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"Christians" in Peshitta
#7
Brother Chuck,

I do not have a copy of the AENT so I will not be able to read the footnote there, although I wish I did.

But as to answer your question, I will present the following, not as an attack on anyone, but rather to help clarify the stance I have taken concerning the texts referenced, and why I think that the Greek loan word "Krystiana" in no way give credence to Greek supremacy:


Nazarenes vs Christianity

Who were the Nazarenes?
The first believers in Yehoshua were a Yehudaish[Jewish] sect known as "Nazarenes" or in Hebrew "Netzarim" (Acts 11:19; 24:5). The christianity "church father" Jerome (4th Cent.) described these Nazarenes as those "... who accept The Anointed One in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old Torah." {Jerome; On. Is. 8:14}.

Elsewhere he writes:
"Today there still exists among the Yehudeem[Jews] in all the synagogues of the East a heresy which is called that of the Min?ans,and which is still condemned by the Pharisees; [its followers] are ordinarily called 'Nazarenes'; they believe that The Anointed One, the Son of Eloheem, was born of the Virgin Meiryam[Mary], and they hold Him to be The One Who suffered under Pontius Pilate and ascended to Heaven, and in Whom we also believe."
{Jerome; Letter 75 Jerome to Augustine}

A fourth century christianity "church father" Epiphanius gives a more detailed description:
"But these sectarians ... did not call themselves Christians--but "Nazarenes," ... However they are simply complete Yehudeem[Jews]. They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Yehudeem[Jews] do... They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Torah proclaims it and in the Yehudaish[Jewish] fashion-- except for their belief in The Anointed One, if you please! For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that Eloheem is one, and that His Son is Yehoshua The Anointed One. They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew. For among them the entire Torah, the Prophets, and the... Writings... are read in Hebrew, as they surely are by the Yehudeem[Jews]. By the Law--circumcision, they are different from the Yehudeem[Jews], and different from Christians, only in the following. They disagree with Yehudeem[Jews] because they have come to faith in The Anointed One; but since they are still fettered by the Torah--circumcision, the Shabbawth, and the rest-- they are not in accord with Christians.... they are nothing but Yehudeem[Jews].... They have the Goodnews according to MattithYahu[Matthew] in its entirety in Hebrew. For it is clear that they still preserve this, in the Hebrew alphabet, as it was originally written."
{Epiphanius; Panarion 29}

Nazarene Yehudaism[Judaism] maintains a belief in Yehoshua as The Anointed One. We do not leave the Yehudish[Jewish] identity, heritage and culture to "convert" to a new or foreign religion. To some the concept of Yehudeem[Jews] believing in Yehoshua and practicing Yehudaism[Judaism] is a contradiction in terms. The common wisdom is that on the one side you have Yehudeem[Jews] and Yehudaism[Judaism], and on the other you have Gentiles and Christianity. However in the first century there were literally hundreds of thousands of Yehudish[Jewish] followers of Yehoshua (Acts 2:41, 47; 4:4; 6:7; 9:31; 21:20) they were zealous for the Torah (Acts 15:19-21; 21:17-27) and met in synagogues (Yahakobe[James] 1:1, 2:2). The big question then was, had Yehoshua come for the Gentiles as well (Acts 10; Acts 15). The greatest paradox in history eventually occurred, for today people question how one can follow Yehoshua and remain Yehudish[Jewish].

Today many are seeking to put Yehoshua back into the context of first century Yehudaism [Judaism]. Nazarene Yehudaism[Judaism] is a spiritual renaissance, a revival, a return to the pure Trust of first century Nazarenes. A return to the TaNaKh and to the root of the olive tree (Rom. 11).

As the prophet YirmehYahu[Jeremiah] tells us:
Thus says YHWH, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is, and walk in it: And you shall find rest for your souls....
"
{YirmehYahu[Jeremiah] 6:16}

Nazarenes refrain from calling themselves Christians. The first use of the term Christian was among the pagans of Antioch to describe in a derogatory fashion the Gentile followers of Yehoshua (Acts 11:26).

