patristic testimonies reconsidered tion of the activities of early Jewish Christians, it is clear that he was
himself responsible for identifying these with the Nazarenes. When he
made this identification, he was mainly concerned with criticizing the
Nazarenes and he did not pay much attention to the timing of the
incidents described. In Eusebius’ timeline, which Epiphanius basically
follows, Mark’s preaching in Egypt happened well before , whereas
Epiphanius’ third reference to the genesis of the sect, which will be
discussed next, is clearly a post- event.
This heresy of the Nazarenes exists in Beroea in the neighbourhood of
Coele Syria and the Decapolis in the region of Pella and in Bashan in the
so-called Kokaba [ν τ( ηΚωκ%*( η], Chochabe in Hebrew. For from there it
took its beginning after the exodus from Jerusalem when all the disciples
went to live in Pella because Christ had told them to leave Jerusalem and
to go away since it would undergo a siege. Because of this advice they lived
in Perea after having moved to that place, as I said. There the Nazarene
heresy had its beginning. (Pan. ..–; trans. Klijn & Reinink ).Epiphanius’ source for the story about the exodus from Jerusalem is again
Eusebius (Hist. eccl..)but,incontrasttothetwoearlierdescriptions,he
now dates the genesis of the Nazarene heresy after the fall of Jerusalem.
There are two obvious reasons for this. First, in this connection, Epipha-
nius presents a list of villages where the Nazarenes supposedly lived in
his time and the list also includes Pella, which connects it with the tradi-
tion about the disciples’ flight from Jerusalem. Second, the timing after
the fall of Jerusalem provides a very good starting point for the following
refutation of the Nazarenes where Epiphanius argues that it is impossible
to fulfill the law because access to Jerusalem and its temple worship is
denied.
Overall, Epiphanius’ remark in the beginning ofPanarion that he
does not really know when the Nazarene heresy begun, accords with
his contradictory descriptions about its beginning. Epiphanius ends up
locating the genesis of the heresy after the fall of Jerusalem because it
provides a good starting point for his refutation but he has no historical
data about the origins of this movement.The Summary of the Nazarenes’ Practices and Doctrine: Pan. ..–,
..,
In Williams’ English translation,Panarion covers approximately seven
and half pages but a relatively small number of lines describe the beliefs
and practices of the Nazarenes. On the first five pages, Epiphanius dis-
cusses the reasons why all Christians were, for a short while, called