Its place of origin might beAlexandria, Egypt, since two of its principal witnesses, Clement and Origen, were Alexandrians.[citation needed] However, the original language of theGospel of the Nazarenes was Hebrew or Aramaic,[citation needed] suggesting that it was written specifically for Hebrew-speaking Jewish Christians inPalestine,Syria, and contingencies.[citation needed]
The extant reconstructed text ofGospel of the Nazarenes and variances with Canonical Matthew
The following list[30][31][32] represents variant readings found inGospel of the Nazarenes against the canonicalGospel of Matthew:[33] Where Ehrman's order corresponds to the Schneemelcher numbering "(GN 2)" etc., is added for clarity:
(GN 2) In Matthew 3, it reads: "Behold, the mother of the Lord and his brethren said to him, 'John the Baptist is baptizing unto the remission of sins; let us go and be baptized by him.' But He said to them, 'Wherein have I sinned that I should go and be baptized by him? Unless what I have just said is (a sin of?) ignorance.'" (Jerome, Against Pelagius 3.2")[34]
(GN 3) Matthew 4:5 has not "into the holy city" but "to Jerusalem."
(GN 4) Matthew 5:22 lacks the phrase "without a cause" as in67אB2174, somevgmss, someethmss
(GN 5) Matthew 6:11 reads, "Give us today our bread for tomorrow." (Jerome,Commentary on Matthew 6:11)[35]
(GN 6) Matthew 7:23 adds, "If ye be in my bosom, but do not the will of my Father in heaven, out of my bosom I will cast you."[30] Compare with noncanonical2 Clement 2:15.[36]
(GN 7) Matthew 10:16 has "wise more than serpents" rather than "wise as serpents."
(GN 23) On Matthew 10:34–36, the Syriac translation ofEusebius'Theophania contains: 'He (Christ) himself taught the reason for the separations of souls that take place in houses, as we have found somewhere in the Gospel that is spread abroad among the Jews in the Hebrew tongue, in which it is said, "I choose for myself the most worthy; the most worthy are those whom my Father in heaven has given me."' (Eusebius,Theophania, Syriac translation 4.12)
(GN 8) Matthew 11:12 reads "is plundered" instead of "suffers violence."
(GN 9) Matthew 11:25 has "I thank thee" rather than "I praise you."
(GN 10) At Matthew 12:10–13, the man who had the withered hand is described as a mason who pleaded for help in the following words: "I was a mason seeking a livelihood with my hands. I beseech thee, Jesus, to restore me to my health, that I may not in shame have to beg for my food." (Jerome,Commentary on Matthew 12:13)
(GN 11) Matthew 12:40 omits "three days and three nights" immediately preceding "in the heart of the earth."
(GN 12) Matthew 15:5 reads, "It is akorban (offering) by which ye may be profited by me." CompareMark 7:11.
(GN 14) Matthew 16:17 has Hebrew "Shimon ben Yochanan" (Simon son of John) instead of Aramaic "Simon Bar-Jonah" (Simon son of Jonah).
(GN 15) At Matthew 18:21–22, Jesus is recorded as having said: "If your brother has sinned by word, and has made three reparations, receive him seven times in a day." Simon his disciple said to him, "Seven times in a day?" The Lord answered, saying to him, "Yea, I say unto thee, until seventy times seven times. For in theProphets also, after they were anointed with the Holy Spirit, a word of sin was found. (Jerome,Against Pelagius 3.2)
(GN 16) AtMatthew 19:16–24, Origen, in hisCommentary on Matthew, records there having been two rich men who approached Jesus along the way. Origen records that the second rich man asked Jesus, "Rabbi, what good thing can I do that I may live?" He (Jesus) said to him, "Man, fulfill the Law and the Prophets." He answered him, "I have done (so)." Jesus said, "Go, sell all that you have, and distribute to the poor; and come, follow me." But the rich man began to fidget (some copies read, 'began to scratch his head'), for it did not please him. And the Lord said to him, "How can you say, 'I have fulfilled the Law and the Prophets', when it is written in the Law: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself', and many of your brothers, sons of Abraham, are covered with filth, dying of hunger, and your house is full of many good things, none of which goes out to them?" And he (Jesus) turned and said to Simon his disciple, who was sitting by him, "Simon son of John, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter into theKingdom of Heaven."[37]
(GN 17) At Matthew 21:12, Jerome records, "For a certain fiery and starry light shone from His eyes, and the majesty of the Godhead gleamed in His face."[38] Also, there is quoted in a marginal note of a thirteenth-century manuscript of theAurora by Peter of Riga the following: "Rays issued forth from His eyes which terrified them and put them to flight."