Nazarenes are Yahwists and do not feel compelled to completely censor the use of the Divine Name (YirmehYahu[Jeremiah] 23:27). They were in some cases martyred for publicly reciting a drash of Ps.110:1-2 in which the Divine Name was used while connecting Yehoshua to the right hand of YHWH.

Nazarenes recognize the seventh day-- a.k.a.: frigg's-day evening to saturn's-day evening --as the Shabbawth (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11; 32:12-17).

We still observe the rite of circumcision for YisraAilites[Israelites]. We observe the Consecrated Days described in Lev. 23 which are to be "celebrated as a perpetual statute throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places... forever" (Lev. 23:14; 21; 31; 41).

Shaul/Powlos[Paul] the Pharisee
Another important figure to the early Nazarenes was Shaul/Powlos[Paul]. Shaul/Powlos[Paul] was a ringleader of the Nazarenes (Acts 24:5). Shaul/Powlos[Paul] was of Pharisaic background (Acts. 23:6) and had been a student of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) the grandson of Hillel. Shaul/Powlos[Paul] was at first an enemy of the Nazarene movement, however after his vision on the road to Damascus, he became a ringleader of the movement. Kayf [Peter] tells us that Shaul's/Powlos's[Paul's] writings are "hard to understand" (2Kayf [2Peter] 3:15- 16). Shaul/Powlos[Paul] knew that his teachings were being twisted and that he was misunderstood as teaching against the Torah (Rom. 3:8; 6:1-2, 15). Shaul/Powlos[Paul] went to great lengths to prove that this was not true (Acts 21:20-26). Shaul/Powlos[Paul] commended those whom double checked his teaching with the Old Covenant Scriptures (Acts 17:11), as they did not have the ReNewed Covenant at that time other than perhaps to check over to see if these new writings lined up with the Old Covenant Scriptures.

98 C.E. The Ignatious Conspiracy
Many people have been misled into believing that Constantine was responsible for the corruption and Gentilization of Christianity.

While Constantine certainly added to the apostasy of early Christianity, he was not the first. It was in fact Ignatius of Antioch who rebelled against the Yerushalayim[Jerusalem] Council, usurped their authority, seceded from Yehudaism[Judaism], declared the Torah to have been abolished, replaced the Seventh Day Shabbawth with sun's-day worship and founded a new, non-Yehudaish[non-Jewish] religion which HE COINED "Christianity".

Shaul/Powlos[Paul] said to the Ephesians on his last visit to them:
Watch, therefore, over yourselves and over the flock which the Ruakh HaKodesh has appointed you Overseers[Bishops] that you feed the Assembly of The Anointed One, which He purchased by His blood. I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will enter in among you without mercy upon the flock. And also from among you there will rise up men speaking perverse things, so that they might turn away the disciples to follow after them.
{Acts 20:28-30}

Shaul/Powlos[Paul] indicated that after his death leaders would begin to rise up from the Overseers[Bishops] in his stead that would draw people to follow themselves and draw them away from Torah. In fact Shaul/Powlos[Paul] died in 66 C.E. and the first Overseer[Bishop] of Antioch to take office after his death was Ignatius in 98 C.E.. Ignatius fulfilled Shaul's/Powlos's[Paul's] words precisely. After taking the office of Overseer[Bishop] over Antioch Ignatius sent out a series of epistles to other Assemblies. His letters to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallianns, Romans, Philadelphians and Smyrnaeans as well as a personal letter to Polycarp Overseer of Smyrnaea have survived to us to this day. The Ancient Nazarene Historian and commentator Hegesippus (c. 180 CE) writes of the time immediately following the death of Shim'on, who succeeded Yahakobe HaTzadik [James the Just] as Nasi of the Nazarene Sanhedrin and who died in 98 CE:
"Up to that period (98 CE) the Assembly had remained like a virgin pure and uncorrupted: for, if there were any persons who were disposed to tamper with the wholesome rule of the proclaiming of salvation, they still lurked in some dark place of concealment or other. But, when the sacred band of Emissaries had in various ways closed their lives, and that generation of men to whom it had been vouchsafed to listen to the inspired Wisdom with their own ears had passed away, then did the confederacy of Eloheemless error take its rise through the treachery of false teachers, who, seeing that none of the Emissaries any longer survived, at length attempted with bare and uplifted head to oppose the proclaiming of the truth by proclaiming "knowledge falsely so called."
{Hegesippus the Nazarene; c. 185 CE; quoted by Eusebius in Eccl. Hist. 3:32}

Hegisippus indicates the apostasy began the very same year that Ignatious became Overseer [Bishop] of Antioch!

