Do you know the True history of who was being persecuted in the days of the Early Roman Empire? Do you know Who is Really being Persecuted today?
This is a study of who the Natsarim Really are and at the end you will understand that if you are Keeping Torah, Following Yahusha Ha'Mashiach and striving to live according to Scriptures then you too will know you are Natsarim.
What/Who is a Natsarim? A look at New Testament first.
Natsarim are the Watchmen, The Natsarim, as spoken of by the Prophets (Old Testament) and in the Brit Hadasaha (New Testament). The first followers of Yahusha were known of as a sect called the Natsarim (Nazarene). They were not accepted by the teachers of Judaism nor the early Christian church.
The Natsarim are referred to as the Branch in both OT and NT.
Acts 24:5 For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes
In Greek the word for Nazarenes is G3480- Ναζωραῖος Nazōraîos, nad-zo-rah'-yos; from G3478; a Nazoræan, i.e. inhabitant of Nazareth; by extension, a Christian:—Nazarene, of Nazareth.
*G3478- †Ναζαρέθ Nazaréth, nad-zar-eth'; of uncertain derivation; Nazareth or Nazaret, a place in Palestine:—Nazareth.
The Outline of Biblical Usage: for Nazarene G3480
Nazarite = "one separated"
an inhabitant of Nazareth
a title given to Jesus in the NT
a name given to Christians by the Jews, Ac. 24:5 (Christians Are not the same as Nazarites.)
Yahusha was indeed a Nazarite.
Matthew 2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. G3480
The Outline of Biblical Usage for: Nazarene G3478
Nazareth = "the guarded one"
the ordinary residence and home town of Christ
Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth G3478 with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
Why is it important to understand History and How Words were changed to fit a Narative?? Our Identity was stolen!!
1. Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew/Arameic Origianlly: 2 Witnesses
*Irenaeus' Statement of Matthew's Authorship of an Original Hebrew Gospel
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.1.1 “Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.”
*Eusebius' Statement of Matthew's Authorship of an Original Hebrew Gospel
Eusebius Church History 3.24.5-6 “And the rest of the followers of our Savior, the twelve apostles, the seventy disciples, and countless others besides, were not ignorant of these things. Nevertheless, of all the disciples of the Lord, only Matthew and John have left us written memorials, and they, tradition says, were led to write only under the pressure of necessity. For Matthew, who had at first preached to the Hebrews, when he was about to go to other peoples, committed his Gospel to writing in his native tongue, and thus compensated those whom he was obliged to leave for the loss of his presence.
http://hebrewgospel.com/Matthew%20Two%20Gospels%20Main%20Evidence.php
2. We are to Remember who we are being taught by. If we are being taught Pagan ways then it needs to End! We have been warned! Rome is as Pagan as it gets...so why would we take on a name (Christian) given by Rome?
2 Timothy 3:14-17 (KJV) But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
* Herod was crowned “King of the Jews” by the Roman Senate in 40 BC in Rome. He was, however, a king without a kingdom. Upon his return to the Land of Israel, he was given a Roman army and was eventually able to capture Jerusalem. The first order of business was to eliminate his Hasmonean predecessors. Mattathias Antigonus was executed with the help of Mark Antony and Herod killed 45 leading men of Antigonus’ party in 37 BC (Antiquities 15:5-10; LCL 8:5-7). He had the elderly John Hyrcanus II strangled over an alleged plot to overthrow Herod in 30 BC (Antiquities 15:173-178; LCL 8:83-85).
* Macrobius (ca. AD 400), one of the last pagan writers in Rome, in his book Saturnalia, wrote: “When it was heard that, as part of the slaughter of boys up to two years old, Herod, king of the Jews, had ordered his own son to be killed, he [the Emperor Augustus] remarked, ‘It is better to be Herod’s pig [Gr. hys] than his son’ [Gr. huios]” (2.4.11; cited in Brown 1993:226). Macrobius may have gotten some of his historical facts garbled, but he could have given us a chronological key as well. If he was referring to the death of Antipater in 4 BC, the slaughter of the Innocents would have been one of the last, if not the last, brutal killings of Herod before he died. What is also interesting is the word-play in the quote attributed to Augustus- “pig” and “son” are similar sounding words in Greek. Herod would not kill a pig because he kept kosher, at least among the Jews; yet he had no qualms killing his own sons!
* Five days before he died, Herod executed his oldest son Antipater (Antiquities 17:187; LCL 8:457-459). During that time period he also executed, by burning alive, two leading rabbis and then executed their students for participating in the “eagle affair” in the Temple (Antiquities 17:149-167; LCL 8:439-449; Wars 1:655; LCL 2:311).
http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/12/08/The-Slaughter-of-the-Innocents-Historical-Fact-or-Legendary-Fiction.aspx
* Pontius Pilate, Latin in full Marcus Pontius Pilatus, (died after 36 ce), Roman prefect (governor) of Judaea (26–36 ce) under the emperor Tiberius who presided at the trial of Jesus and gave the order for his crucifixion.
