jewish-christian gospels recovered readings were not derived from a gospel that was almost an exact copy of
the Greek Matthew like the one used by the Nazarenes probably was.
Conclusion: The “Gospel of the Nazarenes” and the Nazarenes’ Isaiah
Exegesis
The above reconstruction shows how the Nazarenes’ picked up key pas-
sages from Matthew’s narrative in order to show that that Jesus was the
SonofGodwhowassenttohisownpeople.Fromtheverybeginning,the
people mistreated him as they had earlier done with their prophets. The
story, which has obvious Deuteronomistic overtones, culminates in Jesus’
trial when the people choose “the son of their rabbi” instead of Jesus the
Son of God. However, Jesus is proven to be God’s Son through the cen-
turion’s confession and signs accompanying his death which predict the
future punishment: the destruction of the Temple.
If the Nazarenes’ collection was based on the canonical Matthew, is
it justified to call its fragments Jewish Christian?^73 As far as the question
concerns only the text of the Nazarene’s collection, the question is closely
tied with the question about Matthew’s Jewish-Christian character. I
agree with scholars who think that the Gospel of Matthew was edited in a
community where strict observance of the law was no longer required.^74
However, an understanding of the original audience or the community
where the text was edited does not yet solve the question about the
Jewish-Christian character of the text as it stands. The mere fact that
the degree of Matthew’s Judaism remains controversial among scholars
shows that the text itself is also open to interpretations that locate it
within Judaism. Thus, if applied to the case of the Nazarenes, from a
theoretical point of view it is quite possible that, for the Nazarenes, the
Gospel of Matthew was more Jewish than it was for its original editor.
Although a discussion of the Jewish Christianity ofatextasitstands
is informative to some extent,^75 it is not fully possible in the case of the
opens with Jesus’ direct speech to which “Simon” reacts by asking Jesus to confirm if
one really has to forgive seven times a day.(^73) Cf. Andrew Gregory’s critical comments cited in Chapter . of this volume.
(^74) Applying Stark and Bainbridge’s definition of cult and sect movements, I have
characterized Matthew’s community as a Christian cult movement. See Luomanen b.
Cf. Gregory , .
(^75) In the light of the indicators of Jewish Christianity such a discussion would concern
the questions how and to what extent a text propagates, supports, allows or prohibits
Jewish and/or Christian ideas and practices. This would give a rough picture of what sort
of Jewish-Christian thinking and practice is more likely or possible on the basis of a given
text, but this does not yet determine how the text is used and interpreted in actual life.