Up until the time of Ignatius, matters of dispute that arose at Antioch were ultimately referred to the Yerushalayim[Jerusalem] Council (as in Acts 14:26-15:2). Ignatius usurped the authority of the Yerushalayim[Jerusalem] Council, declaring himself as the local Overseer[Bishop] as the ultimate authority over the Assembly of which he was Overseer[Bishop], and likewise declaring the same as true of all other Overseers[Bishops] and their local Assemblies. Ignatius writes:
"?being subject to your Overseer[Bishop]? ?run together according to the will of GoD.
Jesus? is sent by the will of the Father; As the Overseer[Bishop]? are by the will of Jesus Christ."
{Eph. 1:9, 11}

"?your Overseer[Bishop]?I think you happy who are so joined to him, as the church is to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is to the Father? Let us take heed therefore, that we not set ourselves against the Overseer[Bishop], that we may be subject to GoD?. We ought to look upon the Overseer[Bishop], even as we would upon the Lord Himself."
{Eph. 2:1-4}

"?obey your Overseer[Bishop]?"
{Mag. 1:7}

"Your Overseer[Bishop] presiding in the place of GoD? ?be you united to your Overseer[Bishop]?"
{Mag. 2:5, 7}

"?he? that does anything without the Overseer[Bishop]? is not pure in his conscience?"
{Tral. 2:5}

"?Do nothing without the Overseer[Bishop]."
{Phil. 2:14}

"See that you all follow your Overseer[Bishop], As Jesus Christ, the Father?"
{Smy. 3:1}

By exalting the power of the office of Overseer[Bishop] and demanding the absolute authority of the Overseer[Bishop] over the Assembly, Ignatius was actually making a power grab by thus taking absolute authority over the Assembly at Antioch and encouraging other Gentile Overseer[Bishop] to follow suite.

Moreover Ignatius drew men away from Torah and declared the Torah to have been abolished, not only at Antioch but at other Gentile Assemblies to which he wrote:
"Be not deceived with strange doctrines; nor with old fables which are unprofitable. For if we still continue to live according to the Yehudaish[Jewish] Torah, we do confess ourselves not to have received grace?"
{Mag. 3:1}

"But if any one shall preach the Yehudaish[Jewish] Torah unto you, hearken not unto him?"
{Phil. 2:6}

It is also Ignatius who first replaces the Seventh Day Shabbawth with sun's-day worship, writing:
"...no longer observing Shabbawths, but keeping the lord's[ba'al's] day in which also our life is sprung up by him, and through his death..."
{Magnesians 3:3}

Having seceded from the authority of Yerushalayim[Jerusalem], declared the Torah abolished and replacing the Shabbawth with sun's-day, Ignatius had created a new religion. Ignatius coins a new term, never before used, for this new religion which he calls "Christianity" and which he makes clear is new and distinct religion from Yehudaism[Judaism]. He writes:
"let us learn to live according to the rules of Christianity, for whosoever is called by any other name besides this, he is not of GoD?. It is absurd to name Jesus Christ, and to Yehudaize [Judaize]. For the Christian religion did not embrace the Yehudaish[Jewish]. But the Yehudaish [Jewish] the Christian?"
{Mag. 3:8, 11}

By the end of the first century Ignatius of Antioch had fulfilled Shaul's/Powlos's[Paul's] warning. He seceded from Yehudaism[Judaism] and founded a new religion which he called "Christianity". A religion which rejected the Torah, and replaced the Seventh Day Shabbawth with sun's-day worship.

132 C.E. The Bar Kokhba Revolt
In 132 a second Yehudaish[Jewish] revolt against Rome began. The Emperor Hadrian banned circumcision. In reaction the Yehudeem[Jews] (Nazarenes and Pharisees) alike, took up arms. During the revolt Akiva, a leading Pharisee Rabbi at the time, declared the leading Yehudaish [Jewish] general known as Bar Kosiba to be The Anointed One. Bar Kosiba was renamed Bar Kochba (son of the star) and was declared The Anointed One based on Num. 24:17.

