NASAD

NASARAEL

5

Phoeas, in violation of the promise, burnt himalive. (Theophanes, Chron. 245, 6, in Migne,Pair. Grace, cviii. 616.) [F. D.]

NASAD (Nasadh, Nassadius, Nazadius), aBriton at Lough Bricren, co. Down, companionof St. Bevan and St. Meldan; he was com-memorated Oct. 26. (Mart. Tall. ; Reeves, Eccl.Ant. 113, 380; Colgan, Acta SS. 90, n. 19 ; Boll.Acta SS. 26 Oct. xi. 893, where is a syllogeon the three saints of Lough Bricren, butnothing decisive ; lb. 21 Oct. xii. 413, 414.)

[J.G.]

NASARAEI. Under this title Epiphaniusclasses two distinct sects; one Jewish, the otherChristian. The Jewish sect is numbered by himwith the Pharisees, Essenes, and Herodians. Hecalls it the fifth heresy of Judaism. The Chris-tian sect is placed by him next after the Cerin-thians and before the Ebionites, and is numberedthe ninth heresy of Christianity.

Epiphanius spells the names of these sectsdifferently. The Jewish he names N aaapcuoi, theChristian NafwpaTot. (1) Nasaraei (Nacrapatoj)then was, according to Epiphanius, a purelyJewish heresy. They dwelt in the region acrossthe Jordan. They practised circumcision, andreverenced the feasts and sabbaths of the Jews.They rejected, however, animal food and sacrifices,and regarded the Pentateuch as a forgery. Epi-phanius vindicates the historical accuracy ofthe Pentateuch by pointing to the localitieswhere the events there recorded took place;Mount Sion, for instance, where Abraham hadsacrificed the ram; and the oak of Mamre,where he had entertained the angels. Mamre,indeed, down to the 4th century, continuedto be a place of pilgrimage at certain times,whither Jews, Pagans, and Christians resorted,and had a kind of fair, like the great Tara orTelltown assemblies among the ancient Irish, orthe great autumnal meetings at Lyons of theancient Gauls. The abuses of it became so greatthat Constantine abolished it by an edict (Sozom.M. E. ii. 4). Epiphanius points out also othercorroborations of the Pentateuch. The Egyptiansretained traces and memories of the passover inthe red paint which they marked in spring ontrees and cattle. In the region of the Cardyaeirelics of the ark were still shown, and he wassure the remains of the altar built by Noahcould be discovered by the diligent enquirer inthe same region. Philaster, on the contrary, re-presents the Nasaraei as quite orthodox about thescriptures, but as trusting in the luxuriance oftheir hair for salvation (lib. de Haeres. cap. viii.).

(2) Nazoraei (Na£&>pa?oi). Epiphanius occu-pies a large part of his notice of the Christiansect with a discussion concerning the descent ofour Lord from David, and the fulfilment of theprophecies involved in Ps. cx. 4 and cxxxii. 11.His theory is that the Christians were at firstcalled Jessaei, from Jesse, the father of David, orfrom the name Jesus, under which name Jessaei,he thinks, he discovers mention of them in thewritings of Philo on the Egyptian Therapeutae.Epiph. accepts these writings as authentic, aview which some modern critics reject (cf. Rev.Archeol. t. xxii. p. 268, t. xxvi. p. 12), regardingthem as a Montanist or Gnostic production of the2nd century. The Christian Nazoraei were thefollowers of those earliest Christian Jews who

observed the law and believed in Christ. Epi-phanius seems not to have been very well ac-quainted with them. They were scatteredthroughout Coele-Syria, Decapolis, Pella, whitherthey fled to avoid the destruction of Jerusalem,the region beyond the Jordan, and as far east asMesopotamia. He was uncertain as to the viewthey took of Christ’s person, whether they re-garded him as a mere man or believed in his su-pernatural conception. They were well skilled inHebrew, read the Old Testament in that language,and possessed a Hebrew version of St. Matthew ;but Epiphanius knew not whether it containedthe genealogies. They carefully observed cir-cumcision and the Sabbath. They were knownto other writers of that age. Augustine (lib. i.Cent. Cresconium , cap. xxxi.) mentions a Naza-rene sect, by some called Symmachiani, whoused both Jewish circumcision and Christianbaptism. Jerome seems to have been betteracquainted with them than anyone else. Writingto Augustine, he tells him that they were uni-versally execrated by the Jews under the nameMinei. When commenting on Matt. xii. hegives the renderings of the Gospel which theNazarenes use, which he had lately translatedout of Hebrew into Greek ; and tells us whentreating of St. Matthew in his Scriptt. Eccles .that this Hebrew version of St. Matthew waspreserved in the library at Caesarea. (On thispoint see more in Gospels Apocryphal, Vol. II.p. 709, and Dr. Salmon’s Introd. to the New Test.p. 215.) There were many points of contactbetween this sect and other branches of theEbionite and Gnostic heresies. Epiphanius, in-deed,expresslyasserts that the Cerinthians, Naza-renes, Ebionites, Sampsaeans and Elcesaeansagreed on many points. They seem all to havedelighted in the same localities—Syria, theHauran, and Mesopotamia. Traces of themhave been discovered in the Hauran. Wadding-ton discovered at Zorava in Trachouitis, a monu-ment commemorating a saint, Mapdivy), whomthe Sampsaeans worshipped. ( Yoy. Archeolog.t. iii. Ins. 2502.) The Nazoraei still exist,and under the same name, though they preferin public the name Sabians. They now livein the marshes of Southern Babylonia, inthe neighbourhood of Bussorah, where they havebeen visited by several modern travellers. Thelatest accounts of them and their doctrines willbe found in Petermann, Reisen im Orient , t. ii.p. 447 ; Kessler’s article in Herzog s.v. Man*daer ; an article by the same writer in the newEncyclop • Britann. t. xv. p. 467, on the Man-daeans; and in Lioutfi, Etudes sur la religion desSoubbuSy Paris, 1880; cf. also Chwolson’s DieSabier. Their doctrines are now practicallyidentical with those of the ancient Manicheans[Manes]. They retain, however, traces of thesacraments in the religious use of bread and wineand of baptism. Their sacred books are inter-esting relics of Gnosticism. They were pub-lished by Norbey in the early part of thiscentury, under the title of Codex Nasaraeus.A critical edition is much required. See alsoDr. Salmon’s Introduction to the New Testament ,p. 22, for his theory about the Ebionite com-munities which were identical with the Naza-renes of whom Epiphanius speaks ; cf. also BishopLightfoot’s Galatians , p. 3t>6. [Nazaraei.]

[G. T. S.]