Re: Of Nazirites & Naṣoraeans.
Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2020 9:02 am
How many times, though? Once? (Proverbs 2.21.) By far the most common Hebrew word standing behind χρηστός in the LXX/OG is טוֹב.
Investigating the roots of western civilization (ye olde BC&H forum of IIDB lives on...)
https://earlywritings.com/forum/
How many times, though? Once? (Proverbs 2.21.) By far the most common Hebrew word standing behind χρηστός in the LXX/OG is טוֹב.
Tetrarchy literally refers to a council of four rulers running a place. The term shows up in "Herod the Tetrarch". IIRC, however, when Pliny used this term, he did not mean it in a strict literal way. In other words, when he named the different tetrarchies in the Middle East, I recall that he did not mean it to absolutely mean that each "tetrarchy" literally had a group of four rulers, and instead it could have been a kind of shorthand way to refer to a separate autonomous/sovereign land/kingdom/republic, etc. I could be misremembering this.Ben C. Smith wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 7:59 pm It is true that, if Pliny were drawing from a Christian source, he might have used a zee. So was he? What Christian source might have told him about a Tetrarchy named after Jewish Christians by that name? Do we even have a source, of whatever date, which suggests that Jewish Christians formed their own Tetrarchies?
- Then sometime before 77 AD, Pliny writes his Natural History for Titus. So the Nazarenes would be living there in Pliny's time, unless Pliny made a mistake, purely copied Marcus Agrippa's work without updating it for current events, and thus the group was no longer in Syria. The term Tetrarchy suggests that the Nazerini had some kind of either independent or autonomous rulership. Apamea had an alternate name of "Pella" in Syria, and the Nazerini were across the river Marsyas from Pella/Apamea. I remember seeing a diagram of Apamea's relationship to the Marsyas river/creek (a tributary of the Orontes), but I am having trouble finding it again. It makes sense that the Marsyas river would be on the same side of the Orontes as Apamea in order for the Nazerini Tetrachy to be described as being on the opposite side of that creek (or else it would be described as being on the opposite side of the Orontes). It also makes sense that the Nazerini Tetrarchy would be near Apamea. Here is a map of Apamea:The document itself is a rambling, 600-page manuscript, written by the 10th century Moslem theologian, Abd-al-Jabbar. About 140 pages of his text consist of an Arabic translation of a much older Syriac account of Nazarene beliefs, probably dating from the 5th century and presumably written by members of the sect. The Nazarenes, who claimed descent from Jesus' first disciples, were driven out of Palestine into Syria around 62 A.D. after a bitter quarrel with other Christians.
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber ... -1,00.html
- I read that the Parthian client kingdom of Adiabene, located in what was once "Assyria", had a major Christian community before the Roman empire accepted Christianity. The Roman empire's acceptance of Christianity led the Sassanids to take a less favorable view of Christianity.the term "Nazerini" can be possibly connected to words which include the Semitic triliteral root n-ṣ-r such as the subject naṣer in Eastern Aramaic which means "keeper of wellness".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawites# ... n_theories
Jerome also writes regarding the Gospel of the Hebrews:To-day there still exists among the Jews in all the synagogues of the East a heresy which is called that of the Minæans [Hebrew minim- sectarians?], and which is still condemned by the Pharisees; [its followers] are ordinarily called ‘Nasarenes’
I take the "East" to refer to places like Syria and Assyria. Neil Godfrey also refers to mention of a group called something like the Nasoreans in Filiaster.The Hebrew itself has been preserved until the present day in the library at Caesarea which Pamphilius the martyr so diligently collected. From the Nazoreans who use this book in Beroia, a city of Syria, I also received the opportunity to copy it.
- I am inclined to think that the Nazarini are somehow related to the Alawite Nosairis because they inhabit the same region. But it could be an issue of false cognates, and the centuries between the records of the two groups also weakens the case. The Alawite Nusairis' beliefs seem quite different from "orthodox" Nazarenes, but remind me of how I read that the ancienr/medieval Christian Nosairis had some unusual semi-Christian/Ebionite beliefs and practices. The Wikipedia article on the Alawites says:The confusion may have started quite early. At the turn of this century, R. Dussaud noted a passage in the Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen (VII 15) in which he tells of some “Galileans” who helped the pagans of Apamea against the local bishop and the Christians. Dussaud rightly called into question the likelihood that the Galileans — that is, Jewish Christians — would side with the pagans in a dispute over the keeping of idols, and he suggested that the people referred to were “certainly either Nusairi or Nazerini, whom Sozomen has confused with the Nazarenes.” Sozomen’s source here is unknown. Dussaud further suggested that the writer Greg Aboulfaradj (Chron. Syr. I 173) in the year 891 confused the Nusairi with the Mandaeans . . . and was followed by others.
Alawite doctrine incorporates Islamic, Gnostic, neo-Platonic, Christian (for example, they celebrate Mass including the consecration of bread and wine) and other elements and has, therefore, been described as syncretic.
...
Other beliefs and practices include: the consecration of wine in a secret form of Mass performed only by males; frequently being given Christian names; entombing the dead in sarcophagi above ground; observing Epiphany, Christmas[93] and the feast days of John Chrysostom and Mary Magdalene;[94] the only religious structures they have are the shrines of tombs
But I still need to read this thread.