The origin of the Nazarenes can only be found among the annals and saga of the Apostles following the accession of Immanuel. In those times Nazarenes were widely hated and reviled by both the Roman and Judean world.
Much of this legacy has been claimed by an ascendant splinter movement later to be called Christianity.
Opening the tales, hidden mysteries only yields greater sorrows.
Nazarenes were originally considered a part of the Judean faith. This was a portion that rejected the collection of oral commands that were eventually combined into a collection of texts known as the Talmud. This position was extended to the esoteric Kaballah which forms the bedrock of mainstream Judaism.
These differences would lead to a history of persecution, violence, and impulsive abandon was exercised towards this small and fragile group of believers by their own communities.
One by one the Apostles and those around them were destroyed. James by the hand of the Sanhedrin. John by exile to Patmos. Stephen by summary execution by Saul.
They also survived attempts to create splinter factions by individuals claiming Apostolic authority during this era. Unscrupulous individuals attempted to redefine the nature of the Messiah by claiming either that his martyrdom never occurred or that he was demi-god as opposed to an entity that has become human in order to fulfill a specific purpose.
Although the systemic targeting of leadership was devastating, the Nazarenes as a movement would survive these events as a weakened congregation.
The final destruction of the remnant of the Judean power during the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-136 A.D.) finalized the separation between what is to be known today as Judaism and the Nazarenes. From henceforth both became strangers to the other. The refusal of the Nazarenes to acknowledge Bar Kokhba and participate in the uprising would see their memory purged from the annals and records of the Rabbis.
However the worst was yet to come
Tired of persecution by the Judeans and of their own powerlessness, a portion of the Nazarenes which by this time was primarily of gentile stock made a deal with the Romans. These Nazarenes complained to Roman figures of power and authority. With the mass martyrdom and a reputation of suffering extreme deprivation made famous by emperors like Nero public sentiment favored the Nazarenes.
It was then that an agreement that would reverberate through the ages would be made.
These Nazarenes would abandon the Torah Law as binding, they will pray facing East, render the deity laws none the effect, and consider permissible the things (festivals) the Romans held dear.
Such was the beginning of Christianity. A schism within the Nazarean congregation.
When the Christians came to the Nazarenes to take possession of the Gospel the Nazarenes denied them association. This grew into an armed conflict by which the Romans would decisively intervene on behalf of the Christians to purge the Nazarenes. The Romans would hence forth go and slay all Nazarenes even unto the districts of Mosul in the Jazirat al-Arab. -(Pine S. The Jewish Christians of the Early Centuries of Christianity according to a New Source. Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Volume II, No.13; 1996. Jerusalem, pp.14-15).
Hence forth Nazarenes were fated to exist in small isolated groups or individuals while Christianity would then flourish and spread as a faith gaining large numbers of new adherents.
The final nail in the coffin was served by Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. From henceforth deviation from Christian-canon in the form of diet, Israelite-Feasts, or reckoning of the Sabbath would be met with death.
Creed of Constantinople Church
“I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms, unleavened breads and sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews, and all the other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspirations, purifications, sanctifications, and propitiations, and fasts and New Moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns and chants,and observances, and synagogues.
Absolutely everything Jewish, every Law, rite and custom and if afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with Jews, or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion instead of openly confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let the trembling of Cain and the leprosy of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge myself liable.And may I be an anathema in the world to come, and may my soul be set down with Satan and the devils.” Stefano Assemani, Acta Sanctorium Martyrum Orientalium at Occidentalium, Vol. 1, Rome 1748, page 105.
Indeed the Beast has made war with the Saints and has emerged victorious.From hence forth between pogroms, the crusades, and the inquisition the original Nazarenes were entirely destroyed to no discernible survivor.
However, the Nazarenes are not extinct. In this final hour individuals called upon in all nations to perform their appointed roles.
For those with the ears to hear, eyes to see, and discernment of the mind.
We have returned.
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