I have heard people comment that Christianity today is so completely different than what Jesus taught in his day — and that is using a comparison from their own bibles. More and more people are becoming disillusioned with Christianity today and are either just not going to church or are looking for some alternative.
Those who are really concerned about what the Truth is really are studying up on most recent discoveries to see what those ancient writers had to say about it before the orthodoxy had a chance to alter the truth and add their doctrines to it. The original gospels may have been much different than we know.
Nazirenes
Just as a side note the word used here, Nazirite (not a misspelling), is the same as Nazarite, A Nazirite is in the old Testament times is one who took a vow to not drink any wine or strong drink. He also does not cut his hair or facial hair, but let it grow. Nor does he come close to any dead body, and several rituals under certain circumstances. This is evidently where the name Nazirene or Nazarene comes from — the words are very similar.
Opinion: It is also likely that since that Jesus and James and others took the vow of a Nazirite that the gospel got the name Nazirenes and may have also been why Jesus was known as Jesus of Nazareth — not necessarily because of the place where he grew up, but because of the vow. After all, there are lots of references about the Nazirite vow in the gospel of the Nazirenes.
Opinion: Jesus grew up in a city called Nazareth, but there are no references to Jesus being a Nazirite — maybe because the leadership of the Christian church in Rome and Pauline Christianity took issues with the austere measures against drinking, eating meat and being vegetarian, etc., found in the gospel of the Nazirenes.
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. (Mat 2:23)
However, there is no prophecy about Jesus being a Nazarene in the Old Testament or any other source.The gospel of the Nazirenes contains all of the doctrines that the Ebionites held. The Ebionites were declared as heretics by many of the church fathers.
Nevertheless, the Ebionites and this gospel were around at about the same time. The gospel of the Hebrews, we are told by church historians and church fathers, was the only gospel that they used and had no use for the epistles of Paul. The gospel of the Nazirenes and Matthew’s Hebrew Gospel had many similarities. They were both around about the same time and both were used by the Ebionites and the early Christians and even the Nazoreans.
Since the Ebionites were the first Christians, their doctrines were not likely to have been heresy as they would have gotten their teachings directly from Jesus before the alterations that the roman church made. Some church fathers have said that the Ebionites and the Nazarenes (Nazoreans) only used the gospel of the Hebrews written in Aramaic by Matthew. The gospel of the Hebrews, what few quotations that we have of it from the writings of the church Fathers, are contained in the Gospel of the Nazirenes.
The Gospel of the Nazirenes was in all likelihood written very close to the time that Matthew’s gospel was written and almost certainly Matthew made a great contribution to it, if his writings were not the basis of it.
If the gospel of the Nazirenes was one of the first gospels written in Aramaic and the original manuscript was not subject to the corruption of the roman church and, of course, assuming the translations of this gospel are fairly correct and accurate, then the gospel of the Nazirenes may be in fact the closest thing that the world has to the teachings and life of Jesus.
The main key factor that leads us to believe that the Ebionites were first century Christians is the fact that they considered James, the brother of Jesus, to be the head of the church and the church at Jerusalem was the central church headquarters of Christianity. Since the Romans destroyed the temple at Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Ebionites had to be among the first Jewish Christians.
There are many passages in the gospel of the Nazirenes that not only do not appear in the canonical gospels, but they contain some doctrines declared heretical by many of the church fathers and others that are simply not contained in the Holy Bible. All of the beliefs that we know of the Ebionites are contained in the gospel of the Nazirenes.
Some of doctrines not contained in the four New Testament gospels but are found in Nazirenes are:
- Vegetarianism
- Animal Humanitarianism
- Reincarnation
- Denial of the virgin birth
- Denial that Jesus is God
- Joseph, the biological father of Jesus
- Mary Magdalene as the ‘companion’ of Jesus
- Adoptionism: Jesus becomes son of God at baptism
- Jesus and John Baptist were Nazirites
- Isaiah 7:14 prophecy: maiden not virgin
- Jesus was a vegetarian
- James 2nd son born of Mary
- Joseph and Mary eat no meat nor drink strong drink
- Jesus studied the law
- Jesus learned wisdom of the Egyptians
- Jesus was a Rabbi
- Jesus went to Assyria, India and Persia
- Mary was daughter of Joachim and Anna who were Levites
- Jesus taught unlawful to kill and eat animals
- Jesus prohibited disciples from eating meat
- Jesus taught kindness to animals
- Not found reference to Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Ghost)
- Jesus came to end sacrifices and feasts of blood
- Jesus denounced cruelty to animals
- Righteousness and good works required to enter kingdom of heaven
- Jesus exhorts to keep the Sabbath (not Sunday)
- Blessed a tree and it flourished, never cursed a tree
- Animals loved him and were not afraid
- Jesus taught Euthanasia for animals
- Jesus warned of the corruption of this gospel
- Jesus warned of time of great darkness 44:12
- Utter destruction of unrepentant 67.15
- Correction of those who persist in evil for their perfection 69.3
- Reincarnation
- Judas brought a lamb to the last supper 75.6, 76.27
- Israel of God defined 75.18
- Judas didn’t believe they would put Jesus to death
We don’t even hear about any of the famous four gospels from the church fathers until the middle of the second century.
Therefore, all the evidence leads us to understand that Matthew’s Hebrew Gospel predated the biblical gospels by several decades at least. Upon comparing all the gospels, it appears that some of them have been severely modified.
So, which contains more of the original truth Jesus actually did teach? The gospels that the Ebionites and Nazarenes used around 40 AD, or the canonical gospels that we only have original manuscripts dating back as recent as the third century?
Next: The Ebionites | Gospel of the Hebrews