chapter two
.The Nazarenes were early “orthodox” Jewish Christians. Albrecht Ritschl
argued—in contrast to Baur—that strict Jewish Christianity with its anti-
Paulinism cannot be considered as the dominant current in first-century
Christianity because the Nazarenes, who accepted the apostle Paul, were
the successors of the early Jerusalem community.^41 Ray A. Pritz presents
a similar interpretation in his monograph. According to Pritz, the
history of the Nazarenes can be traced back to the early Jerusalem com-
munity and the Ebionites came out of a split among the Nazarene ranks
around the turn of the first century. The split was possibly caused by dis-
putes concerning Christology. The doctrine of the Nazarenes was “ortho-
dox” although they still followed Jewish law. Thus, the Nazarene Jew-
ish Christians existed from the first century onwards but they were mis-
takenly called Ebionites by such church fathers as Origen and Eusebius.
Justin, who wrote in the middle of the second century, possibly also had
knowledge of the Nazarenes although he did not explicitly name them.
The earliest heresiologistsmay have failed to mention the Nazarenes sim-
ply because they were not heretical enough.^42
.The Nazarenes were later, local “Catholic” Jewish Christians.Alfred
Schmidtke argued in the beginning of the th century that the Naza-
renes in Beroea were a purely local phenomenon who had no connection
to the early Jerusalem community. The Catholic Church in Beroea had
originally consisted of members that were of both Gentile and Jewish
pedigree. During the first half of the second century, the Jewish members
had formed a community of their own in order to be better able to follow
to those Jewish Christians who excluded themselves from the Catholic Church because
they were not able to keep up with the development of the Christian consciousness
(“Bewusstsein”) that moved from Jewish Christianity towards Catholicism. See, Baur
(), , n. . Among contemporary scholars, for instance, G. Lüdemann
and M.D. Goulder have argued that the Jewish Christians described as Ebionites by
Irenaeus were an offshoot of the earliest Jerusalem community. See, Lüdemann ,
–; Goulder , –.
(^41) Ritschl , –. Ritschl also argued that Origen and Eusebius erroneously
identified the Nazarenes with the more heretical Ebionites (p. ) and that the separation
of Gentile and Jewish Christians was caused by both the growing intolerance of the strict
Jewish Christians toward the Gentile Christians and by the Bar Kochba war (pp. ,
–, ). Although Ritschl originally belonged to the Tübingen school, he wrote
the second edition () ofDie Entstehung, where he rejects Baur’s construction, after
the breakdown of his relationship with Baur. For the Tübingen school see, for instance,
Morgan , –.
(^42) Pritz , –. Similarly Mimouni , –; Blanchetière , , ,
–, ; Bauckham , –, esp. .