city and refusing to share the fate of their countrymen they declared by an overt act that henceforth they were strangers, that now at length their hopes and interests were separate. These altered relations both to the Mosaic law and to the Jewish Difficulties and dispeople must have worked as leaven in the minds of the Christians sensions. of the Circumcision. Questions were asked now, which from their nature could not have been asked before. Difficulties hitherto unfelt seemed to start up on all sides. The relations of the Church to the synagogue, of the Gospel to the law, must now be settled in some way or other. Thus diversities of opinion, which had hitherto been lulled in a broken and fitful slumber, suddenly woke up into dangerous activity. The Apostles, who at an earlier date had moderated extreme tendencies and to whom all would have looked instinctively for counsel and instruction, had passed away from the scene. One personal follower of the Lord however still remained, Symeon the aged bishop, who had succeeded James'. At length Symeon he too was removed. After a long tenure of office he was martyred Clopas. at a very advanced age in the ninth year of Trajan. His death, according to Hegesippus, was the signal for a shameless outbreak of multitudinous heresies which had hitherto worked underground, the Church having as yet preserved her virgin purity undefiled'. Though this early historian has interwoven many fabulous details in his account, there seems no reason to doubt the truth of the broad statement, confirmed as it is from another source3, that this epoch was the birth-time of many forms of dissent in the Church of the Circumcision. How far these dissensions and diversities of opinion had ripened meanwhile into open schism, to what extent the majority still conformed to the Mosaic ordinances (as for instance in the practice of circumcision and the observance of the sabbath), we have no data to determine. But the work begun by the fall of Jerusalem was only 1 Hegesippus in Euseb. H. E. iv. 22. This writer also mentions grandsons of Jude the Lord's brother as ruling over the Churches and surviving till the time of Trajan; H. E. iii. 32. 2 Euseb. H. E. iii. 32 èmiλéyel ws ἄρα μέχρι τῶν τότε χρόνων παρθένος και son of A.D. 106. Rebellion of Barcochba. 135. at length completed by the advent of another crisis. By this second catastrophe the Church and the law were finally divorced; and the malcontents who had hitherto remained within the pale of the Church become declared separatists. A revolution of the Jews broke out in all the principal centres of the dispersion. The flame thus kindled in the dependencies spread A.D. 132 later to the mother country. In Palestine a leader started up, professing himself to be the long promised Messiah, and in reference to the prophecy of Balaam styling himself 'Bar-cochba,' 'the son of the Star.' We have the testimony of one who wrote while these scenes of bloodshed were still fresh in men's memories, that the Christians were the chief sufferers from this rebel chieftain'. Even without such testimony this might have been safely inferred. Their very existence was a protest against his claims: they must be denounced and extirpated, if his pretensions were to be made good. The cause of Bar-cochba was taken up as the cause of the whole Jewish nation, and thus the antagonism between Judaism and Christianity was brought to a head. After a desperate struggle the rebellion was trampled out and the severest vengeance taken on the insurgents. The practice of circumcision and the observance of the sabbath-indeed all the distinguishing marks of Judaism-were visited with the severest penalties. On the other hand the Christians, as the avowed enemies of the rebel chief, seem to have been favourably received. On the ruins of Jerusalem Hadrian had built his new city Ælia Capitolina. Though no Jew was admitted within sight of its walls, the Christians were allowed to settle there freely. Now for the first time a Gentile bishop was appointed, and the Church of Jerusalem ceased to be the Church of the Circumcision3. Elia Capitolina. The church The account of Eusebius seems to imply that long before this 1 Justin Apol. i. 31, p. 72 E, èv TÔ νῦν γεγενημένῳ Ἰουδαϊκῷ πολέμῳ Βαρχωχέβας ὁ τῆς Ἰουδαίων ἀποστάσεως ἀρχηγέτης Χριστιανοὺς μόνους εἰς τιμωρίας δεινάς, εἰ μὴ ἀρνοῖντο Ἰησοῦν τὸν Χριστὸν καὶ βλασφημοῖεν, ἐκέλευεν ἀπάγεσθαι. Justin Apol. i. 47, p. 84 B, Dial. 110, p. 337 D; Ariston of Pella in Euseb. H. E. iv. 6; Celsus in Orig. c. Cels. viii. 69. Sulpicius Severus (H. S. ii. 31) speaking of Hadrian's decree says, 'Quod quidem Christianae fidei proficiebat, quia tum pene omnes Christum Deum sub legis observatione credebant; nimirum id Domino ordinante dispositum, ut legis servitus a libertate fidei atque ecclesiae tolleretur.' disastrous outbreak of the Jews the main part of the Christians reconstituted. had left their retirement in Pella and returned to their original home. At all events he traces the succession of bishops of Jerusalem in an unbroken line from James the Lord's brother until the foundation of the new city'. If so, we must imagine the Church once more scattered by this second catastrophe, and once more reformed when the terror was passed. But the Church of Elia Capitolina was very differently constituted from the Church of Pella or the Church of Jerusalem; a large proportion of its members at least were Gentiles. Of the Christians of the Circumcision not a few doubtless accepted the conqueror's terms, content to live henceforth as Gentiles, and settled down in the new city of Hadrian. But Judaizing there were others who clung to the law of their forefathers with a stubborn grasp which no force of circumstances could loosen and henceforward we read of two distinct sects of Judaizing Christians, observing the law with equal rigour but observing it on different grounds'. Eusebius 1 H. E. iii. 32, 35, iv. 5. seems to narrate all the incidents affecting the Church of the Circumcision during this period, as taking place not at Pella but at Jerusalem. 