* Josephus tells us that “in order to abolish Jewish laws,” and with the intent of diminishing privileges Jews had hitherto enjoyed, Pilate ordered his troops to encamp in Jerusalem and sent them into the city with images of the emperor attached to their ensigns. When Jewish representatives demonstrated in Caesarea, Pilate’s city of residence, he threatened them with death unless they desisted, but, when they showed their readiness to die, he ordered the images removed. Josephus states his inferential judgment that Pilate “was deeply affected with their firm resolution,” suggesting his own strength of character.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pontius-Pilate
3. Where was the first Gentile Church and when was "Christian" First Used?
Acts 11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
*Antioch was the capital of the Roman province of Syria and Phoenicia. Known as Antioch on the Orontes or Syrian Antioch, it was an important port on the River Orontes, founded in c.300BC (see Map 20). In Paul’s day it was the third largest city in the Roman empire (after Rome and Alexandria) and had a large colony of expatriate Jews living there among the predominantly ‘Greek’ (meaning non-Jewish or Gentile) population. Indeed, the Jewish historian Josephus records that there were more Jews living in Antioch at this time than in any other city of the world outside Judaea.
*Antioch was a thriving city where Herod the Great had paved over two miles / 3 km of its streets with marble, and had erected a colonnade from end to end. It was the home of Nicholas, a Gentile convert to Judaism, who was one of the seven Spirit-filled men who were chosen by the disciples to distribute food to the poorer believers in Jerusalem (see Acts 6:5). Nicholas may well have returned to Antioch after the stoning of Stephen and the persecution of the believers in Jerusalem (see Acts 8:1). Antioch subsequently became one of the four great centres of the Christian faith before the Council of Nicaea in 325AD (the other three being Rome, Alexandria and Jerusalem).
*Like several other cities called Antioch (e.g. Antioch in Pisidia), the city was named after King Antiochus I, a Seleucid (Greek) king descended from Seleucus – one of Alexander the Great’s generals who divided up the Greek empire on Alexander’s death in 323BC.
https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney1/7-journeys-of-jesuss-followers/the-gentile-church-at-antioch/
4. What does the Early Writers Have to Say?
* “The Nazarenes do not differ in any essential thing from them [meaning the Orthodox Jews], since they practice the customs and doctrines prescribed by Jewish Law; except that they believe in Christ…. “They believe in the resurrection of the dead, and that the universe was created by God. They preach that God is One, and that Jesus Christ is his Son….
“They are very learned in the Hebrew language.
“They read the Law [meaning the Law of Moses]….
“Therefore they differ…from the TRUE Christians because they fulfill until now ‘Jewish’ rites as the circumcision, Sabbath, and others.”
[The Church Father Epiphanius in his doctrinal book, “Against Heresies,” Panarion 29, 7, Page 41, 402]
* “They (meaning the Nazarenes) are characterized essentially by their tenacious attachment to Jewish observances. “If they became heretics in the eyes of the Mother Church , it is simply because they remained fixed on outmoded positions.” [However….] “They well represent (although Epiphanius is energetically refusing to admit it) the very direct descendants of that primitive community, of which our author knows that it was designated by the Jews, by the same name, of Nazarenes’.”
[French Catholic Professor and First Century Assembly expert Marcel Simon, Judéo-christianisme, pp 47-48.]
http://livingthetorah.com/christian-or-natsarim/
Now let us look at the meaning in the Torah for Natsarim
1. Natsiyr-H5336 nâtsîyr, naw-tsere'; from H5341; properly, conservative; but used passively, delivered:—preserved.
Isaiah 49:6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved H5336 of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
Outline of Scripture Usage- H5336
Preserved
2. Nastar-H5341 nâtsar, naw-tsar'; a primitive root; to guard, in a good sense (to protect, maintain, obey, etc.) or a bad one (to conceal, etc.):—besieged, hidden thing, keep(-er, -ing), monument, observe, preserve(-r), subtil, watcher(-man).
Outline of Scripture Usage- H5341
to guard, watch, watch over, keep
(Qal)
to watch, guard, keep
to preserve, guard from dangers
to keep, observe, guard with fidelity
to guard, keep secret
to be kept close, be blockaded
watchman (participle)
Psalm 12:7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve H5341 them from this generation for ever.
Isaiah 49:6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved H5341 of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
Jeremiah 31:6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen H5341 upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.
Jeremiah 4:16 Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers H5341 come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
2. Nester- H5342 , nay'-tser; from H5341 in the sense of greenness as a striking color; a shoot; figuratively, a descendant:—branch.
Outline of Scripture Usage
sprout, shoot, branch (always fig.)
Isaiah 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch H5342 shall grow out of his roots:
Isaiah 60:21 Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch H5342 of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
Was there a Nazarite in the Torah?
Judges 13:5-7
For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite H5139 unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name: But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite H5139 to God from the womb to the day of his death.
Nazarite: H5139- nâzîyr, naw-zeer'; or נָזִר nâzir; from H5144; separate, i.e. consecrated (as prince, a Nazirite); hence (figuratively from the latter) an unpruned vine (like an unshorn Nazirite):—Nazarite (by a false alliteration with Nazareth), separate(-d), vine undressed.
Biblical Outline of H5139
consecrated or devoted one, Nazarite
consecrated one
devotee, Nazarite
untrimmed (vine)
(This is really amazing to me as Elisabeth means Consecrated to God or God is my Oath depending on website of Hebrew translation.) Praise be to God!!
Do you now Recognize Who You Really are? I pray you do. For more information:
The Natsarim: The Elect of the End Times-Christian Truther
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtwdyefVkxU
Messianic or Natsari
http://www.sarahstent.info/images/Messianic_or_Natsari.pdf
What is a Natsari
http://www.sarahstent.info/images/what_is_natsari_judaism.pdf
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