Raoul Vaneigem,
Resistance to Christianity. Heresies up to the Beginning of the 18th Century [
1993]:
The Sethians called themselves 'Pneumatics' in opposition to the 'Hylics', the Sons of Cain, and the 'Psychics', the Sons of Abel.
I suppose Nazoreans were an offshoot of the ancient Sethians of the Sethrum: Palestinian students (descendants/cousins) of the Judeo-Egyptian 'Therapeutae'. Church Fathers (Eusebius et al.) were basically correct, though garbling the lineage somewhat.
I have not seen this Nazorean-Sethian hypothesis developed (not saying it hasn't: just that I'm unaware, ignorant of anyone's theory, etc.) so any suggestions to assist my line of inquiry will be much appreciated.
I am well-aware there's some fringe-y material out there. I have not read E.S. Drower,
The Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis [1960]; however, Lady Ethel Stefana
Drower was a respected Mandaean scholar. And ahhhh a Mills & Boon novelist.
Summary
here; the entire Drower [1960],
here.
A startling conclusion (after Drower) on a
blog page:
The root of this Dositheus/Simon Magus quarrel seems to be related to leadership of the John the Baptist sect. There were several historical links between the John the Baptist sect and the Nazoreans, including even the Haran Gawaita, a Mandaean text; it specifically calls Jerusalem Mandaeans 'Nazoreans'. Epiphanius of Salamis referred to them as the Nazarenes. The root of Nazorean appears to come from Nasirutha, which means “secret knowledge,” which was probably in parallel to the notion of Christian Gnosis.
Jungian interpretation, see Robert B. Clarke An Order Outside Time: A Jungian View of the Higher Self from Egypt to Christ [2005],
p.622:
As to the religious knowledge of Jesus, it has always been a matter of contention as to which sect he belonged, indeed, if to any. The disciples in the Gospels seem ordinary workers and orthodox Jews, and Jesus intimates that there are mysteries beyond their knowledge and understanding. It has been suggested that Jesus may have been an Essene, the devout group of ascetic worshippers and healers devoted to holiness, but this seems doubtful. One reason is that while Jesus used oil for certain ritual purposes,the Essenes used only pure water. Nevertheless, Epiphanius, fourth-century Bishop of Salamis, stated that Christians were universally called Nazoreans and Iesseaens (Essenes), though Philo Judaeus, the 'hierophant of the Jewish Mysteries,' a contemporary of Christ who was perhaps a type of Essene, did not mention Christ in his writings. As for the Nazoreans, or Nazarenes, some believe that Jesus may have been one, therefore Jesus the Nazarene.
Joan Taylor,
The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea [2012],
p.183:
One candidate for possible hidden Essenes in Epiphanius comes with his mention of Iessaeans in Pan. 1:29:1:3 4; 1:29:4: 9 5:7, identified as a Jewish-Christian sect deriving their name from Jesus (rather than more correctly from Jesse), which according to Epiphanius means healer, physician, and saviour (Pan. 1: 29: 4: 9). He then leaps to Philo s treatise De Vita Contemplativa to identify them though his source is clearly Eusebius, who had presented the Therapeutae as Christians in his history (Hist. Eccles. 2: 17). 59 The Iessaeans are then the Therapeutae. Epiphanius words do indicate knowledge of Aramaic, a language he may well have spoken as an inhabitant of southern Palestine: y#y (Jesse) is linked with Jesus (w#y (Yeshu), which is linked to healer, )s), and this happens to be a possible underlying Aramaic term behind Greek š óóæeïò, but Epiphanius instead looks to Eusebius ŁåæÆðåıôÆß ( healers in later Greek). At the heart of this is the identification of a group that could be called Ny)s), assayyin, but the wider context of their placement is vague. When Epiphanius discusses the Essenes specifically as a named group, he states that they were one of four schools of the Samaritans (Pan. 1: 1: 10 13; 1: 10: 1: 1), along with the Gorothenes, Sebueans, and Dositheans, 60 which might seem baffling, though he has at the heart of this definition a story concerning the disputes between Jews and Samaritans regarding times of festivals (Pan. 1: 11: 1: 1). Since Epiphanius knew Samaritans to be (in his day) champions of a different calendar, then it is possible that a recorded discussion in which Essenes dispute the operative Temple calendar could have led Epiphanius to put them in the Samaritan camp. [...] His seven schools are: the Sadducees, Scribes, the Pharisees, the Hemerobaptists, the Ossaeans, Nasaraeans, and Herodians. Of these seven schools the name of the Ossaeans is initially suggestive.
58 For full translation see Frank Williams, The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2009).
59 See Simon Mimouni, Qui sont les Jesseens dans la notice 29 du Panarion d Epiphane de Salamine? NT 43 (2001):
Also, Mark went to preach to the Nazirites and
Nasareans, perhaps a corruption of 'Nazorean'?
Independent scholarship.
Apocalypse and Armageddon, The Secret Origins of Christianity [2015],
p.178
These early pre-Christian Sethians may be related to or identical to the Nazoreans, the Ophites, or even the 'heretics' mentioned by Philo. Later Sethian texts, such as Zostrianos and Allogenes, draw upon the previous Sethian texts and all extensively utilize Platonism and show no traces of what we call Christianity. Still, later Sethianism did incorporate Christianity as it grew, but Platonism was always clearly most important for them.
Independent scholar Andrew Phillip Smith,
The Gnostics: History, Tradition, Scriptures, Influence [2012],
p.31
Epiphanius connects Peter's Gnostic conversion with time spent in Arabia, possibly with Ebionites and Nazoreans, neither of which groups were Gnostic per se but were Jewish-Christian sects with strong ascetic or encratite leanings. No orthodox Christian mystic could approve of the inversionary tactics of the Sethians.