2 Euseb. Η. Ε. iv. 6 τῆς αὐτόθι ἐκκλησίας ἐξ ἐθνῶν συγκροτηθείσης. 8 As early as the middle of the second century Justin Martyr distinguishes two classes of Judaizers; those who retaining the Mosaic law themselves did not wish to impose it on their Gentile brethren, and those who insisted upon conformity in all Christians alike as a condition of communion and a means of salvation (Dial. c. Tryph. § 47; see Schliemann Clement. p. 553 sq). In the next chapter Justin alludes with disapprobation to some Jewish converts who held that our Lord was a mere man; and it seems not unreasonable to connect this opinion with the second of the two classes before mentioned. We thus obtain a tolerably clear view of their distinctive tenets. But the first direct and definite account of both sects is given by the fathers of the fourth century especially Epiphanius and Jerome, sects. Nazarenes. Their tenets. I. The NAZARENES appear at the close of the fourth century as a small and insignificant sect dwelling beyond the Jordan in Pella and the neighbouring places'. Indications of their existence however occur in Justin two centuries and a half earlier; and both their locality and their name carry us back to the primitive ages of Jewish Christianity. Can we doubt that they were the remnant of the fugitive Church, which refused to return from their exile with the majority to the now Gentile city, some because they were too indolent or too satisfied to move, others because the abandonment of the law seemed too heavy a price to pay for Roman forbearance? The account of their tenets is at all events favourable to this inference'. They held themselves bound to the Mosaic ordinances, rejecting however all Pharisaic interpretations and additions. Nevertheless they did not consider the Gentile Christians under the same obligations or refuse to hold communion with them; and in the like spirit, in this distinguished from all other Judaizing sectarians, they fully recognised the work and mission of St Paul'. It is stated moreover that they mourned over the unbelief of their fellow-countrymen, praying for and looking forward to the time possible that he entirely overlooks the covery of the work of Hippolytus has since thrown fresh light on the Essene Ebionites. The portion of Ritschl's work (p. 152 sq) relating to these sects should be consulted. 1 Epiphan. Haer. xxix. 7; comp. Hieron. de Vir. Ill. § 3. 2 See the account in Schliemann, P. 445 sq, with the authorities there given and compare Ritschl p. 152 sq. Hieron. in Is. ix. 1 (Iv. p. 130), 'Nazaraei...hunc locum ita explanare conantur: Adveniente Christo et praedicatione illius coruscante prima terra Zabulon et terra Nephthali scribarum et Pharisaeorum est erroribus liberata et gravissimum traditionum Judaicarum jugum excussit de cervicibus suis. Postea autem per evangelium apostoli Pauli, qui novissimus apostolorum omnium fuit, ingravata est, id est, multiplicata praedicatio; et in terminos gentium et viam universi maris Christi evangelium splenduit.' when they too should be brought to confess Christ. Their doctrine of the person of Christ has been variously represented; but this seems at all events clear that, if it fell short of the Catholic standard, it rose above the level of other Judaic sects. The fierce and indiscriminate verdict of Epiphanius indeed pronounces these Nazarenes 'Jews and nothing else'': but his contemporary Jerome, himself no lenient judge of heresy, whose opinion was founded on personal intercourse, regards them more favourably. In his eyes they seem to be separated from the creeds and usages of Catholic Christendom chiefly by their retention of the Mosaic law. tion to the Thus they were distinguished from other Judaizing sects by a Their relaloftier conception of the person of Christ and by a frank recognition Twelve. of the liberty of the Gentile Churches and the commission of the Gentile Apostle. These distinguishing features may be traced to the lingering influence of the teaching of the Apostles of the Circumcision. To the example of these same Apostles also they might have appealed in defending their rigid observance of the Mosaic law. But herein, while copying the letter, they did not copy the spirit of their model; for they took no account of altered circumstances. ments of Of this type of belief, if not of this very Nazarene sect, an early Testadocument still extant furnishes an example. The book called the the Twelve 'Testaments of the twelve Patriarchs" was certainly written after 1 Haer. xxx. 9. 2 It is printed in Grabe's Spicil. SS. Patr. 1. p. 145 sq (ed. 2, 1700), and in Fabricius Cod. Pseudepigr. Vet. Test. 1. p. 519 sq (ed. 2, 1722), and has recently been edited with an introductory essay by Sinker (Cambridge, 1869). Ritschl in his first edition had assigned this work to a writer of the Pauline school. His opinion was controverted by Kayser in the Strassburg. Beitr. z. den Theol. Wissensch. 111. p. 107 (1851), and with characteristic honesty he withdrew it in his second edition, attributing the work to a Nazarene author (p. 172 sq). Meanwhile Ritschl's first view had been adopted in a monograph by Vorstman Disquis, de Test. zii. Patr. (Roterod. 1857), and defend ed against Kayser. The whole tone Patri archs. |