(GN 18) Matthew 23:35 reads "Zechariah, the son ofJehoiada" instead of "Zechariah, the son ofBarachiah."(Jerome,Commentary on Matthew 23:35)
(GN 19) Matthew 26:74 has, "And he denied, and he swore (i.e., took an oath), and he cursed (i.e., forswore)."
(GN 21) Matthew 27:51 states not that the veil of the temple was rent, but that the lintel of the temple of wondrous size collapsed.[39][40]
(GN 22) Matthew 27:65 reads, "And he (Pilate) delivered to them (the chief priests and the Pharisees) armed men, that they might sit over against the tomb and guard it day and night."
GN 4, 6, 15a, 19, 22 come from the 'Zion Gospel Edition', the subscriptions of thirty-six Gospel manuscripts dating from the 9th to the 13th centuries.[41]
GN 24–36 (not listed) are derived from medieval sources.
^The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, F.L. Cross, E.A. Livingston (eds), Oxford University Press, 1989 p. 439.
^Craig A. EvansAncient texts for New Testament studies: a guide to the background literatureISBN978-1-56563-409-1, 2005 "The Jewish Gospels. With one or two notable dissenters, most scholars in the last century have followed Philipp Vielhauer and Georg Strecker (in Hennecke and Schneemelcher NTApoc), and more recently A.F.J. Klijn (1992), in extrapolating from the church fathers three distinct extracanonical Jewish gospels: the Gospel of the Nazarenes, the Gospel of the Ebionites, and the Gospel of the Hebrews. A recent study by Peter Lebrecht Schmidt (1998), however, has called this near consensus into question. Critically assessing the discussion from Schmidtke to Klijn, Schmidt thinks that originally there was only one Jewish gospel, probably written in Aramaic about 100 CE, called the "Gospel according to the Hebrews," which was subsequently... " cf.Hans-Josef KlauckApocryphal gospels: an introduction 2003 p37
^Vielhauer and StreckerGospel of the Nazaraeans in Schneemelcher NTA p.160-174Fragments 1 to 36
^David Edward AuneThe Westminster dictionary of New Testament and early Christian Literature and Rhetoric. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003 p201 "Schneemelcher has reiterated the traditional classification of the various types of apocryphal gospels into three."
^Craig A. EvansAncient texts for New Testament studies: a guide to the background literature 2005
^Pritz, Ray (1988).Nazarene Jewish Christianity: From the end of the New Testament period until its disappearance in the fourth century. Studia Post-Biblica. Brill Academic Pub. p. 81, footnote 55.ISBN978-900408108-6.
^e.g. Johann H. Majus,Repetitum examen historiae criticae textus Novi Testamenti a PR Simonio, 1699
^The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingston (eds), Oxford University Press, 1989 p. 626.
^Lawrence H. Schiffman, James C. VanderKamEncyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls: N-Z Nazarenes – 2000 – 1132 "... occurs only once in the post-New Testament Greek literature between Acts and Epiphanius, in Eusebius'sOnomasticon, though it remains doubtful whether the term here concerns Nazoreans (rather than Christians in general)."
^F.L. Cross & E.A. Livingston,The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Oxford University Press, 1989. p 957 & 722.
^The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingston (editors), Oxford University Press, 1989. p 957 & 722.
^In hisCommentary on Matthew, Jerome, citing theGospel of the Hebrews which the Nazarenes used, writes: "In the so-calledGospel of the Hebrews, forbread essential to existence I foundMAHAR, meaningof tomorrow. So, the sense isour bread for tomorrow, that is,of the future, give us this day."Latin: "In Evangelio quod appellatur secundum Hebraeos, pro supersubstantiali pane, reperi MAHAR (מחר), quod dicitur crastinum; ut sit sensus: Panem nostrum crastinum, id est, futurum da nobis hodie." Jerome,Commentary on Matthew 6:11
Christianity portal