The Nazarenes could not accept Bar Kokhba as The Anointed One and so they left the army. From this time forward Nazarenes were labeled "meshumed" (traitor). Though the Pharisees later admitted Bar Kokhba was not The Anointed One, their resentment toward the Nazarenes for refusing to follow him continued.

After the Romans defeated the Yehudeem[Jews] around 132 C.E. Yehudah the last of recorded Nazarene Nasi was exiled with the rest of the Yehudeem[Jews] from Yerushalayim [Jerusalem]. A Gentile Christian named Markus was made Bishop of Yerushalayim[Jerusalem] in his stead.

The Council of Nicea
In 325 C.E. A Pagan Gentile named Constantine conquered Rome and made himself emperor. Constantine , although a Pagan himself, declared Christianity to be the Catholic (Latin: universal) religion, thus making Christianity the enforced state religion of the Roman empire.

Constantine, who was an anti-Semite called the council of Nicea in 325 C.E. to standardize Christianity. Nazarenes were excluded from the meeting. Yehudaish[Jewish] practices were banned. For the first time Gentile Christianity officially labled the Nazarenes as apostates. From this time forward Nazarenes begin to be listed in the catalogs of apostate movements (the first of these to include the Nazarenes was Epiphanius's "Panarion" (around 370 C.E.).

The Assimilation
By the fourth century the Nazarenes had communities in Beorea near Colesyria, in the Decapolis near Pella, and at Bashanitis at the place called Kokhba. (Epiphanius; Pan. 29). However, the Nazarenes by this time were a small sect which Epiphanius described as "small," "like an insect." (ibid)

According to a tradition preserved by the Assyrian Christians known as Nestorians, these Nazarenes escaped the Roman empire into the Parthian Empire to its east. Here they either assimilated into the Nestorian Church of the East, finding fellowship with there fellow Semite Assyrians, or they were wiped out by the rise of Islam.

Today many of us are working to reconstruct the ancient sect of Nazarene Yehudaism [Judaism]. Again as the prophet YirmehYahu[Jeremiah] tells us:
Thus says YHWH, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is, and walk in it: And you shall find rest for your souls....
"
(YirmehYahu[Jeremiah] 6:16)

As far as the original Believers it is good to know that they were called the sect of the Nazarenes and never referred to themselves as Christians now by Christianity. Christianity was not concocted as a heresy until 98 AD by Ignatious. So when it is claimed that Christianities roots go back to the 1st century it is true! Yet those whom practiced Christianity at it's conception, according to their adversarial spirit, had a hatred for the true Followers (i.e. The Nazarenes) and persecuted them every chance they got, if not by physical force then by words of discord and hatred toward anything or anyone of the Yehudish Trust.

Again the presence of the Greek loanword "Krystiana" in the Good News by no way shows that the Hellenist had any effect upon the 1st century Believers.
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Messages In This Thread
"Christians" in Peshitta - by bknight - 03-12-2013, 08:26 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by bknight - 03-12-2013, 08:27 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by distazo - 03-12-2013, 02:25 PM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by Paul Younan - 03-12-2013, 02:53 PM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by The Texas RAT - 03-15-2013, 05:02 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by Thirdwoe - 03-15-2013, 08:00 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by The Texas RAT - 03-15-2013, 12:55 PM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by Thirdwoe - 03-15-2013, 03:52 PM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by The Texas RAT - 03-16-2013, 04:32 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by Thirdwoe - 03-16-2013, 05:58 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by The Texas RAT - 03-16-2013, 10:10 PM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by The Texas RAT - 03-16-2013, 10:18 PM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by Thirdwoe - 03-17-2013, 12:01 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by The Texas RAT - 03-17-2013, 02:02 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by bknight - 03-17-2013, 03:51 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by The Texas RAT - 03-17-2013, 04:08 AM
Re: "Christians" in Peshitta - by Paul Younan - 03-17-2013, 05:33 AM

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