patristic testimonies reconsidered “Nazarenes” was instead a common name for Syriac Christians. Since this
question will be discussed in more detail below, we may for a moment—
for the sake of argument—assume that a “sect of the Nazarenes” existed
at the end of the fourth century. Even in this case, it would be hard to see
a reference to this kind of group in Origen’s passage, for two reasons.
First, the distinctive feature of the first group of Origen’s Ebionites is
their belief in the virgin birth. However, this belief does not play any
role in the religious profile of Epiphanius’ Nazarenes who are depicted
as the successors of Origen’s Ebionites in this theory. Epiphanius explic-
itly states that he does not know what the Nazarenes thought about
Jesus’ birth (see below). Thus, if we presume that Origen’s first group of
the Ebionites was in fact Epiphanius’ Nazarenes we would also have to
assume that the dispute about Jesus’ birth—which originally could have
caused a split among the Ebionites—had become a matter of indifference
by the end of the fourth century. Given the increasing interest in Chris-
tological speculation among Christians in the third and fourth centuries,
this kind of development is unbelievable.
Second, the reference is also incompatible with Jerome’s descriptions
of Christians he called Nazarenes. To the extent that Jerome provides his-
torical evidence about the beliefs of Christians called Nazarenes (which
cannot be identified with Epiphanius’ Nazarenes; see below), their reli-
gious profile differed from Origen’s and his predecessors’ Ebionites in
many respects, most notably in their relation to Paul whose message they
heeded (see below). This means that the religious outlook of Jerome’s
Nazarenes was totally different from the profile of the Ebionites as it is
described by Origen. Notably, Origen explicitly states that both groups of
the Ebionites were against Paul (Cels. .). Therefore, it should be clear
that neither the first nor the second of Origen’s two types of Ebionites can
be identified with Jerome’s Nazarenes.
In one of Jerome’s letters to Augustine, there is a reference which
some scholars have taken as proof that Jerome’s Nazarenes believed in
the virgin birth. This reference, however, is of little value as a historical
description of the Nazarenes’ doctrine because it quotes early creeds and
only aims at reinforcing Jerome’s arguments. In this connection, Jerome
also uses the terms “Nazarenes,” “Ebionites” andminiminterchangeably,
which makes it difficult to argue that Jerome was referring to character-
istically Nazarene ideas.^6
(^6) Jerome’s letter to Augustine is discussed in more detail below. See Chapter ..